A man plays trumpet near crosses set up as a memorial near Bourbon Street on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans, the day after an attack by a man driving a truck down Bourbon street in the French Quarter. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
Evil on Bourbon Street
Was it evil outside our borders that invaded Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day or was it backsliding within?
People say, “America is great because she is good.” Is it possible that we are no longer as great and as good as we say we are?
At the first press conference we heard, “Our law enforcement are built for dealing with evil.”
We immediately assure the world that we are “resilient,” meaning we will bounce back quickly to greatness.
How can we be so resilient when we are ever more anxious, fearful, irresponsible, hypocritical, dishonest, and maybe even a little bit evil ourselves? We are always looking for foreigners to blame but we always forget to look in the mirror.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Downtown
Steve Christy gaslights himself
Now comes Steve Christy, the irrelevant member of the Board of Supervisors, complaining about “gaslighting.” He says Tucson’s leaders want to distract him from Trump’s mass deportation plans to send federal troops into Arizona in a plan to round up 11 million migrants.
What could go wrong? Just ask the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were put in internment camps in 1942. When has any ethnic mass deportation brought anything but terror?
Accordingly, why should we pay attention to Christy at all? In 2024, he voted against the public interest more than 100 times in fits of pique.
Christy voted against abortion rights, early childhood education, road maintenance, affordable housing, heat mitigation, libraries, and homeless shelters — and voted against the repeal of Arizona’s total abortion ban.
With this deplorable, nihilistic voting record, Supervisor Christy has demonstrated he is a lonely, whining sound in the desert.
Larry Bodine
Foothills
Vouchers in 2025
Ringing in the New Year let’s take a fresh look at Arizona’s innovative, first-in-the-country education voucher program, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Passed in 2022 by Gov. Ducey (R) it promised that poor families have choices and no longer economically locked into underperforming government schools and would be at least revenue-neutral; when a child transfers to a new school, whether charter, private, public, home, or religious the taxpayer cost of educating that student also transfers.
Charged with executing this noble goal in 2025 is Gov. Hobbs (D) who as test scores go down the toilet continues to endorse the mantra of public school teachers’ unions: just pay us more and we promise to properly educate our state’s children. Her only roadblock is Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) so we now have gridlock.
I can take heart for the New Year realizing that education always begins in the home and that’s best and free.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Wrong as usual
Trump, checking his facts carefully as usual, said the New Orleans assassin was proof that “the criminals coming in are worse than the ones we have.” The man was born here and had been in the U. S. army for 8 or so years but sought work in Texas unsuccessfully for years afterward.
If God himself sent Trump to the U. S. it was to punish us as he did with Attila, called “The Scourge of God.”
By the way, the passage in Paul about God sending all rulers was meant to keep Christians from pointless rebellion in view of the short time left in history. Several times Paul said the time is very short, almost at the end.
Also if Trump has such a high I.Q. why doesn’t he let his grades in college be known?
Herbert Schneidau
Foothills
Symptoms of fascism
Fascism has been studied at length for the past 100 years now. We know its symptoms and yet we ignore them. What we have seen since the ascendancy of Trump is the utter hatred toward those on the “left.” This hatred was also seen in Italy and Germany during their experiment with fascism. There is a need to drive a wedge between groups in fascism, based upon those accepting fascism and those that do not. Those not accepting fascism are seen as monsters, which have abandoned patriotism and therefore need to be punished. In fascism, the true patriots are only on the “right,” therefore those on the “left” are traitors. In Germany, the death camps had thousands of those on the “left” waiting for punishment. Anger, division, bigotry, hatred, sadism, vengeance and violence are the hallmarks of fascism. These characteristics dominate because the leaders of fascism (sociopaths) have typically been those with no virtues and only having the vices listed above. Trump is a sociopath. You have been warned.
Steve Rasmussen
Foothills
Future shock
As Jan 20 approaches, get ready for the real weaponization of government. The SCOTUS chambers are loaded, DJT is appointing loose cannons to government positions, the DOGE Duo is preparing to fire at will and Trump loyalists are primed to begin McCarthy-era type prosecutions against DJT’s perceived enemies. Combine this with black Sharpie editing or burying of any report that triggers Trump, shooting off texts without hesitation or validation of facts, and that he feels no restraint since he was given immunity by SCOTUS. We are all in for 4 years of shell shock.
Dianne Lethaby
East side
I like Joe
President Joe Biden is an American hero. He spent just shy of 50 years serving our country. He was a Senator, Vice President and President in that time span. As President he inherited a botched Covid plan because of DJT’s late understanding of the problem. Joe stuck with Ukraine against Putin’s aggression. The stock market had a record performance the last two years. Inflation went up during Covid, because he gave money to people to keep them fed and housed. He got inflation down after the vaccine stopped the spread. Gas is under $3 with Joe. Illegal immigration is down without threatening to take children away from immigrant parents. Food prices and rents are still high because of greed, not anything Joe did. Joe’s only failure was that he couldn’t serve his country into his 80s. Joe ran out of time, but not the desire to serve. God bless Joe Biden.
Richard Bechtold
West side
Trump blathers again
Once again Trump either does not know what he is talking about, in which case he should say nothing, or he is lying. The driver of the truck that killed 14 people in New Orleans and wounded many others was not an immigrant. He was born and raised in the United States and served in the Army. This person is a home-grown terrorist, not an immigrant as Trump stated. If a common citizen makes such a false claim, it is not a huge issue. When the future President of the United States makes such a false claim, how are we or any world leader to believe anything he says? If this was his first false statement we might forgive it, but this is a regular fare for him.
Don Ries
Southeast side
Re: ‘More immigration gaslighting’
In his Opinion piece about being “gaslit,” Steve Christy seems to forget that Tucson has long been an “immigrant welcoming city.” Who does he think cleans up the yards in his neighborhood, repairs roofs, and does other much needed work in our community? Immigrants are an important part of our Tucson and Pima County community and culture and most have resided here for years or decades, contributing also in many ways as volunteers in their communities. Is he saying he wants his neighbors separated from their loved ones and deported? I recommend he consider joining the Stop the Hate Collective and welcome his immigrant neighbors.
Sarah Roberts
West side
Breaking a commandment ... maybe two
December holiday happenings are over; gifts have been given and received. I always enjoy the festivities, except for one aspect of the popular, seemingly benign gift exchange. This exchange includes one odd rule — each person who brought a wrapped gift can either choose a different wrapped gift or swipe the opened gift of another. The person whose gift was taken puts on a brave smile and tries to join in the laughter and merriment. Who wants to be considered a Scrooge?
The gift exchange can bring out two of the worst vices of human nature: greed and stealing, both prohibited in The Ten Commandments.
Instead, I suggest giving either a thumbs up or down to a participant who wants a gift already chosen or maybe a friendly barter after the game. Although unsuccessful at barters I recently attempted, I’m glad I didn’t deprive anyone of a gift they may have wanted, or worse, break one or more Commandments that almost every person considers sacred.
Barbara Russek
North side
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
