Tucson traffic and crime
Yesterday, around 5:30, I was driving home from work on East Broadway and noticed as I drove by North Craycroft Road that in the right lane there were about six motorcyclists and they were all doing wheelies. I have never seen that before in the middle of the work day traffic. Why were they doing this? Because they can. Our traffic is pretty much out of control.
Our local police force is being depleted as our police officers are fleeing Tucson for higher paying jobs in safer Arizona cities. Some of our policemen are driving around in old four-door sedans that would be hard to sell at a used car lot.
Let's face it, Tucson has a crime/traffic problem, and our mayor needs to do something about it. In sports, if the coach loses control of the team, the coach gets fired. We are Tucson, and we can do better than this.
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Pat Darcy
Midtown
Right before our eyes
I will not discuss the issue of border security, which is already politicized, but despite being only 60 miles from the border, it is primarily transparent to citizens of this city. That means we do not see it when we drive around our city. Tourism is important to our economy, and visitors do not see it, either.
What we and visitors do see is homeless people, surrounded by their few belongings and looking for aid. I am not a religious man, but while I wait for the light to change, I sometimes give loose change; I sometimes avert my eyes and fiddle with the radio. You might well act the same.
I do not have a solution, these people are Americans, and there seems to be no recognition of this situation even though it is visible to us and our visitors. A first step would be if our government in Phoenix recognized the issue.
Michael Burdoo
West side
How to handle water shortage
We are out of water.
The American northwest, however, including Alaska and Canada, have hundreds of rivers with excess water. The Columbia River, for example, has four times the volume of the Colorado River. Google says that 265,000 cubic feet of water from the Columbia flow into the Pacific every second. The Yukon River in Alaska has thousands of cubic feet that flow un-touched into the Pacific.
The government should get out of the picture and allow private enterprise to handle water supplies. Note that over 2 million miles of oil and gas pipelines were built by private oil companies. Rather than becoming a burden on taxpayers, the oil pipelines were another instrument in creating wealth. It can be so with construction of water pipelines. Like supplying oil, supplying water should be a business enterprise.
A discussion about water pipelines is decades overdue.
Jim Douthit
West side
Comprehension
Reading the Letters to the Editor, it is clear the Arizona school system is doing a wonderful job of teaching Arizonians how to read. Where the system is failing is in comprehension. "Now he has deemed 74 million that voted for Donald Trump as anarchists" as one writer stated. President Biden said "MAGA Republicans," not all Republicans. Comprehension is the problem. Picking little bits here and there is not comprehension, it is propaganda at its finest. Propaganda is the dissemination of lies to influence and manipulate someone. There is a difference.
James Galvin
Sahuarita
Jan. 6th and George Floyd
To all the letter writers who compare the Jan. 6 incident to the incidents across the country after George Floyd's and others' deaths, I say this. I do, and all people of this country should, condemn violence and try to cloak it as a demonstration of free speech. The two are not even close in their reason for being. Jan. 6 was an attempt to overthrow an election and trample on the rule of law and possibly the government. The Floyd incidents were protests against using unlawful and deadly force against a person. Neither case should have been violent. You can stand in the street and make your point. Violence is where it ends.
Daniel Poryanda
Southeast side
Pro-choice
What people need to realize is that pro-choice is just that. It’s not pro-abortion, it’s pro-choice. In the day, I probably would not have gotten an abortion, but I would have wanted to have the option. It’s not for you or anyone else to tell me whether or not I can get one. It’s my choice — not yours or some politician's, especially men trying to put women's rights back decades.
Please vote accordingly.
Carol King
West side
Local school board elections
This November, Arizonans are voting on our education priorities. Several public school districts have candidates running for local school boards that do not support teachers, public education students’ success in those districts. It is important to research candidates because school boards are supposed to be non-partisan, but that is not the case this election. I live in the Marana Unified School District, where two governing board seats are up for election. After reviewing the candidates, I am impressed with Abbie Hlavacek and Kathryn Mikronis.
Both mothers with kids in MUSD who have served on the PTO at their kid’s schools and have been involved, advocating for their own kids and others with special needs. They strongly support public education and the teachers working hard in our classrooms daily. We need parents on our school board who support public education, our teachers and our students.
Please check out your local school board candidates and their endorsements. In MUSD, please vote for Abbie Hlavacek and Kathryn Mikronis.
Pauline Malcolm
Northwest side
Juan Ciscomani view on abortion
Negative political ads are historically inaccurate, but Kirsten Engel's negative ad about Juan Ciscomani has reached a new low. She completely misstates Ciscomani’s position on abortion, a key hot button issue this election. She accuses him of being anti-abortion with no exceptions including rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. I am a personal friend of Juan and have specifically asked him to clarify his position on abortion to avoid any misrepresentations on my part. It is true that Juan is strongly pro-life, but with exceptions, those being the three listed above; that is rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk. Kirsten Engel is strongly pro-abortion. Does she have any exceptions, like late-term or partial birth abortion, one of the most gruesome procedures imaginable?
Richard Tofel
Midtown
Gov't overreach: forced birth
The GOP talks about being the party of freedom and their abhorrence of government overreach. How does this square, then, with forcing women to give birth? It doesn’t. Republicans have outlawed abortion in many states and have also attempted to restrict citizen initiatives to get the issue on the ballot.
Republican government has also inserted itself into medical decision making, and doctors are having to make women bleed for days and come close to death before they can induce medically necessary miscarriages. GOP state lawmakers have also attempted to restrict a person’s travel, if that travel involves getting an abortion in a state where it is legal.
The majority of Americans support reproductive freedom. They don’t want the government forcing women to give birth, being involved in their private medical care, and telling them when and why they can travel.
The GOP is not the party of freedom. Vote against these extreme positions.
Melanie Bell
Midtown
Engel
