AZ Senators support build back better budget plan
The climate crisis is imminent, and we must act now. Those words have been uttered by many climate activists, but right now the stakes and potential for meaningful change cannot be overstated. I am a college student and climate scientist-in-training, and I know it is absolutely critical that Congress passes the Build Back Better budget as is, with all its measures to cut air pollution, address Arizona’s water crisis, and provide much needed protection for public lands, intact.
I urge Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly to not block or propose cuts to the budget plan, and to stand up for it in its current form. We in Tucson are living in the third fastest-warming city in the country and in a state facing a mega-drought and water allocation cuts. Now is not the time for our elected officials to get cold feet about bold climate legislation. Now is the time to Build Back Better.
Stella Heflin
Midtown
Are you gullible?
Human beings are, and always have been, gullible. And there are, and have always been, individuals who know how to exploit that gullibility.
Politicians are trained to take advantage of gullible voters at all levels, especially Republicans.
Over 60% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe the “Big Lie” that Trump won the 2020 election. The gullible Republican voters, supporting Republicans in Congress and conspiracy theorists still believe that the 2020 election was fraudulent and Trump won. What is even more ridiculous is that belief has been directly rebutted by proven facts and tossed by multiple state and federal courts (more than 50 times) that noted there is zero evidence of any voter fraud.
To call oneself a “Republican” you must believe in “The Big Lie.”
Here is what is crazy. We have two major political parties in this country and one of them, and its leaders, seems itself unwilling or unable to direct the party in another direction.
Thomas Wilson
Northwest side
Texas war against women
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has decided that mask wearing is a personal choice and each person has a right to their own choices. Except, if you are a woman who is making the difficult decision on whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.
Republicans who espouse less government intrusion in citizen’s lives apparently do not consider interfering in a woman’s right to choose a government intrusion. These lawmakers only want a birth to happen.
No one has ever offered prenatal care, care for the child after birth, including schooling, getting enough to eat, or even asking if the household that the baby will come home into is safe.
People wring their hands worrying if Muslims will try to institute sharia law in the U.S. Well, don’t look now. But Texas has already instituted its own version of sharia law. These actions are shameful and shows how many on the right will go so far as to use an embryo for political purposes.
Ilene Scannell
Northeast side
Authoritarianism sounding familiar
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines authoritarianism as the principal of blind submission to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action. In government, authoritarianism denotes any political system that concentrates power in the hands of a leader or small elite group that is not constitutionally responsible to the body of the people.
Authoritarian leaders often exercise power arbitrarily without regard to existing bodies of law. They value order and control over personal freedom. A government run by authoritarianism is usually headed by a dictator.
Does any of this sound like what we have been experiencing in the past year or so? The key difference is we, the people have the opportunity to rest control of our lives back from the political, social, and environmental elite. Remember this the next time you have any opportunity to vote.
Cal Rooker
Northwest side
Air travel and global warming
Re: the Sept. 15 letter “Global warming.”
I totally agree the letter on this subject. I would like to add that it is not just the politicos’ air travel, it is everyone’s air travel that is causing the very under-publicized subject of the massive contribution the far overgrown airline industry makes to global warning and air pollution.
Air travel is the single most inefficient way to move anything, period. The most efficient way is by rail, period.
We citizens are now seeing the result of our government having given over the development of rail to private enterprise a century and a half ago. Having made that somewhat unforeseeable error, the least they could have done back in the 1950s would have been to work with railroads to develop a national high-speed rail system like those of other civilized nations.
Instead, they have given, and continue to give their blessing mainly to the airlines to the detriment of all of us. So how about some statistics on the airlines’ contribution to global warming?
Don Thompson
Marana
Get vaccinated
I am fed up with the anti-COVID-vaxxers. I come from a culture as a retired Army officer where “us vs. me” and “unit first” were the buzzwords. The many heroes we honor, those who either gave all or risked all, did so because the culture of common worth led to their individual sacrifices.
They didn’t say, “Screw you. What if your under 12-year-old can’t be vaccinated, I’ll do my own thing.”
Those heroes put us before me, period. In my myopic opinion, every child who can’t get vaccinated and dies from COVID is “killed” by those who want to exercise their “individual freedom,” and refuse to be vaccinated. So, get the shot, emulate those military heroes you hold high and put we the community before you, the self-centered individual.
Norman Patten
Midtown
Anti-vaxxers
Those individuals refusing the FDA approved COVID vaccine who have never received a flu, pneumonia, or shingles shot are to be understood as valid objectors. On the other hand, those who have received these shots in the past and still refuse the COVID vaccine must have politics behind their determination. This seems to be a pathetic reason that jeopardizes not only their life but also the lives of others they may come into contact with. May I say to them “Get a life! Save a life! Get vaccinated!”
Duane Harpet
Northwest side
