Letters to the Editor: March 4

Re: the March 1 letter “Woke-ism is a cynical ruse.”

Who’s deeply cynical is this letter writer. She’s a master at projection where she’s accusing Republicans of exactly what the “woke” are doing. Progressives are the ones who’ve broken the nation into groups who they manipulate with fear.

They’ve so confused our children and some adults on what a male and female is, what is and isn’t pornography and have used public schools as a vehicle to get in between kids and parents.

These people promote drag queen shows for children. They promote open borders and the welfare of non-Americans over Americans. They promote the mutilation of kids with sex-change surgery. They want to rewrite classic children’s books because they don’t agree with some words.

I can tell you her group, who claims to be nonpartisan, is not. Their thinking and actions are deeply flawed and dangerous. They want compromise on only their terms. They crave power over our daily lives and need pushback.

I refuse to yield.

Marvin Montez

Oro Valley

Disaster in Ohio

Re: the Feb. 19 letter “Disaster in Ohio.”

Contrary to the view expressed in a Feb. 19 letter to the editor regarding the derailment in East Palestine, actions taken during the Trump administration are not ancient history. In the first year of his presidency, former President Trump eliminated a rule change initiated by President Obama that would have required freight trains to upgrade outdated braking technology. In 2019, his administration relaxed safety regulations for the shipping of fracked natural gas by rail.

While the former president does not necessarily bear direct “blame” for the derailment, there is no question that he pursued a policy of deregulation that makes such accidents more likely. They are called safety regulations because they are put in place to save lives and towns, even if it means—prepare yourself—reduced profits for businesses.

Brand Gould

Marana

Smartphone discrimination

Re: the March 2 article “UA’s cashless policy a bad idea.”

In David Devine’s column about the UA’s cashless policy, he described himself as one of many people over 65 who don’t have a smartphone. I am one of those people too, and I have experienced the discrimination against us.

One example is the grocery store where I can’t benefit from certain sales because the coupons are digital only. Another example of unfair sales in grocery stores is when one can only get the sale price if he/she buys three or four of that item. Elderly people living alone don’t want or need three 12-packs of soda or four bags of chips. They would just like to occasionally have a soda or a few chips. Why can’t they buy single items for the sale price?

Big businesses (UA, grocery stores, etc.) need to be aware of the people they are leaving behind as they turn more and more to high-tech and greater profits.

Karen Berry

Midtown

Bill Walton’s poetic words

Bill Walton’s description of Azuolas Tubelis’ fast break basket during the second half of the Oregon game tonight (Feb. 2): “In the shadow, historically of Arvydas Sabonis, running the floor, so graceful, so beautiful, like the water coming down Sabino Canyon.”

And it was a magnificent display of athleticism. After a rebound from Courtney Ramey, Tubelis took off for the basket. Ramey threw a perfect pass...Oh heck, it’ll be on the all the highlights. Watch it, more than once.

You writers of letters to the editor who don’t like Bill Walton, he spoke poetry during a live game broadcast as effortlessly as Tubelis made that basket. Turn the volume up and listen carefully. Walton is brilliant. Tubelis made history.

Bill Smith

Vail

Power vs. responsibility

Theorem: Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Corollary: Lack of responsibility causes lack of success. At least two items come to mind. First the internet. The government gave developers the immunity from responsibility so as to help it grow. But now they don’t want to give that up at places like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

Second, the pandemic. Pharmaceutical companies got immunity from liability to expedite development. But now they don’t want to go back and do the efficacy work to go forward. There are lots of other examples, like Social Security, Medicare, welfare, Head Start, SNAP (food stamps). Who is responsible to fix these and others? If the answer is no one, they will never get fixed.

Bill Blaine

Marana

What next?

During midterm elections I watched a TV correspondent interview a bunch of senior Republicans in Wyoming. He asked them how they felt about Liz Cheney. A cowboy grandpa answered. “She has to go, she betrayed Donald Trump.” Goodbye, Liz!

I wondered if he really believed the “big lie” or if he couldn’t admit he was fooled or had made a mistake. Maybe he totally identified with Trump and joined the cult.

Trump’s past will soon catch up with him and he should be locked up, but he seems to get out of everything.

I wonder what the cowboy will say when Trump goes away. I wish him the best and hope he makes better choices. Democrats need a sane Republican Party to get things done for everybody.

Robert McNeil

Midtown

Wadsack’s “Big Lie” about freedom

During her campaign for LD17, candidate Justine Wadsack of the Freedom Team promised to “protect the people and defend their freedom.” Now that she is a state senator and a member of the Freedom Caucus, she says that what she promised only applies for those people who agree with her. Since she disagrees with many of the Democratic voters in Tucson and city council decisions, she is going to take away their local democratic control and charter government under her SCR 1023 being passed by the Legislature. Sounds more like dictatorial Russia or China!

John Higgins

Southeast side