Tucson Speaks Out: June 6

Ciscomani’s upcoming CPB vote

Trump’s proposed clawback of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds will devastate Arizona’s Native American public radio stations. Navajo, Hopi, Apache and Tohono O’odham stations serve isolated, economically impoverished parts of our state with valuable services. All four stations heavily depend upon CPB funding. Local donors cannot make up the shortfall. KOHN / Sells preserves O’odham’s himdag, their way of life. When the devastating Rodeo-Chedeski fire destroyed Apache lands, NPR member station KNNB / Whiteriver was the sole local source of information. KGHR in Tuba City broadcasts from a Navajo high school and receives 72 percent of its funding from CPB. NPR member station KUYI Hopi Radio has been a vital information source during floods, power outages and the pandemic. Ciscomani must vote to protect Arizona’s indigenous people and their infrastructure. It would be cruel for Ciscomani to support Trump’s destruction of public media.

John Stark

Southeast side

A-OK with lies

I had to laugh at one incredible sentence in the Boston Herald article "Democrats slip further behind GOP." This article brought up the allegations of a cover-up of Biden's mental decline, stating "People don't like being lied to." I say lots of people (half the country) have absolutely no problem with being lied to — even accepting, or ignoring, big democracy-destroying lies. They voted for a serial liar whose nature is to lie about everything. Continual lies? No problem! Trump's agenda — racist, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, anti-science, anti-education, anti-social justice, anti-environmental, anti-everything that made our country great — seems to really resonate with his supporters. They like his nasty "style" and divisive messaging. They are fine with a government by and for the obscenely rich. So what that Trump lies?

Deb Klumpp

Oro Valley

Dearest senator

Growing up, I saw the U.S. government make our lives better by protecting us from pollution; my food was safe, workers were safe. Medicare/Medicaid allowed millions of people healthcare. We felt our government was there for us. I believed in our Constitution. This amazing document had stood firm for almost 250 years protecting our freedoms. This is the country that I grew up in.

Now this awful democracy-destroying bill will do so much damage. The removal of regulations around pollution will make people sick, but that does not matter to the authors of the bill. “Everyone dies.” And giving the executive branch more power is unforgivable. No other president has needed this kind of power. This is not the country I grew up in.

Please stand up and stop this bill. Please save our democracy. Please everyone call or write your senators today.

Christina Early

Midtown

Brainwashing students

A recent letter attacked historians for deliberately teaching American students that our country has always been bad. Having taught U.S. history to thousands of students at universities in Wisconsin, Maryland, Georgia and Arizona for fifty years I can attest that this is not true. Historians use factual data to explain what happened and to show how the past shaped our society. The truth is that Americans, like all humans, have done great and exceptional things but also stupid and evil things. Teaching the historical facts about slavery or the near-destruction of the Indians and how we view those actions today, shows how we learned from past mistakes, now how evil we were. America's helping people facing wars or natural disasters during the last century shows how generous and caring our society became. Discussing negative issues is not indoctrination but an honest explanation of our past.

Roger Nichols

North side

Willful ignorance

Great article Sunday by Terry Bracy about the “Yes” people, otherwise known as the Magas and loyalists. Though Brace only mentioned Vance, Rubio and Hegseth, the list goes to the street level. And includes Trump himself who answers specifically to the money boys and girls.

These people also enjoy willful ignorance so they take no responsibility for any negative consequences. An example would be those who espouse that a tariff is paid by the exporting country. They see no reason for further research because Fox News or some social media says so. The economic truth is the cost eventually reaches the consumer.

Willful choice is the alternative. The 3.5% rule from a Harvard (go figure) political research project showed that when 3.5% or more of the population participates in non-violent, civil resistance campaigns, authoritarianism or kleptocracy can be repulsed. This movement is underway in this country and continues June 14th in Tucson and Nogales with the “No Kings” march.

James Keeton

Tubac

Believe it or else

Certain writers are appearing several times a week in this space. Must be they are getting lots of fan mail from the pro-Trump confederacy. Confederacy, hmm ... reminds me of a book a while back called Confederacy of Dunces. But I digress. The Star should take this phenomenon to heart and establish a new section in the paper. Give these prolific writers their own space, maybe call it "Believe It or Else," and locate it somewhere between the puzzles and the funny papers. This would have the added benefit of freeing up space for the writers who seem to be more in touch with reality.

William Muto

SaddleBrooke

Rs and the Tooth Fairy

There certainly was an incorrect assumption at Senator Ernst's town hall meeting in Iowa the other day. Actually, it was an incorrect assumption to end all incorrect assumptions. After all, why would any constituent ever expect the politician they elected to office to actually consider helping them? Maga politicians kowtow to their master and that is that. As her snide condescending and belittling reply emphasizes, the little people only need to do two things, vote for them and then keep their mouths shut.

Tim Canny

Oracle

Trump national emergency?

Trump reposted an outlandish conspiracy theory on Truth Social that said Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone. It was written by a conspiracy theorist with an unbalanced mind. So why repost it? Trump also has a history of lying about the fairness of our elections and taking unlawful actions to change results. Do you remember the fake electors in 2020 and the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol? He is not doing well in most polls today which show him behind in nearly all voter demographic categories. This could translate to the loss of Republican majorities in the Senate and/or House. If the polls before the 2026 election indeed show a shift away from the Trump Republicans, I would be greatly concerned that he sees this as a threat to his presidency and would declare a “national emergency” and cancel the elections. Then God help us all.

Michael Mount

Foothills

The disaster of Wall Street Equity

Reading about the recent sale of Eegee’s, I have two thoughts.

First, just about every corporate bankruptcy story in the last few decades starts with the same line — they were purchased by a private equity firm.

Second, with that in mind, why do we allow these Wall Street parasites to continue to operate? They produce nothing but short-term profit for themselves while destroying the economy and jobs with every business they shutter.

It is past time we bring back the laws and rules that put these greed-filled corporate raiders back in the box they escaped from. They are the ones taking American jobs and tossing them into the wind.

David Reynolds

East side

Buried in Juan’s “One BBB’’

On pages 278-279 in the big beautiful bill that Juan Ciscomani signed and bragged about, there is wording that removes states from being able to regulate AI for ten years. Will it be permitting development and construction of data centers to be under this section of the “big ugly bill”? This administration isn’t enforcing environmental, clean air, and water regulations. With states unable to oppose, this will endanger folks who live in communities that lack resources to fight back — like the rural communities that voted for Juan.

If you would like to know what could happen to your community, look at data centers like the one Elon Musk is building in South Memphis, xAI, with 35 power generators spewing out nitrous oxide.

Watch the YouTube video by More Perfect Union, “We Went to the Town Elon Musk is Poisoning.” If we end up with a product like Grok in our backyard, just remember how many fingers Juan held up when he notified his constituents on his vote.

Larry Robinson

Northwest side

Democrats selling out

Democrats lost the election and there are two reactions. The first reaction is those liberals that are now flipping and writing books so they can make a quick buck by exposing the collapse of Biden's health and mental capacity. Keep an eye out for the Tapper book and the White House Press Secretary book and don't buy them. The second reaction is those liberals that can't identify the problem that caused the loss to President Trump. Their solution is to spend $20 million asking the Democratic Party members why men are not voting for liberal candidates. These same people made promises of being rounded up and put in camps, however, it seems that putting up the camps would take longer than anyone wants to wait, the better solution is to suggest moving to Ireland. So, ask yourself, what did you expect to happen when Pres Trump was elected instead of Harris/Walz? What specific freedoms have you lost with Pres Trump in office?

Loran Hancock

Northwest side

No Kings Day

The June 4 column from the Boston Herald,(Democrats slip further behind GOP) had a “whistling in the dark” feel to it. They know that Trump is not a serious person. Never has been. We’re 6 months into this kakistocracy and they’re fearful - as well they should be - about the future.

“To hear mainstream media tell it, throngs of Americans are rising up (in protest) against President Trump.” Well, they got that right. And we’ll be doing it again on June 14 — No Kings Day.

While the Trumpster is basking in the glory of his birthday-boy military parade in DC, we’ll be holding forth in Reid Park 8am to 11am (gonna beat the heat) and a thousand other sites across the country.

See you in the park. See you on the streets.

Greg Lewis

Midtown

The day democracy marched into autocracy

250 years ago, on June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress voted to establish the Continental Army to defend the colonies and appointed George Washington as its commanding General. On his acceptance of the appointment, he said; ... I this day declare with the utmost sincerity I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with ... I do not wish to make any profit from it."

June 14th, 2025, should be a cause for remembrance and reflection to honor all those that served our nation. Instead, the day is being used as propaganda by President Trump for a parade to celebrate his birthday which happens to coincide with the Army's. Our military is in service of one man, just like Russia and North Korea. It is the marching of our democracy into an autocracy. "A state is not a state if it belongs to one man" — Sophocles

Michael Dunlavey

East side

Traitors from January 6 are ICE officers

Viewing those videos that show ICE officers arresting immigrants I noticed that some ICE officers were not wearing the vests correctly, and some T-Shirts weren't what Feds wear. My good friend in Los Angeles is a retired LAPD SWAT member and he noticed the way some ICE officers were equipped wearing their vests wrong, and overweight officers, and he saw what I noticed with weapons: 1911 .45s are not standard issue. In the San Diego video someone shouted out, "The guy has a swastika on his forearm." My buddies and I were right. Kristi Noem told Congress that they were using January 6 traitors as ICE personnel. They are criminals themselves, racist fascists. I suspected #47 was forming his own secret police. Noem is just a puppet. I do believe a civil war is around the corner. I'm a Vietnam veteran and I will defend my country against domestic terrorists and a leader who is a coward. God save this country. Barry Goldwater where are you?

David E. Leon

Vail

Re: "Abortion guidance gone"

Regarding the Associated Press article, "Abortion guidance gone" (June 4):

The article mostly represented a benign understanding of the Trump administration revoking the Biden administration's use of the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment & Active Labor Act to impel many hospitals to provide "emergency abortions for woman when they are necessary to stabilize their condition." I thought news reporting was supposed to be unbiased. The only partisan position quoted was from the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights: "The Trump Administration would rather women die in emergency rooms than receive life-saving abortions."

If the Associated Press journalists were fair-minded, they would have gathered pro-life information concerning this "lifesaving" use of abortion for the mother. "Lifesaving abortion" is not even a misnomer, it's a flagrant lie. Why didn't the AP journalists search out Lila Rose, the president and founder of Live Action, to counterbalance the pro-abortion position? The website liveaction.org has the pro-life solution.

Daniel Pryor

West side