Water shortage
Re: the Oct. 6 letter “How to handle water shortage.”
Once again someone is extolling the virtues of getting the government out of the picture and allowing private enterprise to handle water supplies. This time it’s tapping vast supplies in the Northwest and Canada. No amount of rational thinking or factual information seems to convince these folks of the folly of this notion. Not the myriad legal challenges of ownership, permitting and environmental restrictions. Not the absurd amount of infrastructure, involving materials, labor, pumps and energy costs to move the monstrous quantities of water to make a difference to any end user. Not to mention the return on investment for a commodity that is treated and safe, now being delivered to my house for a cost of seven gallons for 2 cents. Maybe if some fraudster proposes an enterprise bringing water to Tucson from the Yukon and sells stock to ground floor investors like this contributor and others sold on this idea, we may see fewer of these letters.
Gary Susko
Midtown
Educate, empower, choose love
Five years ago, I experienced dirty politics. Two years ago, I experienced judicial abuse. This month (October), I celebrate Domestic Violence Awareness and Bullying Prevention. This month, I seek to empower each of us to respond to abuses of power.
Fear and unresolved trauma are some reasons for abuse of power. These keep many from accepting what they cannot control, so they seek to control situations for “the safety” of others. They speak “on behalf of others,” instead of empowering others to speak.
The good news? We can educate, empower, and elevate others:
1. Set healthy boundaries! 2. Call out others. 3. Love one another, not as you want to be loved, but as the one you love wants to be loved. 4. Elect leaders who understand policy and their legalities for the protection of each of us and all of us.
“I kept looking for someone to solve the problem, and then I realized: I AM SOMEONE.” (Anonymous)
Choose love.
Felicia Chew
Midtown
Support Clinco, Lambert at PCC
Serving on the TUSD board for the last four years, I have seen firsthand how Pima Community College, under the leadership of Lee Lambert and board member Demion Clinco has turned things around and is changing the lives of students in our community. We all remember the issues PCC faced years ago and have watched the college, under their leadership, become a model in the country now recognized by Harvard, Forbes and Aspen Institute. The college is changing the lives of students and we need to stand behind these leaders as they champion this impressive transformation. Let’s not be distracted by disgruntled employees or tiered and unsubstantiated complaints of a few members of the public.
Leila Counts, TUSD
Governing Board member
Midtown
Debates
Debates are important to democracy. You have to stand on a stage and argue your point of view in spite of being told that your ideas are crazy, half thought out, stupid and all others sorts of things.
Katie Hobbs doesn’t think that she could stand on a stage, face an opponent and defend herself under stress and attack. As governor, she will have to face what she calls “turning the debate into a circus.”
How will she succeed at the job of governor when she cannot debate her opponents before she holds an office that will be debating her constantly?
We have a president who employed the same tactics, using the same arguments and now finds it difficult to lead and govern a country in which everybody doesn’t agree.
Rich Barnes
East side
Truth and Lies
Re: the Oct. 25 article “Engel is absolutely wrong about defunding the police.”
Justin Harris’ opinion of Kirsten Engel needs fact checked. Engel does not want to defund the police, and she does not encourage criminals to commit crime in Arizona. She also did not vote to increase IRS staff because she is not in the U.S. House yet. Her opponent has not spoken out against the criminals who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, nor has he spoken out against voter intimidation his party encourages. So who is really for law and order? Kirsten Engel’s opponents know that she is a water rights and environmental expert who supports total equality of all people regardless of race, religion, gender or who they love. Their candidate lacks the qualifications to serve in the U.S. House so they resort to distorting the truth and blatant lies.
Colleen Van Leuven
Oro Valley
C’mon
It’s one thing to be ticked off at Democrats, blaming them for war in Ukraine and its consequences, the pandemic and its consequences, more people wanting to enter the U.S. (and more people being refused, which is odd, given the millions of unfilled jobs), and climate change, and quite another to replace them with Republicans/election deniers who have shown repeatedly no appetite nor aptitude for governing, at both state and national levels, but seek government office for power, retribution, punishment, less democracy, wishing to curtail or eliminate health care, weaken/eliminate Social Security, remove regulations meant to reduce climate change and monopolistic efforts altering the balance between consumer and provider, having no plans for anything negative or positive. The implications of election deniers if in office means discarding votes in order to achieve their claims, and crooked machines in 2024. And McCarthy, Trump’s pet monkey, if House Speaker, to undo Jan. 6 investigations, and reconsider Ukrainian aid. Is he also under Putin’s thumb?
Charles Larson
Green Valley
History training
Re: the Oct. 27 letter “Woke recruiting.”
The Daily Star carried an article recently to the effect that nationally military recruitment has declined. A letter followed suggesting that a core reason is our military is now providing training/education to its members on “woke” subjects, mostly concerning race relations.
America has had a very complicated history with race. We once embraced legal slavery. We sacrificed a lot of lives before that practice was eliminated. Then a portion of the country adopted “Jim Crow” laws to legally subject some of our citizens to a second-class standing. Later, the nation adopted “civil rights” laws to attempt to redress the injustices. Those laws and policies are still resisted by some Americans. And our culture still reflects that history.
Methinks the letter writer is in denial.
So I guess I would not call the military training “woke.” I would call it “history,” which is still relevant today.
Jim Greene
Marana
Thank you, Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker might be an incoherent liar, but he’s done the country a service. He peeled off the thin veneer of Republican false piety about abortion, confirming what Democrats have always assumed: It’s not about saving babies; it’s about Republican power. The party seeking to outlaw abortions, imprison doctors who perform them and force preteens to bear incest babies, adores Walker, a zero-exceptions advocate (except for women he has impregnated). The Georgia senatorial candidate, who lies about everything from his high school class ranking to the number of out-of-wedlock kids he forgot to mention, apparently pressured two ex-girlfriends to abort his progeny — and paid $700 to one who did. Have Republicans denounced him as a hypocritical murderer? Of course not, because what matters is Republican control of the Senate. So knock it off with your pro-life “principles.’’ Walker proves you don’t have any.
Jake Jacobs
Foothills
The truth train
The state of affairs in the U.S. is now one of divided truths. Any time in history that we have seen a flirtation with fascism, we have also seen the truth divided into two tracks. The truth train that this nation has seen in the past is now running alongside a parallel train; a fantasy train, a mirage. With these two conflicting truths in place, it sets up a clash between these two trains and those riding them. The continuous bombardment of misinformation by those using fascist politics destroys the information space in society. Opinion becomes just as valid as facts, and the old truth can be replaced by an authoritarian mirage. Fascism has never been about the truth, and the reason goes back to the creator of fascism: Mussolini. As a sociopath, his sense of reality was shifted. Sociopaths are master manipulators and when in leadership, push their magical thinking on others. Nearly every fascist leader has been a sociopath, and that has created an alternate reality among believers.
Steve Rasmussen
Foothills
Brownshirts at drop boxes
A federal judge says it’s all right for a bunch of fascists with weapons watching you drop your ballots and oh yeah they are taking pictures of your license plates? I never thought I would see fascist thugs sitting in front of those boxes! Are they going to break into those boxes and place fascist Republican votes in those boxes? My Vietnam veteran buddies are calling me and asking this question, are they denying your right to vote? Are your Arizona citizens starting the civil war in Arizona? So sad Arizona is getting this bad publicity! In my opinion, it could start here a civil war! God forgive me, but it could.
David E. Leon
Vail
You must vote for democracy
I’ve been listening to radio reports of how cultural and racial demographics usually vote. These reports said: For Hispanics, it’s religion; for Evangelical Christians, it’s abortion; for urban, non-college, it’s crime. The lists go on and on, dividing us all into some category of voting inclination or habit. Bottom line, we vote for ourselves and our personal religious, economic or other moral compasses.
But this time you vote, your precious way of expressing yourself could elect people who will work to destroy your right to vote, while overtly or tacitly encouraging their followers to harass and intimidate you at polling places. They promise to upend the very system of voting that ensures that your voice will be heard.
Bush had his axis of evil, and now we have ours: Lake, Finchem, Masters.
So this time you cannot simply vote your pocketbook or immigration or crime or loyally follow party lines no matter what. This time you have a responsibility beyond your own self interests and take one for democracy.
Rick Rappaport
Oro Valley
Rhetoric shifts
I am following the candidates of the newly drawn District 16, looking for someone who can represent my interests. I’m watching the transition of one candidate, Rob Hudelson, as he tries to appeal to a broader electorate in the general election. It’s an example of the right shifting the rhetoric to be more electable. In the Primary Pamphlet it’s “The Republican Party platform is exceptional because it is biblical.” “Marriage is between one man and one woman” -Matthew 19.4-6. “What the left fears most is when people of God base their arguments upon the timeless truth found in the Scriptures.” -Matthew 7.24-29
In the General Election Pamphlet it’s “our state and country needs more regular Joes running for office.” And pretty common right-wing trope. In a recent campaign flyer, he and T.J. Shope are for term limits. He should work on his grammar (it’s “need,” not “needs”), but he’s still not getting my vote.
Dee Ann Barber
West side
Scare tactics
The recent campaign speech by Kari Lake concerning fentanyl was disingenuous at best. She correctly outlines the dangers and deaths caused by fentanyl use and then promises to combat the problem by declaring an invasion on her first day in office and “securing” our border with Mexico. The CATO Institute (hardly the lame-stream media) recently published a review of fentanyl smuggling using CBP, ICE, and DHS data. The findings were that 90% of drug seizures are at ports of entry or roadside checkpoints and 91% of those arrested are U.S. citizens. Theatrical scare tactics and misdirected actions have no place in a serious discussion of an important issue.
Jack Garner
Southeast side
Are you better off?
A campaign sign asks, “Are you better off today than you were in 2020?” Let me think. In 2020, I was unemployed for seven months when my employer completely shut down due to COVID. I couldn’t travel to visit family out-of-state. I couldn’t eat in restaurants, go to the dentist or get my hair cut. I couldn’t go to movies, concerts, museums or sporting events. As a senior, I had to worry that every trip to the grocery store could be a death sentence if I caught COVID. Am I better off today? Hell yes! Aren’t we all?
Wes Clark
East side
Gas prices
Re: the Oct. 26 letter “A vote for Kelly is a vote for Biden’s devastating agenda.”
Arizonans feel that gas prices are just too high. It’s just surprising to me that so many haven’t a clue on what causes this. A writer today called out President Biden and his policies as the problem. Is $4.32 a gallon in Arizona killing you at the pumps? For some on fixed income, maybe. But look at the world; inflation is hurting economies everywhere, not just the U.S. The U.S. is doing so much better than Britain, Germany, Japan and most of our allies. The pound is now almost equal to the dollar. A huge drop. The cost of a gallon of gas in the U.S. is less than three-quarters of the world. Hong Kong pays $11.13 per gallon, the UK $7.15 per gallon. This is due to a war in Ukraine, a pandemic, supply chain issues and the Saudis cutting supplies. No GOP candidate can change these facts. But they can lie about them.
John Bingham
Northwest side
Election lies
When Blake Masters debated with Mark Kelly in the race for the Senate seat, he fell back to the typical Republican playbook of rhetorical politics: paint the current economic situation and that at the border in bleakest colors (all wrong), sound off in shrill tones, accuse the opponent of malfeasance while in D.C., and use contradictory language as to the abortion issue. Worse, like all the other Republicans, he has relied on the Trump mantra that the 2020 election was stolen. Has anyone ever realized that we all got only one ballot, and that no Republican has ever questioned the validity of the election results when it concerned themselves? They want to have the cake and eat it too. Sure, inflation is currently very high, worldwide; this is not U.S.-made. But unemployment is extremely low, the economy is booming, so the Republicans resort to extremist positions in their rhetoric and have nothing to offer in concrete terms, except Trump, the hypnotist of the masses, and 19th-century anti-abortion arguments.
Albrecht Classen
Midtown
