Life in the Fast Lane

ACTION: Email or call Washoe County Commissioners:

Chairman	Bob	Lucey	blucey@washoecounty.us	775.328.2012
Commissioner	Vaughn	Hartung	vhartung@washoecounty.us	775.328.2007
Commissioner	Jeanne	Herman	jherman@washoecounty.us	775.501.0002
Commissioner	Kitty	Jung	kjung@washoecounty.us	775.560.7152
Commissioner	Alexis	Hill	ahill@washoecounty.us	775-328-2011

COVER LETTER FOR APPLICATION:

Chair Lucey and Commissioners,

Please accept my attached application for appointment to Nevada State Senate District 16. I believe I am well qualified and uniquely situated to provide the best representation for the citizens of Washoe County and Carson City.  I bring experience, integrity, and passion to the table. 

I have lived in Washoe County for close to 40 years. I attended Reno High School and the University of Nevada, Reno. My husband and I have raised three children to be productive, contributing citizens of society. I have volunteered extensively with the county and state Republican parties working to elect candidates. Working on the State Republican Platform Committee gave me a state-wide perspective of the issues – from water to economic diversification – that affect our very diverse and beautifully unique state.

There are two reasons that motivated me to run. The first is economic. I am a small business owner who has lived under the capricious rule of a never-ending emergency for the past 19 months. My father owned a small mining and mineral exploration company in Nevada, so I am familiar with the boom-and-bust economy. For small businesses, however, it is now a bust and bust some more economy. The COVID pandemic offered a unique opportunity to poach businesses from other states and invest in Nevadans to make sure we have the workforce to support them. Instead, small business owners, the backbone of our economy have been targeted for shutdowns, inspections, fines, and an ever-changing cast of regulations. The legislature did not see fit to limit Governor Steve Sisolak’s emergency powers and it should not fall to innocent businesses to risk their reputation and customer service as unofficial enforcers of his endless directives. We also saw this in the unconstitutional rent moratorium, which has hurt small landlords who bought property under a given set of rules. Our state does not work when we move the goalposts with no notice. 

The second reason I feel uniquely suited to the position is seeing a need for unity in our state. Too often, legislators run and rather than wanting to do the tough work of legislating and writing good laws and good policy, the lure of the media soapbox drives factions and grandstanding. I think in order to effectively advance policies that drive economic freedom and growth, we must be a united front at the Legislature, and effectively use the power of the minority – be it party or north v. south – to prevent tax increases, especially those that target our largest employers. Lobbying is relationship-dependent and I pride myself in the friendships I have maintained on both sides of the aisle and across industries and issues as I lobbied in Carson City over the last decade – all while not abandoning my core beliefs.

My philosophy for the $2 billion in CARES Act money flooding Nevada:

• This money is a big fat IOU that our children and grandchildren will pay. During the pandemic, our children have suffered the most, yet it seems they have few true advocates in Carson City. Accordingly, their interests should have a seat at the table. Parents must be recognized as the primary educator and decision-maker in their child’s life. We must invest in school choice to drive better academic outcomes, not sinecures that perpetuate the soft bigotry of low expectations. Just as in business, competition drives better results. Nevada cannot attract new investments without a better educated workforce. 
• This money should also make whole those who have suffered most from the pandemic – small businesses that have struggled and closed, landlords who have borne the brunt of rent moratorium, and those who have yet to receive their unemployment money from a broken DETR system. 

I will not run for SD16 in 2022, but I will not be a mere place-holder. Because I will not run, I will be free to fight for Washoe County, Carson City, and for our state without concern for reelection. No special interest – other than our children, our families, and our economy – will impact my decisions. I will fight hard and I will speak freely and forcefully. 

I have lived here for close to 40 years. I grew up here. I have raised my children here. I hope that my grandchildren will enjoy the blessings of the greatest state in the land – the Silver State, battle born and battle tested. I am committed to decisions that will guarantee those blessings for generations to come.

I look forward to being a voice for the unsung heroes of our economy in the Senate. 

Sincerely, 

Melissa Clement

I played sports from the time I could walk. The seasons of childhood were marked by tennis, football, basketball, and soccer seasons. I played on coed teams and girls teams. In fact, I was one of the 3 or 4 girls who broke the gender barrier in my town’s Little League. I loved playing coed (I always did like boys. A. LOT.), but right around 15, as gifted as I was, I could no longer compete with boys. As they began to bulk up and load up on testosterone, the playing field was no longer level. One of life’s lessons and I admit, it chafed.

I grew up at a time before Title IX was fully implemented. I played high school sports, but I wasn’t good or committed enough to earn a college scholarship. I continued sports in college, but only intramural. Title IX might have offered me the chance to go out of state for college on a D1 scholarship. Who knows? I am glad that female athletes, today, have that opportunity. But maybe not for much longer. In Nevada, legislators are rushing to pass a state equal rights amendment (see the wording below the video). They don’t want anyone to notice as they congratulate each other for being such big boosters of “equality.” But the constitutional amendment they are considering would open girl’s sports to biological males identifying as females. That will mark the end of women’s sports. And women’s scholarships. And women’s opportunities. Below is a video from the most recent hearing.

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this State or any of its political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin. 

Awkward family photo….

How extreme must Jacky Rosen be to get a primary endorsement from the National Abortion Rights Action League? We are left to wonder why Jacky Rosen received “Big Abortion’s” anointing over long time abortion supporter, Congresswoman Dina Titus. NARAL is an extremist organization whose primary goal is to protect abortion for all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason, without apology or exception, and on the taxpayer’s dime.

• NARAL fights against parental consent AND even notification for underage girls seeking abortions
• NARAL fights against bare minimum health regulations for abortion clinics which would protect women, but might cut into the abortionist’s profit margin. Other same day surgical clinics must abide by health regulations. Veterinarian clinics must abide by health regulations. Why not abortion clinics?
• NARAL fights against brutal partial birth abortions and abortions when the unborn can feel pain.
• NARAL works hard to force doctors, nurses, facilities and insurers to provide, perform and participate in abortions against their consciences and free will.

Isn’t it shocking that decades of loyal votes and advocacy to expand and protect every abortion through all nine months of pregnancy is not enough? Yesterday the National Abortion Rights Action League endorsed newcomer Jacky Rosen with exactly 210 days of legislative experience encompassing three – count ‘em – three votes on protecting abortions.

Rosen was endorsed over Congresswoman Dina Titus who has 1,671 days serving in the US Congress, a 100% pro-abortion voting record and dozens of votes for unfettered abortion. Titus has voted in favor of taxpayer subsidized abortion; against protecting doctors, nurses and medical personnel from governmental coercion to participate in abortions that violate their conscience rights; and even against a law that would require a baby born alive during an abortion “the same degree” of care that would apply “to any other child born alive at the same gestational age,” including transportation to a hospital. Add to that a state-wide presence and 20 years of pro-abortion service in the Nevada Senate and one must ask, “what has Jacky Rosen promised the National Abortion Rights Action League that would cause them to enter a Nevada primary and endorse a newcomer with a pretty face over an abortion workhorse?”

Less than 20 percent of Americans support NARAL’s radical abortion policies. Both Rosen and Titus are out of the mainstream on abortion and their votes depend solely on the marching orders they get from extremist organizations like the National Abortion Rights Action League. NARAL’s endorsement tells us that Jacky Rosen will be goose stepping to NARAL and the abortion industry even more than Dina Titus. Rosen’s abortion radicalism makes her unqualified to represent Nevada.

February 18, 2017, Norma McCorvey passed away. Her long, hard journey on this harsh Earth behind her, she finally rests in the peace of our Lord. At last.

Norma was one of the most broken people I have ever met, but her impact on the lives around her can not be measured.

Norma carried a crushing, unbearable weight around for most of her life. She felt the burden of the 58 million lost lives since the Roe v. Wade decision because Norma was Roe. I hate to type that because she was so much #morethanroe.

Why do I detest the pro-abort feminist movement? Norma McCorvey.

Let’s hit the Wayback Machine to 1987. I was a young impressionable university student leader. I was responsible for bringing concerts, comedians, and lecturers to the University of Nevada campus. I had the opportunity to meet many incredible people – musicians, intellects, opinion leaders and Hunter S. Thompson. One of my all-time favorite lecturers was Sarah Weddington, the attorney who successfullly argued the Roe v. Wade decision. She was articulate, gracious, funny, smart and THE FEMINIST ICON. And best yet, she took a liking to me at the many booking conferences that I attended. After a couple of years, I finally secured a date for my mentor to speak on campus. The lecture was brilliant. The event was successful, even though a few pro-life demonstrators stood quietly protesting outside the venue.

After the event, a group of students and I took her to dinner and were entertained by more exciting, interesting stories. Over dessert, I asked, “whatever happened to Roe?”

Sarah’s gracious demeanor and beautiful smile changed instantaneously. “She’s a stupid piece of white trash. She’s pro-life and a Christian,” she snarled throwing in a few decidedly ungracious and unrepeatable curse words. “She’s a piece of trash. She was stupid when we found her and she’s worse now.” I quickly paid the check and the evening ended. Her words and her demeanor hung in the air that night and honestly, I have never been able to forget them.

And that, right there, was the end of a chapter. I would no longer blindly follow a feminist agenda that defined progress on the backs of dead babies. I began a journey from pro-choice to pro-life. Why? Because Roe v. Wade, the decision that supposedly was the rallying cry for all feminists, was achieved by taking advantage of a “stupid piece of trash” not fighting for the rights of all women. Just another example of a rich liberal white woman imposing her beliefs on those that shouldn’t be allowed to think or believe.

I will leave the rest of my pro-life journey to another time, because Norma’s story is so much more important.

Over 20 years later, our state pro-life group brought Norma McCorvey in to speak at the January rally. I don’t think I understood what was about to happen. As I sat listening to Miss Norma, I was overwhelmed with the burden she carried. She told her story of meeting with Sarah Weddington and the other attorneys, the Roe v Wade decision, her coming out as Roe, her strident advocacy for the legalization and normalization of abortion, her conversion to seeing the humanity of the unborn caused by the patient and loving efforts of young pro-lifers, her acceptance of Christ and her lifetime efforts to reverse a Supreme Court decision that she felt she caused.

Her speech wandered, halting here and there. Her delivery was not great and she was most definitely not articulate. But I don’t think I have ever been so moved by any speaker as I was by her story of victimization, loss, despair, redemption, triumph and crushing guilt. When she said, “I am responsible for the death of 50 million unborn babies,” I couldn’t hold the tears back. I, like everyone in the room, was forever changed.

When I met Miss Norma, she knew in her head that she had been forgiven and redeemed, but she struggled with the demons of despair and guilt. That guilt drove her to open her wounds for all to see in her fight for the unborn. She endured the most horrendous internet trolls who sought to silence her. Yet she pressed on. It was hard to watch. But for her there was no other way.

After her speech, I had the opportunity to speak to her privately. I asked her, “whatever happened to Sarah Weddington and the other attorneys?” Miss Norma’s face transformed. It softened and saddened. “I haven’t heard from them in years. They were not nice women. They were not nice to me.” Then she added, “I heard she has breast cancer. I pray for her.”

That right there is what the feminist movement should be. Lifting our sisters up during their times of difficulty, not taking advantage of them and throwing them to the curb when we have used them up.

Norma McCorvey, rest in peace.

It’s election time again. In Northern Nevada, we have a few important primaries. So, if you can momentarily divert your attention from the Trump/Hillary/Bernie show, I have a few thoughts. Skip to the bottom for my recommendations.

First, primaries are incredibly important and they are happening NOW. Early voting is available at the following locations:

Carson City: http://nvsos.gov/index.aspx?page=1372

Washoe County: http://nvsos.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=4270

Second, know who you are voting for…RGJ interviewed the legislative candidates who face primaries. Here’s the link…http://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/27/here-northern-nevada-legislature-candidates-june-14-primary/85002992/

Third, if you want my opinion (and who wouldn’t), let me explain a few things behind my reasoning.

• Important caveat – I have tremendous respect for anyone who throws their hat into the ring and runs. These are the folks that put their money where their mouth is. We all spend time complaining about what is wrong with the system, but who actually stakes their personal fortune (however small or large), put their families through the ringer and take the very painful slings and arrows that come from campaigning. So thank you, one and all.
• I am pro-life – first and foremost. A candidate that can not or chooses not to protect the most vulnerable among us should choose another line of business – pure and simple. I have other issues that are pretty important, but if you can’t pass that smell test, then, well, move along.
• I am pro-life, but I am wiser than you may think. Here are some questions I asked prior to making these endorsements:
  • For non-incumbents:
    • Of the candidates, who says they are pro-life?
    • Of those who said they are pro-life, who has actively worked in the pro-life cause?
  • For incumbents who had the first opportunity in many sessions to consider pro-life legislation and the very first opportunity in DECADES to actually pass pro-life legislation:
    • Who sponsored pro-life legislation?
    • Who actively worked to advance and advocate for pro-life legislation? (Sadly, not a single senator from last session passes this test and some failed it miserably).
    • Who testified in favor of pro-life legislation? (This is an important key in AD40, but I won’t ruin the surprise)
    • Who actually voted for pro-life legislation?
    • Who read our bill in its entirety?
    • Who met with me (chief lobbyist for parental notification for underage girls seeking an abortion, otherwise known as that commonsense low-bar requirement that has operated in 30 other state for several decades) during the last session? (This questions will hurt Senator Becky Harris in two years. But fortunately for her, she has an opportunity to fix this next session. I hope she does.)
• My aim is to save lives – from conception to natural death. Until we can protect all lives, I look for those who will work to pass effective laws that reduce the abortion numbers and rates and works to protect the elderly, disabled, marginalized and medically vulnerable from assisted suicide and euthanasia.
• There are several candidates that I really like and hope run again, but are not positioned to win this time.
• I speak for myself.

So here goes the first round. By the way, sorry if you were one of the 13K Republican primary voters who have already voted. And, if you are wondering why I am acting like Republicans are the only ones who matter…it’s because they are. The democrat party has sadly been at war with the unborn for decades. I wish that weren’t so, but please, please find me a candidate that is pro-life and I will gladly spotlight them.

THESE ARE THE CANDIDATES I SUPPORT:

AD25 – Jill Tolles. Jill worked with the Reno Crisis Pregnancy Center for many years. CPCs and Maternity Homes (like Casa de Vida and Living Grace) are on the front-lines of pro-life work. She earned her bona fides there. I am excited at the prospect of this smart, articulate woman in the legislature.

AD26 – Jason Guinasso. I got to know Jason Guinasso well during the 2012 case involving a Washoe County Court Judge who sought to force a mentally disabled woman to abort her unborn baby. The case garnered international attention. The odds appeared to be stacked against this unborn baby and the mother who wanted to protect her, yet Jason fought tirelessly and humbly. In the end, he saved that little girl. All of us in the pro-life community seek to save lives, but few of us know the life we saved. Jason does. He also has a background working with the Crisis Pregnancy Center here in Reno and served on the board of Nevada Life. I look forward to his voice working to protect life in the legislature.

AD40 – Sam England. I have been warned not to go against an incumbent. I strongly support Sam England in a crowded race. Sam is a decorated army veteran, physician assistant and father of three small children. He embodies the millennial generation (PS the most pro-life generation). He believes in the sanctity of life and has already stood watch to protect it. His number one issue is the protection of life. How many candidates will say this publicly? His understanding of the medical issues He is one of the best candidates of this cycle. With his vested interest in the future of our state (those three little kids), he will be a powerful and needed voice in Carson City.

Incumbent P.K. O’Neill lost my support when he chose to offer an amendment to the parental notification bill on the senate side. In doing so, he took up valuable time reserved for advocates, many of whom had traveled from Las Vegas and California and were not given any opportunity to present their information. He did so without consulting anyone on the lobbying team. For this reason, even though he has a recorded vote in the affirmative on the assembly side, he helped to kill it on the senate side. I can not support him in the primary. The days of being able to claim to be pro-life then do nothing (or work in the caucus room against a pro-life issue) are over. Chris Forbush has residency issues that could throw this otherwise safe Republican seat into the hands of Democrats. We can not risk this seat when we already have so many Republican assembly seats in danger. His unwillingness to answer questionnaires is also a concern.

Facebook is a difficult place to be these days. Especially for someone like me. Married to a retired cop, Catholic – of the Roman persuasion, pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, conservative. Not an especially welcoming place. Here is today’s contribution to a less than civil discussion.

I support traditional marriage. I am the product of one. But traditional marriage has been suffering for a long time. Last Friday is just a marker along the path to total destruction that started decades and decades ago.

A traditional marriage

My parents were married for nearly 63 years when my mother left my father. It was an abrupt decision. One that they only considered for five months. The seven of us children were devastated, as was my dad. But as the old saying goes, “until death do us part” and it was death that parted them. My dad is incomplete now. Very important parts of his self are gone because the two of them were one. Few my age, and even fewer my children’s age have ever witnessed a traditional marriage so it is no wonder that marriage defined by #lovewins drowns out every other sentiment. On the ides of March in 1947, my parents, man and woman, entered a traditional marriage. And that is what I support. That is what I aspire to in my own marriage. That is what we fall terribly short of each and every day, but still we try. I am hard-pressed to think of one single friend, younger than 80 that provides an example of a traditional marriage. It’s just too hard and too-other centered as the “Me Generation” begins its fourth decade.

#Hashtag free marriage

Marriage isn’t about love, it’s about sacrifice. Love – that all-consuming physical and mental obsession with another person – is the lure that traps you into marriage. As the years go by, that first rush of love dissipates to be replaced by love – that comrades in arms type of emotion – that runs deeper, much deeper. But that second love is only forged through fire. The difficult times come. The love required at this point in a marriage is not rainbow and lollipop love. It’s self-sacrifice and a focus on the other, first your spouse, second your children. This is the basic building block of society, where a child learns all the important lessons of life – civic duty, sharing, why bullying is wrong, how to deal with a bully, to love one another, integrity, honesty – all the basic building blocks of a healthy society. A mother and a father – meant in the very gender specific, terribly un-PC manner implied – are a critical component to this structure. Children learn very specific separate things from each gender parent that can only be inadequately mimicked or vaguely recreated in a different structure. And this is what we should encourage.

But back to my parents and the example they provide. My dad is a mining engineer. He went – and we went – where the ore and the economy called. There was never a thought as to whether it was best to stay in one place for the sake of us kids. It was a decision made between my mother and father based on what was best for his career and our family.  I don’t say that with an accusatory, pity me tone, that was just the way it was. Often the job entailed my dad living on site 5 days out of the week and coming home on the weekend. Sometimes he would camp to avoid the extra cost of a motel room. He sacrificed. And with seven children at home, my mother did as well.

That’s right, seven children. The funny thing is, growing up, our family was considered medium sized. We used to feel sorry for those really small families who only had four children. How boring. That is the first difference. Their marriage was open. Not in a swinger kind of way, open to children. So at the age of 41, right after taking up golf because her youngest children were in second grade, my mother was faced with an the announcement of unintended, unplanned pregnancy – a child with high possibility of Down’s Syndrome. My impending arrival was met with the exact same response as the other six. And as that “accident” I never felt like I was anything other than a “pleasant surprise.”

But imagine, your oldest son headed to college, the last of the children finally in grade school, that chance to finally begin “your life” put off for another 8 years. But there was no other choice. THANK GOD.

My mom always had a difficult time finding a dentist. I remember several times going to a new dentist and my mother asking if he would work on her teeth WITHOUT novocaine, laughing gas or any other anesthesia or pain mitigation. It was a quick way to weed out possible dentists because few would do it. It was not until I was in my forties that I found out why. It wasn’t masochism. Raising seven children required lots of pairs of shoes, lots of coats, lots of food. My mom had to figure out the ways to cut corners on her own needs to provide for ours. And by her sixties, it was a well-established habit.

We had vacations every year. Never to Mexico, or Europe, or Hawaii. It was to visit my grandparents. We would pile into a station wagon and drive, without air conditioning, to their home where we would sleep on the floor. Summer days filled with trips to the candy store with my Grandad, a trip to the amusement park, exploring the state capitol, eating dinners whose recipes were perfected in the Boarding House my Nana ran in the 30s and 40s. I wouldn’t trade those memories for any cruise or all-expense paid resort vacation. This was my normal, straight out of a 50s television show. I grew up thinking that the nuclear family was very uncommon. Not everybody had a father who mined uranium and worked for the Atomic Energy Commission. But I did. I never needed a school counselor to teach bullying. I had six older brothers and sisters at home for that reason. They taught me the fine art of bullying and that the only way to stop it was to stand up to it. I learned that sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me. Literally.

On a daily basis. I learned that debate, discourse and conversation were necessary and important parts of the evening meal and life. We argued and learned the day’s news there. The Vietnam War, Watergate, the Energy Crisis, the Evil Empire – all of these were discussed on a daily basis. The Today Show over breakfast, the evening news before dinner, the daily newspaper in the morning, Time Magazine in the nooks and crannies throughout the week. Growing up, I hated all of it. I hated news and politics. Until I didn’t.

We were never allowed to call each other stupid or to say shut up, even if we said something stupid and we should have shut up. And this is why Facebook makes me cringe. Good people can have honest differences of opinion. If you don’t like it, move on. Don’t respond. If you want to change someone’s opinion, respect them first. Ask them to meet for coffee, where face to face, you can DISCUSS an issue and learn from them while they learn from you. Slapping a watermark over your picture, calling them a bigot – or any other intolerant name – doesn’t change anyone’s mind and merely draws a line in the sand.

#Hashtag Marriage

Marriage has been re-worked into a Love American-Style version that has very little to do with Traditional Marriage. It is defined by love – whatever makes you happy. Until it doesn’t. And then it is time to move to the next heady rush of love. Absent in all of this love? Children. Children are now a commodity to be planned, pruned and perfected. Our little hothouse flowers demand a lot. We can only have one or maybe two because how could we possibly afford more. There isn’t enough love to go around. And so we shower these little extensions of our egos with vacations to Costa Rica, ballet lessons, traveling sports teams. We plan their futures from birth. We worry over the best preschool. We pick their friends and smother them with protective bubble wrap. In this type of marriage, mother and father are not nearly as necessary as a really good batting coach. Schools, teachers and counselors provide the basic building blocks of a healthy society, right? Yet, those important lessons are learned long before those kids get to school in Kindergarten, therefore we must work to establish mandatory all-day kindergarten for the necessary remediation. Preschools must be mandatory to read by three.

And here’s what bugs me…

The traditional marriage I mourn died a long time ago. It was one man, one woman through sickness and in health, until death do us part, open to every child as a blessing, where divorce was such an anomaly it caused folks to gasp and think,” those poor kids”

What I also mourn is the loss of civility that allowed us, as a society, to discuss important topics. We quit talking about marriage a long time ago. First, we defined divorce as good for the kids – happy parents mean happy kids, right? Then we made children commodities to be bought and sold. Then we devalued fathers. Then we devalued mothers. Then we demand the government to replace both. Then we allow marriage to mean whatever, whenever. Now we will go after anyone who dissents. We will ruin their businesses, force them out, protest in front of their homes. Next, the churches. How dare a church teach the sanctity of life or marriage. That’s hate. Let’s shut them down. Does anyone else see the complete dismantling of the first amendment?

You may not like what I say, but don’t I have the right to say it? Watch carefully what happens to my rights, because once mine are not protected, yours won’t be either.

I want to be anyone. So here we go.

Visit here often to get opinionated views of politics, religion and culture. Feel free to debate and talk among yourselves. Now more than ever – a phrase I tend to use way too often – big ideas and big decisions need to be discussed.