When percentages
become personal
I keep seeing on social media and the conservative press that it was ridiculous to shut down the country’s economy when less than one-tenth of 1% of the population was succumbing to the effects of this flu type virus.
Now I wonder how that would affect you if it were a family member, lying out of reach in ICU on a ventilator possibly taking their last, or maybe lifesaving, breath, with you helplessly outside the hospital hoping for a full recovery.
All of sudden that one-tenth of 1% becomes 100% for the families involved, and they lose a loved one or they recover. For those outside of this situation there is no reason halt the economy because, after all it is just a flu virus.
Please, please wear your mask, practice CDC guidelines and hope for heaven’s sake you or any of your family do not come down with this insidious disease.
Larry Huff
Midtown
Many voices unheard at GOP convention
I have been a registered Republican for decades. As the Republican National Convention began, I was acutely aware that my views and perspectives are not welcome by my party.
I am, however, in very good company. Jeff Flake was not at this convention. His conservative beliefs will be silent. Mitt Romney was not there. His belief that no man is above the law was be excluded.
George Bush was not be there. President Bush, I am sure, would not have sanctioned families being separated at the border. Colin Powell was not to be heard and John McCain was not to be memorialized. The idea that the country should overshadow self-interest was not be praised.
What is left? For me what is omitted far outweighs what is likely to be celebrated.
Daniel McDonnell
Foothills
USPS controversy manufactured by Dems
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have manufactured a Postal Service political stunt with their $25 billion legislation. The postmaster general is not appointed by President Trump. The Postal Board of Governors engaged a professional search firm that identified Louis DeJoy as an outstanding candidate with the necessary background to reform the postal system. The bipartisan governors then unanimously approved his appointment as postmaster general.
His being a Trump donor is irrelevant. Democrats claimed the same irrelevance of Robert Mueller’s several prosecutors contributing to the Democratic Party. Postmaster General DeJoy expects the number of ballots that would be mailed this fall will be a small fraction of USPS’s overall capacity. Dejoy is trying to reform the USPS that incurs deficits of billions annually in tax payer money.
Republicans claim $14 billion is already available in cash to the USPS and it has access to a $10 billion loan from the Treasury. Despicable Democrats have played a sick political partisan hoax on the gullible American public, with help from the Democratic news media.
Tony Domino
Northwest side
An Ashford professor and UA alum weighs in
I understand your concern over recent announcements about UA Global Campus. I’m a Wildcat, I live here in Tucson, I’m one of you. As a University of Arizona Ph.D., I ask you to listen for this brief moment.
I’m currently a full-time Ashford professor who has worked tirelessly to develop sound curriculum and shape faculty-driven initiatives for underserved and underrepresented students for over seven years. I, like my colleagues, am an educator, profoundly dedicated to inspiring every student entering classes we have personally designed. I, like my colleagues, am a mentor, partnering with exceptionally hardworking adjunct faculty.
We exercise empathy and extend grace to the students we honor for their capacity to persist and thrive, even through adversity. I ask you to Bear Down and allow us to join in striving to realize the potential of uniting the integrity and capacity of the University of Arizona with the dynamism and online expertise of Ashford faculty to place meaningful education for our students first.
Stephanie Fink
Midtown
DeJoy fails to address mail sorting backlog
Watching and listening to the Louis DeJoy hearing, I am concerned that Congress and DeJoy are talking at cross purposes: Mr. DeJoy constantly points to truck scheduling as his solution to fixing problems at the post office. But it doesn’t matter if the trucks are running on time if they are carrying old backlogged mail because the sorting machines are cut up in pieces and the employees in the sorting facility have had their overtime cut — so they can’t sort to put it on the truck! Truck scheduling cannot help if the backlog is piling up on the sorting facility floor.
When asked about restoring overtime, DeJoy stated that he restored it at the stations were mail is accepted. This is entirely different from restoring overtime in the sorting facility!
I wish the hearing had made clear his misdirection.
Jean Wylie
Benson
When renter gets help, so does the landlord
Re: the Aug. 24 article “Ducey’s eviction moratorium hurts landlords who also need help.”
Michelle Lind is right that landlords need assistance. They would not need help if our state and local governments, as well as the federal government, would step up to provide adequate rental assistance to those out of work due to the pandemic.
I’m a leader in Pima County Interfaith, and we have researched this issue carefully since May. From our research, we estimate that one-third of families are struggling to pay rent due to the pandemic. We also know that homelessness is far more expensive than rental assistance, costing up to five times more, while traumatizing families and the community.
When tenants can pay rent, landlords benefit, as does the economy as a whole, as more money circulates. When more people are homeless, the costs are unsustainable both to families and the community. More rental assistance helps all of us.
Please advocate with your congresspeople and Gov. Doug Ducey for more rental assistance now.
Nancy Smith
Midtown
Robbins and Trump
make scary bedfellows
Re: the Aug. 27 editorial “UA inviting trouble with campus reopening plan.”
I commend the Daily Star for this editorial. As a public-health professional, I am appalled that UA President Robert Robbins is unabashedly seeking to raise the UA’s national profile by bringing virtually all students back on campus, based on the naive assumption that they will voluntarily adhere to responsible COVID-19 safety measures at all times. Just how many thousands of lives is he willing to place at risk?
It is most frightening to see the UA administration walking lock-step with our nation’s president in this matter. Indeed, our tweeter in chief and the UA president make very scary bedfellows!
John Newport, Ph.D.
Northwest side
Resounding silence from Republicans
Some writers have claimed that Democrats have been silent regarding the protests that have resulted in violence and property damage, whereas Republicans have been outspokenly opposed. Such distortion of the truth is egregious, disingenuous, misguided and damaging.
Democratic senators, representatives, candidates and liberal opinion writers have almost universally decried the violence and damage (while condoning peaceful protesting) and almost universally have called for the GOP to stop the divisive rhetoric coming from the top.
I ask each and every Trump supporter to ask themselves if deliberately stoking the fires by supporting vigilantism, by supporting federal intervention with no identification or accountability and by fostering racism and bigotry is harmless? If you support Trump, you support all of this and you are promoting violence and unrest. What I hear is the resounding silence of the GOP with regard to the terrible acts of senseless killing we have all now seen thanks to the advent of body cameras and cellphones.
Henry Wallace
Foothills
Biden is a kind, good person
I grew up in Delaware, and Joe Biden was my senator for many years. I admired his dedication to public service and his interest in the lives of the average American. He has been touched by hard family losses, but I think those experiences and his daily commute on Amtrak helped him keep in touch with people.
I have heard Joe speak in person and have met his wife, Jill. About 15 years ago, my aging mother (a Republican all her life) told me about her experience when she was having lunch alone in a restaurant not far from her home. Biden came over and asked if he could join her. She talked with him for over an hour and was impressed that he really listened to her.
Many people have similar experiences with Joe, because this is part of who he is. I have often disagreed with him on policy, but he is a kind, good person who will serve the average American well at this very difficult time
Roger Barthelson
West side
Trump stamps could save USPS
It seems the White House is having a problem solving a situation with the Postal Service. They need money and Mr. Donald Trump doesn’t want to help out. There is a perfect solution to this problem.
Issue a stamp with Trump’s face on it and watch the money come in. They will have so much money they won’t be able to count it all.
Donald Bernier
Midtown
Puppy mills should be outlawed in AZ
Re: the Aug. 31 opinion “Seedy puppy mill operators find a haven in Arizona.”
Don Scott did a great job explaining the dark and dubious relationship between puppy mills and pet stores like Puppy World Rescue in Marana. The owner claims that their puppies are rescue dogs when in fact they are charging up to $3,500 for a puppy that most likely came from a puppy mill. The selling of pets from puppy mills (also known as commercial breeding facilities) should be illegal in Arizona because of all the cruel reasons explained by Mr. Scott.
It’s time for Arizona and Pima County to join the hundreds of communities across the nation who have said no to the inhumane breeding, raising and selling of dogs and cats.
Please help eliminate puppy mills by supporting laws that ban commercial selling of pets, by adopting pets from legitimate shelters/rescues, and by spaying/neutering your pets.
Linda Dugan
Midtown
