Tucson Speaks Out: Sept. 14 letters of the day

Pima County Sheriff

I am a 72-year-old registered Democrat. I take every local, county, state and federal elections very seriously. I try to do my due diligence to be as well informed as possible for every issue and candidate, and I have absolutely no problem “crossing party lines.”

When it comes to all of the men and women who are first responders, I want them to feel as safe as they make me feel safe.

That’s why I asked my firefighter son-in-law, who works closely with Pima County Sheriff Deputies: Who do these amazing people feel they want as their leader? He responded Heather Lappin, hands down.

Here’s to you, deputies and staff, I will “cross that party line,” in support of you. And thank you for all you do.

Frances Carino

West side

Weak on childcare and economics in general

With Mr. Trump’s recent nonsensical answer to a question about childcare at the Economic Club of New York, he seems to say that other countries will help pay childcare costs through the tariffs he plans to impose as president. But, when Mr. Trump says things like, “by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to, but they’ll get used to it very quickly ...” he seems to indicate that he does not have a clear understanding of how tariffs work. Other countries do not pay America to export their products to us. A tariff is a tax on foreign goods, paid by Americans, to encourage purchase of American-made goods. But if tariffs are placed indiscriminately on foreign imports, American-made products may not be able to keep up with the increasing demand. And as demand goes up, guess what else goes up? A presidential candidate with such an incompetent understanding of how basic economics works, cannot possibly be trusted with our economy.

Sally Lee

Foothills

Misinformation about Prop 139

The Star recently published a letter opposing Proposition 139 which will amend the Arizona constitution to guarantee women the right to obtain an abortion until fetal viability and beyond fetal viability if necessary to protect the life and health of the mother. The writer shares his personal story for opposing 139. He concludes by asserting that its passage will permit girls under 18 to obtain an abortion without parental consent, that it will permit non-physicians to perform abortions and that abortions will be performed in all 9 months of pregnancy. None of which is true. Passage of Prop 139 will not repeal Arizona’s many laws on abortion including those requiring parental consent and requiring that physicians perform abortions. In the United States fetal viability is generally viewed as occurring between 20 and 25 weeks. The rate of post viability abortions in the United States is extremely rare — between 1 and 2%. Using misinformation to support an argument is not a winning strategy.

Eileen Holowell

Oro Valley

IRS and high earners

I’m delighted that the IRS has finally decided to ask why these high earners have not filed a return, but I’m appalled that the IRS would wait seven years before asking them why they haven’t filed on a reported income of a million dollars. When the IRS receives a W-2 or 1099 reporting a million-dollar income not followed by a timely return and then waits seven years before asking for the money, I doubt that debt will ever be collected. If the IRS is so underfunded that they say they can’t pursue these people, we need to think this through. We can hire a lot of agents with the taxes collected on a million-dollar income. The article goes on to suggest that these non-filers hire an experienced tax attorney to negotiate a lesser payment. How about hiring a criminal defense attorney to defend a felony tax-evasion indictment?

Loring Green

Foothills

Shameful

Re: the Sept. 12 article "AZ senator's posts of Nazi-linked song lyrics continue to resonate."

Sen. Wendy Rogers' insistence on using Nazi Germany anthems on her social media posts.

Either she's an out-and-out fascist, which, given her history seems quite likely, and/or she couldn't care less that using that expression is extremely insulting to Jews everywhere who lost 6 of our maybe 20 million people in the Holocaust.

Either way she has no business in government and whoever supports her should be ashamed.

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Larry Fleischman

Northeast side

Of immigrants

Listening to the continuing and escalating denigration of immigrants, I note that my experience and observations are that immigrants clean our homes and yards, build, repair and re-roof our homes, maintain our golf courses and common areas, prepare and serve our food, grow and harvest our produce, process and pack our meat, care for and teach our children, work as lawyers, judges, doctors and such, build and repair our roads and bridges, serve in our military and guard our borders. Immigrants nurse and care for us when we're sick, and as we age and die. In Arizona, they often do these things in the blazing hot sun.

What in the world would we do without them?

They are hard-working, wonderful, family-oriented people, just as our ancestors were, when they came here so that we could have better opportunities and lives.

And let's not forget that we are all genetically cousins, who should respect and treat each other honorably.

Patricia Rourke

SaddleBrooke

Register to vote

Be sure to register to vote by October 7. You can do it online (at servicearizona.com) Or type Pima County Recorder into your browser. The website will answer your questions and help you register. The website will also help you enroll in the Active Early Voting List so that your ballot will be automatically mailed to you.

Election Day is November 5. If you are registered in time, you can vote in person on November 5, or you can vote early in person or by mail. The Pima County Recorder website will tell you where you can go to vote if you prefer to vote in person.

This is an important election. Please register, and please vote.

Lisa Wolfe

North side

It is now time!

Donald Trump will be a dictator ... he's told us so repeatedly, in so many ways.

For all you who are right now not voting Democratic, remember ... there is a HUGE difference in living under a democracy and under a dictatorship! You have lived under our constitutional democracy and its rule of law all your lives ... we all have!

Under our current President, judiciary, and Senate, we are living protected by those laws, separate and distinct from what our country's leader might desire. And for right now, although challenged by GOP electoral manipulation in some states and by the lawlessness of our Supreme Court, the freedom you and your family enjoy is safe.

This is of course an incredibly important safeness! However. if you keep ignoring instead of thinking, you will find you have nothing to say about your or your family's future ... that rule of law will be gone and so will all those safeguards. Trump will have used the vacuum to satisfy his depravity!

Your vote will prevent this!

Frank Parsons

Northeast side