Ducey inconsistent with reopen criteria
Gov. Doug Ducey has no problem opening golf courses, where social distancing and mask wearing are virtually unenforceable, but doesn’t want to open gyms where pandemic mitigation can relatively easily be accomplished.
Ducey’s decision puts his irrational ignorance (oxymoron?) on “fool” display. During the reopening of the gyms, I saw one gym where mitigation measures were employed by 90% of the members.
The other gym I attended, 10% of the members took appropriate measures. Ducey allows restaurants to open at reduced capacity where customers are not wearing masks around staff/servers. He allowed hair salons and tattoo parlors to remain as “essential services.” Perhaps Ducey has confused the word “essential” with “politically expedient?”
Or is there a correlation between businesses allowed to reopen and Ducey campaign contributions? Do friends or relatives of Ducey own hair salons? Just asking.
James Abels
Midtown
Let’s hear more from the parents
School reopenings have become a hot topic with a lot of information on the pros and cons. Whether to risk the health of the children, the teachers, the school’s support staff is discussed by medical professionals and political figures. How safe will the schools be? What safeguards will be followed?
It is the mothers and fathers who haven’t been heard from. How do they feel about their children being the object of political/medical goals?
On the political side, how do they feel about their children being used as pawns to boost the economy?
On the education side, are proposed safeguards conducive to learning? On the medical side, do they mind if their children don’t have the very best medical attention that is available, including testing? Tests that take days before the result is known allow a possible “carrier” to infect countless others.
Do moms and dads want to allow their children to be “collateral damage” to improve the economy and to verify various medical procedures?
Jerry Lujan
SaddleBrooke
Ballots, bulk mail
and 1st-class stamps
Concerned your ballot for the November election could be delayed or not delivered because of its designation as “bulk mail?”
Simple solution. Place a first-class stamp ($0.55) on the envelope. Since first-class mail is also being delayed, the stamp won’t guarantee the ballot will arrive on time, but it will guarantee it will not be destroyed as bulk mail.
The remedy for “late” is to vote and mail the ballot (with a stamp) or take it to a sanctioned drop box just as soon as you receive it.
***NOTE: If you place a stamp on Business Reply Mail yellow envelope, it actually slows the process. The stamped envelope is mixed in with all the other mail for sorting later. Business Reply Mail reaches the Recorder’s office faster than first class stamped mail.
Linda Phillips
Midtown
Police union endorsements wrong
Last week, Mike Pence visited Tucson to accept the endorsement of the police officers union at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa. La Paloma, why are you hosting this?
Why are police unions even allowed to endorse political candidates?
Their members’ salaries are paid by public money. Their members are supposed to serve everyone in the public.
Yet, we see quite clearly that law enforcement does not serve everyone equally. They prove that by endorsing political candidates, especially when they are candidates such as Donald Trump/Pence who most definitely do not serve even a majority of us here in Tucson.
Our police officers and their union should be accountable to us only, not to the national politicians with whom they want to curry favor. This was a shameful act of political showboating, and simply proves further to me that TPD does not serve me or the other people in Tucson I care about.
Robert McLane
Downtown
Unflattering historical similarities
Where does evil go when defeated? Away? Not really. Underground, where it waits for the next perfect-pitch demagogue to give it oxygen? Yes.
The historical similarities in rhetoric and corruption are chilling.
Today’s conservatives in the Republican Party are the Southern Confederacy, reprised. The Donald Trump/Mike Pence White House is the Confederacy, plus post-Civil War White Citizens Councils, plus “law and order” neo-Nazism.
Whether its voting sabotage, ecological irresponsibility, the villainous ripping of children from parents at the border, racist tirades, wall and monument strutting, presidential pardons for gangster criminals or deadly virus-response mismanagement, these “characters without character” are failing America.
They need to be ousted from leadership, and in many cases, indicted. History and justice demand that we hold these Constitution-dismembering and lawbreaking scoundrels accountable.
Ron Rude
West side
Star can’t stand positive Trump news
It is disappointing, but certainly not surprising, that the Daily Star has relegated news of President Trump’s ground-breaking Middle East peace agreement to page seven, with only three oblique references to the President himself.
I truly thought the Star would jump at the opportunity to connect all the dots in an analysis of how this pact came to pass. But that would amount to approval of a conservative initiative, wouldn’t it?
Which U.S. citizens aborted a foolish agreement with a belligerent Iran? Backed Iran into sputtering inadequacy by refusing to acquiesce to the Mullah’s armed efforts at intimidation? Developed a magnificent relationship with Israel, reversing the spiteful efforts of his predecessor?
Applied superior international diplomacy in dealing with Gulf nations? Applied the growth of fracking to produce world leadership in energy production, reducing Arab leverage substantially?
To read the Star and its AP handlers, it’s certainly not President Trump and his team.
Glenn Perry
Foothills
President Trump, the truth-teller
Donald Trump has finally told the truth. He said mail-in voting would lead to massive election fraud. It’s happening right now.
He’s doing it. He’s not even trying to hide it. He’s daring us to stop him.
Trump’s Post Office, under his handpicked postmaster, is cutting service, delaying delivery and removing mailboxes. At the same time, it’s warning that potentially millions of mail-in ballots will not arrive in time for Election Day, and therefore will not be counted. Even by Republican standards, that is voter suppression on an epic scale.
Americans used to believe that, even if nothing else united us, the right to vote is fundamental to our American identity. Those who do not support the right to vote, who would suppress the right to vote, are not Americans. They are just people who happen to live in the United States.
Christopher McIlroy
Northwest side
Honor code more of a suggestion
Dear Martha McSally: The Air Force Academy honor code, much like my school’s, says a cadet will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate anyone who does. Donald Trump has been documented lying to the American people over 20,000 times. You support him. Why have you forgotten your oath?
Norman Patten
Midtown
Are we getting an accurate view?
Unobstructed communication, desirable at all times, is crucial during the coronavirus pandemic. Alex Azar, Health and Human Services secretary, abruptly changed the existing method of reporting results to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and instead directed them sent to TeleTracking Technologies.
When asked about its contract, the technology company’s lawyer refused to respond, citing a nondisclosure agreement about sharing collection and data-sharing.
The refusal brought concerns about the type and range of information shared about the coronavirus.
This questionable change continues to erode trust in the Trump administration’s dealing with the coronavirus. Minimally, the administration should follow both methods of reporting, a practice that could serve as a “check and balance” for clear, exact reporting.
Surely, American people and the world deserve complete, accurate information about coronavirus detection, hospitalizations, deaths and trends that result.
Roger Shanley
East side
Send your ballot first class
With Donald Trump and his crony in the postal service trying to suppress mail-in voting, there is a good solution. Put a 55-cent stamp on your ballot. This overrides the bulk discount rate that is being slowed down to thwart ballots arriving on time. With this stamp, your ballot becomes first- class mail and is required to be delivered in 3 to 5 days.
I am sending my ballot registered so I have proof it was sent and can track its delivery date. I can also go online and see when it was received and when it was verified and counted.
***NOTE: If you place a stamp on Business Reply Mail yellow envelope, it actually slows the process. The stamped envelope is mixed in with all the other mail for sorting later. Business Reply Mail reaches the Recorder’s office faster than first class stamped mail.
Michael Collins
Midtown
Harris is a good choice for running mate
Re: the Aug. 16 opinion “Biden blew it by selecting Harris as running mate.”
This editorial expresses the opinion that Joe Biden made a mistake in naming Kamala Harris as his running mate. The rationale is obtuse, at best. For example, “Donald Trump is on the left of her (Sen. Harris), and more enlightened, on prison reform.” I’m sorry, but the phrase “more enlightened” and Donald Trump just don’t go together. In the end, Trump will simply do what’s best for his rich friends.
As someone who spent 30 years in the selection business, I conclude that Harris has the knowledge, skills, abilities and character to be president, should she someday ascend to that role. Trump, on the other hand, lacks the ability to compromise, work and negotiate with other people.
I can imagine what could happen if Trump serves another four years: economic devastation and 2 million people dead of COVID.
Walter Mann
Marana
