Tucson Speaks Out: April 26 letters of the day

Re: the April 9 article “Senate must approve expanded child tax credit.”

Dear Editor,

William Lambers makes a great argument for helping struggling families by the Senate passing the Child Tax Credit. Battling poverty that millions of families are experiencing should be on the top of Congress’s to do list. The House already passed this bipartisan legislation, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, and the Senate must do the same. We can help by calling senators, 202-224-3121, and telling them to take action right now, speaking to leadership to bring this critical legislation to a vote. If it doesn’t pass, we will know who doesn’t think families matter in time to vote for someone who does.

Willie Dickerson

Northwest side

Republicans’ illicit scheme

Arizona legislative Republicans and state GOP had a secret plan to lie, cheat and steal their way to thwart the will of the majority of voters who will support the Arizona Abortion Access (“triple A”) citizen initiative in November. That initiative would essentially restore the standard in place under Roe v. Wade for 50 years until the U.S. Supreme Court own extremists tossed it out.

AZ Republicans have been caught in the act and seem to have no shame about their illicit scheme. They intend to put similarly named and misleading referenda of their own on the ballot that would actually restrict women’s reproductive health and freedom. Our legislators are supposed to represent all their constituents, not just those who voted for them, but our extremist Republicans have only their own warped agenda in mind. Voters will need to educate themselves and vote carefully this November.

Anne Mitchell

East side

The reason our constitution will grow

How do we get it across to vacuous, bubble-brained MAGA voters that Donald Trump is NOT a religious person? He is a blasphemous philanderer, adulterer and con man. However, it shouldn’t matter.

The United States is NOT a theocratic nation, as some politicians (Johnson) and Daily Star writers falsely claim. We were created (by the GOD of ALL PEOPLE and RELIGIONS) as a nation where ALL his “children” could practice the beliefs for which every religion has suffered to achieve recognition.

I have never seen a crucifix in a “cafeteria” in my life. Biden is a Jesuit Catholic, but that is not his “job,” as many believe it should be. Biden is the President of 340 million people. One who rules by the Bible instead of our Constitution is a potential tyrant.

The Founding Fathers, who “originalists” cite and still believe (except when it disagrees with their radical beliefs), created a document that would withstand the trials and tribulations religions created in the countries from which they came.

Sheldon Metz

Northeast side

Women’s rights

Re: the April 18 letter “Future for women under Trump.”

As this letter writer and others have said, women’s rights have eroded due to Republican-controlled courts and legislatures. Seems to be based mostly on religious beliefs. Some, such as writer Bryne, wondered correctly what and whose rights will be next. No answer seems certain but for women “barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen” is possible. If so, they won’t need much, if any, education. Kind of reminds you of the Taliban, doesn’t it?

Clarence Johnson

Northwest side

What am I voting for

Re: the April 22 letter “What I am voting for.”

In response to your question. I am voting for many of the same items on your list, however I will be voting for the candidate that has dignity and a moral compass rather than the one who has demonstrated that he has neither.

Richard Govern

Foothills

Character matters

Re: the April 22 letter “What I am voting for.”

Sorry to the letter writer, I’m voting for Biden because:

Truth matters

Honesty matters

Loyalty matters

Ethics matter

Morals matter

Faithfulness matters

Empathy matters

Kindness matters

Lawfulness matters

Respect matters

Integrity matters

These are matters of a person’s character, and my President needs to have a healthy dose of it to lead my country. Trump has shown us that none of that matters.

Dave Burns

North side

Judge decision

I read about the controversy concerning a decision made by Arizona Supreme Court justices. Here is an idea to make you feel more empowered. Please check out the rules of the merit selection process used in Pima County. If you want to have a direct say in who becomes a judge in Pima County, ask your County Supervisor to appoint you to the Pima County Judicial Nominating Commission. There have been several unfilled positions. The Supreme Court Justices only ruled on what the existing law is. Which would you rather have? A judge that tries to make new laws or one that only does what he is empowered to do, determine what the existing law is.

Mike Hennessy

West side

Negative “blather” about Tucson & UA

Re: the April 22 article “As the U of A goes, so goes Tucson.”

The Opinion column by Craig Cantoni was much more diatribe than opinion. Exhibit A is the statement that “Tucson tops all of them (other cities) in provincialism, insularity, hubris, denial, and an aversion to prosperity”. All cities are imperfect in some ways, but I would wager most of us who have lived in other urban areas could list multiple examples of cities that are much worse than Tucson on those qualities. The U of A also gets its share of the author’s vitriol for its provost recruitment process, among other things. One’s first reaction to the tone of the piece is: “Why does he still live here?” Mr. Cantoni overuses the word “blather” to describe statements he doesn’t like. I would suggest that “blather” would also be an apt description of the entirety of this “opinion” piece.

Walter Cooney

Green Valley

Destruction of recreation area

I was one of many volunteers, who collectively spent thousands of hours and lots of money, to recently build a needed community recreation facility, a family mountain bike park right in the center of Tucson. There were three unique trails of different difficulty with signage, berms, jumps, beams, benches used by kids and adults to test their skills.

This recreation site has been destroyed and replaced by a city of homeless camps and maybe a thousand residents. Signs have been removed, bench stolen, beams taken for firewood, charcoal fire pits and tires on the trail, and paths erased by foot traffic. No bikers go there anymore.

How did our city let this public asset be ruined? People should be free to live as they like but not interfere with the common good of others. Tucson leaders should not allow our parks and recreation areas to be taken over by homeless camps.

Ken Smalley

Midtown

Top shelf Tucson tennis

Hearty Congratulations to U of A men’s tennis coach Clancy Shields and the team for another sterling performance by tying with Stanford for the PAC-12 Championship. Coach Clancy has built an excellent team in a fairly short period of time.

Kudos also to former top Tucson junior players, Harsh Parikh (Salpointe) and TanvI Narendran (Rincon/University) for strong performances this season in the PAC-12. TanvI, playing for Coach Scotland’s talented women’s U of A team, which also qualified for the conference championship, tied for the team’s best singles record at 14 wins and 4 losses.

Harsh, who played his undergraduate tennis for the University of Pennsylvania, had a year of eligibility available due to Covid after graduation, and played for Stanford as a doubles expert this season. He also ended the season with one of the strongest records at 10-6.

Good to see that tennis is still alive and well in the Old Pueblo.

Evan Phillips

Northeast side

No Earth Day at Starr Pass

As a “snowbird” golfer, I rely on rounds at Starr Pass for my annual dose of experiencing the beautiful desert vegetation and wildlife up close. Imagine my surprise last week to find that the golf course has hacked down the lovely trees and cacti that provided shade and habitat for birds, deer, coyotes, bobcats, and even javelina.

What gives, Starr Pass? We’d much rather lose a ball or two than see hundreds of trees chain-sawed, and bird nests piled up atop the debris. And what gives Tucson and Pima County, for allowing this critical habitat destruction?

I’ll save my green-fee dollars so I can donate to the City of Tucson Million Trees project. They’ll have to plant hundreds of trees just to keep up with what Starr Pass so callously destroyed. Shame on them and Troon Golf, who is managing the property with no concern for the environment.

Laura Husk

West side

Remembering judges

I am a 76-year-old Latino voter who votes in every election local and national. There are two names I need to remember come election time. The two names are Bolick and King. I plan to vote against their retention that way they can have plenty of time to play checkers with Ducey. Hopefully Lopez will be next to go.

Francisco Bustamante

Southwest side

Letters to the Editor

Re: the April 22 letter “Abortion” and “What I am voting for.”

I have to respond to two of letters. First to the Abortion letter; talk about double standard! Trump executed 13 federal prisoners while he was President, and yet the Republican party is against abortion but once the fetus is born that same party abandons said babies; and hypothetically, an unwanted baby, could become a murderer, who the same anti-abortionists, would put to death!

Second, ‘What I am Voting For’: So many of this writer’s bullet points are debatable that Trump or the Republican Party have those some missives. Trump only has one missive, his self-prevention and Trump may get to have the title of President of the USA again, but the country will be run by the likes of the Heritage Foundation, aka Project 2025; or Leonard Leo, Federalist Society. These organization are using Trump to enact their own agenda and any critical-hinking person should realize that and vote accordingly.

Donna Allen

Green Valley

Party of Trump

Since 2016, the Republican Party has become the POT (Party of Trump), the party of chaos, openly opposed to democracy, embracing extreme White Christian Nationalism and gutting women’s rights.

Never forget Trump’s famous words: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.”

The Republican Study Committee which represents 100% of House Republican Leadership and nearly 80% of their members has endorsed a national abortion ban with zero exceptions for rape or incest.

Supports eliminating reproductive freedom for all women in every state and puts IVF treatment on the chopping block.

Endorses banning mifepristone – an FDA-approved, safe medication.

Supports rolling back policies that help ensure our Nation’s veterans have access to abortion care.

Guts funding for contraception—for low-income and uninsured women further eroding access to essential health care, from cancer screening to primary care, at a time when state abortion bans have already forced health clinics that provide contraception and other critical health services to close.

Is POT who you support?

Not me.

Vote blue in November.

Rachel Rulmyr Ed.D

Oro Valley

Student protests

Much has been written about students at various universities protesting the death of 32,000 Palestinians and U.S. continued military support for Israel. Some have called these students “spoiled”, “uninformed”, “wet nursed” and “privileged”.

I have heard it all before. I am old enough to remember and even took part in protests against U.S. involvement in Vietnam (before I was drafted and served). We were called vile names and denounced using the same language as we hear today.

This is not a letter taking a side on this issue, but a simple request that we all try and see other sides of this issue. There are many sides and we are right to be concerned, just not right to vilify those who do not think as we do. They just might have a valid point.

Howard Strause

Foothills

Right on point

Re: the April 23 article “Tucson pothole fixes.”

Kudos to the letter writer for his apropos critique of Tucson’s ersatz road maintenance. The city spends time and resources filling potholes and then applauds its efforts to comply with Prop 411, when all they are doing is putting Band-aids on top of Band-aids. Genuine, longterm fixes fall victim to penny-wise and pound-foolish endeavors.

John Fristik

Southeast side