Tucson Speaks Out: Oct. 16 letters of the day

They’re both old

There’s been a lot of press about Joe Biden being too old to be president next term. But ... they’re both old! Biden is 80, Trump is 77. Not much difference. So you have the choice of Biden who is old versus Trump who is old and convicted of fraud, defamation and battery, as well as facing 91 felony indictments. The choice should be obvious.

Melanie Bell

Midtown

Grocery ad

Congress is like a grocery store sale. Buy One Ship of Fools. Get a Second Ship Free.

Michael Sevier

Oro Valley

Shipping containers

They can be made into very basic living spaces. Why are we not finding a way to use them to house the unhoused?

Susan Syracuse

Northeast side

Tucson wake up and smell the petrol!

Currently, gasoline is up to $4.25 a gallon. Tucson and most of Arizona is very car dependent due to geography.

Our bus system runs every 30 minutes — weekdays and hourly on weekends. The system has a phone app. What if you don’t have a phone, if your phone is out of charge, if you can’t find the app? The bus stops have posted route numbers. There are no bus schedule or maps with routes. Inside of the bus, there is no posted information. As a result of this, bus drivers are continually beleaguered by a thousand questions.

Lyft/Uber: During the day, the cost, per mile, may be $1.78 per mile. Later, the cost can be $3+ per mile. Evening rides — $30 each way!

With better public transportation, then we would not be stuck in the giant maw which is the automotive/petrol complex.

Courtney Webb

Northeast side

Kudos to Gov. Hobbs

Kudos to Gov. Hobbs for halting Fondomonte Corp’s lease of AZ Trust Land for uncorrected land use violations. They’re also growing (and exporting) feedstock for a giant Saudi dairy, paying just $21.60/acre, including free groundwater. I agree with AG Mayes’ statement that exporting said feedstock out of country is “outrageous... given the current state of our water crisis.”

The 1980 Groundwater Management Act initiated the AZ Dept. of Water Resources, resulting in designated Active Management Areas (AMAs) to address groundwater overdraft. Rural counties rapidly losing groundwater would benefit from AMA designation as well. What is the right rate to pump, when groundwater is not being adequately replenished? Water should not be underpriced, but what price water — our most precious resource?

Gov. Hobbs has appointed a Water Policy Council, with recommendations due Dec. 2023 to guide our state’s water policy. We the people must write our Legislators and ACC, urging them to listen to these experts, prioritize equitable groundwater policy, and insure AZ’s water future for generations to come.

Barbara Reuter

Southeast side

Exposure to the abomination

That sorry network is doing it again ... now promoting a national “war” in its desperate need to gain our attention! As disgusting as has been their incessant lying, they’ve now invoked this new low as they pander to a certain segment of our population.

Such noise goes right along with the Trumpeter’s clumsy use of lies, insults, threats, and encouraging violence, predictably parroted by equally disgusting elements of the Republican cult, as they try to overcome the indictments he has earned from our democratic institutions.

We of course must continue to subject the unlawful and autocratic behavior of this person and his entourage to those institutions, allowing them to pursue their roles in guaranteeing honesty, fairness, equal treatment under the law ... and un-intimidated execution of justice!

As we are exposed to what this abomination is willing to ferment, we are able to appreciate even more what our democratic values have brought us, knowing these and our common decency will bring us past these blights upon our existence!

Frank Parsons

Northeast side

Domestic violence & gun violence

Dear Editor,

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month — a time to remember victims of domestic violence and advocate for its survivors. Unfortunately, last year the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against survivors and advocates in United States v. Rahimi: it is unconstitutional to prohibit people subject to Domestic Violence Restraining Orders (DVROs) from accessing firearms.

Individuals under DVROs should not legally have access to firearms. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times as likely that a woman will be killed. Prohibiting dangerous people from accessing deadly weapons — including domestic abusers — is consistent with the Second Amendment.

On November 7th, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to honor the work celebrated in October and protect survivors of domestic abuse. If Rahimi is not reversed, the Supreme Court will put the lives of families living in domestic violence in jeopardy.

Sincerely,

Students Demand Action at the University of Arizona

Grassroots, youth-led gun violence prevention group

Instagram: @studentsdemand.uaz

Mary Cline: President and Founder; Louise Taylor, Vice President; Adriana Grijalva, Chief Data Officer Adriana Grijalva, Chief Data Officer

Midtown

Not all possess humanity

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Re: the Oct. 11 letter “Humanity.”

The letter writer equates humanity as a quality all humankind possesses; it is not. In order to survive, humans will fight for their land and ultimately their survival.

The letter writer fondly looks back to the 1960s, when flower power and endless love made the world better. It was not that way; I know, I was there.

He dares to say, “… sure, we had Vietnam,” when comparing what he thinks are frivolous wars today. Namely the wars in the Ukraine and the most recent conflict between Hamas and Israel.

The letter writer seems to have overlooked the fact that our involvement in a war between two foreign powers (Vietnam) was ordered by the powers that be in the 1960s. Over 200,000 US soldiers died fighting for another country.

Compare those fighting in the Ukraine and for both sides in the current conflict in the Middle East; these soldiers are fighting for their land and survival.

And there was a six-day war in 1967; the third Arab/Israeli war. The letter writer forgot that as well.

Karen Papagapitos

Northwest side

Employers, employees need fair rules

Businesses are seeing more and more of these so-called neutrality agreements, which raises important questions about the rights and freedoms of employers and workers. Neutrality agreements sound innocuous enough. But a closer look reveals they are neither neutral nor are they agreements. Employees have a right to organize. That’s not the issue here. What is the issue is the requirement of employers to remain silent during a union-organizing campaign, as these agreements do. Workers are left with only one side’s opinion and that side is under no obligation to disclose facts the employee may want or need. And it’s a stretch to call these arrangements “agreements.” In some cases, the federal government literally requires businesses to abide by these contracts in order to conduct federal business. Unions are not inherently bad, but neutrality agreements are. Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly should work to end this practice.

Michelle Rill

Midtown

Act to prevent genocide

I lived in Israel and felt the shudder of a Katusha rocket hitting the earth and that vibration moving through my body. That was in 1984. The violence Israelis and Palestinians are experiencing is so much more horrific than that. In order to prevent genocide of Palestinians, it is crucial to call for a cease-fire and condition aid to Israel on adhering to international law.

Sincerely,

Dev Mayaan

Three Points

Solar & ACC

Re: the Oct. 11 letter “Go solar, save water.”

Kudos to the writer for bringing into sharp focus the water wasting consequences of the current Arizona Corporation Commission’s all out assault on rooftop solar. Using tried and true identity politics’ messaging by claiming the solar industry is a gigantic subsidy that must be vanquished, the Commission through Nick Myers is waging a multi pronged attack on the solar industry. First, reduce the amount that the utilities pay to rooftop solar owners/leasers and then revisit the 2017 heavily litigated, multi party solar energy export rate structure Agreement. At today’s ACC hearing on the solar issue that could cost over 8,000 family wage jobs and decimate an entire industry Myers was called out for playing on his cell phone and purposely not paying any attention to the parade of passionate speakers opposing his scheme. Let them eat cake Nick? People will not forget how you favored out of state Utility shareholders over the water needs of Arizona citizens.

Rick Rappaport

Oro Valley

America’s sadism problem

In the past ten years I have noticed a sharp upturn in people gaining delight in others’ suffering. There are purposeful attack on others’ politics, religion or ethnicity. Sadism is a punishment upon those whom are felt to be inferior, unworthy or just different. Our current sadism epidemic can mostly be traced to the rise of fascism, which promotes sadism, belligerence and hate. Sadism is a part of fascism because in most cases, fascism is led by a sociopath. Sociopaths love to inflict pain on others. Once the sociopathic fascist becomes a role model, followers emulate his vile traits. Sadism now becomes normalized in the fascist culture as acceptable behavior. We saw an increase in sadism that manifested itself in Asian hate crimes in the past five years and also obvious antisemitism. We are not going to solve our national sadism problem unless we solve our fascism problem. Fascist role models should not be heroes nor emulated. Doing so, makes us just as sadistic as our abnormal hero.

Steve Rasmussen

Foothills

Corporate water hogs

Thank you Governor Hobbs for canceling Fondamonte Corporation’s leases of Arizona state trust land. Saudi-owned Fondamonte grows alfalfa for export to Saudi Arabia. They found a free water paradise in Arizona.

Private citizen’s wells are running dry in rural areas of our state, and there is a severe, ongoing drought affecting the Colorado River basin. It’s time to end the practice of allowing these corporations to pump an unlimited amount of groundwater for free.

That is why Governor Hobbs needs to apply the same principles and common sense to prevent Canadian-owned Hudbay Corporation from developing the Copper World open-pit mines in the Santa Rita mountains, south of Tucson. A loophole in Arizona’s groundwater law allows mining companies to pump unlimited groundwater for free! We don’t need another foreign-owned corporation depleting our aquifers for another product that will be exported for refining and sale, while the federal government is paying farmers here to leave their fields fallow.

Arizona’s most precious resource isn’t copper; it’s water.

Rick Johnson

Sahuarita

Saudi leasing land for their horse feed

I am very happy that Gov. Hobbs has stripped the Saudi company from leasing state land for farming state land for alfalfa and wasting our precious water, that the Saudi government will not allow in their own country.

I understand this leaves an issue relating to the state land use. May I suggest a way to replace the revenue and maybe improve it. Use the state land for a solar farm, goats managing the weeds under the solar cells (Agrivoltaics), and additionally making use of some of the land under the solar cells for an Aquaponics/Hydroponics operation. This type of system uses 90% less water than traditional farming, Adaptive redevelopment of infrastructure, and Nutrient management. Overall a yield of more than $3,000/acre/yr and around 70 Megawatts/day electrical generation.

An Aqua/Hydroponic farm can also generate revenue, but using various internet sources this could also be in the area of $5,000 per acre/year.

Richard Barnes

Northwest side

Walls work

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who should have been impeached already for dereliction of duty, announced that because of the dire conditions at the border in Texas, 20 miles of wall structure will be built. He will waive environmental regulations to do so. At the same time, he and President Biden said they opposed walls because they do not work. Guess that is why the DHS spent over $400,000 in building a wall around Biden’s beach house in Delaware. Guess that is why in 2006, he voted for The Fence Act, that was supposed to build a dual layered fence along 700 miles of border. It was never completed. The Israelis built a wall along the Gaza strip, which curtailed the almost daily suicide bombers that were coming from there. Fences and walls work. Just think about the concrete wall around your backyard. Border walls work too. They stop, delay and impede illegal immigration and narcotics smuggling. I think Democrats oppose a border wall because they want unobstructed illegal immigration.

Langhorne Bilby

Marana