Sen. Fann got what she asked for: a mess
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann is pushing for a “full forensic audit” of Maricopa County’s election results. She won a court order on Feb. 26. In the court order, the Senate was going to check at least 550,000 ballots.
Now that Fann has won in court, the number has risen to 2.1 million, all of the placed ballots. There is no identified fraud that took the election away from former President Donald Trump.
Fann hasn’t produced any evidence or plan for a recount nor has she showed who will count the ballots. What is she thinking?
David McCarty
Northwest side
Criticism of Biden
lacks substance
Let me start with some basic arithmetic: A writer complained that the stimulus check wasn’t $2,000. Well, Congress approved a $600 stimulus check which came while someone else was in office as a lame duck, but President Biden got Congress to approve a $1,400 stimulus, thus a total of $2,000.
As to vaccinations, how many people are refusing to get vaccinated, like all the conspiracy types? Not on Biden. If he mandated vaccines, think of the uproar.
The border wall was never part of what the American public wanted, only the fearmongers afraid of their shadows who didn’t care about ruining the border ecosystems.
As to the National Guard and fences around the Capitol, if the previous administration had done the job and stopped an insurrection and destruction by white terrorists, such problems could have been nipped in the bud.
Some sanity has been released on America, not fear and hate. Open your eyes.
Carl Olson
West side
Karma strikes Biden for insulting Trump
During the campaign, candidate Joe Biden mocked former President Donald Trump for needing assistance when walking down a slippery ramp after giving a commencement speech at West Point.
Well, karma has now struck Biden, as last week he fell three times when walking up the steps to Air Force One. I remember when Republican President Gerald Ford stumbled when coming down steps from Air Force One. The liberal news media and late-night liberal comics roasted and mocked Ford during his entire abbreviated presidency.
On “Saturday Night Live,” comedian Chevy Chase routinely did his President Ford “Klutz in Chief” stumbling act. You likely will not see any of this for Biden. In addition to stumbling on stairs, Biden has recently been confused in not recalling the name of his new Secretary of Defense and referring to VP Harris as the “president.”
Paula Martin
Vail
Tell lawmakers to stop voter suppression
The Arizona Legislature is currently working to make Arizona residents’ votes harder to cast and to disrupt what has been one of the most successful mail-in voting system in the U.S., the permanent early voting list.
The Republican legislators seem to miss the point that many Republicans love this system and that there has been no evidence of any problems with it in the past two decades.
Please contact your legislators and the governor and oppose these unnecessary changes to our right to vote.
Maureen Borland
SaddleBrooke
COVID vaccines are safe and effective
As a scientist with almost 40 years’ experience in drug discovery and drug development I am disappointed you published the letter from Richard Peddy on March 21.
Phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials have been completed involving tens of thousands of volunteers for safety and efficacy.
These have been a collaborative effort with the FDA, their international regulatory counterparts, academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Drug safety is paramount, data is always continually collected.
The FDA reviewed the data along with the reviews from independent safety review committees. This is the exact reason that the Emergency Use Authorization exists — it’s to get help to those who need it as fast as possible.
I agree the government shouldn’t bribe and/or threaten its citizens to be vaccinated. I am hopeful with a presentation of facts those who are hesitant to get the vaccine will do so.
Leslie Romanyshyn
East side
White House looks like it’s hiding something
The Biden administration has come under fire for restricting news media and attorney access to facilities where thousands of child migrants are being held. No tours and no photos are allowed.
There is a lack of transparency by the Biden administration. During the Trump administration, journalist “ride alongs” with the Border Patrol and tours of similar facilities were permitted.
Not so now as they are being denied. An unofficial verbal gag order has been issued by the Biden administration, and all questions by the news media and attorneys to local Border Patrol related to these child migrants and facilities are being referred to the CBP/DHS press office headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Where is the outrage over this by the Democratic news media and migrant rights advocacy groups? Whose actions and rhetoric created this mess? Joe Biden!
Doug Lawrence
Midtown
We endanger animals, then hold them captive
A recent letter writer claims zoos are our last line of defense against species extinction.
So, the logic must go like this: Species are going extinct in mass because of human activity, human overpopulation, exploitation of resources, habitat destruction, heating of the planet, whatever, you name it.
And, since we, as a species, are unable to control ourselves in these regards, we must captivate other species in order to save them from us. But, I ask, for whose benefit? Theirs? They don’t know the difference. They’re just captive.
Again, the argument must conclude that it’s for our benefit. Because, really, what isn’t done for our benefit? As an aside, that still doesn’t justify tigers in the desert.
Oh, but that’s education, you claim. However, if we’re so concerned with educating children about animals, why don’t the schools take any field trips to poultry processing plants so the students can learn where their nuggets come from?
Betsy Lubis
Midtown
Failed societies rot from within
Who needs Russia, China, Iran or North Korea as enemies? We have our own right here in this purportedly greatest country on earth. We have demagogues like Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh (R.I.P.), Alex Jones and Ted Cruz, who proselytize conspiracies to those euphemistically referred to as “low information” individuals, the suckers P.T. Barnum said were born every minute.
We’ve got the Fox News carnival barkers spewing hatred and lies, the NRA and its chief spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, the good guys, bad guys, bigger-guns fantasists, and we’ve got all the enemies needed to destroy us from within.
The NRA, in its paranoid belief that the lamest of gun laws will lead to all guns being confiscated, has resulted in a flood of assault weapons and big magazines and it’s too late to do anything about it. There is no going back.
Watch for the next surge in gun sales that follows every mass shooting. Whoever first said that most failed societies rot from within, along with Barnum and his sucker theory, was indeed prescient.
Williaim Muto
SaddleBrooke
Zoo expansion makes Tucson a better place
My family fully supports the Reid Park Zoo expansion. We visit the zoo often and thoroughly enjoy the animals, the atmosphere and the staff, and we are so very much looking forward to the new addition and new animals at the zoo.
The zoo supports community access programs and is free to many groups including 501(c)(3) patrons. Classes of schoolchildren come to the zoo to meet the animals and learn about them, the geography of where they come from and conservation that will keep the species alive and healthy.
Over 500,000 visitors come from Tucson, surrounding areas and places from all over the country. The revenue for the city and for the zoo is substantial and necessary.
There were public meetings held with no objection. Only when money was spent, contractors hired and the zoo was ready to go were there objections.
Support the zoo expansion. It will make Tucson better.
Melinda Howell
Oro Valley
Ducey incapable
of thinking ahead
As a retired internist and fellow of the American College of Physicians, I must express my dismay at Gov. Doug Ducey removing the restrictions on COVID, and no longer permitting localities such as Tucson to maintain mandatory restrictions.
This is irresponsible. The message that “the pandemic is over” is certainly misguided. Most people are not immunized yet, variants may prove troublesome, and we already have problems convincing large portions of the population to use precautions.
We went through this before. During a lull, restrictions were relaxed and a large spike in cases resulted. Ducey doesn’t seem capable of looking ahead or understanding that we still need to be cautious.
As a medical professional, Dr. Cara Christ should be advising against this cavalier attitude. Another surge will result in more deaths, illness and hospitalizations.
You need to avoid the politics and use best medical practices. Medical ethics should come before political considerations.
Norman Epstein, M.D., FACP
Midtown
Shootings spawn display of ignorance
Another shooting and another deluge of uninformed letters. People professing knowledge show their ignorance in their attempt to pile on for the cause. Congress is no less complicit.
The rifle used in the Colorado shooting was not an “assault weapon,” no more than its military counterpart. It functions identically to most other semi-automatic rifles on the market: one trigger pull, one shot.
It is no more deadly than most of those others, and is far less deadly than many. It is only scary because of ignorance and TV. It is the most popular type in the legal, shooting community, but accounts for a minuscule number of deaths per year.
Please, if you are going to be politically active, learn at least the basics about your subject.
William Werries
Marana
Sen. Leach making
us a laughingstock
Our Arizona Legislature has been working overtime lately, with many anti-voting laws that will attempt to eliminate our voices. And now allowing conversion therapy?
State Sen. Vince Leach needs to sit through this conversion therapy himself before he starts submitting laws pertaining to issues which he’s said he knows nothing about.
Being different from you does not make it a bad thing. All of you in our Legislature need to get out of your offices and sit with the people who would be affected by your stupid laws. Shame on you for such draconian laws.
We are minutes away from losing our rights not only in Arizona but every other Republican-led state.
The next election is not far off. I truly hope each and every one of our Republican officeholders will be handily replaced by compassionate and thoughtful Democrats.
You make Arizona a laughingstock.
Joyce Harrison
East side
