Restaurants
are not the problem
Tucson is very fortunate to have attracted an assortment of extraordinary professional chefs who have created unique dining experiences that have made Tucson famous for its culinary diversity.
We have patronized many of our restaurants since they started to carefully reopen. They are doing a great job of applying all local and CDC guidelines for distancing, cleaning, avoiding any crowding, masking and limiting numbers of patrons in any space. The patrons are not shouting, yelling, singing or even talking loudly. The likelihood of COVID-19 transmission in these settings is immeasurably small.
We must make reasonable level-headed decisions about how we will progress through the next nine to 12 months before any effective vaccine is widely available. We must weigh all the risks and benefits associated with decisions to open services and decide how we want to take those risks. Where the risks are minimal and the public benefit is great, we need to choose those options.
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Thomas Elliott
East side
If not for yourself,
wear a mask for others
1. Wear a seatbelt 2. Wear a helmet 3. Wear a condom 4. Wear a mask.
Why is the last one controversial? Whether or not you choose to wear a seatbelt/helmet/condom for your own safety, you are still affecting others, whether it’s the EMTs who have to scrape you off the asphalt after a car accident, the life partner who has to care for you due to your traumatic brain injury, or the sexual partner who catches an STD or has an unplanned pregnancy.
Why is a mask any different? If you won’t wear one for your own sake, can you wear one for others’ sake?
Mary Grace Rodarte
Midtown
Could we have stopped
the Bighorn Fire sooner?
The Bighorn Fire continues to burn forests, saguaros, hiking destinations, wildlife habitat and cool refuge for Tucsonans. I believe we all have a stake in this loss. The Santa Catalina mountains are important to our community and our psyches on many levels.
Hundreds of firefighters are working heroically at great risk. Millions of dollars are being spent fighting the fire.
I understand the long term benefits to the ecosystem of a naturally caused fire, but I think we need to ask: could, and should, the fire have been attacked and possibly stopped at its beginning with an all-out aerial assault before predicted west winds would blow it through the entire range?
Could the losses, which we will see for years now being caused by this fire, have thus been minimized?
Brian McCarthy
Midtown
Fund the police
but refocus the money
I am in basic agreement with the writer of, “Don’t defund, just refocus.” However, she missed the purpose of unions by stating they can be complicit and overprotection of “bad apples.”
The most important protection for union members is the right to due process. I, too, was an educator, who remains committed to this important protection.
Kay Passmore
North side
Gov. Ducey, Dr. Christ not serving Arizonans
I agree with David Vernon, Ph.D., and Glenn Johnson’s letters in the June 23 edition of the Arizona Daily Star.
The virus is spreading because the governor opened our state too soon; testing is not the reason. Dr. Christ seems to be a “puppet” of the governor and the governor continues to follow Trump as his puppet.
Ducey talks out of both sides of his mouth and puts the economy well before the health of our people in Arizona. Be a courageous governor. Do the right thing for Arizona.
Maureen Martin
Marana
