Thoughts on those
supporting Masters
Re: the Sept. 21 article "Despite his numerous flaws, Masters is best candidate."
I think John Johnson doesn’t like Mark Kelly. After reading this several times, It remains unclear to me just what offense convinced him to discard all decency, “hold his nose,” and vote for a candidate who seems to be a lying, self-serving, Donald Trump-clone like Blake Masters. Apparently, Kelly’s devotion to the democratic mission of favoring the needs of ordinary people, contrasts too starkly with “conservative” Republican values such as trickle-down, whereby, in principle, sufficient lucre from the top finds its way to the bottom, benefitting all. Unfortunately, what usually finds its way downhill is not prosperity. I’m flabbergasted by his condemnation of Kelly’s support for landmark, forward-looking legislation–declaring it pork-barrel–dedicated to salvaging rather than squandering the future and benefiting the greatest number of Americans, while lauding Kyrsten Sinema, whose own brand of pork favoring the wealthy — the carried interest loophole — was used to hold this very legislation hostage.
Remarkably, Johnson is prepared to abandon his tenuous support should Masters behave badly. Good luck with that.
Robert Gavlak
Midtown
Elegy for My Rose Bush
It took two years for reason
to win out. You were already half dead,
pruned too low in the wrong season.
Last summer you were bare
but for the salmon-colored flowers,
with no scent, a half dozen where
countless crimson sprays
bloomed the year before to add
such pleasure to my days.
But this spring when the lake
was lower than it’s ever been
and politicians dithered about how to slake
our endless thirst, I took the dare,
made myself turn off the water
we can no longer spare.
Now when I see the graying crown
of sticks that in the spring held tiny leaves
the squirrels stood on tiptoe to devour,
sadness and dread form a band around my heart
and I wonder how much time is left
before the whole world falls apart.
Jaqueline Newlove
Northwest side
Kelly's record
Re: the Sept. 30 paid political ad on page A3
The desperation shown by the "Trumplican" party is apparent by the full-page ad taken out in the Arizona Daily Star by "Citizens for Sanity." I find it quite ironic that they call themselves that, as there is not one sane person running on the side of the ticket. Mark Kelly is a veteran, a solid American, an independent thinker, and a role model for politicians if there ever was one. You can disagree on politics, but this "new" Republican Party is permeated by radicals who want to take away women's rights to make personal health decisions, close the borders completely (how will their corporations run without immigrant workers I don't know) and want to decimate public education and use our tax money to support private/ parochial schools. Last, but not least ... each of the candidates running for office on the Republican ticket are conspiracy theorists, Jan. 6 insurrection supporters and election deniers. We need solid people in our government in Arizona as our democracy is in peril. Vote Blue.
Terri Hicks
Northwest side
Afraid to let us
know his thoughts?
Re: the Oct. 6 article "Candidate O'Halleran shares priorities for AZ."
I appreciate 2nd Congressional District Candidate Democrat Tom O'Halleran answering questions from the Arizona Republic (and published in the Daily Star) to let voters know his thoughts on major issues the citizens of Arizona are facing. Whether or not I agree with them all, at least he had the courage and courtesy to reply. His Republican opponent couldn't be bothered. That tells me a lot right there.
Karen Micallef
Oro Valley
Liberals' ignorance
of firearms
I have read numerous letters to the Star attacking the use and availability of "automatic weapons." This is pure ignorance. Pistols and rifles are available in semi-automatic configurations, meaning a person needs to physically pull the trigger each time a round is fired, not the spraying of bullets automatically. I think most liberals never have handled, much less fired, a semi-auto firearm due to their disdain for firearms in general. Fully automatic rifles are regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA). It requires the prospective buyer to submit a lengthy application and $200 "stamp" paid to the ATF, background investigation, along with a finger print card and a photograph. Approval can take a year or longer. The military's version of the AR 15 is the M4 with selective semi-auto and three-round burst firing. Not even that is fully automatic. These same liberals, who are ignorant of the firing mechanisms of semi-automatic firearms, are also in Congress wanting to severely restrict and repeal the Second Amendment.
Marty Jacobs
Green Valley
Reject state-enforced misogyny
Re: the Oct. 7 article “Bobby Ghosh: Iran’s ruler faces a formidable new foe — schoolgirls”
Since 1979, the rulers of Iran have imposed strict limits on how women may appear and behave in public. These limits have been enforced with staggering savagery. Since the death in September of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the Morality Police, some of the schoolgirls the author mentions have been killed because they have publicly protested. Twenty-year old Hadis Najafi died from multiple gunshot wounds (not a stray bullet). The causes of the deaths of young protestors Nika Shakarami (age 17) and Sarina Esmailzadeh (age 16) as claimed by the police are disputed by the families of these young women. Say their names. And, while we still have the chance, women in the U.S. must vote to preserve our rights to bodily autonomy in the face of institutional efforts to curtail them, with sometimes fatal consequences. The majority of Americans agree with this, and reject state-enforced misogyny.
Cheryl De Ciantis
Northeast side
My experience with
Wildlife Center
Re: the Oct. 9 article "Substandard care at wildlife rehab center, say ex-workers."
Thank you for your excellent reporting on problems at the Tucson Wildlife Center. I am a former volunteer (2021) who came to TWC with lofty expectations and later resigned due to poor training, disrespect of volunteers, and TWC’s fear-based culture.
New volunteers receive little training or feedback. We worked in a hot, cramped room feeding baby birds during the busy nesting season with little oversight. Scheduling is haphazard — some weeks we had too many volunteers and others not enough. Veterinarians rarely interact with volunteers; they silently enter the room, examine the birds, and leave as if we are not there. Staff are often overheard disparaging other volunteers.
I wrestled with approaching the board with suggestions on ways to improve morale but was advised to keep quiet.
When I submitted my resignation, I received no response. It speaks volumes that it took weeks for the volunteer coordinator to notice my absence.
While I applaud the TWC’s mission, it has a huge culture problem. Our wildlife deserve better.
Laurie Cantillo
Foothills
Guns on campus?
A deadly idea
Even as schools report unprecedented levels of student mental-health crises, Republican legislators want to let college kids carry concealed weapons. Let's go to UA's Harshbarger Building and ask the folks there — who, by sheer luck managed not to be murdered alongside Prof. Tom Meixner — how they feel about that. Accused killer Murad Dervish, a former student, has a long record of violent crime and imprisonment. An alcoholic, he tried to murder his parents. He threatened Meixner in terms serious enough for university police to seek a stay-away order. And yet Dervish got a gun, carried it onto campus, strolled into a class building and slaughtered a beloved educator, husband and father. Nearly 45,000 students attend UA. Taking a wild guess here, at least a few are suicidally depressed, angry, mentally ill, stoned, drunk and/or violent. But as Dervish just demonstrated, when you add guns, it only takes one.
Elinor Brecher, retired newspaper reporter
Foothills
Walker for senator
Seems to me that Herschel Walker did the honorable thing when offering his girlfriend an abortion. It was entirely legal back then and he would have been roundly denounced if he had failed in this socially acceptable deed. However, time and a few lies have passed and miraculously he is now liable to be elected senator from Georgia. So, applying Christian values, I sort of forgive him. Now, I have to ask what does he plan to do and how does he plan to conduct himself in this very weighty and intellectually demanding office/honor? Does he have a platform, a few missions that he proposes? Has he ever run even a small office? Is he sympathetic to the Republican agenda? Can he read and/or write, explain his intentions? Does he know he’s signing up for a six-year gig?
Or, will he merely be an errand boy for DJT and/or Mitch McConnell.
I forgive him his trespasses, but he must show me his hand now.
Susan VonKersburg
Foothills
Sense and nonsense
When asked about her priorities, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake talks about disproven conspiracy theories concerning voter fraud and stolen elections, imprisoning her opponent for unspecified crimes, and bemoaning “Democrats never go to prison,” or nonsense about non-issues.
When asked about her priorities, candidate Katie Hobbs talks about her plans to address water and immigration issues, reproductive health care, equity for all Arizonans, voting rights and election security, and supporting public education and tribal communities, or sensible solutions addressing real issues.
Concerning border security, Lake would “declare an invasion, send in the national guard, and blow up tunnels,” a senseless, violent response to the flow of nonviolent immigrants under the jurisdiction of the Border Patrol.
Meanwhile, Hobbs plans to “increase funding for sheriffs and local officers to assist Border Patrol agents with the necessary intelligence and resources to handle immigrants humanely and efficiently.”
The choice is clear. I’m voting for the competent, sensible candidate for governor who has practical plans to serve all Arizona, Katie Hobbs.
Lois Postil
Oro Valley
Warning to
Independents
Kari Lake, Mark Finchem and Abraham Hamadeh represent the festering seeds of authoritarianism. They do not want your vote to count unless it favors them. All are election deniers and not one of them has declared they will honor the results should they lose. If you care about a representative republic, a democracy, vote against this evil triumvirate.
Louis Hollingsworth
West side
What Trump
actually did
Re: the Oct. 12 letter "What Trump was able to do."
If you read the above referenced letter you would think what a great individual he was. The truth is more realistic. What he actually did, or was, in his disastrous four-year term was the following (in part). He stole from his own charity; he ran a real estate school scam; he begged and threatened the Georgia secretary of state to find more votes; he committed tax and bank fraud for years and he, through, a "Vulcan" mind meld declassified hundreds of boxes of classified material. Is he a person that you want your children to grow up to be like? A person with no soul, no morals and with no regard for his fellow mankind. I think not!
Jean Getek
Foothills
The GOP embraces
mutual contradiction
Since the Grand Old Party was captured by Donald Trump, it has enthusiastically embraced the man's numerous and egregious character flaws. Among them is the constant repetition of mutual contradictions that defy all logic. The media is filled with examples. Here is one of them. The GOP endlessly asserts that the Democratic Party is sponsoring an "invasion" of Latin American immigrants and asylum seekers. Republicans claim this is a perfidious Democratic plot to flood the country with Latino immigrants who will then vote en masse for the Democrats. In the next breath the same Republicans assert that Latinos are voting GOP in droves, as they share the same values. You cannot have it both ways. Both statements cannot be true. Despite this, Republican leaders keep repeating them, as they keep the GOP base riled up and excited. Truth and logic are irrelevant to them. The first assertion is blatantly racist and based on anti-Latino prejudice. People who believe it are incapable of welcoming Latinos into their party.
Jon Dorschner
Midtown
POT (party of Trump)
I was an avid GOP voter for some 60 years. The GOP I knew and cared for is no longer. It is now the POT (Party of Trump). I will not vote for a single candidate of the POT and I urge fellow Americans, Arizonans, Pima County and Tucson voters to vote on Nov. 8 to oust the POT from Arizona!
Cliff Wagner
Foothills
