No mask, no service applies to senators, too
Re: the Dec. 23 article “Ariz. lawmaker says she will ignore face covering mandate at state Capitol.”
Every Arizona legislator should be presenting with a sincere concern for all Arizona citizens. Making a statement of refusing to wear CDC recommended personal protective equipment while in the service of Arizona, is unconscionable. Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It’s a smart and compassionate response.
I support the mandate for everyone to wear a mask when in public. And by the way, if anyone won’t wear a mask, then service needs to be refused and they should be asked to leave. That goes for any Arizona legislator, too.
Won’t wear a mask? Then you won’t be allowed in the building. Let’s keep it simple, please. Be considerate of anyone you may come in contact with: keep your distance, wash or sanitize your hands often and for God’s sake, wear a mask. Let’s get this virus under control. Our hospitals’ staff are worn out.
Joyce Harrison
East side
A poem for the new year
2020 was a terrible year,
But let’s not cry in our beer,
It is finally done!
Vaccines, more than one,
Give reason to be of good cheer!
George Rieke
Foothills
A New Year’s sentence
As I try to sum up the year of 2020, I have four words that I have heard so much, that my right eye spasms every time I hear any one of them. I thought if I could use all four words in a sentence, it would be easier to live with them in the new year. So, here is my shot at dealing with the four words over running our brains in 2020:
“2020 was a year of unprecedented transparency and diversity of plant-based diets.”
I have already spent too much time dealing with those four words. I’m going to put them in check and hope that they each are associated with great outcomes in 2021.
Richard Bechtold
West side
Let’s leave Bill Walton in 2020
I just know that 2021 is going to be a better year. The first positive thing will be the lack of Bill Walton. I don’t see him scheduled to yammer on about his days at some concert back in the 1960s anywhere. Finally, I’m able to watch a basketball game with folks who announce and comment on the actual plays.
Cheryl Ford
SaddleBrooke
Stimulus money and bad decisions
President Trump and Congress supporting a $2,000 stimulus check proposal is sheer political grandstanding. As many economists have pointed out, the bulk of these payments would go to households whose incomes have not been reduced and hence will be saved.
If we are very lucky, we are in the middle period of this devastating pandemic. There will be continuing need for financial relief packages. The $2,000 check proposal is an especially ill-conceived form of trickle down relief.
Let’s move on. In the next three weeks, Joe Biden and Congress should be preparing to upgrade the current Keystone Cops-esque rollout of vaccines, to make a massive investment in upgrading our infrastructure and to implement a revenue neutral fee/dividend system for carbon.
Our need for investment is vast, but we must bear in mind that budget deficits are real. The choices we make should be wise ones.
Douglas Pickrell
Midtown
Trump is actively assaulting democracy
Donald Trump has been a delusional, disorganized, cruel, and unprincipled leader for four years. He sees laws and norms as impediments to his authoritarian instincts and pathological narcissism, so he ignores or circumvents those laws and norms. One of the norms in place is that a sitting president cannot be indicted for crimes.
Many laws (both federal and state) say it is illegal to interfere with or try to overturn a legitimate election. Maybe it’s time for the Democrats to ignore the norm about a sitting president being immune when he commits crimes, and for the justice system to apply the laws being broken by Trump and his most radical followers.
The Republicans wanted to give Trump time “to let the loss sink in” and didn’t want to intervene. You can see the results of that — an assault on our democracy, with thuggish Proud Boys in the streets of D.C.
Norman Epstein, MD
Midtown
I was a deplorable (and I still am)
After reading endless letters vilifying the president, I realize my understanding was wrong. I thought that full employment was wonderful. I realized that jobs and self-worth must be overvalued and minorities with the highest employment in history didn’t need to work. They must be happy with welfare, food stamps and substandard housing. Sign me no longer a deplorable.
I thought tax cuts were beneficial. I didn’t know that only the wealthy benefitted. Yet, after checking the payroll records from 2017 and on, I discovered that my employees received larger paychecks than before the cut. Only as a deplorable could I think that was good.
I thought I was happier with lower fuel prices and independence from the Middle East, but those countries need our support. Americans should gladly pay more for this privilege. For this foolishness, I apologize to the non-deplorables. At last with Joe Biden, I see the light, or is that an oncoming train?
Jerry Schuchardt
North side
Ideas for another stimulus round
Forget $2,000 relief checks. The latest check is already posting. A better idea would be another $600 for February and again for every month until everyone can get back on their feet.
What we need is a way to cut back on who gets a check when they return to work, don’t need it, or opt out for whatever reason. Remember when the first payments ran out? Some people sent them back when they realized they didn’t need them. We should trust the American people.
Will some people try to game the system? Yes, but those people are already trying to get illegal payments. We need to let the fraud detectors do their job and help people who genuinely need it.
Martin Plocke
Southwest side
Biden was the legitimate winner
Everyone in this country needs to remember that Joe Biden legitimately won the presidential election. They also need to remember that the Republican Party, with a lot of help from our own wing-nut Arizona loonies, is trying to take away the vote of everyone who didn’t vote for the loser of the election. This is a flat-out attack on American democracy.
Anyone who tries to overthrow the legitimate government is not qualified to be an elected official. I, and everyone, need to remember who is leading this baseless attack on the very foundation of this country. They need and must be held accountable for what is basically treason.
Every elected official who supports voiding the will of the American voter should be voted out of office at the first possible chance. Their acts demonstrate their unfitness for the jobs they have now. I will never vote for any of these traitors again.
Graeme Williams
Southeast side
It’s time to support Jedd Fisch
Re: the Dec. 3 article “Fans’ outrage over Fisch’s hiring stems from process.”
It’s time for Arizona alumni and fans to stop complaining and join in full support for Jedd Fisch. It’s such a pleasure to have a head football coach who actually wants to be in Tucson! Jedd is very appreciative of his opportunity and wants to prove himself.
The fact that he has never been a head coach is a positive and not a negative. Remember that Adia Barnes did not have any “head coach” experience and resurrected the horrendous women’s basketball program.
The coaching staff that Jedd is putting together is quite impressive. The excitement and enthusiasm Jedd displays is awesome and a welcomed change for a football program that hasn’t experienced that sense of exuberance for many years.
Fans and supporters of Arizona football should be grateful. Stop the complaints about who and why Arizona hired Jedd Fisch and throw full support behind him. We have a great football coach, and the program is running onward and upward.
Steven Corben
Oro Valley
Give it a rest, Republicans
Pretty much every day for the last month, we’ve been bombarded by stories of recalcitrant Republican congressmen, and now senators, announcing they won’t vote to certify the results of our presidential election. This despite the clear verdict from every state and county official charged with conducting and monitoring elections, as well as the departing president’s own attorney general that the election was one of the cleanest in our history.
Why? It seems that the only “reason” politicians on the losing side can muster for trying to sabotage the obvious result is “people are suspicious.”
Oh, you mean the people who hang on their defeated leader’s every snarling lie, even after he lost by nearly 7 million votes? Boy, talk about your “alternate facts.”
We all know that true believers will keep on believing. But for elected officials to pander to that delusion is a craven abrogation of their sworn duty.
John Harris
Southwest side
Trump: A national disgrace
Few times in my life, I have been ashamed to be an American citizen. This is one of them. Donald Trump, begging the Secretary of State of Georgia to overturn the election, is unconscionable, let alone impeachable.
The election results were counted, re-counted, litigated and certified. For the good of the country, Mr. Trump should immediately resign. The 12 members of the United States Senate and 140 members of the House of Representatives who have signed on to overturn the election, should be tried for sedition, removed from office and imprisoned or banished from the shores of this country.
The words of Teddy Roosevelt and the rule of law, suddenly ring hollow: “No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.”
Wayno Guerrini
Southwest side
Congress is full
of line-cutters
Re: the Dec. 24 article “Politicians and vaccines: Set an example or cut in line?”
Can one imagine two less apt words to describe Congress than “essential” or “workers?” What a disgrace!
Phil Lyons
Foothills
