The anti-vaxxers win
Re: the Sept. 13 letter "Thanks a lot, anti-vaxxers."
Back in September I had a letter printed here saying because of anti-vaxxers catching COVID and filling our hospital beds beyond capacity that necessary surgery for my wife was delayed about 10 days before a bed could be found. Once moved, the procedures were done. However, the delay caused or accelerated a cascade of more medical problems.
I would need to write a book (and may someday) to put forth all that happened. Nov. 10 at 5:45 a.m. she died after suffering for more that 60 days. Although the cause of death will be in other medical terms, she was killed by COVID because of the actions of anti-vaxxers.
The current daily infection COVID data in Arizona sometimes exceeds the highest rates in the past. There is a coming death toll from COVID because people haven't gotten their normal health care and preventive measures because of COVID fears.
William Hewes
Benson
America Recycles Week
Nov. 15 marks the start of America Recycles Week, a time to celebrate the positive impacts of recycling. At the Arizona Beverage Association, weโre proud of our industryโs work to advance innovative solutions to build a circular economy and keep plastic out of the environment.
Weโre carefully designing our bottles to be 100% recyclable, but without access to recycling, our bottles can end up in landfills or nature.
Launched by Americaโs leading beverage companies, Every Bottle Back is our effort to reduce the use of new plastic by collecting old bottles and remaking them into new ones. Since the launch of Every Bottle Back, our industry has invested $12.5 million to help more than 300,000 households recycle nearly 693 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, which bottles are made from.
Please recycle all plastic, aluminum and glass beverage containers. By working together, we can build a sustainable system that will help preserve our environment for generations to come.
Palmer Nackard, President of the Arizona Beverage Association
Downtown
Saving the big bucks
Re: the Nov. 7 article "Group buying propels solar."
Reading a newspaper could save you a lot of money.
We live too far away to take advantage of many of the advertised sales in the Arizona Daily Star, but in reading David Wichner's great coverage on home solar installation, we quickly realized that the contract we were about to enter into was roughly $10,000 overpriced.
One contract was cancelled, while singing the praises of the Arizona Daily Star! Admittedly, I'm biased as having read this paper for 20 years...but wouldn't anyone be after such a gain?
Beverly "Jean" Tencza
Rio Rico
Redistricting
Recent letters have described how the proposed LD17 in Pima County is a gerrymander. However I see it differently, Marana/Oro Valley/Catalina/Saddlebrooke have much more in common with the Tanque Verde Valley/Vail area than Casas Adobes/Catalina Foothills. The reality is the Foothills/Casa Adobes are established and non-growing communities. The others are still growing and fast, which leads to much different issues.
Thatโs okay and representatives who would be elected to LD17 and LD18 would have small ranges of issues instead a large list of different issues for all the different areas if these were to be split up into different districts.
Sergio Mendez
Catalina
Total liberty is chaos
Imagine a society in which there are no rules regarding how each person drives a car. We would have total liberty to drive as fast as we want, to go through intersections whenever we want, and to drive back and forth on either side of the road.
When does liberty become a highly dangerous and dysfunctional chaos? Not only would we be a danger to others, but also to ourselves. No rules regarding vaccinations would allow non-vaxxers to continue endangering both themselves and others physically, emotionally and economically.
How are rules to stop vehicles at red lights different from rules to get vaccinated? Who suffers and who pays when we refuse to modify our liberty? In the best interests of our community and ourselves, sacrificing some of our liberty is an expression of courage and caring.
Kent Barrabee
Oro Valley
Congress should censure Gosar
Re: the Nov. 10 editorial "Rep. Gosar's 'creativity' is disturbing."
Rep. Paul Gosar deserves to be formally censured by Congress for posting a photoshopped anime video on his social media accounts depicting him killing his colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Joe Biden. This vicious and vulgar message depicting violence against a woman in public office appears to be intended to incite actual violence. We have seen such violence perpetrated in real life against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and against other members of Congress on Jan. 6. Rep. Gosarโs own siblings have censured him within their family for his overt expressions of racism and misogyny. If they can do the right thing, so can Congress.
Amelia Cramer
Downtown
Failure to pass Prop. 410
I read with dismay that Proposition 410 did not pass. All the outrage over minimum wage, and yet we expect our representatives to work for less than minimum wage. We entrust them with millions of dollars worth of decision making, require an unblemished background and integrity, but yet do not want to pay them.
We wonder why some politicians turn sour on the electorate, take bribes and do unauthorized favors.
If over 50% of the electorate can't figure out what the problem is here, then they shouldn't vote.
Richard McKenna
East side
