Commitment
to excellence
I watched several Pac-12 games last weekend. Football and basketball seasons intersect at this time of the year. There were multiple public service announcement’s done by athletes regarding diversity and inclusion.
How does that work in their designated sport? I would suggest hard work and commitment to excellence. It works in every field of endeavor.
Bill Blaine
Marana
Governor, we need
to keep people housed
Everyone knows there will be a huge surge in evictions come Jan. 1 when the federal moratorium on evictions for nonpayment ends and the funding from the CARES Act expires. How about taking action now, not when evicted families are in the street wondering how to shelter in place with all their belongings and kids in shopping carts?
Gov. Doug Ducey needs to act immediately to establish a new eviction moratorium through March 31 to prevent this, just like he did earlier this year. If anything, we need such relief more now than we did before.
And how about spending all of the remaining CARES funds right away on additional unemployment benefits (that could be used to pay rent or other bills) or housing assistance? Don’t leave this money unspent. There’s no time to waste!
Bruce Plenk
East side
Trump has done so much good
To individuals that have sent letters against Donald Trump: I’ve been a Republican for over 50 years, and do not appreciate Trump’s demeanor or actions, but I like what he has done. You probably don’t know this but: He started rebuilding our military after eight years of decline under Barack Obama.
He restored religious liberty for our military personnel while stopping the federal government from bullying Christians and people of faith. He reformed the VA so sick or dying veterans don’t wait months to see a doctor. He restarted our space program, creating the Space Force, to defend the U.S. from new Chinese and Russian threats.
He cut American support and money from the worst agencies at the UN. He stood up to China’s unfair trade practices, bringing industries back. He destroyed ISIS, and killed Qasem Soleimani. He freed us from Obama’s treaties with Iran and global warming alarmists.
He moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and brokered the historic Abraham Accords, bringing a normalization agreement between Israel and United Arab Emirates. A miracle.
Richard Young
Sahuarita
Listen to someone with experience
Re: the Nov. 28 article “Courageous leaders don’t shrink from social issues.”
I couldn’t agree more with Tony Penn’s opinion piece calling on leaders to stand up and make our communities and nation better. Listen to this man — his leadership of the local United Way has been a generational success for Southern Arizona, weathering and thriving through multiple global economic disasters. When he says we must “embody empathetic leadership,” he knows of what he speaks. Thank God for Tony and his wisdom.
Tom McGovern
Northeast side
New Trump appointees should step down
If any of the recent Trump appointees had morals, or any consideration for the future of the United States of America, or any sense of patriotism and honor, they would resign as soon as Donald Trump walked out of the room. These appointees deserve nothing but contempt from anyone who values the principles of this country. Shame on them and shame on Trump.
Cynthia Schiesel
East side
America got
a lemon in Biden
Joe Biden has three goals for his first 100 days of COVID response so let’s analyze them:
First, vaccinate 100 million Americans. This is easy since Donald Trump and the WH Task Force have this in the bag.
Second, mandate masks by presidential order. This is stupid, since thoughtful Americans have already done so and the less thoughtful will not respond to draconian methods.
Third, reopen schools. This is brilliant. Trump has strongly agreed for months, but Joe’s public teacher unions will say no.
Perhaps it’s time for “voter remorse.”
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
So, where is
the fraud, exactly?
Help! I’m confused. The states certified that Joe Biden won by 7.1 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes. Biden won four of five swing states where margins were narrowest (Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada). Trump won one (North Carolina).
The closest votes were Arizona and Georgia, two states with Republican governors and legislatures. North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan also have Republican state legislatures, meaning state Republicans principally wrote laws on election procedures. State election commissions, poll workers and watchers include both parties.
News media (Fox, CNN, etc.) watched with eagle eyes. Trump has lost over 50 lawsuits yet insists there was fraud in the states and that he is the landslide winner. No evidence supports the claim, even though a number of judges hearing the cases were appointed by Republicans.
Democrats were brilliant enough to steal the presidential election, but too dumb to also rig U.S. Senate and House races, or state elections.
What am I missing? I’m confused.
Edward Pokorney
Marana
Biden should pardon Trump
People have been imagining scenarios whereby President Trump may pardon himself or resign and have Mike Pence pardon him for perceived or as yet unknown crimes while in office.
Without getting into all the dirty laundry about why Trump may feel a need to pardon himself, let me say as a liberal Democrat that, like the aftermath of President Richard Nixon’s Watergate debacle, it would not be in America’s best interest to prosecute a former president.
The country is too fractured. Too partisan. Too volatile.
I suggest what should happen is for President-elect Biden to make a promise now that he would pardon Trump just as Gerald Ford did for Nixon. Doing so would turn down the heat we have in our unsettled political environment and mollify half the nation.
It would be a win for Biden and the county. It would not, of course, preclude individual states from charging Trump. Our nation needs to move on from Trump.
The sooner the better.
Peter Bakke
SaddleBrooke
Biden is ushering in a long, hard winter
Re: the Dec. 8 article “Reports show that a ‘long, hard winter’ has already arrived.”
I couldn’t agree more with the title of Catherine Rampell’s op-ed piece. Now that Joe Biden is the apparent winner, we can expect four more years of a “long, hard winter” as he reimplements the failed economic, educational and foreign policies of his Obama years.
Unfortunately, when he is either physically or mentally unable to perform the duties of the president, and Kamala Harris takes over, we will enter the second coming of the ice age.
Kevin Kaatz
Oro Valley
Trump’s incompetence has far-reaching effects
The president will soon be gone, but his early inaction on, lack of a coherent response to, lies about the severity of, and lack of foresight regarding the amount of the vaccine needed for the novel coronavirus, will continue to affect us for months (and potentially years) to come.
The New York Times recently reported that when Pfizer offered the United States an opportunity to purchase additional vaccines — over and above the 100 million doses it had agreed to — Trump declined.
By the time those talks became serious in October 2020, the president was focused on his reelection campaign. The U.S. population at that time was more than 328 million.
One hunred million vaccines will treat 50 million of us, as each person requires two doses. Fortunately, in May of last year, when Mr. Trump was touting hydroxychloroquine, he procured 63 million doses for the national stockpile. This drug is now considered worthless for treating COVID-19, but should we have an outbreak of malaria, we are prepared.
Linda Stanley
East side
Trump supporters need to accept he lost
In the 13 elections I’ve been able to vote, I’ve sided with the loser seven times and won six. There were presidents that I didn’t like and didn’t vote for. However I always accepted the outcome.
What Trump and his supporters are doing is harmful to our country. I know some of them perceive themselves as patriots, but what they are doing is close to sedition. We’re not a banana republic.
Trump lost because of his COVID response, and even people who agreed with his policies couldn’t stomach the person he is.
Craig Miller
Northwest side
So you don’t want the vaccine?
So you don’t want to get vaccinated against COVID? How about a little incentive. Should a person refuse to get vaccinated then:
• All taxpayer benefits (like unemployment, welfare, food stamps, whatever) immediately cease.
• No health coverage for COVID infections. You won’t even be allowed near a hospital.
• Congress needs to pass a special tax that is very onerous and applies to all individuals who refuse vaccination, the proceeds to be applied to reviving the economy.
If you refuse a COVID vaccine you aren’t just a public-health menace, you are an economic menace.
Rick Cunnington
Oro Valley
Some reading
for dry times
I agree with two recent letters writers who opined that water shortages are looming. While we, the dying print media readership, may not live to see them, our offspring will. Despite the assurances of developers holding paper water rights and university salesmen promising technological cures, our long-ingrained misuse and unsustainable population growth are leading to water crisis upon crisis.
And, though the issue is pronounced here in this precipitation-challenged desert, we’re not alone in facing a future of water want and the resultant calamity therein. I’ve been reading about the topic while enduring the current crisis at our door and have concluded, from that reading, that a much more dire one is heading toward us down the street.
If you’d like to share in my fear, I suggest “Bottlemania” by Elizabeth Royte, “Water Follies” and “Unquenchable” by Robert Glennon, “Where the Water Goes” by David Owens, and “When the Rivers Run Dry” by Fred Pearce.
Betsy Lubis
Midtown
