Conservative personal responsibility
Re: the Oct. 28 article “Dads take on school safety monitoring.”
The author says she is a conservative because of two words: personal responsibility, which she defines as “the willingness to both accept the importance of standards that society establishes for individual behavior and to make strenuous personal efforts to live by those standards.” Hmmm. And liberals don’t exhibit these traits?
Let’s talk about the anti-vax/anti-maskers that have resulted in higher than average COVID rates in many red states. Is that personal responsibility?
Let’s talk about the conservatives that supported the Jan. 6 insurrection. Is that personal responsibility?
Let’s talk about the conservatives that promote the Big Lie. Is that personal responsibility?
Oh, I forgot. “Freedom” trumps “personal responsibility.”
Tom Ryan
East side
Working across the Senate aisle
There have been several letters to the editor praising Sen. Kyrsten Sinema for trying to work across the aisle. I haven’t heard anything about any Republican senators working across the aisle. It takes at least two to tango.
Howard Lambert
Tubac
Opinions can be misleading
Re: the Nov. 2 article “Nuclear energy plants are just too expensive.”
Russell Lowe’s opinion article says Mr. Goldberg’s article misses the mark by a mile. He should talk, his claim that the cost of a nuclear kilowatt hour is about 28.5¢ is ludicrous and certainly out-of-date. It’s more like one-third of that, including waste disposal, and his main argument is based on that false number. Simple searches on the web, such as “Economics of Nuclear Power” will yield current and accurate information. Per the U.S. Department of Energy as of March 24, 2021, “Nuclear Power is the Most Reliable Energy Source…” It’s available 93% of the time while solar is only available 25% and wind a little over 35%. Who wants rolling blackouts, winter or summer, like most third-world nations experience? Readers should do their own research instead of accepting opinions.
Jerry Knoski
East side
Rhetoric v. reality
Re: The Nov. 3 article “AZ’s ban on school mask mandates is struck down.”
This article brought another reminder of our state legislature’s disdain for the will of the voters.
It’s not about the mask mandate. It’s about the process.
Instead of following the required legislative process that policy changes not be lumped together as a hodgepodge of unrelated substantive items in a state budget bill, our legislature did just that.
Its rhetoric is that the legislature “follows the law.” Its reality is far different. Other recent examples include a number of attempted efforts to nullify voter initiatives: taxation to fund education, marijuana law reform, etc.
Marshall Lehman
Foothills
Veterans Day
Many of us have visited military cemeteries here and abroad: Arlington, Normandy, Flanders, the Punchbowl in Hawaii. It’s heartbreaking to see the crosses, Stars of David, row by row, and read the messages of grieving parents etched on the headstones. Many, just kids, never able to live out their lives but dying for us and democracy.
What would they think of America today? An evil sociopathy called Trumpism, a nation bristling with assault weapons with daily mass shootings, school board members physically threatened over masks, flight attendants punched and beaten, news channels lying unashamedly to raging fantasists who seem to resent the fact they’re maybe not as sentient or smart as others. What would they think of the selfish dolts who reject climate change, life-saving vaccines and equal rights for all.
They’d find a hateful, rude and crude rabble who profess godliness and patriotism but have no idea of what these words really mean. Would they think the way we behave today a fitting tribute to their sacrifice?
William Muto, Vet, USAF
SaddleBrooke
Sinema needs to protect voting rights, end filibuster
The Senate is broken. The Republican “minority” acts in bad faith constantly, including over-utilizing the filibuster to block everything they can.
We should not need 60 votes to pass a voting rights bill that is our best chance at protecting democracy from egregious voter suppression and perpetual minority control, as orchestrated by a party that benefits from disenfranchising Americans. We need Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to reconsider her stance and end the filibuster. We elected her to represent us, to work with Democratic leadership, and to help enact meaningful change on behalf of all Arizonans and all Americans. None of that can happen without ending the filibuster.
Sinema has substantial power and influence to empower her constituents. Our votes are our voices. Republican leaders at every level are taking measures to mute those voices. We need our senator to hear us and amplify our alarm at their outrageous voter suppression strategies.
Sara Nixon-Kirschner
Northeast side
