Thursday, July 19, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
In his excellent column on July 16, Thomas Schaller correctly notes that “there’s nothing more un-American in spirit ... than anti-immigrant hatred and fear mongering.”
Yet, Las Vegans continue to honor America’s most anti-immigrant senator, Pat McCarran, by having an airport named after him. McCarran was an anti-Semitic bigot who was largely responsible for the spread of McCarthyism in America’s shameful period of the 1950s.
McCarran’s Internal Security Act of 1950 authorized the arrest of any “suspected” security risk. Congress overrode President Harry Truman’s veto and passed the bill, which Truman called “the greatest danger to freedom of press, speech and assembly.”
In 1952, McCarran’s Immigration Act set up procedures to stop homosexuals from even visiting our country. It also set up restrictive immigration quotas to prevent most Eastern European Jews from coming to America, and the law called for the deportation of American citizens if they belonged to any organization deemed “subversive.”
So why is Clark County not dumping its name in favor of something like Las Vegas International Airport?
Las Vegans should be ashamed of the name of our airport.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy