All about opinions
I believe an opinion is a belief or judgment about something that’s not necessarily based on facts. It’s your own personal take on a topic, influenced by your experiences, feelings, and values.
Opinions are your own thoughts and interpretations, and not based solely on facts: Because they’re personal, opinions can be subjective,
There are personal opinions, collective opinions and informed opinions.
There are many synonyms for opinion, such as belief, view, viewpoint, perspective, and conviction.
A political opinion is a belief or judgment about a topic related to government, politics, or social issues. These opinions are often shaped by a person’s values, experiences, and ideologies.
You have a fundamental right to form your own opinions and express them freely. Just because you hold an opinion doesn’t mean it’s factual or well-informed. Some opinions are mainly based on personal feelings or biases.
So, while you have the right to hold your own opinions, it’s also important to be open to considering other perspectives and engage in respectful dialogue.
Tom McGorray
Northwest side
Trump is denied the right to campaign
Trump is forced to sit in a courtroom in a case that is expected to last two months. While he is sitting there listening to harangues against him, Biden is free to fly around the country campaigning. Once this trial is over there are three more ready to do the same. For the time remaining until election, other than weekends, Trump cannot reach out to state his case.
Put aside your hatred for Trump for one second and ask yourself if this is the way elections should be conducted? Shouldn’t the voters have the right to make their decisions as we normally expect?
Jack Walters
Northeast side
Healthcare decisions
Re: the April 25 article “Arizona House votes to repeal 1864 abortion law.”
In the article Representative Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale stated “We’re talking about killing infants. Let’s think about that, we’re willing to kill infants in order to win an election.”
First of all, Merriam-Webster states: the definition of infant is a child in the first period of life, from birth to one year.
Abortion is not “killing infants”, or babies or children. It is not infanticide.
Let’s respect each individual to know what healthcare decision is best for them.
If you don’t need an abortion, or don’t believe in them, don’t have one. I hope you or one of your loved ones are never faced with a pregnancy where abortion needs to be faced.
I had one in 1977.
I am thankful I had a government that respected my ability to make my own reproductive health care decisions.
Robbin Miller
Northeast side
Conover for a second term
Re: the April 27 article “I worked for LaWall, I stand with Conover.”
I worked with County Attorney aspirant Jette at AZ Attorney General for five years. I have never met Conover. Mr. Jette looks good on paper. He has substantial experience as a prosecutor, and also has an MBA. His work with which I am familiar is best exemplified by his recent prosecution of a southern AZ rancher. It was a big budget production that captivated the media and resulted in a hung jury with only one juror holding out for guilty. A properly seasoned prosecutor should have known better than to proceed. There is a traditional not so subtle enmity between prosecutors and defense attorneys. Mr Jette’s background is prosecutor, while Ms. Conover was a defense attorney. I like the perspective that a defense attorney can bring to the state of affairs left behind by the last County Attorney, who stayed a few terms too long. I believe that many of Conover’s problems stem from this enmity, and hopefully by now she has weeded the resistance. Conover for a second term.
Albert Lassen, retired Assistant Attorney General and Magistrate Judge
Oro Valley
Opinion of Laura Conover
Re: the April 24 article “Laura Conover has failed this community” and the April 27 article “I worked for LaWall, I stand with Conover.”
I found Barbara LaWall’s opinion column about Laura Conover’s failures to prosecute since she took over as county attorney to be seriously concerning.
Having just read an Imprimus article about rogue prosecutors who refuse to execute the laws of the land, Conover’s actions fit the description of the George Soros funded “progressive prosecutor” movement perfectly.
Today I read Leo Spivack’s opinion column attacking LaWall’s concerns about Conover. How he inferred that Barbara LaWall meant that Conover should personally prosecute cases with her busy schedule as an administrator, is beyond me. I don’t believe that is what was implied but was referring to the county attorney’s main duty to make decisions about what is prosecuted. Laura Conover has some odd ideas as explained by LaWall.
If, during his 25 years in the county attorney’s office, Spivack was so dissatisfied, he could have left or run for office himself.
Crime tends to escalate and multiply when not prosecuted. Think about that before you vote, please.
Roberta Porter
Southwest side
Glover’s appointment to UA provost
Regarding Joseph Glover’s appointment to be the next U of A provost. As a University of Florida graduate myself and the parent of two U of A graduates, it was interesting to read the take by the faculty; kind of divided at best it seemed in regards for their support for his appointment. But did all consider when making this selection that his former boss at the University of Florida, Ben Sasse, was on the receiving end of a lot of retribution put forth by student opposition to Mr. Sasse’s past stances on LGBTQ rights, such as his objection in 2015 to the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges — Sasse called it a “disappointment”. Seems like those folks who expressed the opinion that Mr. Glover “seems to be a divisive candidate ...” may have been on to something considering it appears, Mr. Glover had no issues in working for a boss at the University of Florida that had openly expressed the above divisive views.
Spike Horrigan
Northwest side
Attack of Copper World for water usage
Re: the April 27 letter “Copper World thirst.”
This letter is a wild exaggeration and states “The one thing that (Copper World supporters) never mention is the elephant in the room; the fact that Hudbay will pump 4.5 billion gallons of water from our aquifer every year!”
Not even close. The Arizona Department of Water Resources has approved a permit allowing Copper World to use 6,000 acre-feet/yr (326,000 gallons per acre-foot) of aquifer water. Math says that’s just shy of 2 billion gallons, not 4 to 5 billion gallons. Copper World submitted a lesser usage at 5,100 acre-feet. But it gets much worse. Hudbay will recycle water on site so much that the actual usage of fresh aquifer water drops even more.
Let’s knock off the doomsday nonsense on water usage and other criticisms for the Copper World mine. It’s false.
Steve Sollenberger
Foothills
Checks and balances — Supreme Court
Let’s see, we have a simple issue to address immunity or no immunity for “agent” Orange. So since we (the gang of four — (Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh) are subservient to Orange, we must do all we can to delay or reject the government’s request that he does not have immunity. How to do? Simple, ignore the current issue and focus on the whether what he has done is presidential or personal. Ignore the fact that the two are combined in his actions. That way we can either delay a vote on our part or turn it back to the lower court to decide. Hence accomplishing what his attorneys really want and that is delay, delay, delay in hopes that Orange gets re-elected and this all goes away. Well done gang, the dictatorship can begin if he wins the “fair and balanced” election. Let’s all pray that Roberts has enough moral compass to be the 5th vote to say NO. Impartial Justice by the Supremes — don’t count on it.
Frank Flasch
Midtown
Bad idea cutting UA budget
Re: the April 27 article “UA to cut academic unit budgets by 4.4%.”
It’s a sad day when a top-notch university chooses to reduce rather than expand. When my dad’s business was faltering, he reduced prices which increased sales and profits. I suspect that UA can recover its budget loss by lowering in-state, out-of-state, and international student tuition as NMSU did, and by offering more professional continuing education certificate programs as UC Berkeley did.
Barney Popkin
Northwest side
Hiking access
As a resident who has lived in Tucson for over half a century I am appalled that the trail access at the north end of Campbell has been closed overnight and the parking area eliminated. The fat cats who live in gated communities at the top of Campbell must have thought that when presented with a fait accompli the public would just accept it. The parking area there was a great place to watch the sunset on a monsoon night or the fireworks over the city on the 4th of July. I have walked to the top of Campbell in my younger days and I never saw trash left behind by cars parked there. The county had no right to tear up the pavement to deny access and isn’t there a state law protecting access onto private property if it has been used for 10 years? I think the homeowners there should be made to pay for repair and replacement of the parking area.
Bill Ridlinghafer
Oro Valley
What an idea
I ask the reader to imagine that streets in our fair city are in need of repair and routine maintenance. Stretching the imagination, there may even be potholes. Now imagine our tax dollars going into a fund to pay for repairs and maintenance and the filling of potholes. But the potholes aren’t being filled. What are we to think if it becomes apparent that a good portion of those monies we provide are being diverted to pave grand circular driveways for our more fiscally endowed neighbors. Might we be upset when the steward of our streets and roads makes a PSA touting this grand scheme, all the while maintaining that our streets are among the best, with no mention or acknowledgement of the potholes that still exist. I now ask the reader to view this highly unlikely scenario with a slight revision. Instead of potholes in our streets, think of problems in our public schools. Just how likely will the out-of-hand voucher program fix those problems?
Albert Cox
Southeast side
Re: You can take action on climate change
Re: the April 26 article “You can take action on climate change.”
I appreciated Dr. Peterson’s opinion that climate change is a pollution problem. Pollution is also a national security and economic problem. The Defense Department reported in 2019 that climate change is a national security threat. Should Americans be concerned about national security? The economic costs because of drought, wildfires, flooding, tornadoes, and desertification are enormous. In 2023, 28 climate-related events occurred that cost at least $1 billion. The total economic cost of these events was $92.6 billion. In 2023, US oil production was 155,130,000 barrels (highest in history). The “hidden” cost of climate-related events is $596.92 per barrel of oil. If only 25% of this cost was directly related to pollution means everyone would pay $149.23 more per barrel of oil. Crude oil currently costs around $89 per barrel. Every American is subsidizing “cheap” oil because of pollution-related costs. You can pay now or more later.
William Jones
East side
The power of words
Re: the April 28 article “Campus protest crackdown smells of opinion bias.”
Tim Steller wrote that most Americans using the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine should be free” do not intend it to deny Israel’s right to exist or advocate for genocide of the Jewish people. Since when do we excuse the users of offensive slogans and instead tell the objects of their calls to not feel intimidated or threatened, because it’s “just an aspirational cry”?
The use of a phrase by people who are ignorant of its roots (the Hamas founding Charter) and its current ramifications does not make it acceptable. To ask Jewish people to ignore those who have adopted the language of terrorists dedicated to our annihilation — especially when they do not denounce the atrocities of October 7 or demand the return of all hostages — is beyond hypocritical. The idea that protesting Israel’s policies is separate from antisemitism is belied by the fact that in recent months violence against American Jews has increased by 360%. We feel intimidated and threatened for good reason.
Amy Krauss
Foothills
Campus protests
Thank you young people on campuses! In the early 1960s you protested racism. A few years later you protested the Vietnam War. Later still you led the charge against Apartheid. Whenever there is some heartless, indefensible, brutal, systematic killing and destruction you lead the way in decrying the shameful action. Now you are protesting Israel’s killing (with American bombs and money) of tens of thousands of Palestinians, leaving well over a million homeless and without hospitals; with those who are left an inch from starvation and with severely limited water. Thank you for speaking out forcefully whenever it is necessary. You have my thanks and support!
David Bachman-Williams
Downtown
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