Democrats have
much to answer for
In 2015-2016 during the last years of the Barack Obama/ Joseph Biden administration, the National Institutes of Health awarded $3.7 million in research grants to study Chinese bat-borne coronaviruses. Of that, $3.7 million, $600,000 made its way to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Just what did we get for our money?
In November 2019, COVID-19 began infecting people in Wuhan. By October 2020 the virus and related illnesses had caused the death of over 1,092,864 people worldwide.
At a time when the progressive, liberal Democrats should have been focusing their attention on COVID-19, they were focused on the insidious once-you’re-impeached-you-will-be-impeached-forever clown show and other attempts to remove President Trump from office.
The inability of the liberal, progressive Democrats to pass additional coronavirus economic aid since March is shameful, absolutely shameful.
Bill Kendall
Downtown
Existential threat to our democracy
This current occupant is an existential danger to our democracy. He’s severely weakened our foundational institutions in just four years.
Congress is no longer a co-equal branch. He uses the Justice Department to reward friends and punish opponents. National security advisers don’t provide critical briefings if the topics anger him.
Science is ignored. His recorded words prove he lied about the pandemic that has killed over 225,000 Americans. Most worrisome, he refuses to commit to the election results.
Trump is exactly what the Founding Fathers feared — an authoritarian president, bordering on totalitarianism. A second term with a subservient Republican Senate will likely destroy what’s left of our great American experiment.
There’s one force stronger than this lawless, unfit president. “We the people” have the power to vote and end his reign. Joe Biden is a decent, honorable man and an experienced statesman.
The alternative invites disaster. We decide what kind of country we will have and whether our democracy survives.
Dan Gipple
Southeast side
We have to live our values
We all claim to love the values this country was founded on. Our ancestors immigrated because these values were missing from their country. Values like free speech, religious freedom and equal opportunity for education, advancement, voting and treatment under the law. Unfortunately, many Americans seem to support those values only for people who look like them and share their religious and political beliefs.
Despite their claim of supporting these American values, they willingly deny them to people who they see as different. Now that this system has enabled them to achieve power and privilege, they have no problem preventing others from fully participating and benefiting from that same system.
Since 2016, we’ve seen: self-dealing, lies, hypocrisy, denials of facts and science, using our government institutions (extorting foreign governments) against political opponents, pardons and tax breaks for friends, fear and hatred reinforced, white supremacists endorsed as “good” people and finally, voter suppression.
So, before voting, please decide whether you really support our founding values — or just claim to.
Bert Veenstra
Oro Valley
Proud of father, others who served
Re: the Oct. 14 article “WWII jungle fighting unit earns approval for congressional medal.”
I read this with great interest. My dad, Bernie, was a sergeant in Merrill’s Marauders and was one of the 200 who survived to the end of the mission.
He was individually awarded the Bronze and Silver Stars and Purple Heart. I understand from a recent article in Army magazine that their mission was the second longest uninterrupted period of jungle fighting in WWII.
They hacked their way through the Burmese jungle and across Himalayan Mountains while dealing with a tropical climate and carrying everything they needed to fight and survive. They lost soldiers to battle, jungle animals and disease. All but a handful did not get either wounded or sick from tropical disease.
Imagine walking 1,000 miles under those conditions. The unit also got the Presidential Unit Medal and now the Congressional Medal. My dad would have been so proud.
Dan Strausbaugh
Tubac
Trump’s drift toward authoritarianism
I cannot think of an American president who has drifted more towards authoritarianism than Donald Trump. Authoritarianism happens when a leader creates his own set of facts, undercuts and demonizes people and organizations with opposing views and creates crisis and division.
Voters must be aware of this drift and protect our democracy by voting Trump out of office.
Phineas Anderson
Catalina
Grijalva stands up
for Indigenous people
I am writing to express opposition and concern to recent propositions by the Air Force and Republican senators for a land grab in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge — land that is not only sacred to local Paiute tribes, but also incredibly important for local biodiversity.
All too familiar are these military land grabs, disturbing landscapes across the American West with destructive infrastructure and noise, unsettling to local human residents and wildlife populations. In an era of pandemics and extreme biodiversity loss, we can’t continue to ignore the importance of these areas, upon which the health of our societies depend.
We must protect the lands that support us, not divide them in the name of ever-increasing military budgets.
I am comfortable knowing that the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee is our very own Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a champion of environmental issues. Rep. Grijalva, please continue fighting these important battles and protecting our beloved lands.
Nicholas Matthews
Midtown
A great blow
to democracy
The Senate’s rushed confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett was neither a Republican win nor a Democratic loss — it was a huge blow to the impartiality of the Supreme Court, the integrity of the United States Senate and the political norms under which our political institutions function.
Mitch McConnell’s blocking of President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court in February of an election year while ramming through Donald Trump’s nomination just before an election is the antithesis of everything conservatism stands for — character, responsibility, integrity and respect for institutional norms.
McConnell’s cynical court-packing scheme, his party’s gerrymandering and voter suppression rig the system so that a minority party can stay in power. Our politics aren’t broken — the GOP is.
Be not deceived — undermining our institutions won’t make America great, breaking norms won’t restore morality, the ends never justify the means.
Ron Nason
North side
Essential worker
has a request
An open letter to those of you who endured lockdown: Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished during your hard-fought time at home. While you baked bread, I went to work. While you read books, I risked daily exposure. While you stressed over what to do with your hair, I stressed over dealing with people who think it’s a hoax. While you stressed not visiting your friends, I went for another COVID test.
I could have it worse. I could be one of those who lost their home. I could have gotten sick. I still can get sick. Because I’m still at work. Because I still have to be around people who say it’s fake.
So please. Put on the mask. Use your free time to help convince those around you to do the same.
And when this is all over, let me take a paid vacation.
David Reynolds
East side
We breathe through our noses, too
I am both a registered nurse and a teacher. Because I see too many people in retail businesses (employees included) who are not wearing masks properly, I am taking this opportunity to educate them on how to properly wear their masks. You should know that we breathe through our noses, whether or not we are also breathing through our mouths! Therefore, your mask should cover your nose at all times!
Miriam Pattison
Midtown
Why I will vote
for McSally
This 2020 election has unfolded a plethora of political rhetoric that will either promote tyranny or law and order, reduce or increase taxes, harm or protect the unborn, defend reasonable health-care cost that includes preexisting conditions, stimulate jobs and halt undocumented immigration. Martha McSally is a fighter and will continue to fight for Arizona. She advocates cutting taxes, defends Arizonans’ health care (which includes preexisting conditions) and bringing jobs home from China.
I admire Martha’s integrity as proven by her voting record. After checking Mark Kelly’s background, his advertisements are distorted.
Mark Kelly is a counterfeit! He built a sophisticated political operation that funded the most radical elements of the Democratic Party (check out his photo with Ilhan Omar) which only proves he is groomed to be a far-left Democrat.
Do you really want liberals controlling you, the average middle-class tax payer?
Arlene Stassinos
North side
Media just got fooled again
After five years, the mainstream media has not yet learned how Donald Trump is playing them. It has everything to do with ratings and dollars.
The most recent gambit was NBC running his last-minute “town hall” opposite Joe Biden’s previously scheduled town hall. Prior to that travesty, the media covers every single one of his stupid antics, ad nauseam, which attracts viewers like it’s a 24-hour “Trump Show.” It all amounts to billions’ worth of advertising dollars that his campaign doesn’t have to spend because it is “news.” This is reminiscent of what happened to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
I find it very sad that viewers are so easily distracted from the real issues of the day and continue to be entertained by this man. News should be informative and educational. Just the facts, people.
Cindy Soffrin
Northeast side
McSally will uphold independent judiciary
Democrats like Mark Kelly are determined to upend our judicial protections by packing the courts with judges who promise to uphold their activist agenda even when it conflicts with our basic constitutional protections. Eliminating the Senate filibuster would be the first step, and so far Kelly has refused to reveal where he stands on it. That tells us all we need to know about Kelly’s intentions.
Politics have no place in judicial reasoning. A vote for Sen. Martha McSally is a vote to preserve America’s strong, independent judicial branch of government.
Diane Salgado
East side
I’m voting
for freedom
If anyone asks, I’m not voting for Donald Trump. I’m voting for the Second Amendment. I’m voting for the next Supreme Court Justice. I’m voting for the Electoral College and the Republic.
I’m voting for the police and law and order. I’m voting for the military and our veterans who fought and died for our country. I’m voting for our flag, for which it stands. I’m voting for the right to speak my mind and not be censored.
I’m voting for secure border walls. I’m voting for the right to praise my God without fear. I’m voting for rights of all lives. I’m voting for freedom and the American dream.
I’m voting for good against evil. No, I’m not voting for the man Trump. I’m voting for the future of the United States of America.
Paul Hansen
Marana
