Thanks to Biden and Sen. Kelly
A year ago, Arizonans sent Joe Biden and Sen. Mark Kelly to Washington with a clear mandate to fix the economy, which had been wracked by the coronavirus pandemic. They got to work right away and passed the American Rescue Plan, and a year later we are still seeing the benefits. Thanks to Sen. Kelly and President Biden’s leadership, the economy has added nearly 7 million jobs nationwide, $8.5 billion in relief checks went out to 3.2 million Arizonans, and 1.5 million Arizona children were helped by the child tax credit, not to mention the businesses who were able to keep their doors open and their lights on. Recovering from the pandemic has not been easy and we are not out of the woods yet but it is worth looking back at how far we’ve come. I’m grateful to have leaders like Sen. Kelly and President Biden in Arizona’s corner and I know there are brighter days ahead.
Judy J. Gillies
Oro Valley
Title IX brought us a long way
To all the girls’ sports, coaches, players, and teams: It has been 50 years since Title IX was passed. Thank you, Title IX! You have given girls the opportunity for scholarships to compete on a higher level, and to become known to sports fans. Happy 50th, Title IX.
Mary Hines
Midtown
Nuclear war is a risk, but ...
While Vladimir Putin’s hordes commit genocide on the ground and from the air, the “free world” stands by, justifying its moral paralysis by asserting Ukraine is not part of NATO, and there’s too great a “risk” of provoking Putin into a nuclear war. True, that’s a risk, but the consequences of not acting, like implementing a “no fly” zone, are equally dire, like encouraging expanded Putin adventurism and Chinese aggression toward Taiwan. We’ve united the world in “condemning” Putin; we’ve enacted serious “sanctions” on Russia; we’re sending money and weapons; but these “actions” haven’t stopped the carnage. Mexico is not a NATO member. Would we stand by if Russia attacked Mexico? Israel is not a NATO member. Would we stand by if Russia attacked Israel, even at the risk of a nuclear conflict? Not a chance. Ukraine is no different.
Jack Graef
SaddleBrooke
Moscow concocts dangerous potion
The war that’s happening is both political and religious. We need governing bodies to protect us from bullies and power-driven dictators. We need religion for humility and to find that sense of oneness as in “We’re all in this together.” History has demonstrated that mixing politics and religion blurs the crucial boundary between these human concepts. Founders of the U.S. paid attention to this historical issue and tried to separate church and state while providing for freedom of religion. Russia has historical roots that dangerously mixed the two, leading to oppression and dictatorship. Putin is trying to re-create an all-powerful political/religious nuclear nation, conserving an old idea that always fails. A similar struggle is going on in the U.S. threatening our crucial separation of church and state and our system of government checks and balances. Whether conservative, liberal, independent or progressive, we need to discuss and vote on these common issues with love.
Don Fish
Green Valley
GOP expanding government reach
Republicans want small government, less regulation. Why then are they supporting these bills in the Arizona Legislature?
Teachers cannot honor students’ requests for confidentiality. Parents cannot allow gender affirming medical treatment for children. Tax cuts overriding the education surcharge voters enacted.
Expand vouchers, sending taxpayer money to charter and private schools, some of which are owned by state legislators.
Give gun owners more freedom to use deadly force. Exempt guns from taxes. Allow guns on school campuses.
Cities and counties must follow state-mandated spending on law enforcement and minimum wage. Hand-count ballots. Ban civic organizations from helping with voter registration. End mail ballots. Mandate one-day-only voting. Require supermajority to pass voter initiatives. There are many more like these.
Call your state legislators or Senate President Karen Fann 602-926-5874 and House Speaker Rep. Rusty Bowers 602-926-3128. Ask them to reject these awful bills.
Ask them to support the bill helping low-income women postpartum.
Lisa Wolfe
North side
NATO cowardice dooms Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has already won. He bombs and kills, sends in tanks and troops and what does the rest of the world do? Close bank accounts and apply sanctions that he laughs at. Ukraine will fall due to the cowardly inaction of the so-called NATO countries sitting on their hands while Putin does whatever he wants. It’s a joke. Putin is KGB. He understands one thing. He who has and uses the most force wins. Period.
He knows that the rest of the world is scared of him and what he might do if force meets force. So, the Ukraine will pay with the devastation of their country and their freedoms and still all the rest of the world can think of doing is closing bank accounts and seizing yachts. Pathetic.
Robert Diedrich
Northeast side
Dual math tracks to decide careers
Arizona has a bill that just passed the House of Representatives that makes Algebra Two a nonmandatory course if replaced by another math course such as Applied Math. By creating two mathematical paths, schools end up categorizing students. This student will take advanced math and this one won’t and so on. In modern society, math determines everything. Therefore, whether a student continues on a path of what is considered a more academic form of math or a path of what is considered more life-based or reality-based math contributes to who they will be after high school. Stereotypically, colleges will look at Applied Math and see blue-collar and they will look at Algebra Two and see the next doctor. The problem doesn’t come with the careers students want to take because, in the end, you can have the physicists without the cashier. The problem comes when schools preemptively decide which path a student will take based on their mathematical prowess.
Allison Kuester
Oro Valley
Refugee crisis a kind of attack
An attack on one NATO nation is an attack on all. Vladimir Putin’s war, which has produced 2.7 million refugees currently flooding into various NATO nations, constitutes an attack. Putin’s war against Ukraine is producing these refugees, which serve to destabilize several NATO democracies. It is an attack by refugees, not an army.
NATO should respond to Putin’s aggression with its full military might, after announcing the action is a humanitarian act. When Putin stops producing refugees, NATO will stop attacking.
Biden should announce that, while the U.S. will utilize its full military might along with all the NATO countries, under no circumstances will the U.S. use nuclear weapons. No first strike, no second strike.
This gambit is to call Putin’s bluff.
The calculation is that, if Putin moves to use nukes, someone close to him, who recognizes the sanctity of life, will remove him.
Mansur Johnson
Northwest side
A hate-fueled time machine
The politics in this country is regressing to the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, thanks to the GOP. We again have state laws designed to discourage or prevent voting, along with threats against poll workers, and laws that will put the LGBT community back in closets. We have book-banning and laws telling teachers what they can and can’t teach along with threats of job loss and potential jail time for telling the truth. And, of course, in some states women are losing their right to control their own bodies.
Hate is again an accepted political weapon with bomb threats and racial and ethnic terrorism against Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians. We see marches by Neo-Nazi and other hate groups (the ‘nice people” according to the previous president).
But in the bizzarro world of the modern GOP, many hate scientists and medical professionals and support murderous dictators who invade peaceful neighbors to reconstruct the Soviet Union. The modern GOP deserves an Ig Nobel prize for reversing time and distorting history.
Vance Holliday
Foothills
Republicans try to rig the system
Re: the March 1 article “AZ GOP: Voting early is illegal.”
The true headline should read GOP: Voting is illegal. With all the work focused on making voting difficult, Republicans throughout the country should just be upfront about their wishes. Sure, they frame it as keeping elections safe from fraud, but they only want Republicans to win. No one else gets to vote. With all the legitimate areas of concern in Arizona, our Republican-run Legislature focuses on voting fraud and guns, guns, guns.
Gerry Hicks
Southwest side
