Tucson Speaks Out: July 10 letters of the day

Re: the June 16 article “Christiane Amanpour’s troubling extremist affliction.”

Reading this article, I recalled a “Seinfeld” episode. “I had lunch with him the other day,” Jerry observes of his uncle Leo, “he’s one of these guys that anything goes wrong in life, he blames it on anti-Semitism. You know what I mean, the spaghetti’s not al dente? Cook’s an anti-Semite … Doesn’t get a good seat at the temple. Rabbi? Anti-Semite.”

The authors — Stuart H. Brody and Jonathan R. Slater — state using words like “apartheid,” “massacre,” and “systematic violence” about Israel are unacceptable, and distorting facts about Israel is anti=Semitism.

A fact about the Israeli military is it killed a reporter and American Shireen Abu Akleh, held no one accountable but did eventually apologize at least. Maybe the American media’s failure to give that murder as much attention as the Saudi killing of Jamal Khashoggi was because they didn’t want to be labeled as anti-Semite.

David Devine

Midtown

Climate change

Re: the June 20 article “Bill that could slow renewable energy vetoed.”

Where’s the fiscal responsibility Republicans tout so often?

According to experts, climate disasters that cost over $1 billion are a measure of climate change. Last year alone, there were 18 such events nationwide, costing over $165B.

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included the largest climate package in history, investing $370 billion in clean energy and other mitigations over the next 10 years. Not a single Republican Senator or Representative voted for it.

Which is more fiscally responsible: spending $165B per year on damages or $37B per year for mitigation and prevention? Allowing climate disasters to keep worsening or taking positive action to lessen them?

Blind allegiance to big oil, coal, and gas is shortsighted, destructive, and foolish.

With eight in 10 US adults reporting they have personally felt the effects of extreme weather in the past five years, it’s time Arizona Republicans realize they and their families are among them. They must start doing their part to address the climate disasters headed their way.

Kay Schriner

Northwest side

Abortion ban is bad medicine

Rep. Juan Ciscomani has misled his constituents. After claiming that abortion should be a state issue, he supported a bill in the appropriations committee to prevent mailing of the medication abortion pill. This is a first step toward a federal ban on abortion. As a healthcare provider, I believe this would be dangerous to women and their families. Pregnancy imposes significant physiological changes on a person’s body. These changes can exacerbate underlying or preexisting conditions and can severely compromise health or even cause death. There are situations where pregnancy termination in the form of an abortion is the only medical intervention that can preserve a patient’s health or save their life. Let Rep. Ciscomani know that an abortion ban is bad medicine!

Eve Shapiro

Foothills

Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis, Republican candidate for President, is traveling around the country saying that the first day he is in office as President, he will write an Executive Order authorizing the use of “Lethal Force” with respect to immigrants coming into the U.S. from Mexico. This is the same person who talks about the “Sanctity of Life” with respect to making abortions illegal. DeSantis is a Christian who, instead of obeying the principle of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” wants to sign a Lethal Force Executive Order to “Kill thy neighbor if they come into my yard.” The “Sanctity of Life and Lethal Force” at minimum is incongruent, if not disingenuous. This is the same person that wants every American to have access to “Assault Weapons.” This is the same person that just signed a law to allow juries to impose the “Death Penalty.” How can someone who believes in the sanctity of life also believe in lethal force, assault weapons, and the death penalty?

Dennis Widman

Green Valley

Supreme Court

I agree with the Supreme Court’s decisions, and think there should be respect for the institution. I have not liked most of the judges taking gifts outside of their compensation. They should be concerned about their judicial conduct and not require a code of ethics. After all, they are judges.

Providing a decision to uphold college loan pay back is a good one. All of the those who did pay their loans, and those who did not take out the loans should not have to pay for those who did. A loan is a loan and not a gift.

And forcing business owners with religious convictions to provide services for people that violate their beliefs is wrong. We live in a free country with freedoms that should be protected. I believe the majority of our country supports the court’s decisions, and they should support them as a supreme court. President Biden is wrong to make the court a political whipping boy. He should respect their decisions.

Dave Locey

Foothills

Supreme Court decision

My understanding is that if you operate a public business, then you should serve the public. That is a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Prior to its passage, there was widespread discrimination against Hispanics, Blacks, Jews, etc., by businesses who refused to serve them throughout the United States. Now we are regressing. The Supreme Court, in my view, inappropriately used the 1st Amendment of the Constitution to justify that religious beliefs are impacted by having to serve someone who wants to celebrate a legally sanctioned gay marriage. A LGBTQ customer would not in any way force a proprietor to abandon their religious beliefs but only to provide a service that they have every right to expect from a public establishment. The decision only serves to open Pandora’s box to further the deterioration of human rights. How sad.

Michael Mount

Foothills

Call to action against fascism

The resurfacing threat of fascism in our society is posing a grave danger to our democracy. To counter this destructive ideology, we must draw lessons from history and recognize its signs.

Fascists exploit super-patriotism and super-Americanism to gain power, dividing society by targeting religious, racial, economic, and cultural groups, while denying the importance of international cooperation.

Their goal is to undermine democracy by systematically stripping citizens of their fundamental rights, by jeopardizing the rights of women, parental decision-making, business inclusivity, educators autonomy, and libraries’ role in providing diverse books.

The peril of fascism lies in its ability to foster hatred, division, and indifference among Americans, hindering us from addressing true problems with viable solutions.

To safeguard democracy, our collective actions must involve educating ourselves and others, promoting inclusivity, engaging in civil discourse, exercising democratic rights through voting, and remaining vigilant against the signs of Fascism.

United, we can preserve freedom, equality, and justice, ensuring democracy endures for generations to come.

Donna Johnson

Midtown

What has our country come to?

I am so old I can remember when we celebrated Independence Day with fireworks rather than mass shootings. I mourn for our country and fear for our children’s future.

Bruce Hilpert

North side

Break the spell

The Republican Party will benefit if Donald Trump is thrown in prison because that’s what it will take to break the stranglehold he has over many Republicans. No matter how egregious, crooked, manipulative and pathological he is, many can’t get enough of him. He does no wrong in their eyes. They’re immune to his psychopathic ways. His being sent to prison might break that spell, and it might mean the Republican Party will survive.

Jim Dreis

East side