Letters to the Editor: Feb. 26

About 10 years ago, Tucson lost its yearly German Oktoberfest Festival due to lack of sponsorship. We have also seen our Annual Greek Festival recently cancelled. And now we see our yearly Irish St. Patrick’s Festival and Parade cancelled / postponed. It seems like the City of Tucson is losing a lot of diversity with their festivals and parades.

David Keating

Northeast side

Compensating ranchers

Re: the Feb. 19 article “AZ bill places new financial burden on wind and solar projects.”

Recently, the Star reported on a state legislative effort to compensate ranchers for the loss of grazing rights on State lands when another business use outbids them. The article pointed out that existing state law requires, generally, awarding access to the highest bidder to garner revenue for public needs, such as education. This bill would penalize the non-grazing bidder, forcing it to compensate the rancher in perpetuity.

When I was in grade school we were taught that a free market ensures the most efficient use of investment capital. So in a free market economy the government is not supposed to prop up less efficient businesses. Put another way, our country as a whole benefitted when government did not step in and subsidize the buggy industry when the auto industry was emerging.

The discipline of “economics” should be mandatory in education, and might be a good addition for legislator indoctrination.

Jim Greene

Marana

Water policy needed

Re: the Feb. 23 column “AZ Legislature draws wrong lesson from Saudi water fiasco.”

Tim Steller hit the nail on the head. Just about every Arizonan knows that the Colorado River is in danger of failing to meet our water needs and that our groundwater is drying up as well. Except, of course, for some of our state legislators, who seem to think that water policy is less important than CRT, restricting voting, underfunding public schools, and giving rich people money to send their kids to private schools. Oh yeah, and more corporate tax cuts. Get real, state Legislature. Without sufficient water our state will cease to be competitive, and people will have to move away. We need serious, well thought out legislation for groundwater management, conservation, and water re-use. And we need it yesterday.

Nancy Smith

Midtown

GOP legislators

So the GOP doesn’t want us to know what they are doing and planning by exempting themselves from public access. Ask yourself why? They don’t want us to know what shenanigans they will be trying to foist on us by keeping their emails and texts from public view. Are they not “public” officials? What are they trying to hide? This is one of the reasons the Republicans are giving up their respectability in Arizona. No one can trust them anymore.

James Doyle

Saddlebrooke Ranch

Public information kept secret

Re: the Feb. 23 article “Report: Ex-AZ AG withheld evidence 2020 election was fair.”

How wrong that the former attorney general knew the 2020 election was fair with no discernible fraud and then kept that secret. Wrong that public information was concealed and wrong that it purposely fueled thoughts and conspiracy theories he knew were unfounded.

Those theories gave us tax-funded Ninjas who came in and hand counted ballots for months and increasing Joe Biden’s Arizona win. Theories that allowed county supervisors to justify not counting votes that actually supported their candidates’ win in Cochise County. All of that based on false information and wrong theories known to be false. All of that allowed people to say there were “doubts” and “irregularities” when in fact there were none.

We must move on. We must start by telling the truth.

John Yoakum

Midtown

Send A-10s to Ukraine?

Sending A-10s to Ukraine is not the easy answer to help turn the tide of the war. Our past success with the A-10 rested on the foundation of air superiority. We ruled the skies which allowed the A-10 to operate without the threat from adversarial aircraft. Ukraine does not have air superiority. The slow, essentially defenseless, A-10 would become a quick casualty of many Russian fighter pilots.

The second major issue is pilot training. Will we send U.S. pilots? Hardly. Today, it takes at least two years to train a combat-ready fighter pilot and, at the very least, another year of seasoning to be effective. Who will train these pilots? Our short-staffed cadre here at DM? Solving these immense hurdles still doesn’t account for maintenance and the massive logistics supply train requirements to support the deployment.

Without air superiority, a trained pilot force, and other requirements too many to list, sending A-10s to Ukraine is short-sighted and wasteful.

Blaine Jones, former F-15C, F-16, & F-22 fighter pilot

Foothills

Russia’s imperialism

Russia started its expansion with the war in Chechnya years ago. Then Putin attacked Georgia and annexed parts of it. Next came the seizure of Crimea in 2014. Now Putin wants all of Ukraine for greater Russia. What part of this plan do opponents of U.S. support for Ukraine not understand? Do you really think Putin would stop with Ukraine if there was no opposition from the West? Who is next if Putin is unopposed? Poland, Latvia, Finland, Germany? Did we not learn anything from Hitler’s invasion of Poland? Many of us did, but apparently not Rep. Greene, many Republicans, and unfortunately some on the left. Russia must not win in Ukraine.

Don Ries

Southeast side

Be safe when walking at night

After the rash of fatalities at night I haven’t seen anyone addressing why pedestrians aren’t seen. It does not appear that people in general are following basic safety rules that they should have learned as children. “Wear white at night,” while trite and old fashioned, could save your life. White, light colors, reflective gear, a flashlight can all be seen by motorists. “Face traffic when not on a sidewalk” so you can see who is coming toward you. Our hearing is inadequate to hear sounds approaching behind you before it is too late, and for heaven’s sake lose the ear buds.

A dear friend was driving on a side street at speed limit when a women dressed in black ran across in front of her and ultimately ended up hitting the windshield from the impact. My friend stopped immediately as did the driver behind. Police came. My friend was not at fault but experienced PTSD for years.

Tucson takes pride in being a dark sky city. Be careful out there.

Georgianna Murphy

Foothills

Entitlements

Entitlements are basically a legal contract made within the norms of a society. In my case, they are multiple, such as my military retirement and disability pay, Social Security, military medical including VA, Medicare plus my IRA payout, which I am required by law to take. Some people, including members of Congress who have never served, don’t understand the issues as they have no personal experience. I was in submarines in the 60s and 70s. I have paid Social Security and Medicare tax since 1958. Since my profession after military retirement was accounting I think there are other solutions for Social Security and Medicare. First is removing the caps on W-2 wages subject to both. Next impose Social Security and Medicare tax on all K-1 earnings from professional service Subchapter S corporation and partnerships. I’m certain there are more ways rather than burden those already on the brink, and I have seen many in my years as a volunteer tax preparer.

Gerald Schwartz, USN Ret, MSTax

Foothills