Tucson Speaks Out: Sept. 15 letters of the day

Aesthetics

The ACC declares aesthetics shall not be considered in routing electric towers up to 130’ tall through central Tucson. Hudbay will tear down the northern peaks of the Santa Ritas and leave permanent massive piles. In town, weeds are unabated along curbsides, trash and recycling bins are left in visible places, most of our major streets are a visual cacophony of mismatched facades and signage. I-10 driving east is an ugly mess. Is all this what we want to look at? If for no other reason, legal rulings notwithstanding, the power poles, Copper World mine, poorly maintained properties and roadsides should not be allowed for purely aesthetic reasons. We all want to enjoy and be proud of where we live, proud of how it looks, instead we are progressively destroying it through indifference and neglect.

Brian McCarthy, architect

Midtown

The role of tariffs in economic depressions

Editor:

During the 2020 campaign GOP candidate Trump tried to bamboozle the voters by stating that Biden’s economic plan would lead to a 1929-style-depression.

Quite the opposite happened: the stock market reached all-time highs; millions of new jobs were created; businesses flourished; real estate values increased; the number owning stock increased; poverty was reduced.

Mr. Trump wants to install higher tariffs on most Chinese imports. One of the major factors leading to the 1929 depression was “tariff wars’!

I was born in the early years of the 1929 Great Depression. My grandfather and father’s families, along with millions of other families around the world, suffered dire economic hardships.

Mr. Trump’s stunning ignorance of economic history is now front-and-center because of his tariff proposal.

Kamala Harris’s economic plans would build on the Biden presidency’s positive economic gains.

Sincerely,

Harold L. Mansfield

Green Valley

Interesting political commercials

The political commercials for Democrat candidates Kamala Harris, Ruben Gallego and Kirsten Engel have interesting themes. After 42 months, all three candidates suddenly express great need to minimize the number of people making illegal entry. Harris and Gallego point out that people are struggling with the high cost of living (up 20% since January 2021 so far). Engel mentions the need to fix the mess in Washington which includes hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on two foreign wars. Housing costs, credit card debt and auto loan debt are at record highs. Bankruptcies are up 16% over the past year. Harris wants to help first-time home buyers with a $25,000 taxpayer gift toward down payment, overlooking the fact that the resultant increase in demand would almost certainly further increase prices. The common theme of their commercials is to fix problems that were nonexistent until Biden-Harris got elected. Their commercials highlight many of the Democrats’ recent failures.

Mathew Scully

Sahuarita

Bipartisan — really?!

Being as surprised as Representative Ciscomani described himself to be when announcing he had won for being the most bipartisan, I decided to do some research. I strongly support bipartisan action but didn’t realize it was in any way recognized and awarded. Well, it is! The Lugar Center and Georgetown School of Public Policy does just that and has been keeping track for several years. They evaluate how often a member of Congress introduces bills that succeed in attracting co-sponsors from the other party and how often they in turn co-sponsor a bill introduced from across the aisle.

Sounds admirable to me but when you check the list released in May 2024 you find that Representative Ciscomani is not at the top but rather at number 45.

Would really like to know what organization awarded him the honor his ad is proclaiming.

Gypsy Lyle

Northwest side

Ciscomani campaign advice

Dear Editor,

Like others, I have noticed the huge campaign posters for Juan Ciscomani on our street corners. Juan certainly seems to be getting a lot of campaign funding. It’s nice to have deep pockets. That being the case, I suggest that he think even bigger. He should contact the transit company and buy all remaining ad space on the sides of our city buses that is not already taken by accident attorneys. Think of Juan’s big grinning mug, covering the side of a bus, just like the lawyers. Or better still, imagine a blimp slowly drifting through our Tucson night sky, with a massive LED light show, Las Vegas style, flashing “Vote Juan! Vote Juan!” The sky’s the limit.

Ray Lemke

Midtown

Cat’s eye view

My name is Mingus and I am a 12-year-old Abyssinian cat. I’m writing (with assistance from my human) because I’m tired of being kicked around like a political football.

First, there were the “childless cat lady” insults. Since when does caring for a furry feline equate with having no “direct stake” in the future of society? If so, why is my human hand-writing postcards to potential voters urging them to cast ballots for Democratic candidates who support public education, affordable healthcare (including women’s reproductive healthcare), and a secure water future for Arizona?

This was followed by the “immigrants eating cats” debacle. I had a hissy fit when this insanity was spouted from the presidential debate stage. Fortunately, the moderator intervened saying the Springfield city manager confirmed there were no credible reports of pets being harmed within the immigrant community. I purred a sigh of relief.

So, enough already! Even Taylor Swift knows it’s time to stop with the crazy cat tales!

Mingus (assisted by

Thea Chalow)

Oro Valley

Save the Santa Ritas!

It is unbelievable, unimaginable — mind-boggling — that our state and county continue to romance mining companies and freely give them license to tear up our beautiful God-given environment that is such a part of us in Pima and Santa Cruz counties. Just looking at the Santa Ritas fills me and others with peace. No matter how the thousands of us stress, even beg to keep them intact as our living sanctuary. Sunday picnics, group and individual hikes, to be enveloped with nature and all beings living in it offers us serenity and peace of mind, education, amazement, wonder and inspiration. Where would we go amongst huge holes, piles of earth mounded high, heavy equipment raising clouds of dust, well-dressed men looking at blueprints on their truck hoods? Can they not hear us? Understand what we’re asking of our local governments?

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Unimaginable is all I can say.

Nancy E. Reid

Northwest side

Library closings

I was dismayed when I read that some libraries in Tucson may be closing. Libraries are places of awe and wonderment and are vital to this city. When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, one of my most vivid memories was taking the trolley down to the Carnegie Museum and Library on Saturdays. I would read fascinating books about far off places like China or India then wander over to the museum and see skeletons of dinosaurs that roamed the earth thousands of years ago. Libraries and museums are treasures that expand imagination and learning. It is essential that they remain open to the public.

Charles Schultz

Northeast side

Protecting woman’s right to control her own body

A yes vote on Proposition 139 will give Arizona women a state constitutional right to control their own bodies free from the whims of the Arizona Legislature. But Congress could override that protection through a federal abortion ban. To make sure our rights are protected we must also vote for Democrat Kirsten Engel who will protect our rights in Congress. The Republican candidate Ciscomani’s fealty to Christian Nationalist Patriot Academy makes it abundantly clear that given the opportunity, he will vote for a federal abortion ban, ignoring the will of the majority of his constituents. Vote wisely in November.

Nancy O’Neill

Midtown

Catalina Foothills School District Board

As a parent and resident of Catalina Foothills School District, I pulled my sixth-grader from CFSD schools because we have a school board that puts parents out of any issue, discussion, decision, philosophy regarding the education of their child. The 2024 CFSD school board elections are critical to me.

I don’t realistically expect every school board member to be “on the side of the parents.” But I ask these questions of the candidates: Is he/she the kind of person who has a natural respect for the parents? Does he/she have an ability to see their side, to give them a good-faith hearing? Or is she the person who rolls her eyes when parents stand and speak and asks security to shut off the mic? Bart Pemberton and Jennifer Repscher, 2024 CFSD school board candidates, will give me representation I deserve. It’s time to “turn the page” and bring balance and fairness to the CFSD school board.

Robert Maness

Foothills

Trump use of Ronstadt Music Hall a disgrace

How disgusting that Trump could defile the Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson one day after defiling Ground Zero in New York. To allow hate and division inside a hall named for one who sang of beauty and love is vile. The city should have made him hold a rally in the gutter where he and his supporters could have felt more at home.

After his performance on Tuesday night creating fear and hate for Haitian refugees in Springfield Ohio, a city I know as peaceful and loving, for shame. I can only hope that it takes a village to squash such low-life drivel that spews from his mouth.

It’s time America to select love over hate, peace over divisiveness, and intelligence over fantasy and lies.

Vote for Harris and Walz!

Carl Olson

West side

CD6 election

As a long-time resident of Tucson, I have appreciated the moderate U.S. senators and representatives, both Republican and Democratic, who have served our district through the years. I would like to see this tradition continued. That is why in the upcoming election I am voting for Ruben Gallego for the Senate and Kirsten Engel for the House. House Republicans have shown that they cannot govern. They fight among themselves and there are many who are obstructionists blocking legislation. If you want work to get done and legislation passed in the House, then send a Democrat to Washington. I believe Kirsten Engel and Ruben Gallego are moderates, who can cross the aisle to get work done in Congress, so should be sent to Washington.

Raymond Silverstein.

Midtown

Air Force flyovers cause harm

The Air Force’s proposal to expand loud, polluting jet flights over Arizona is dangerous and disrespectful to Arizonans. Their proposal lacks transparency and disregards serious environmental concerns regarding toxic chaff drops and flares that have historically caused catastrophic fires in our national forests, including the Telegraph Fire. Decreasing supersonic flight levels from 30,000 to 5,000 feet above ground level, combined with combat jet maneuvers at times 100 feet above ground level, will harass humans and wildlife alike.

Arizona is more than a landscape for military flyovers. It is the Arizona Trail, Baboquivari, the Chiricahuas, the White Mountains. It’s an acorn harvest on White Mountain Apache, a super bloom in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Arizonans are calling upon our decision makers and the Air Force to respect our people and lands by eliminating these unnecessary, low-flying, polluting flights.

Erica Prather, WildEarth Guardians; Sanober Mirza, National Parks Conservation Association; Karen Fasimpaur, Peaceful Chiricahua Skies

Midtown

Election priority

Fellow Arizonans, let’s be absolutely clear — the upcoming presidential election is not about policy. It’s not about abortion. It’s not about Ukraine. It’s not about gun legislation. It’s not about immigration. It’s not even about the economy. It’s about keeping the Republican candidate — a noted psychopath, unrepentant narcissist, and pathological liar from being elected President. It is our responsibility to save our country and the world at large from the threat of his tyrannical rule — Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. That mission accomplished, then we can move on to the matters at hand. Let us band together, therefore, and dismiss the man who incited a riot on our capitol, is a convicted felon and molester of women to the dust heap of history. The generations to come will thank us.

Gavin Kayner

Northwest side

Harris-Trump debate

Prior to the debate, my opinion was that the Republican running for President of the United States was akin to the emperor with no clothes. After the debate, my opinion is that he is more like a Don Quixote who lost his mind in his quest to serve his nation.

Toni Kane

Oro Valley