Share the wealth from stimulus checks
Are you feeling as if you don’t need the $1,400 you received from the Economic Impact Program? Many worthy non-profits — local, national and international — can benefit from all or part of those funds to sustain their programs that make our community and our world a better place.
Here are some suggestions for how you can direct some of your unneeded money to groups that make a difference:
Local: the Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona or CHRPA, Literacy Connects and The Primavera Foundation, which provides “pathways out of poverty.”
National: The Nature Conservancy, Death With Dignity and Everytown For Gun Safety.
International: Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee and Oxfam-America.
These are reputable, transparent non-profits with proven track records. All have websites where you can learn about the organizations and see how you can donate.
If you can do without all or some of the government largesse, consider redirecting this windfall to a good cause.
Peter Bourque
Midtown
Dr. Christ needs to
rethink things
Hey there, Dr. Cara Christ, have you completely lost your mind? You’re telling us we don’t need to wear masks or limit the number of diners in restaurants because there’s plenty of room in our hospitals?!
As the state’s top health official, maybe you should be advocating that we take steps to protect us from getting the virus and needing to be hospitalized.
Are you also advocating that we allow people to drive drunk and distracted by cellphones because there’s plenty of room in our cemeteries?
Richard White
Northeast side
Predictable response to shootings from Congress
You can expect exactly the same response from Congress to the mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder as they have had to other recent similar killings.
Only bold talk about stricter gun control after a call for prayers and another “moment of silence” for the victims, who are strangers to Congress.
If a few Congressmen had been slaughtered, dying from gunfire in the January Capitol insurrection, then action would have taken place on gun control instead of ignoring the lives and families of ordinary citizens.
Owen Rentfro
Midtown
Social studies for all
I’m a lifelong consumer of public opinions and political discourse. Having observed and interacted with others also willing to participate, I’m endlessly amazed at the lack of basic knowledge of our government, its function and processes so many of them possess.
Public education used to include a social studies curriculum. Perhaps the most important focus of that was the structure and role of the three branches of government.
Within those lessons were explanations regarding the Constitution, its purpose and process, which included impeachments and who presided over an impeachment.
Per the Constitution, in the event of an impeachment of a president, the chief justice presides. The most recent impeachment trial in our history occurred after the last Oval Office occupier was out of office, the senate president presided, as he should have, because that’s what the Constitution prescribes.
Perhaps we should require civics education, or social studies, again in all schools, public or private, so that those eligible to participate understand just what they’re participating in.
Dennis Connors
West side
Say it isn’t so, governor
Please, Gov. Ducey, don’t remove the restrictions. Certainly Arizona is doing much better, and the hope is this will continue. It won’t without mitigations. Easing up should work, going to a full opening just won’t.
As more people are vaccinated, the numbers are hopeful. Before the mask requirement was mandated, there were many people who resisted wearing a mask and social distancing, and it became somehow political. So sad.
The virus is not political and enjoys all factions, no limits.
Of course there will be many people who will support this governor’s latest mistake. Whoops, now I’m being political! Sorry.
This is not the time for politics, it’s the time to continue to mask up, follow the mitigations and continue to watch the numbers decrease. Hopefully.
Binky Luckhurst
Foothills
Masks mandates support business
Dear Gov. Ducey,
Please put a mask mandate in place for Arizona. Our businesses need this support to open and profit.
Taking away the mask mandate forces many people to avoid doing business due to their need and desire to avoid COVID infection and the resulting risks of serious illness and death.
Masks greatly decrease the risk of catching COVID. Don’t make masks a political issue, make it a health and a business support issue. Reinstate the mask mandate. Support our businesses.
Margaret Fusari
West side
Are we still a democracy?
The sad irony of it all. Citizens of other countries around the world are crowding into streets, protesting their authoritarian leaders. They know the danger but still they come, again and again, willing to put their lives on the line for their dream of democracy.
Here in the USA, it’s a different scene. A large segment of our citizenry, including many who are members of a once respectable political party, are currently doing their best to tear down our own precious democracy in response to the “big lie” of our own former authoritarian leader.
Unbelievable, isn’t it?
Looking forward to our next set of elections, if our democracy lasts that long.
Beverly Goodwin
East side
Mr. President, it’s already time to step down
Now is the time to get rid of old white guys running our country. Joe Biden should resign and allow younger more energetic women and people of color to be in charge. Biden step down and make way for the future!
Kenneth Smalley
Midtown
The mayor will lose on mask mandate
Mayor Regina Romero intends to defy the state and continue a local mask mandate. I recommend she look back at the local curfew, which was found unconstitutional and quickly dismissed.
Her local mask mandate will come to the same end. I urge the governor to head to court immediately to call the mayor’s bluff.
Robert Hansen
West side
Keep featuring Adia’s Wildcats
Re: the March 28 article “Adia earns straight A’s for amazing turnaround.”
Thank you for acknowledging Adia Barnes and her Wildcats with the newspaper exposure that they greatly deserve. I just watched the 74-59 victory over Texas A&M and cannot wait for the next edition of the Arizona Daily Star.
I loved the NCAA Extra section, and thank you for giving space to this most deserving team. Don’t stop now!
Arlene Bathgate
SaddleBrooke
Water should be Rosemont’s downfall
There are so many reason why the Rosemont Copper Mine should not be permitted, but why is there no emphasis on the amount of water the mine will use?
We live in a desert and have been in the middle of a drought the past few years. We, as citizens, conserve water every day in our personal use, yards, plants, etc.
With climate change and reduction in the Colorado River flow, many states are impacted and will need to reduce future water usage.
I don’t understand why the Rosemont Mine is not denied based on the amount of water it will pull from our groundwater.
There aren’t enough benefits to justify this mine and remediation efforts to restore the environment turn out to be minimal, if existent at all. Rosemont needs to be denied once and for all!
Regina Watkins
West side
The rent is too high downtown
Re: the March 21 article “Rents for new downtown apartments hit$4K a month; investors take notice.”
I was concerned when I read about rents downtown hitting $4,000 a month, then astounded when I further read that the city was considering giving a tax break to an out-of-town developer to create yet more unaffordable housing downtown.
Cruachan Capital wants to convert 196 rental units to 256 luxury apartments.
Given the death of affordable housing in Tucson, I suggest any tax break provided by the city should require that a meaningful portion of new apartments downtown and anywhere else in the city be within the means of working, middle-class and elderly residents.
Diversity will help keep our downtown vibrant.
Gayle Jandrey
Northwest side
Coronavirus relief bill a lesson in priorities
The new relief package approved by Democrats in Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden is a welcome sign that government may finally be doing what it was elected to do: make people’s lives better.
Three of the new provisions in the bill have had a direct, tangible and immediate positive impact for me personally: Elimination of a federal tax on unemployment benefits up to $10,200, streamlining PPP loans for sole proprietors and increasing subsidies for people who buy health insurance through the ACA marketplace.
Millions of Americans will directly benefit from these and other measures provided in this bill, which passed without a single Senate Republican vote. It should make it clear which party has the interests of the majority of Americans a priority.
Marc Laplante
Midtown
Dr. Ducey says we have beaten COVID
We should all feel pretty comfortable now that politicians around the country have declared the COVID-19 virus defeated, and there is no further need for any defensive measures to prevent spread of the disease.
Now that “Doctor” Doug Ducey has removed any restrictions on social behavior and mask wearing, I guess I’ll cancel all future appointments with my current family doctor and simply rely upon his future diagnoses.
Eric Maurer
Northwest side
