Be proud of your season
I have never enjoyed watching University of Arizona basketball more than this year! What a great group of young men and a super coach who accomplished so much this season. You should be so proud, I know the community is! You are all so talented, but more than that it was the sharing and the care that you have for each other that made it so special to watch. Thanks, men, you made this season such a delight and I hope many of you will return next season. Sure looking forward to it! Thank you!
Jean Cary
Southeast side
Walton’s musings get in the way
Re: the March 10 article “Working with Walton.”
This article is a misguided celebration of his “style” of sports announcing. I beg to differ. Yes, I would enjoy having a beer with Bill Walton or sitting next to him at a dinner party. He is certainly an educated and interesting person. But the man doesn’t shut up talking about everything but basketball during game action. His persona gets in the way of watching and listening to the play-by-play. His broadcast buddies indulge him. The networks who employ him (Pac-12, ESPN) must think he’s good for ratings. They need to insist that, when the ball is in play, he sticks to basketball commentary about the action in front of him. Frankly, I think Walton’s “style” is totally unprofessional. His ego-trip musings are insulting to viewers who want to hear about the game and not where he was bicycling. In comparison, the mostly female announcing teams for UA women’s games are a joy to listen to, totally professional at all times.
Ron Lent
East side
A lot of selfish jerks out there
As I was doing my volunteer road cleanup recently, I could not help but reflect on the state of America. I think not all, but way too many, Americans are self-absorbed, selfish, lazy, uncaring, unthinking and arrogant. Those of you reading this know if I mean you. Throwing glass bottles onto the roadway, dumping trash in the street — why not? If I didn’t have grandkids here in the U.S., I’d be inclined to immigrate to a more civilized country — there are many — where the populace cares about their neighborhoods, their towns and their country. My apologies for this rant to the good folks out there. Thankfully, still the majority. But for how long? To be determined.
Dennis Winsten
Northeast side
Ukrainians have lost so much
Our remembrance of the Vietnam War includes the black-and-white photo of a young Vietnamese girl running naked, barefoot down a muddy path — bombs exploding behind her. We also remember Walter Cronkite predicting the end of the war, believable because he was the most trusted reporter of that time.
Fast-forward five decades. TV now broadcasts a cameraman’s livestream of bombs exploding within feet of where he stands. A reporter’s microphone amplifies the terror in a young girl’s voice as she explains how alone she now feels having lost everything.
But TV viewers must now watch the most formidable outcome of this war with Ukrainians stripped of their social, economic, political, religious, age, even gender differences. All now hunt food, water, shelter, clothing. Millions upon millions, whether still in Ukraine or not, must find new livelihoods to provide the basics for themselves, their families. It only took 23 days to take away so much.
Cathey Langione
Marana
Californians are buying up Tucson
Re: the March 20 article “Calif. company lured by a remote worker.”
This article sums up the whole problem right here. The filthy rich benefiting from their “Republican tax cuts” move in a mass exodus from California to Tucson, buying up properties, charging exorbitant rent amounts to push the poor out of their apartments and homes, so they can “make a profit.” They can bring their Russian oligarch friends, too!
DJ Trgovich
East side
Ronstadt honor long overdue
Re: the March 19 article “Venue to be renamed for singer Ronstadt.”
The recent honor bestowed by the city of Tucson with the renaming of the Music Hall with Linda Ronstadt’s name is long overdue. I have followed her career from way back to the early sixties with the Stone Poneys, noting that she has never been held to one role as a “pop” singer. She has done her own thing by adventuring into areas folks in the music industry did not want her to try (i.e., other genres including jazz, Spanish-language songs and acting) excelling in all areas she set out to conquer. If you have not yet seen the recent review of her career it is definitely worth the time to view “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.” Congratulations, Linda!
Alan Barreuther
Foothills
‘Clean energy’ mars the desert
Re: the March 20 article “Trico project opens door to solar future.”
Your photo in Sunday’s edition of Trico’s project showing 90 acres of desert stripped of all vegetation to install solar panels was very illuminating. And that’s just the beginning, says CEO Brian Heithoff. Environmentalists protesting Rosemont Mine for the sake of saving desert’s beauty should take note of thousands of acres to be destroyed permanently for “clean energy.” And don’t forget future wind farms of dozens of 70-meter-tall towers spinning 50-meter-long blades. That should improve desert views. And what about copper and lithium needed to transport and store energy. Where do we get that from?
Robert Robak
East side
No to daylight saving time
The so-called “Sunshine Protection Act” is another example of ignoring the science. Yes, it is not good to keep switching times twice each year. But, we should remain permanently on standard time. Morning light is important to our mental health and the maintenance of our body’s natural circadian rhythms.
Whereas many would enjoy an “extra hour” of light in the evening, many will not benefit while driving to work and school in the dark. Work schedules are not all 9-to-5. We should not legislate for the convenience of some while ignoring the natural rhythm and the work/life schedules of many. Morning light is just as important and varied during the year as evening. Leave it at standard time. (And, we tried daylight saving time in Arizona. It was not pleasant.)
Katy Brown
Midtown
Common sense in short supply
Re: the March 23 letter “Escalationists living a fantasy.”
I was mildly surprised at the letters in the March 23 paper. They were not the usual repeated talking points written by the frequent submitters that we see week after week, and it savored both sides of politics. One particular writer warned of the escalationist attitude of the majority of our current Congress. Most of those in Washington really have no skin in the game of war, when it comes to sending sons and daughters off to fight. Do they not realize that there is no such thing as a “tiny nuclear winter”? We are talking about planetary destruction and the famine that is talked about now in Ukraine would be minuscule compared to a worldwide famine. The letter writer recommended Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” a truly depressing view of the future. My hopes lie in the vision of Michael Rennie’s movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” I have yet to see any collective common sense exhibited on the third planet from the sun.
Maryam Wade
Northeast side
Not the America I grew up in
What happened March 23 in the confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson was un-American, degrading and most importantly disturbing. I don’t like what America is becoming and now I am concerned “what line we are now walking and where are we going.” It’s not the America I grew up in. So sad and so dangerous.
Mary Beth Schneider
Northeast side
