Take some responsibility
Since when do we pay parents to send their kids to private schools if COVID cases close a public school? This is what my parents would call malarkey, and one can substitute any other word that they feel is appropriate. And, I paid my own tuition to attend a parochial school for four years. Gov. Doug Ducey is throwing COVID dollars around like he’s Santa Claus; not the way to do things, governor! And why so much testing? Just get a shot, people! What’s wrong with this country? Did someone leave their brain on the counter of your local grocery store?
I get it — people do not like being told what to do. But what about being in the military? If the troops didn’t want to be told what to do, why the heck did they join? It’s about time people in this country start taking responsibility for their actions and grow up.
Maureen Gagliardi
East side
Sinema is no kind of leader
Re: the Jan. 14 article “Sinema cripples chances for voting rights measure.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema says, “We must address the disease itself, the disease of division.” Interesting concept. Unfortunately, her propensity for cute slogans and outfits is wearing very thin. I’ve never seen her lead any discussion or meeting with Democrats or Republicans to build consensus on any issue. In fact, I’ve not seen her lead in any capacity. So sorry her term doesn’t end this year. Ms. Sinema, either lead, follow or please get out of the way — you’re simply a self-serving politician like a majority of your Republican friends. No leader, not even a follower — simply in the way. Please join me in voting her out of office when her term expires in 2025.
Robert Ryan
Midtown
What do we owe one another?
What do we owe each other? What does this mean for vaccination?
The American philosopher T.M. Scanlon wrote that “what we owe to each other” is an effort to encompass our duties to other people as part of a broader conception of what morality requires of us. We are connected to each other — one person’s choice can profoundly impact other members of our community.
I suggest that not infecting other people with an illness reasonably falls into this moral construct. It is self-evident that refusing to be vaccinated and exposing others to a dangerous pathogen also reasonably falls into this framework. For this reason, it is reasonable to conclude that we owe it to others to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
We are all connected as members of our community — in these difficult times, it is time to be more caring for each other, to take more responsibility for our choices and be more conscious of their consequences. After all, it’s what we owe each other.
Keith Shelman, M.D.
North side
Let her retire to slumberland
I thought that Kyrsten Sinema was from Arizona, but that can’t be true. Apparently, she is from a land where unicorns expel rainbows from their lower intestinal tracts.
Though she now lives in D.C., she somehow dreams that she can bring the opposing political parties together. She must have slept through the Democrats acceding to the Republican demands for the Jan. 6 committee only to then have the Republicans declare the whole process unnecessary because it would be critical of Donald Trump. If a treasonous cataclysm like Jan. 6 won’t elicit Republican cooperation, how can she possibly think that she and she alone can be the one to achieve that goal?
Keep dreaming, Sinema. Arizona Democrats will help you in that endeavor by making you a one-term senator. Then you can retire to a nice rest home and count unicorns until you return to slumberland, where Republicans want to help America instead of merely maintaining a death grip on power.
Rick Cohn
West side
PRO Act’s worst parts still alive
After everything Tucson’s small businesses have been through, it is incredibly frustrating to see some in Congress continue to push for policies that would further undermine our ability to create jobs and support our communities. The PRO Act — an anti-business, anti-worker bill that essentially died in the Senate thanks to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly — is being resurrected in Democrats’ budget bill, or at least some of the worst parts of it are. That includes fines of up to $100,000 for even minor, technical infractions of federal labor law that have nothing to do with working conditions whatsoever. These fines could quickly add up and put local small businesses out for good. I was glad to see our senators keep their distance from the PRO Act, and I hope they will take another stand for Arizona businesses by opposing these punitive penalties as well.
Mark Botterbusch
East side
Sinema gave the GOP a gift
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema faced a tough choice with her vote on the Freedom to Vote Act. She could either change the Senate filibuster to save democracy, or she could change democracy to save the filibuster. She chose to save the filibuster. Consequently, Republicans in the Senate can continue to block efforts to make billionaires pay a fair share of taxes, reduce the cost of drugs, expand Medicare and Medicaid, provide child care assistance, among so many other actions proposed by the Biden administration. Also, states that are politically controlled by Republicans, such as Georgia, Texas and Arizona, can criminalize giving water to people standing in long voting lines, disenfranchise people of color, make voting harder, give partisan state legislatures the power to designate election outcomes regardless of the vote tally, plus so much more. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Sinema made a brave decision in choosing to save the filibuster. And with that, I think he gave her a campaign slogan for reelection in 2024. “Vote Sinema — she saved the filibuster.”
Pat Choate
Downtown
Something fishy at 36th/La Cholla
Rather than greenwash and degrade the community and environment in the Tucson Mountains at 36th and La Cholla, the city should honor its annexation promises and vote no on removing annexation condition C9-81-45C. Despite the offer to preserve the southern part, I ask “Who is this high-density 137 houses on the north for?” It is not affordable ($300,000+), nor ADA-compliant, nor family-friendly with its trailer-size lots. It seems intended to be bought by an investment company and rented out for remote workers. At the open house on Jan. 8, that question and others were not answered by Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz, Keri Sylvan, and Scott Clark. Our Westside Neighborhood Association has spent thousands of collective hours to talk to neighbors to represent our community’s wishes: a preference for undisturbed desert and no removal of annexation condition. This development is for short-term profit that will result in long-term destruction of desert and community. Removing the annexation is a bad precedent for neighborhoods.
Yvonne Reineke
West side
Don’t allow guns on AZ campuses
My precious college student child might be surrounded by guns at school? I can’t allow that, and I won’t! And you shouldn’t either. We have to stop Senate Bill 1123, which handcuffs school officials by preventing them from prohibiting concealed guns on campus. Guns in schools are an unnecessary and significant threat to the safety of students. Young adults between the ages of 18-25 experience a high rate of serious mental illness and have a greater propensity for engaging in risky, sometimes violent behavior. Don’t increase the chances of campus homicides and suicides. Don’t let the Republicans make a political statement with your children’s precious lives by passing this foolish and unnecessary bill, SB 1123.
Robert Melikian
Oro Valley
That’s some ‘legacy,’ guv
Gov. Doug Ducey is proud of his legacy. He revealed his “accomplishments” on Jan. 10 in the State of the State address. Arizona has finally achieved a top 10 rating in two categories: 1. Third in the country for the number of COVID deaths; 2. Tenth in the country for crime. And proudly, we are in the bottom for education and teacher salaries and are the laughingstock of the world for our expenditure of millions to try to unsuccessfully prove a fraudulent election under the direction of incompetent and inexperienced Cyber Ninjas. Why did the legislators who claimed “fraud” not question possible “fraudulent” votes for the Republicans who won in 2020? It is not a laughing matter when we have legislators who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, are members of Oath Keepers, and along with Ducey want to prohibit businesses and schools from protecting public health.
Perhaps Ducey would have had a better legacy if he had stuck with ice cream parlors.
S.B. Katz, M.D., J.D.
Foothills
More cowardice than courage
The accolades being heaped on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in this forum and in television propaganda for her supposed “courage” at defending the antiquated filibuster are quite misplaced. In fact, hers are acts of political cowardice. First, it might be helpful to point out that the Constitution does not require 60 votes to pass legislation. That number was established in a “rule” to end debate. And because lazy and/or frightened senators decided to remove the requirement for actual debate, cowards can now just indicate intent to filibuster with an email, without worrying about having to defend their views to anyone.
Now, sluggard freeloaders in the Senate can sit back like lazy leopards, avoid doing anything meaningful, tweet out attacks on their opponents, claim “bipartisanship” and rake in corporate donations. Sweet deal.
Sinema, change the filibuster rules, make your colleagues show their spots. Or are you showing yours?
Rick Scifres
Green Valley
Apology needed from Ducks’ coachCoach Adia Barnes apologized for her behavior at the Oregon-Arizona game. Now I think it is time for Oregon Coach Kelly Graves to apologize for his unsportsmanlike cursing during the game. He blew it off as no big deal, even though many persons witnessed his actions. Fair is fair. Man up!
John Higgins
Southeast side
I dare Democrats to primary Sinema
Dear Arizona Democrats, please, please primary Sinema when she is up for reelection and be sure to nominate a far-left progressive instead. You seem to have forgotten that it was not the progressive vote which got Sinema into office, but the votes of independents and disaffected Republicans. These voters are by no means on board with the progressive agenda. Other than her staunch opposition to nuking the filibuster, Sinema’s voting record is a Democrat’s dream. So go ahead and get rid of her.
Helen Moulton
Foothills
