Machine learning
If you work at home, you could be replaced by a computer. Finance, insurance, law, accounting, programming, sales administration — all of it. If you don’t actually do anything, the computers are coming. Who’s going to understand the tax law better? Some guy, or a machine-learning computer that, like IBM’s chess master, can test every conceivable move in seconds?
The coronavirus is speeding up the process. It’s become clear, who’s necessary to keep the world spinning; and who isn’t. I think that in a few years artificial intelligence will be ready to take over most professional jobs. The foundation is being laid by Google, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft and other companies and governments around the world. If you’re starting out today, find a practical line of work. It’s the future.
Walter Ramsley
East side
An open letter to Senator Sinema
On Oct. 5, 2020, Presidential candidate Andrew Yang changed his voting registration from Democrat to Independent. I think Sen. Kyrsten Sinema should make the same decision.
In explaining his decision, Mr. Yang said that he is more of a practical problem solver than a partisan.
To her credit, Sinema has repeatedly applied cerebral analysis to complex problems and made independent decisions that she believed were in the best interests of the majority of Arizonans.
Years ago, the Democratic party may have represented reasonable policy decisions. I think that, unfortunately, the party has been hijacked by the radical left.
David Wanetick
Downtown
Key exception to filibuster
There has been an unwritten rule to not filibuster expanding the debt ceiling. It is just too dangerous to the national economy to mess around with defaulting on the national debt. Republicans are for the first time ever violating that rule and are abusing the filibuster.
The unwritten rule needs to be written. The Democrats need to make an exception to the filibuster for this situation. I get that the filibuster is important and that carving out any exceptions should be considered carefully. When a party is holding our economy hostage, it is time for an exception. Some things are just too important to play politics.
Jonpaul Barrabee
Oro Valley
Don’t blame immigrants
As one who had COVID last year and who will live the remaining years of my life tied to an oxygen machine because of that illness, I find it ironic that a letter writer castigates those “sick illegal immigrates” coming into the country when something like 40% of our population in the U.S. is not vaccinated.
While I’m in my elder years, the really sad thing is the great number of younger people who, because of COVID, will never reach their full economic potential. Daily pain prevents them from working as they once did, so many have either had to quit or take part time jobs. Their combined lost incomes will have a ripple effect on other segments of the economy in the form of what they might have been able to purchase, or the taxes that were formerly paid on their earnings.
Bevelry Tencza
Rio Rico
Cell tower tyranny
I work at a small family-run business, and Verizon is contracting out the installation of their upgraded 5G poles. The contractors decided to park all of their vehicles and equipment in the parking spaces reserved for our customers without permission. We called the contracting company and Verizon. Verizon said they will be done in a few days. With businesses trying to stay a float during the pandemic, every single customer is crucial to survival.
When Verizon was asked why the contractor couldn’t perform the work at night when we were closed, and it was cooler with less traffic, they said they would look into it.
If this is how businesses in Tucson are being affected and treated with the installation of the 5G poles, can you imagine how Tucson residents are going to react when these poles start sprouting up in their front yards with contractors equipment and vehicles blocking driveways?
Max LaPlante
Southeast side
Biden a bully
Ever since the election, Progressive Democrats have been attacking Sen. Sinema for her refusal to support ending the filibuster so the left can pass their extreme legislative agenda. Now the situation has worsened with her opposition to the left’s $3.5 trillion tax and spend scheme.
Sinema has been harassed and intimidated by Progressive activists while in a restroom and at an airport. Biden’s response to it, “just part of the process.”
Really? What process is that? Causing emotional trauma to a woman? To harass and intimidate her into caving to demands. This is sick! It shows who Biden really is, not an empathetic person, but mean and bullying as evidenced by his interactions with the news media and other people posing unwanted questions to him.
I would opine that empathy has nothing to do with his open borders policy, but rather cold calculations of one day providing citizenship to these people and registering them as Democrat voters. The treatment of both Sinema, and Manchin, by Progressives is pathetic.
Stella Murphy
Midtown
Comics now in color
Growing up in a Spanish-speaking household with parents born and raised in Mexico, I often wondered why Mexicans, Indians and Blacks were portrayed so negatively on TV, typically as sneaky, disloyal and ignorant. The role of the hero was always reserved for a white male. This was Hollywood-style institutional racism.
I also wondered why comic strips in the newspaper featured only white people. Talking animals got their place in the comics before non-whites. So, I am glad to see that comic strips Luann and Lola are featuring Black people.
For several years, the daily “Jumble“ has included Black people. In my lifetime, after so many years of “institutional exclusion,” I’m grateful that kids reading the comic section don’t have to wonder why people like them and their families are left out.
Louis Hollingsworth
West side
Assault, sexual harrassment
I’m writing in support of Sen. Dick Durbin’s recent opinion article on gymnasts as sexual assault survivors. Yes, we need institutional support to believe women and bring abusers to justice. However, a big piece of the message needs to be the role of men as perpetrators.
Overwhelmingly, sexual assault is committed by men against women! When are we going to focus on cultural attitudes that teach men to have privilege over the bodies of women? Where are discussions of sex and gender in our schools? When are parents and teachers going to be proficient in lessons on white male privilege, intersecting information about race, sex and gender?
Until we educate young men to recognize their social power and change their privileged behaviors, we’re going to keep thinking that these men are just “bad apples.”
Sylvia Thorson-Smith
East side
