Letters to the Editor: Jan. 6: unstable atmosphere, local fire department, border issues, masks at McKale, Jan. 6 anniversary

We’re in midst of climate crisis

The Industrial Revolution started in the late 1700s with heavy use of coal by the early 1800s. Local events that overloaded the atmosphere’s CO2-buffering capacity may have occurred during the periods that followed and as meteorological records weren’t maintained very well back then. You can’t use weather events as late as 1925 to adequately judge climate change. The better way is to do trend analysis, so that as the CO2 buffer systems get saturated you’ll see the event happening more often and out of season. This is in fact what we see. A “boiling” atmosphere that is becoming more and more unstable over time with a trend toward more warming. Trying to dismiss President Joe Biden’s comments on climate change during the recent derecho is disingenuous. All politicians use events to make a point and it is obvious that global warming is a genuine issue, so his comments are more than acceptable.

Dan Pendergrass

West side

Treasure your first responders

I wish to commend our local fire department for their prompt, professional and caring response. We live in southeast Tucson. A young woman showed up on our porch last evening, asking for help. She was delirious and injured. She said she was homeless and cold so I got her a warm coat and gloves. We sat down and talked. She was unclear as to how she became injured. Meanwhile inside, my husband called 911. Within 10 minutes they came and took her vitals and whisked her off to the hospital.

The mayor of Cincinnati just declared a state of emergency over a firefighter shortage. I know we have a shortage of police officers. Please speak out, write, tweet, whatever to convince our mayor to make up these shortages.

Crime is up in town, murder is at an all-time high. We need to feel safe.

Karen Riggs

Southeast side

Kelly ignores secret flights

Sen. Mark Kelly,

Regarding U.S. immigration policy, Mark Kelly is either foolishly unaware of the political damage he’s condoning, or he’s a blind partisan uncaring about the undocumented border crossings. This paper ought to make Sen. Kelly acutely aware of his silent sponsorship of these federally funded night flights to get the undocumented into the U.S. Kelly’s refusal to act does not endear him to any legal voter anywhere. Mark Kelly, you deserve to be removed from the Senate within a year for your incompetence. Sen. Kelly, you’ve earned the title of former Arizona senator.

Kelly Sherwin

North side

McKale fans flout masking mandate

The University of Arizona 2021 basketball season had empty stands. This season: a mask mandate to enter McKale. However, many remove their masks after entering, munching on single kernels of popcorn for two hours as an excuse to stay unmasked.

“Wear Your Mask” is announced at every game, but goes unheeded by many. With the omicron surge, the mask mandate needs to be enforced by asking unmasked fans to leave the stadium. Food and drink should not be sold.

Financial loss for concessions and the possible loss of some fans is an obvious consequence. But since the majority of season ticket holders are elderly — more cautious and afraid of COVID — the fans who will not attend games will be these people.

Although these restrictions sound draconian, the choice is either to enforce masks or to once again fill the stadium with cardboard cutouts, in order to protect the community and the players from infection. If a fan infects the players, they could lose out on the Pac-12 Tournament.

The choice is yours.

S.B. Katz, M.D., J.D.

Foothills

Fox falsehoods tearing us apart

Recent stories in real world news have again implicated Fox News for its outrageous hypocrisy and deceit regarding the Jan. 6 rampage. Those of us still connected to reality have long known that Fox’s assault on the truth and its zealous incitement of anger and divisiveness have done irreparable damage to the country.

Rupert Murdoch, founder of this corrupt organization, has taken advantage of the poor pigeons who are in total accordance with the trash spewed by his carny barkers (Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, et al.) and has made billions off them. It’s depressing that so many accept the bunkum and take as gospel all their lies and distortions. It’s no wonder America is spiraling into a decline of our once fiercely held democratic ideals. The Russians, Chinese, Iranians laugh up their sleeves, doing whatever to feed into the Fox fakery, knowing full well how it’s tearing us apart.

William Muto

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SaddleBrooke

Fiercely guard our democracy

On Jan. 6, 2021, an organized political force challenged the authority of the U.S. Congress to certify the returns of the 2020 presidential election.

Control of elections by the people’s representatives is not an easy thing to achieve. British historian David Hume mentions that the British Parliament struggled for hundreds of years to get to the point that they could “judge solely in their own elections and returns.”

Prior to the 1600s, English kings kicked out members of Parliament that they didn’t like and called new parliamentary elections whenever they wanted to. The crown also called into session and dismissed sessions of parliament at personal whim without any reference to legal timetables.

Hume adds this about the electoral decision-making power: “A power like this, so essential to the exercise of all their other powers so essential to public liberty ... must be regarded as an inherent privilege.”

Serious effort must be made to prevent any further attempt in 2024 to overthrow this essential power of the people.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Downtown

Hold them accountable!

With the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection here, Arizona’s Republican voters need to remember that two of the state’s U.S. representatives and one Arizona state legislator were and are supporters of the attack on our democracy. Specifically, U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs participated in the plot to stop the vote to certify the election of President Joe Biden. And closer to home, state Rep. Mark Finchem was one of the leaders in spreading lies about the veracity of the state vote, leading to the Cyber Ninjas audit clown show.

When Biggs and Gosar run for reelection to the U.S. Congress this November, remember and vote them out. Finchem is thankfully termed out for his term in the Arizona Legislature, but he wants to be Arizona’s next secretary of state. Don’t let that happen.

Hold them accountable!

Karen Schickedanz

SaddleBrooke

Put yourself in their shoes

Re: the Jan. 4 letter “Real issue at the border.”

The letter writer chastised Curt Prendergast for his excellent in-depth series about migrant deaths on the U.S. border, blaming President Joe Biden and his policies for encouraging families and unaccompanied children to risk their lives for freedom. Does the letter writer not understand that these migrants are fleeing violence, drought and the resultant extreme poverty, most of which are the result of U.S. policies, especially in Central America, where the U.S. has a shameful record of supporting corrupt dictators? The gist of her letter can be summed up as: “Could you people please have the decency to die in your own country, out of our sight and out of our minds? We’d all feel a lot better if you’d just stay home and die your gruesome deaths.” Maybe she would feel differently if she put herself in their shoes. How would they respond if her own children were threatened with death if they did not join gangs, or worse?

Kirk Astroth

Northwest side

Making billions off the ‘big lie’

On the anniversary of the violent mob that attacked our Capitol trying to pull off a coup, Rep. Liz Cheney said it exactly right: “We can either be loyal to Donald Trump or we can be loyal to the Constitution, but we cannot be both.” Our democracy is on the brink if we keep allowing the GOP and MAGA worlds to perpetuate claims of election fraud that do not exist. Social media/TV/radio outlets that continue to promote election lies, political violence and conspiracy theories are making billions — all at the expense of the truth.

The only “steal” going on right now is the glut of voter suppression laws intended to actually steal the 2022/2024 elections: ensuring that results will be what the GOP wants them to be. President Joe Biden won by 7 million votes: 7 million votes confirmed by real audits, over 60 state and federal court rulings, and even our sham Cyber Ninjas. Yet, the “big lie” persists, and it’s an assault on our democracy.

Kathy Krucker

Midtown