Industry deserves
a heads-up from gov’t
With regard to Ford Motor Co.’s announcement that they no longer plan to invest in an Ohio automobile manufacturing, and instead shift that investment to Mexico: The left is saying that Ford is not honoring its commitment, but how about the commitment of the government to support industry, through tax incentives and import regulations?
How can industry plan for, and invest large sums of money in the future when, with an executive order and the stroke of the pen, the whole economy can be reversed overnight?
William Johnson
Northwest side
Loss of Barnum Hill caught voters by surprise
I am philosophically not a fan of zoos but I did vote yes on the zoo improvement proposition in 2017.
I did not see mention of expansion to take over the Barnum Hill site. If there had been I would have voted no on the two propositions.
Taking the golf course on the east side of the zoo would be a great alternative. Count how many people use the golf course versus how many use the Barnum Hill area.
Violet Juodakis
Midtown
Voter suppression at its ugliest
In the 1984 movie “Amadeus” there is a scene where Amadeus asks Emperor Joseph II what he thought of his music. Emperor Joseph replied that he enjoyed the music, but there were just too many notes.
Radical members of the Republican Party feel the same way about the 2020 election. There were just too many votes.
Our state Legislature along with many other Republican-dominated state legislatures have introduced copious amounts of legislation to correct this.
Republicans seem to feel if they can create enough barriers and obstacles they can reduce the numbers voters.
It’s a simple theory: Make it as difficult as possible for those older but wiser voters who are also not as mobile, then you can dominate the voting process with your loyal radical Republicans. Problem solved.
You simply can’t have all these people voting. Amazing how the voting system became flawed in 2020 but not in 2016.
Fred DiNoto
Northwest side
If you want copper, mine older digs
While the March 19 op-ed by Andre Lauzon sounds like a calm, reasoned approach to mining copper in Arizona, this is clearly an advertisement for the Rosemont Copper mine project.
Where were these concerns on all fronts when the San Manuel facility (mine, smelter and refinery) of Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP, formerly known as Magma Copper) was closed?
When I worked there near the end, it was one of the cleanest and lowest cost copper smelters in the world. The development work on the Lower K ore body was completed and production ready to begin.
But the decision was made by BHP to close the smelter and mine. The Lower K ore body had ore for an additional 30 to 40 years. Where were our concerned citizens and politicians then?
Why do we need to destroy the east slope of the Santa Rita Mountains and one of southern Arizona’s most scenic areas? Just to get more copper? Go back to San Manuel instead of destroying the Santa Ritas.
Patrick Lane
North side
NCAA tips
its sexist hand
NCAA decision makers probably never intended to reveal their differential views of men’s and women’s college basketball. But, here you have it, at March Madness venues in Indianapolis and San Antonio.
The men are revered, the women are an afterthought. Workout facilities, food and even coronavirus-testing methods provided to male and female players differ in meaningful ways.
This is not an accident. This is not equity, but rather overt sexism, on a national stage and in full view of the public. It’s shameful and unacceptable.
Apparently, Title IX has not been sufficient to change the NCAA’s underlying bias in favor of men’s sports.
Linda Restifo
Northwest side
That’s a lot of ballots to mishandle
The 16 Republicans in the Arizona state Senate plan to do a hand recount of 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots cast in 2020. And how will they be recounting?
Cross-hatch tallies on the back of old envelopes? Divide the ballots up and that’s 131,250 ballots per GOP state senator. The 14 state Senate Democrats wisely will not be lured into this folly.
We voters are supposed to be reassured of elections integrity by this purely political stunt. It will have no audit, no impartial observers, and be carried out by partisan state senators whose only familiarity with elections in running for office in them.
Reassured? Nope! Disgusted? Yes.
Tom Collier
North side
All need debt relief, not just students
The federal government may award $10,000 in debt relief to students who ran themselves into debt for a college education. This amount may increase to $50,000 per student.
Whatever “debt relief” the United States government awards to the students should also be awarded to all of our over 330 million citizens.
The difficulties brought about by the federal, state and local governments in attempts to control the spread of COVID-19 have been experienced by nearly all of our citizens.
The median household debt is around $59,800. The $10,000 could be used to help pay student loan debt, income tax, mortgage payments, credit-card debt, auto loans, etc.
This should be done because it is the right thing to do and there is no better time than the present to do it.
By my calculations the cost to give all citizens $10,000 would be around $330,214,500,000 a small fraction of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.
Bill Kendall
Downtown
Zoo taught me a lot
about sustainability
Many thanks to the green team and education staff at Reid Park Zoo for introducing me to the online Eco Challenge community (three years ago and counting) and teaching me how to stop using so much plastic.
Thanks to RPZ staff, I also make better consumer choices by using the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch app and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Palm Oil app.
I read labels for every product I buy now, from food (mine and my pet’s food) to shampoo. Their advice has taught me to rethink all my consumer habits, from buying clothes (no to cheap, throwaway fashion), paper products, and anything that is single-use or disposable.
They also introduced me to solar energy, rainwater harvesting, gray water collection for return to the groundwater, green cleaning, and composting. They really walk the talk!
As I learned from them, we don’t need a few people living perfect sustainable lives, we need lots of people doing things imperfectly. Kudos to the zoo’s great education staff!
Terrie Thompson
East side
Border crisis reveals Dems’ hypocrisy
On President Joe Biden’s first day in office, he halted construction of the wall on our southern border and suspended the remain in Mexico policy for asylum seekers.
He also reinstated catch and release policies so that migrants are being released into all parts of the U.S. His rhetoric and actions during his campaign and his first days in office encouraged migrants from Central America to head north.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador commented that “migrants see Biden as the migrant president.”
After weeks of denying the growing crisis on the border, Biden and others in his administration now claim the crisis is Trump’s fault. The administration was totally unprepared for the consequences of Biden’s actions. The hypocrisy of this administration is astonishing.
Jerry Bouwens
Northeast side
Impeach Biden, Harris over border crisis
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are allowing undocumented immigrants to flood our border. Biden/Harris are spending our tax money to take care of undocumented immigrants!
The first responsibility of the president of the United States is to protect the citizens of America. Instead, they are protecting undocumented immigrants.
Why are Biden/Harris not spending our taxpayer money on the citizens of America who are homeless? Why are they allowing undocumented people to come into our country?
Does anyone agree with me that it is time to start impeachment proceedings against Biden and Harris for not protecting American citizens first?
Walt Johnson
Foothills
Fann’s audit
doesn’t go far enough
Learning that Senate President Karen Fann now intends to undertake a “full forensic audit” of Maricopa County’s election results, I am concerned that her efforts will not be complete enough.
No simple hand count will satisfy the voters she represents, so I suggest she form cadres of specially selected investigators to visit all home sites of each Joe Biden voter to verify that they actually voted for President Biden.
This visit could include a notary public to affirm the date and time the voter made his or her actual choice.
And to solve her dilemma of where to conduct the audit, since Maricopa County officials do not want their offices used due to actual state business demands, Fann could reconvert pandemic testing and vaccine sites into audit sites.
Surely the need to contradict the verified election results is of much greater concern to her and her constituents than some pesky virus.
Roger Shanley
East side
Ducey, Christ
have some nerve
I find it interesting that both Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ have doubts about the need for FEMA to set up Pima County sites for COVID vaccinations.
The Arizona state website was opened to people under 75 years of age for registration five to six weeks ago. I registered on the first day and was told I would hear further from them when vaccines were available.
Here we are nearly the end of March and I have heard nothing from the state. Good thing the Pima County Health Department, along with local health organizations and pharmacies, have worked together to get us our needed vaccines.
Just who do Ducey and Christ work for? Are they afraid to work with so many possible Democrats in Pima County or the Biden administration? Just asking.
Steve Poe
Midtown
