Jobs lost to China happened before Obama
Martha McSally’s TV ad about America losing jobs to China is very misleading. Most manufacturing jobs were lost to China in the 1980s, after Deng Xiaoping normalized relations with America and opened China’s economy. It was thought that investing in China (building factories) would increase economic opportunities for the Chinese people, and that as a result, totalitarianism would be replaced by a more benevolent government.
This was the policy during the Reagan and Bush I years, until Tiananmen Square in 1989 put an end to that fantasy. Most of these jobs are not coming back. Any factories returning to America will be fully automated with a fraction of the jobs they had before.
Congress can pass all the laws it wants “to bring back American jobs” but it won’t happen. Obama and Bush II tried to get China to abide by world trade guidelines, but China ignored them just as they are ignoring the Trump administration’s misguided tariff policies, which only hurt American consumers and farmers.
Jeffrey Bryant
Oro Valley
Mayor Romero’s actions not representing all
Re: the July 5 opinion “Romero’s racism charge against blue line only adds more fuel to the fire in Tucson.”
Thank you to Tim Steller for your excellent observation article in Sunday’s paper. I have a feeling that a very large group of Tucson citizens agree with your summary write up. It seems that Mayor Regina Romero believes that she is only responsible for representing a chosen amount of her constituents.
It appears that she also recognizes and represents only activists from certain minority parties. Her actions are very irresponsible as a civic leader. The mayor also doesn’t seem to have the backs of our chief of police, nor the rank and file of the Tucson Police Department. That is a very dangerous proposition.
This lack of leadership by Mayor Romero would never have happened under Mayor Jonathan Rothschild’s watch.
David Keating
East side
In a pandemic,
put politics aside
Re: the July 7 article “Some lawmakers push to review governor’s emergency powers.”
Rep. Mark Finchem seems to have missed the point. Relying on state legislatures and politicians for their “advice and consent” about something they know little about, is how we got into this prolonged coronavirus situation in the first place. If our representatives were concerned about the welfare of the people, they would pass a law requiring the state in public-health matters to follow the advice of epidemiologist and scientists, regardless of politics. And as to providing “evidence as to whether an emergency exists,” where have these legislators been for the last five months.
Ira Leavitt
East side
Money is the root of something
An NFL quarterback signs a $500 million , 10-year contract as our teachers start work earning $46,000! Sixty percent or more of those in our jails and prisons are people of color, poor and have mental health issues. Ten percent of our richest control 50% of our wealth in this country.
The separation of church and state no longer exists as public tax money flows away from public education and into private schooling. Generations of people of color live in conditions that are virtually impossible to escape.
The richest country in the world does not recognize nor have any solutions for millions of homeless living on our streets. Our health-care system is one of the most expensive and selective in the modern world.
And yes, a terrific NFL quarterback signed a $500 million, 10-year contract.
What are we becoming?
Roger Engels
Oro Valley
Support police
or areas could get ugly
It is important for Tucson city officials to recognize their decisions are for a metropolitan area, not just Tucson proper. More than 45% of the metro area lives outside of Tucson, but still contribute to the food drives, the arts, nonprofits and restaurants that support the vitality of the city. They are concerned about their safety when in the city.
They want a police force that makes the area safe. If the downtown area develops into a place that has an unsafe reputation, people will go somewhere else. Many cities have suffered that fate and become a place where people just don’t go. And businesses will follow where they go.
Tucson needs a good police force for many reasons that help make the downtown vital. A needless controversy does not help the city.
Dave Locey
Foothills
Black Lives Matter is not political
Re: the July 5 Tim Steller piece “Romero’s racism charge against blue line only adds more fuel to the fire in Tucson.”
I respectfully have a different opinion. They are framing their arguments as equal protection of political discussion or as an affront to the police. It is neither.
Black Lives Matter is not political but an attempt to expose the cancer of institutionalized racism in our country. Illegality of racism has been settled constitutionally by law and a civil war, yet we have groups directly and surreptitiously advocating its divisiveness. The Blue Line represents more than police support, it inherently represents divisive separation as a boundary, a concept BLM is trying to eliminate.
The police are an integral, much appreciated, irreplaceable part of the community but as in any profession, performance has to be judged fairly, serious mistakes corrected and public support afforded to the vast majority doing an outstanding job.
John Kuisti
West side
True cost of coal
is hidden
Kudos to the Daily Star for reporting and TEP for moving to lessen its dependence on coal by 2032. However, I want to take issue with the statement from TEP that the energy mix needed to achieve the end of coal was “not the least expensive.”
Coal’s cost is much more than the cost of purchase. The true cost of coal is hidden in fouled air, dirty water and disease. Each breath we take imposes some of burning coal’s real cost on us. That is why a tax on carbon and a rebate of the proceeds to the public makes such great sense.
It simultaneously begins cleaning the air and provides funds to the public to pay for the costs of doing so. Reps. Tom O’Halleran, Ann Kirkpatrick and Raúl Grijalva and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally must support a rebated carbon fee.
Mike Carran
Northeast side
What does anybody know?
As a retired psychiatrist, I find myself wanting both to read current news, which will no doubt make me angrier (albeit better informed), and to skip current news, which will no doubt make me feel less aware. Striking a balance is not easy. Anger is one of my defenses against fear.
I have more difficulty feeling ignorant, maybe out of pride, maybe out of curiosity, maybe because I know that others have ways of seeing things I don’t. Ouch! I just acknowledged that maybe I don’t know everything and maybe I’m not always right.
Guess I don’t really believe that anyone else is always right, either. Though I’m probably more right than they are. Maybe a local newspaper could invite letters like mine. Oh, wait a second, it’s lying on my desk somewhere here next to my social media, my solitaire games … somewhere here.
Richard Bradley, M.D.
Foothills
God, Cyrus, Pharaoh and The Donald
God tests and uses people in ways we don’t always clearly understand.
Our evangelical brethren support the current occupant primarily because of their belief he is a “new” Cyrus, King of Persia who proclaimed “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.” (Ezra 1:2)
While a flawed human, God chose to use Cyrus and, according to some, He will also use The Donald to restore the temple in Jerusalem and possibly return the temple treasures.
We don’t hear from the evangelicals that God also used Pharaoh, after suffering 10 plagues, to release the Israelites.
So do we have a new Cyrus or a new Pharaoh? The temple is a long way from beginning again, but COVID-19 is here today. May we not need nine more plagues to answer this question.
Spencer Elliott
Oro Valley
What’s happening in China?
There is something very fishy about Chinese statistics that are reported.
If China is reporting actual figures, we should be sending our health experts over there in droves to find out what they have done, how they have done it and anything else we can learn.
If the Chinese statistics are phony, we should proceed as we are. However, if China has experienced the same death toll percentage as this country, they should have a million deaths, perhaps more.
How can we find out the truth? I generally avoid conspiracy theories, but in this case it is a major question as to why China is escaping this pandemic and the news is not reporting this fact.
Charles Josephson
Midtown
Review of UA data needed
Re: the July 7 op-ed “Why I support UA President Robbins’ campus plan.”
Arizona Regent Fred DuVal’s defense of UA President Robert Robbins’ financial plan is predictable. At least two of his claims, however, are demonstrably false. First, the UA’s financial challenges are no greater than those of our peers, but our furloughs/pay cuts are far worse, as CFO Lisa Rulney acknowledged in a July 1 email to university employees.
As a UA professor of higher education who studies university restructuring, I wonder #WhyJustUA, as does the Coalition for Academic Justice. A collaborative review of data will reveal clearer answers and better solutions to problems that include over-discounting tuition mistakes for which we continue to pay.
Second, contrary to Regent DuVal’s claims, universities can borrow to address COVID-related operational challenges (bonds may be restricted to capital projects in Arizona, but there are other forms of leveraging/borrowing/refinancing). That is what universities nationally are doing. UA needs a more comprehensive financial plan that recalibrates extreme furloughs and does not liquidate colleges’ reserves, better serving the university now and tomorrow.
Gary Rhoades
Foothills
