Daily Star full of copy-and-paste journalists
Reading your paper today, I was amazed how incisive your research is on national and international news. I just wonder what the Arizona Daily Star standards are for “searching” national and international news.
Perhaps all your staff does is navigate (cut-and-paste) the Associated Press articles. Perhaps you should change your name the Arizona Daily Associated Press.
Ihor Kunasz
Oro Valley
Cuomo should go; Trump should have, too
If Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done even a single one of the sexual misconduct issues he has been accused of, he needs to be impeached and removed from office immediately, after due process.
But I find it interesting and disturbing that this same impeachment vigor was and has not been repeated for Donald Trump, who has close to 20 sexual misconduct accusations against him and many lawsuits pending.
Is this because Cuomo is a Democrat and Trump a Republican? Is the message from Congress that women will not be accosted physically or verbally, as long as the man doing the assaulting is not Republican?
Or President? Trump even bragged about his availability to assault women on video without even a small consequence, much less impeachment. In fact, the reporter he bragged to was fired, while he was unscathed.
Kevin Marschke
Oro Valley
Local GOP shouldn’t support representatives
The American Rescue Plan is law. Will the Republicans spend the money as it was intended, and improve the economy at the same time, or will they return the money to the Treasury Department and show support for their representatives in Washington, D.C.?
Those representatives, by the way, voted against their receiving any money, showing their contempt for their constituents. Their representatives have been getting their salaries even as the pandemic worsened.
All the while, they continued to be paid as they overlooked the financial bind their constituents were suffering. So, cash your check and vote your representatives out of office, or send the money back?
You and your family’s welfare and help for the economy, or your representative’s career? Your choice.
Jerry Lujan
SaddleBrooke
We deserve better than political merry-go-round
In 2016, the Republicans controlled the three branches of government and set about dismantling Obama-era policies.
In 2020, the Democrats won control of the three branches of government and are now in the midst of dismantling Trump era policies. Is this the best manner in which our government can function?
Are we simply on a merry-go-round with little hope of making progress on matters of national importance? Can’t any of our elected officials go beyond party politics and actually work on behalf of the people who put them in office?
New legislation should be introduced to move the country forward instead of using executive action to set policy. This may be a naive position to have, but it seems to me that we should be able to do better than we are.
Martin Greene
East side
Renewed hope, peppered with continued vigilance
In the last year, it has become clear that there are some really obvious benefits to surviving required isolation. For instance, one has more time to enjoy the beauty of the great outdoors.
My partner and I truly enjoy taking our dogs to numerous parks. Fort Lowell Park with its pond, the ducks and fountain is our favorite.
Spending more time with our senior dogs, cuddling them, giving them their meds several times a day and taking trips to the vet as well as to the pharmacy are constructively distracting.
We were even able to celebrate a birthday out on our open-air porch. Now there are vaccines and there’s renewed hope, because we also have a new administration at the helm of our nation that is interested in our welfare.
We are grateful and most appreciative that we are alive to receive our second vaccine. We also know that we still need to be vigilant and careful, as herd immunity is needed.
Janice Campos
Foothills
UA basketball is fine, despite the critics
Here are the records in the past three years of the two guys who think Sean Miller needs to go.
Dan Bickley: 0-0
Jody Oehler: 0-0
Sean Miller: 54-35
There is nothing in Greg Hanson’s recent column mentioning the number of one-and-done players in the recent past, such as Stanley Johnson, Lauri Markkanen, Deandre Ayton, Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji.
All were first-round NBA draft picks. Nico Mannon was a second-round pick. Gonzaga has had one recent player who was a one-and-done. An enormous difference to the Lute Olson years is so few players play for three or four years.
What bothers me about the NCAA is the punishment is given to the school and not the people involved. Arizona fired Book Richardson and Mark Phelps years ago.
Arizona elected to bypass any postseason basketball in 2020. The only thing left is punishing Miller. Should he be fined? Why should any returning players who had no involvement in what occurred in 2017 and earlier receive punishment?
Bill Jones
East side
Magnus, Romero must fix Tucson’s police problem
The 30% decline in sworn officers started before Chief Chris Magnus and our current mayor. But telling the public to basically “suck it up, buttercup” is not proactive management by either of them. Public safety, security and well-being is a primary role of government.
The decline is not simply a pay issue. Morale and feeling of support from the top mean just as much to our officers. The recent flaps about BLM and the “Blue Line,” SRO’s and the mayor’s recall effort are telling of the public attitude of the mayor and chief.
Absent is a proactive program to improve the safety of the citizens of Tucson and adequately staff TPD. More of the same is not leadership! Get out of your chair and do something constructive! You are both failing by your own inaction and attitude.
This is why I am happy to live in Oro Valley.
Frank Engle
Oro Valley
Grijalva takes stand on Palestinian rights
As a constituent and supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, I want to thank Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva for signing the March 11 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a U.S. policy that supports the human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people.
It is powerful to see this group of representatives speaking out together for a just U.S. foreign policy.
The letter raised several important issues: opposition to Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes, Israel’s denial of the COVID-19 vaccine to Palestinians, the Israeli/Egyptian blockade of Gaza and strong opposition to Israeli annexation of Palestinian land.
I was glad to see that the letter calls for reinstating aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and a complete rejection of the Trump/Netanyahu so-called “peace plan.”
This letter sends a strong message that the U.S. must strive toward human rights and dignity for all people, including Palestinians. Thank you, Rep. Grijalva, for supporting Palestinian rights.
Brooke Hotez
Downtown
A year’s worth of growth can’t be tested
Darlene Rowe, a third grade teacher, wrote in her opinion piece March 16 that students returning to school come March 24 will spend more time prepping for and taking tests (10!) than learning.
As a retired educator, I know that standardized tests measure how students compare to other students in terms of achieving a year’s worth of growth.
A year’s worth of growth? Exactly what have students learned in the past year? How to find a free wi-fi hotspot to “go” to school? How to find, log on and stay connected to a videoconferencing platform?
How to resist distractions? How to sit, watch a screen and listen to learn rather than engaging in hands-on activities? How to learn in isolation rather than with peers?
How to persevere? Some of them have learned some of what tests measure, but these tests won’t measure what students really leaned. The rest of this school year should be about learning, not testing.
Lois Easton
Northeast side
Testing students at this point a waste
Three cheers for Darlene Rowe’s honest critique of children returning to the classroom to be tested. After anything but a normal year, I believe that the children need to return to the classroom to engage in the love of learning.
As a retired public school teacher in Pima County, I so share Ms. Rowe’s concern for finding positive and meaningful ways to return for the short time left during this school year.
I believe the stress of just returning to in-person classrooms will be stressful enough for everyone. For the children’s well-being, this is the year to leave testing off the table.
Ellen Hartline
Foothills
The city and zoo’s failure indicative of deeper rot
A world-class zoo? Sounds like a quality attraction, but Henry Ford said, “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”
Our zoo and our city, I’m sorry to say, have cracked foundations. They are only trying to do the right thing now because they’ve been caught.
The zoo is starting a PR campaign acting like they are grateful for the roundtable input. Don’t forget, they’ve been brought to the table kicking and screaming, only to turn that frown upside down because now it’s in their best interests to appear collaborative.
The city has known about the plans for three years. Why didn’t they start their mitigation efforts three years ago?
It’s never too late to do the right thing, but if they don’t do it for the right reasons, then I would call the result low-class, not world-class. The city and the zoo are not sorry for what they did. They’re only sorry they got caught.
Lee Sharp
Midtown
The filibuster is a loser; don’t be one, too, Sinema
A recent poll by the national firm Data For Progress has revealed that 61% of Arizonans of all political leanings prefer passing major legislation over support of the filibuster. The math is clear.
If Senator Kyrsten Sinema would like to be re-elected in 2024 by a margin of 61-39, she would do well to understand the results of this poll to Arizonans — and to the nation.
Richard Kaiser
Northwest side
