Ours was a cold and gale-stricken winter this year. The weather was like a bad omen for the desolate times we are currently enduring in Las Vegas. And if gloomy clouds continue to hover over the city, with each new dispatch of bad news, then no one can be reproached for fearing the worst. In fact, it’s not merely interesting but also eerie the way the predominant public issues in Southern Nevada today (many of which have ignited collective panic) line up with the signs of the apocalypse.
Of course, few things are more trite than to connect present-day issues with the seven seals prophesied in the Bible’s book of Revelation, and nobody here is predicting the end of the world—just yet. But how about the end of Las Vegas? Let us discern the signs. The first sign of the apocalypse, most biblical scholars agree, is a period of prosperity and aggrandizing. Which is exactly what we experienced in Las Vegas between 2003 and 2006.
The second sign is war. In our schools alone, violence has been rampant. In the past three months, four incidents involving gunfire have resulted in nine teenage victims, six of whom were high school students, and one of whom, a sophomore at Palo Verde, died. (Oh, and of course there’s that small conflict halfway across the globe, courtesy of our Commander in Chief.)
The third, famine. State revenue shortfall has led to severe budget cuts this year, leaving many of Nevada’s basic provisions—such as water, education and welfare—starving. The economy is receding, foreclosure rates in Nevada are tops in the nation, and the number of families in Las Vegas living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has surpassed 100,000.
No. 4: plagues and pestilence. Some 40,000 locals were alerted at the beginning of March that they might have been infected with hepatitis C, hepatitis B or even HIV, due to unscrupulous practices at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.
The fifth is persecution. As indicated by its late February raids, the IRS appears to have a problem with Pure Management Group, the epitome of a cash-based business. If it is in fact cash tips at the root of the IRS’ investigation into PMG, the entire city can be in trouble.
Six: ecological cataclysms. Global warming, global warming, global warming.
And, at last, the seventh sign of the apocalypse, according to biblical scripture, is trepidation and silence. To our good fortune, we have control over these two. Just so long as we never tacitly go along with whatever our doctor, our mortgage broker or our country is doing. Oh, wait ...