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Jan. 13, 2008
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ON THE ROAD: Immigrant from Geramy fears America on wrong path
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CAL-NEV-ARI -- Before this town 65 miles south of Las Vegas was founded in the 1960s, Gen. George S. Patton built an airfield here to train troops for World War II desert warfare against the Germans.

Today, a woman who was born in Germany and grew up to despise the militaristic bent of a country that plunged the world into two wars, lives in this community of 240 people and worries that her adopted homeland is following the path of the nation she left.

"Don't get me wrong, I love America," says Audi Chambers, who lives with her husband in a mobile home. "But I'm afraid we're getting priorities wrong. We're getting into wars like Vietnam and Iraq not to help people, but for power, for oil, for whatever."

Chambers, 67, a former union president at a nearby Laughlin resort, believes the money dedicated to America's war machine would be better spent on health care. Medicare doesn't cover most dental care for seniors, Chambers says.

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    • "I have to go to Mexico for dental," says the grandmother, who came to the United States at 18 and whose German accent is still evident. She now works the register at the Palm Gardens Chevron, six miles south on U.S. Highway 95.

    Residents all end up at the 24-hour casino here that doubles as the post office. Dennis Orndorff, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran, is head chef at the casino's restaurant. He watches the people he cooks for so closely they often stare back.

    "I enjoy watching people enjoy my food," he explains.

    Orndorff, a supporter of Republican Ron Paul because of his anti-tax, small-government positions, says work will keep him from caucusing.

    "If a candidate would talk more about getting energy from wind, he'd get my vote," he says. "I grew up on a farm, and we had a wind generator and it worked great."

    As for Chambers, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a strong union supporter, is the candidate she favors. She believes he's sincere about providing health care and stopping the war.

    If she can get off work, she says, she will participate in the caucuses.

    Regardless, she hopes whoever gets elected ends the war.

    "I was a little girl when the Allied forces bombed Nuremberg. Everything was on fire, and I thought I was going to die. When you start wars, that's what can happen to you."



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    michael wrote on January 13, 2008 04:39 PM: deaqr GOD,.,. please let us not resort to name calling,.
    your patriot act is still in force.


    Fausto wrote on January 13, 2008 11:32 AM: "IT can be tough to admit but every war since has been folly."

    Every war? Want to start a debate on that? I'm ready...


    GOD wrote on January 13, 2008 10:46 AM: Michael, take the tinfoil off your head... the mothership has landed. Please board and fly back to the planet you came from [clue - it's where your head is --- URANUS].

    Fausto --- perfect post!


    tim wrote on January 13, 2008 09:36 AM: why does a reporter go all the way out to some little dot in the desert to talk with a german immigrant? must not have been able to find another searchlight resident to say something nice about reid.


    michael wrote on January 13, 2008 09:27 AM: I submit, that george bush is the new hitler., 9-11 was his riechstag event,. enabling the passage of the patriot act, and other infringements on our coustitution,.


    mark wrote on January 13, 2008 09:06 AM: Hey tough guys, go ahead and pick on a Kraut that has maybe lived in this country longer than you've been alive.Because WWII can be justified and was an official war declared by Congress does not make everything else right. IT can be tough to admit but every war since has been folly.


    Fausto wrote on January 13, 2008 08:25 AM: Audi:

    "We're getting into wars like Vietnam and Iraq not to help people, but for power, for oil, for whatever."

    Whatever? Really. That's real specific. Why did we get involved in freeing millions of Europeans from the fist of Nazi Germany, according to you? Probably for *whatever*? Or is it oil & power. If so, I want more oil from Germany than we are currently getting. We are America. We do the tough jobs others don't want to do...that's what makes us great. We make sacrifices for others more often than ask, "What's in it for me?".

    I see you have come to American to see what America can give you. You complain about your Medicare coverage. Where in our Constitution say I have to maintain your teeth?


    Bill Jacobs wrote on January 13, 2008 07:20 AM: Audi Chambers, go back where you came from, to Socialist Germany and try to mess that country up even more than it already is.