Tucson Speaks out: Sept. 18 letters of the day

Brava (once again!) Linda Ronstadt

I admire Linda Ronstadt for so much, but mostly for writing: "It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit. I don't just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there's that.

"For me, it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said meets the criteria for torture.

"There is no forgiving or forgetting the heartbreak he caused."

Robert Kafes

Midtown

Kirsten Engel for US Congress District 6

Have you been wanting a proven champion for Arizona in Congress? Kirsten Engel is who you’ve been waiting for. Her strong roots in our community and her voting record in our Legislature make her a voice you can trust for the betterment of our state.

As a legislator, Kirsten sought to improve our public schools, protect our water supply, promote clean energy, pass common-sense gun safety laws, and protect our democracy as voting rights and women’s reproductive freedom were being attacked.

In Congress, Kirsten Engel will work to expand the middle-class and build an even stronger economy with better paying jobs for everyone with or without a college education.

She will work to combat climate change and conserve Arizona’s limited water reserves by hastening our transition to lower-cost clean energy.

And she will continue to fight for women’s reproductive freedom by restoring abortion rights and making them the law of the land.

Kirsten Engel deserves your vote.

Beth G Smith

Oro Valley

Seeking single-party rule

As our GOP becomes more authoritarian, it’s drifting toward the establishment of a one-party political system. How did this happen? As the intolerance of the left, by the right has grown over the years, so has the hate. This division was exacerbated by Trump’s absolutist polarizing rhetoric, demonizing the left at his numerous rallies. His statement, “You won’t have to vote anymore”, shows his desire for single party rule. The far-right lawyer, Leonard Leo has expressed his need to destroy the left, showing his preference for single party rule. Those on the right, wanting single party rule are de facto accepting authoritarian rule. Authoritarianism is dominated by political bigotry. Both communism and fascism are single party systems with no wiggle room for other ideas. Any elections they have are a sham. As a nation, we need to be striving for more parties and more ideas, not less. Accepting single-party rule is a dark path and one that our founders would not have approved.

Steve Rasmussen

Foothills

Replace Wendy Rogers

Editor,

Thank you for publishing Larry Fleischman's letter to the editor, "Shame," in which he said that Wendy Rogers came across to him as a fascist.

Disdain and disregard for democratic institutions coupled with racism is a defining characteristic of fascism. Rogers support for the January 6 terrorists who violently attacked Congress and stopped the certification of our election, and her belief that people of color were to blame for the doors falling off of inflight Boeing airplanes, does suggest fascism. A large majority of her Senate colleagues censored her.

In the 1930s, Jewish intellectuals who experienced fascism warned the world that fascism could rise anywhere.

Haley Creighton should be elected to replace Wendy Rogers in the Arizona's Senate. Legislative District 7 voters should vote for the candidate who values our institutions and supports fairness and justice for all people: Haley Creighton.

Dave Gallagher

Foothills

Love versus hate

What do the following two sentences have in common?:

"The city should have made him hold a rally in the gutter where he and his supporters could have felt more at home.”

“It’s time America to select love over hate, peace over divisiveness, and intelligence over fantasy and lies.”

Answer: They both were in the same letter to the editor, “Trump use of Ronstadt Music Hall a disgrace”.

Seems to me, the writer is not practicing what he is preaching in the second quote.

Rosalie Wright

Oro Valley

The numbers do not lie

I believe that if we look at numbers only we will know who to vote for in November.

These are not my figures. These figures come from the Federal Reserve, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Energy Information Agency, and the NASDAQ.

I have tried my best to fact check these numbers.

Inflation under Trump was 1.8%

Under Biden -Harris currently 2.9%

Gas +5.4% ($2.89 gal.) under Trump

Under Biden Harris +46.6 % ($3.50 gal)

30-yr Mortgage under Trump at 3.48 %

Under Biden-Harris 6-7%

Rent cost under Trump up 11.8%

Under Biden-Harris 21.6%

Nasdaq under Trump up 138.2

Under Biden-Harris at 39.4%

Groceries up 6.5% under Trump

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Biden-Harris up 20.9%

Electricity under Trump up 4.2%

Under Biden-Harris -up 29.6%

Real Hourly Wages under Trump up 6.8%

Under Biden-Harris up 2.2%

You can vote by emotion, or age or you can look at the numbers — I have.

Tom McGorray

Northwest side

Equity vs. equal

Re: the Sept. 16 letter "Equity vs. equal."

The letter writer "buried the lead" in his letter. While he purports to speak of his disdain of "leveling the economic playing fields", what his racial trope is really about is not giving any more money to Black people. These kind of letters, mostly from the right wing, is what continues to divide American people. This nation is made up from Black, brown, yellow, white and mixed ethnicity races. We are all Americans regardless of the color of our skin. Every race in America made up our great country. Shame on the writer for his evident discrimination!

Jean Getek

Foothills

Ciscomani, be transparent on abortion

With an upcoming federal election, I find myself in general accord with my current representative, Congressman Juan Ciscomani, as to the national economy, budget spending limits and the need to end the seemingly unmanageable Southern border/immigration chaos.

One remaining concerning, but also important, issue is Women's Choice concerning abortion. Presidential candidate Trump has earlier publicly stated his belief that this is a matter for the States to decide for themselves.

There is a Constitutional initiative question on the current AZ ballot, favoring (each) Woman's personal choice. I would wish to press Mr. Ciscomani for a response to the question: "If this ballot measure wins in Arizona, will you honor the w ill of the majority of your constituents by protecting the (amended) Arizona Constitution or will you still feel free to vote to pass Congressional anti-abortion restrictions and attempt to override it?" Transparency is important!

Hank Rosenbaum

Foothills

U of A football

Greg Hansen encouraged us to attend U of A football games like they do in other Big-12 venues. There are multiple reasons why attendance has lagged here, not the least of which are the heat, late start times and the effort just to find parking. The in-game experience is cluttered with unnecessary and loud commentary and blasting music that no one over 30 enjoys. And no disrespect to Stillwater, Ames, Manhattan, and Morgantown, but we do have other options in Tucson. Football used to be played during the daytime and you would be home by dinner. Now the whole day is waiting for the event to happen with a bedtime after midnight.

Thomas Rothe

Foothills

A child running for president

Rising to the top of the list of weird, crazy, rants of the former president — or more accurately, sinking to the bottom — is Trump's tantrum following Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris. He simply wrote in all caps on Pravda ("Truth") Social: "I hate Taylor Swift!" This is the elementary school graffiti we would expect from a child, and that is precisely what Donald J. Trump is: a child, a bully, the rich kid who has a coterie (MAGAts) following him around, cheering him as he spews his nonsense.

And now, like Dr. Evil, he has his Mini-Me in JD Vance. Following the hilarious (but destructive) claims of Haitian (legal) immigrants killing and eating pets, Vance doubled down when the tale was exposed as another lie and admitted that he makes up stories to "prove" his points!

How much more of this lunacy must we hear before the undecided finally realize what a bizarre and dangerous pair these two (and the MAGA-fied GOP) are?

Jeffrey St. Clair

North side

What I saw

I watched the debate and was struck by the similarities with the 1960 contest between a tired, unattractive Richard Nixon, and a young new voice, and an Irish Catholic (we’ll never elect one of those!) named John F. Kennedy. And we all know that story of glory, hope and joy that was ended. Very similar to how we saw JFK back then, Kamala showed us a brilliant, charming leader who smiled through the entire 90-minute ordeal, and controlled it from minute one by walking across stage to force Trump to shake hands. And her message of hope and joy and progress forward was undeniable. I sat glued to my TV, applauding her wonderful promises of a forward-looking great democracy. In my mind, she is our next President, and the new "JFK" we so desperately need.

Thad Appelman

Northwest side

Harris-Trump debate

I've heard people accuse Vice President Harris of cheating at the debate — that ABC must have given her the questions in advance. How could she know all the answers? Let's see, how could we explain that? Maybe she's smart. Perhaps she was prepared. Maybe she took the debate seriously.

Jim Williamson

Northwest side

Party of love & joy?

Once again I opened my newspaper to see letters filled with hate and rage at President Trump and his supporters. Today the letter writer was complaining that Trump was using the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall. My goodness — it's a building available to rent, are we only going to allow Democrats and left-leaners to use this facility — really? I thought Democrats were happy and wanting a candidate filled with joy and love. Apparently the love and joy and acceptance is only for those on the left. Any difference of opinion and one is called a Nazi.

Get a grip Democrats, if your ideas are so wonderful, you should be happy to promote them instead of spending all of your time and energy attacking Donald Trump. There wouldn’t be any MAGA people if Democrats were worth supporting. Even Kamala is using Donald Trump's ideas — good grief — what a phony.

Debra Berthelot

Marana

Education's big picture

Now is time to pay serious attention to your School Board election. While Arizona is ridiculed for underperforming national standards, we actually have five of the top 35 rated high schools in the nation. Tucson is a different story — TUSD is losing students, spends $20k per HS student, and its high-school rankings rate an average position as 10,000th best high school in the nation. Cat Foothills HS ranking dropped to 1100th place from 900 and 35% of residents do not send their children there despite spending $28,000 per student. The best HS formula favors the STEM and basis schools as model programs. We could afford private schools or best model. In Tucson we are fortunate to witness the makeover of Pima CC where exciting specialty programs prepare students for exciting careers in medical and technology —  and integrating the curriculums to the HS would aid the future prosperity of our children. I encourage everyone vote for Dr. Bart Pemberton, Jennifer Repscher, and Brooke Arispe at CFSD. And Esteban Flores for TUSD.

John Wallace

Foothills

Protecting Trump

The Secret Service needs to do its job to protect former president Donald Trump. He is not only a former president. He is the current Republican candidate for president. He should be able to speak at a rally or play a round of golf without fear of being assassinated. Those who support him are entitled to have their candidate kept alive for the election. I am no apologist for Trump. I believe he is the worst thing to happen to the United States in a century, that he hopes to bring on authoritarianism, and that he is a criminal lacking moral character. I am a strong supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz. I have donated money and volunteered for their campaign. It is precisely because of the issues they care about, such as responsible gun regulation, and the dignified way they have spoken out to express relief that Trump survived that I support them. All who support Harris/Walz should support security for their opponents.

Amelia Cramer

Downtown