Protect our home
Our home is burning up. Yet there are those who are intent on pouring more oil and gas on the flames and those who are content to sit back and watch the fires worsen.
We cannot allow that to continue. We must remind our U.S. representatives that 71% of Arizonans want the federal government to do more to combat global warming.
We must remind them that extreme heat, severe drought, widespread wildfires, diminished water resources, and depleted forests are denuding our land, destroying our wildlife, and endangering our lives.
As one of the world’s leading polluters and contributors to climate change, we must demand that our representatives do better.
Since some environmental changes are no longer reversible, the cost of doing nothing is simply too great.
Now is the time to act.
We owe it to ourselves, our future generations, and our home planet.
Jacolyn Marshall
Oro Valley
“One religion?”
To quote from the msnnewsfeed: “Michael Flynn wants to make it clear that in the US, ‘If we are going to have one nation under God — which we must — we have to have one religion’.”
Which one? While most Americans probably identify as Christian, in the U.S. there is also Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, tribal religions, pagan religions, New Agers, etc. Also there are agnostics and atheists. Before the revolution, the framers of the Constitution had to deal with the official religion of England, so the very first freedom they put in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights is freedom of religion. This means that as long as you don’t hurt yourself, other people, the environment, and basically obey the law, you can worship (or not) as you please.
Flora Frederick
Midtown
Biden’s higher gas prices
In 2020, under Donald Trump, the average gallon of gasoline in Tucson cost $2 a gallon. Today under Joe Biden, in Pima County it is at $3.49. Under Trump, for the first time in 75 years, America became a net exporter of oil and natural gas, and exploration was expanded. America broke from its dependency on dictator countries in the Middle East and Russia. Biden has cancelled the Keystone Pipeline, ended exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and suspended new oil and gas leases on federal lands. The result, a gallon of gasoline today is about $1.49 higher. Now Biden blames OPEC for not pumping more oil. Higher prices at the pump equate essentially to a national tax on most Americans who drive. It has increased the cost of transporting goods and services. I believe all of this is intentional by Biden, to force people into buying electric vehicles, which have shorter driving distances, long recharging times, and need expensive, about $5,500, battery replacement after about 10 years, sooner in hot climates.
Darrin Styles
Midtown
Not Black and White
Re: the Nov. 12 article “Ambivalence of Black voters isn’t enough.”
In LZ Granderson’s column he quoted Nikole Hannah-Jones saying “I think most Black Americans are ambivalent about political parties…”. Perhaps they are struggling to get by like many of us.
A few Washington Democrats (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Sen. Joe Manchin) seem to be more interested in their welfare than that of the populace. They along with all of the Republicans are able to prevent needed progress. Democrats want the poor and middle class to succeed.
The problem is not black and white. As always, it is rich and poor.
To say that Democrats “seem to think that’s good enough” is a gross generalization that is just plain wrong. LZ, please critique the problem makers. Most Democrats are trying to fix the problems.
Ray Omdahl
Green Valley
Border wall halted, Biden gets fence
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent $455,000 of taxpayer money hiring a Delaware contractor to build a fencing structure around Biden’s Delaware summer beach home. Of course, the fencing is meant to deter and stop illegal trespassers. It was just last month that DHS announced it was cancelling all remaining border “barrier” contracts in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, the epicenter of mass undocumented entry by Central Americans and others. Millions of dollars worth of border wall materials, i.e., 10,000 steel panels, paid for with taxpayer money, currently sits rusting away in Texas. Other than the use of Title 42, Biden has done nothing to secure our border. A record number of people were apprehended by the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2021. Biden does not seem to care. When was the last time Biden even mentioned the border? A September 2021 article by The Hill.com reported that Biden has not visited the border since 2008 as vice president. Quite pathetic!
Terry Garland
East side
Over 100,000 drug deaths
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that for the first time, there have been 100,000 deaths in America from drug overdoses. A major element of that is fentanyl, commonly smuggled into the country from Mexico. You can blame COVID and Joe Biden’s border policies for the drug overdose deaths: COVID, because of people having been shuttered in their homes and being depressed. Biden, because of his reversal of Donald Trump’s border policies except Title 42, where in FY 2021 a historic record number of over 1,660,000 apprehensions of undocumented entrants by the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol has been preoccupied with apprehending these people and processing them. Over 140,000 were unaccompanied minors. Border Patrol has not had the manpower or time to do normal border narcotics interdictions. More illegal drugs flowed into the country from Mexico. This has all enriched the cartels to our detriment. Biden deserves responsibility for the historic number of people who came here illegally and the historic number of drug overdose deaths!
Alan Jeffords
Midtown
