American carnage
And so we add another place to the litany of locations linked to mass murder — Highland Park, Illinois.
I grew up in a Chicago suburb much like Highland Park and raised my children in another one. My son and his family live in another town nearby. We enjoyed holiday celebrations much like this. We felt safe, happy, enjoying friends and neighbors.
I grieve for the generations to come that won’t be able to fully experience this freedom and joy. The American obsession with guns is destroying us — literally.
Karen Schickedanz
SaddleBrooke
LGBTQ citizens political fodder
Yet again, our do-nothing state Republican senators have found an issue to detract from the real meat and potatoes issues facing Arizona. Problems like no water, energy shortages, homeless people of all ages, and an educational system that has raced to the bottom of competency in the last few decades. Diverting needed thinking for the myriad complexities we face, to focus our venom on LGBTQ drag shows. I like drag shows, they are funny parodies by female illusionists. I, too, believe the shows are of adult content, but in no way incite “sexual perversion,” any more than The Flip Wilson Show did. No live sex acts are performed, or nudity expressed. The language is bawdy, but so what? Minors can see live sex and all manner of “perversion” on the internet 24/7. Stop vilifying LGBTQ citizens and our culture. Let’s vote these radical right ignoramuses out of office ASAP!
Rene Lachance
Catalina
Migrant deaths
On June 27, over 50 migrants died in a Texas truck trailer in 102-degree heat. Whose fault was it?
Was it the migrants fault for illegally entering our country to improve their lives? Was it the coyotes for leaving the migrants in the trailer when the truck broke down?
I place the blame on President Biden and the United States news media.
Long before May 24, President Biden announced the end to Title 42, which limited asylum seekers due to the pandemic. The press printed that our government was sending extra resources to help handle the expected surge at the border. Migrant caravans with tens of thousands of people left southern Mexico, I believe, to time their arrival at the U.S. southern border with the elimination of Title 42.
When a federal judge stopped the elimination of Title 42, migrants were stuck in Mexico. Their choice was to continue illegally to the U.S. or return to their home countries.
Thomas Wenzel
Southeast side
More water, or more people?
Re: the July 3 article “Tucson to tackle backlog in permits.”
I just read David Wichner’s front page article where he appears to bemoan Tucson’s current snail’s pace in responding to building permit applications and where he is optimistic that more will be processed, that more permits will be issued. In the face of imminent drought and steadily declining Colorado River water, why would anyone rejoice in the county’s potential for expanding its population? Is an enlarged tax base at the cost of withered crops and thirsty people a good deal?
We are continuing to permit new mining operations and residential developments while at the same time trying to figure out how to import water 1,000 miles from the Mississippi. Does this make sense? To anyone?
Pending a functioning delivery system from a reliable and long-term water source, I would rejoice if all of Pima County ceased issuing any building permits that would result in increased water demand. Zero. I would also appreciate reading views different from mine.
Jeffrey Bruce
Green Valley
Please defend our way of life
Dear Sen. Kyrsten Sinema,
As a Vietnam veteran who served this country, I am very disturbed at this moment. The rights of part of our population (women) are being taken away from them by an unelected people. Voting rights are being destroyed. The shooting of innocent people walking the streets of America is happening every day. The Second Amendment was made for another day, a different America, not that of today. America is in trouble. We need people to stand up for Democracy. Look to Gabby Giffords as an example and vote for the American people. Please vote down the filibuster and bring formality to the Senate.
Sheldon Feldman
Northwest side
Congress needs understanding
I was devastated when I wound up in the emergency room and found out my kidneys had failed. I was immediately placed on dialysis and began a new way of life. My new reality meant spending many hours per week at my dialysis center receiving life-saving treatments.
Dialysis treatments can be costly. Medicare will only cover up to 80% of the costs, and my options are limited for covering the rest since I’m under 65. I am lucky to have had assistance from the American Kidney Fund to help pay the remainder. However, many patients are not as fortunate and must find a way to pay for the rest themselves.
This is why we need Congress to pass the Jack Reynolds Memorial Medigap Expansion Act and expand access to Medigap coverage to patients under 65. I highly encourage Congressman Paul Gosar to co-sponsor this bill, and for all members of Congress to visit their local dialysis center and understand the struggles faced by kidney patients.
Denise Kimpe
West side
PINO Donald Trump
After watching all the Jan. 6th hearings, it has become plainly obvious that President In Name Only (PINO) Trump has once again been exposed for the cheat and con man that he has always been. He has operated in this manner his entire career, hiding behind lawyers and hush money payments to mask his corruption.
The loss of the presidency and the exposure of his misdeeds will probably lead to his seventh bankruptcy filing. After all, no banks or financial institutions are willing to loan him any more money, to keep his Ponzi scheme company going. Note to any of his followers: Jump ship before the S.S. Trump Organization goes down.
David Keating
Northeast side
Decisive actions about guns
Re: the July 5 article “Pressure builds on Biden to take executive actions.”
The article urges the president to take action on the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. But there is no more crucial issue in America today than to take decisive action on the continuing slaughter of Americans by those wielding military-style weapons. This awful epidemic must be addressed forcefully by President Biden. He should declare a national emergency, and immediately halt the sale of these rifles nationwide. In addition, Biden should start a “buy-back program” of assault weapons that would be administered by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
There is precedent for this. In his 1933 inaugural address, President Roosevelt declared war on the Great Depression; he would use his executive powers to implement the New Deal if Congress failed to act. In the midst of the Korean War, President Truman ordered striking steel workers back to work.
The president now should show that same courage.
Jeanne Clarke, Professor Emerita of the University of Arizona’s School of Government and Public Policy
Foothills
Assault weapons again
I am in total accord with the governor of Illinois and am furious at Monday’s horrific murders. In this incident, even a dozen military special forces with assault weapons would have had difficulty taking out this sniper on a rooftop. It is even possible that they’d have incurred a loss of life or two. The comments from gun manufacturers, the NRA and too many pro-gun congressmen that good people with guns kill bad people with guns becomes more idiotic every day. A security guard in Buffalo with a weapon died, 19 well armed police officers in Uvalde took an hour to take out one shooter, and military special forces could not have prevented the Las Vegas or Highland Park massacres.
It is criminal that Americans are becoming more afraid to attend outdoor or indoor events. If the Supreme Court can overturn Roe v. Wade, then it is high time for Congress to initiate a modification of the Second Amendment to meet today’s weapon technology to include banning assault weapons.
Chuck Cabrera
Northwest side
Pac-12 issues
The Star has wisely continued incorporating Jon Wilner’s Hotline column into the daily sports section. Tucson fans would still be clueless about USC and UCLA bolting to the Big Ten. Wilner not only had the story immediately, but instantly issued the ramifications. National publications picked up his take on whether or not the remaining universities would be courted by other conferences, or add teams for a new Pac-12 or simply dissolve the conference.
The Pac-12 commissioner and 10 of the 12 schools’ athletic gurus somehow got completely bamboozled by the two California titans. Wilner wondered out loud how that could be.
College football is quickly becoming the dollar-crazed Triple AAA minor league of the NFL. Perhaps college football is not a top-of-mind issue around the USA or even in Arizona these days; but it’s refreshing to see facts, educated conjecture and realistic opinion on this huge new development in organized sports covered top to bottom by Mr. Wilner and the Star.
Baird Thompson
Foothills
Democratic ‘Big Lie’
Apocalyptic visions of a coming theocracy driven by charges that the reversal of Roe v. Wade was promulgated by religious-extremist, perjurious Supreme Court members dominate these pages, despite what I see as the clear falseness of those charges. Just as claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election were dispelled by simple statistical analysis, a simple reading of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson refutes these claims. Roe v. Wade was overturned because its usurpation of legislative privilege in assigning rights not explicitly mentioned in, nor reasonably inferred from, the Constitution was an egregious violation of the separation of powers. Justice Alito’s majority opinion clearly demonstrates that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. As such, neither its longevity nor the doctrine of “stare decisis” shield it from its rightful revocation. The question now rests in the legislative branch, where it always belonged. Continued repetition of the Democratic “Big Lie” must end.
Stanley Kissinger
Northeast side
Good guy with a gun
What a shame. After another mass shooting, this time at a Fourth of July parade, yet another opportunity was lost for a “good guy” with a gun to spontaneously intervene and save everyone from death and carnage. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Paul Simon
Northwest side
Good people of Tucson
On Tuesday, July 5, I had a flat tire on Tangerine at First Avenue. I called my husband, but he needed a ride as we only have one vehicle. As I waited, a man on a bicycle stopped and offered to help, but I told him that my husband was en route. Soon after that, another gentleman in a white truck stopped and offered to fix my flat. While both men were concerned about my safety in the heat, I assured them that I would be just fine. It was then that Capt. William Howe of the Golder Ranch Fire District appeared on the scene and immediately set to work. By the time my husband arrived, my flat was fixed.
My thanks go out to the first two gentlemen for their offers to help and especially to Capt. William Howe for changing my tire. Mr. Rodgers called people like you “the helpers,” the ones we should seek out in life. And sometimes, those helpers just appear when you need them most.
Ginny Williams
Oro Valley
TPD needs more funding
I was at Walmart yesterday morning. An employee confronted a shoplifter who hadn’t paid for a backpack. The shoplifter angrily shouted at the employee, who was being calm, professional, and doing his job. The shoplifter indignantly left the store, spewing obscenities. I asked the cashier, why the shoplifter was allowed to leave with the stolen property. I was told, “Walmart employees are not allowed to retrieve stolen property, place their hands on/detain shoplifters, and police didn’t have the resources to respond to shoplifters.” This costs honest people, and lessens the quality of life for Tucsonans! It’s a shame TPD is not properly funded! It’s a shame we have a prosecutor that doesn’t punish shoplifters! San Francisco got rid of their do-nothing prosecutor and L.A. is doing the same.
Scott Thompson
East side
Prosecute those at fault
The only way to prevent a repeat of Jan. 6, or worse, is to prosecute all perpetrators to the fullest.
Alan Rubens
Northeast side
