Lesher hire a disservice
Re: the April 20 article “Supervisors approve deal for new top administrator.”
Jan Lesher may be the right candidate for Pima County administrator, but we’ll never know. By bypassing a national search to fill that position, the Board of Supervisors is proving their negligence. There’s a whole organization, ICMA (International City/County Management Association), that spearheads these employment searches for communities. Pima County, and the city of Tucson for that matter, would be best served with aligning themselves with such an organization.
Why are we Pima County residents comfortable with the Board of Supervisors’ complacency? Jan Lesher may be the right candidate, but we’ll never know.
Jennifer Buchanan
Midtown
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Choosing news sources
Re: the April 12 article “A balanced view.”
Regarding the letter saying that the way to get unbiased news is to watch both Fox News and CNN or MSNBC. While I would argue that it presents a false equivalency — the so-called liberal, “left” networks have no one who compares to Sean Hannity or Putin-loving Tucker Carlson — a discerning viewer has other choices.
The PBS Newshour and BBC World News air every evening. They report the day’s news with on-the-scene correspondents and interview genuine experts. They are committed to providing unbiased information and reporting on the most important news events of the day. And, this is without ads, I might add.
Even the major networks provide largely unbiased “nightly news” broadcasts in addition to shows like Meet the Press, where politicians and journalists from both the right and left air their views.
I reject the claim that all TV news reporting is biased. Try non-cable. Or even try print media.
Peter Bourque
Midtown
Ukraine, drought are same problem
The invasion of Ukraine and the Southwest drought problems are the same and here’s why: They were both predictable, a result of arrogance, greed and complicity. We knew Putin wanted to destroy Ukraine for years. Yet we ignored the warning signs because of our greed and dependency on fossil fuels. Our arrogance ignored that Putin was a psychopathic dictator. Our complicity led to thousands of innocent deaths. Now compare the drought here. The lack of water has been catalogued for 60 years, yet greed is the number one factor. Real estate developers don’t care one bit about water conservation or sustainability. They never will. As long as developers can buy land and build on it, they will. Golf courses and gated communities with wasted water on manicured lawns in the desert don’t care either as long as their clubs and condos are full. All the warning signs are there, yet we are arrogant, greedy and complicit. When will it stop? When it is too late. Just like Ukraine.
Michael Dunlavey, retired military officer and historian
East side
Abortion laws
With the continuing passage of laws by individual state legislatures regarding abortion rights, the Texas governor’s busing of migrants to Washington gave me an idea. Why not bring the babies that are born because a state has banned abortion in some way, shape or form, and a woman has lost her right to decide what should happen with her own body, why not take those babies to the state lawmakers who have taken away that woman’s right to choose? The actions of these legislatures indicates that they should be responsible for these lives going forward, so let them raise them.
Christie Cummins
Midtown
Election “fraud”
I see the Republicans continue to say the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by the Democrats (see recent comments by Alabama’s Republican governor). Seems to me if they really believe it, rather than passing restrictive voting laws, they should just employ the techniques that the Democrats used and steal the 2024 election back. Unless of course, they think their ethics would prevent such a thing? (Stop laughing!). I wonder if this lunacy will ever abate?
Michael Perdue
Vail
Bowers courage award
It’s a sad day in our state and country when a government official like Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers received a Profiles in Courage award for fulfilling his constitutional duty. Bowers, a Republican, received the award for resisting immense pressure from former President Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans to overturn the state’s presidential election results. It’s not that Bowers wasn’t courageous to stand up to this pressure, but that he was forced to do it at all. Republicans who were elected on the same ballots they claim were fraudulent are the ultimate in both hypocrisy and cowardice.
Gail Kamaras
East side
Good guys with guns
A good guy with a gun is dangerous.
Suppose we have a large crowd with an active shooter which makes for a very chaotic situation.
Into this mix we have four armed people that come upon the scene from different directions. Two are “good guys” with guns, one is an off-duty cop and one a plain clothes cop. We can add to that, someone has just got the gun away from the shooter just as these four appear on the scene.
The question is who shoots who?
Donald Plummer
Northwest side
I love you, Arizona
A current version of the song, “I Love You, Arizona.”
You’ve ruined Arizona.
I don’t know what to do.
I’ve lived here all my life
and served red, white and blue.
What’s changed in Arizona?
It’s really not the same.
The lawmakers in Phoenix
have put us all to shame.
Our statehood Constitution
keeps college costs down low.
The wingnuts and and Regents
decided to say No.
For teachers and the voters,
the lawmakers don’t care.
But they’re the ones whose voices
we really need to share.
Where will we get our water?
We need it just to live.
The lakes are dropping lower
but something has to give.
My family lives in Tucson
with sunshine every day.
It causes me to question,
to leave or should I stay?
I miss you Arizona.
My patience grows so thin.
I hope that we’ll get stronger
to heal from within.
Let’s vote in Arizona.
Your chance will come this fall.
Get rid of all the nut-cakes.
Let’s vote, once and for all.
Robert Kruse
Northeast side
No lesson learned
I hope these Republican politicians in Arizona keep parroting these lies about the inaccuracy of the vote count. Goodness, didn’t that expensive disaster with the Cyber Ninjas, who found absolutely nothing wrong, teach you a lesson?
Keep it up and you are going to be voted out of office by such large majorities, no ballot counting error can save you.
Arizona, if these people were educated in your schools, your state is in major trouble.
Jack Matthews
Benson
It’s genocide, not war
It’s genocide, not a war! President Joe Biden, as the “Leader of the Free World,” must have the U.S. — along with all NATO and EU nations — do whatever it takes to stop Vladimir Putin now, militarily along with all possible sanctions, before he murders every last person living in Ukraine — much like Adolf Hitler did over 80 years ago. Back then the U.S. did virtually nothing until Pearl Harbor was attacked. We can’t afford to wait a moment longer.
Mike Allen, third-
generation Ukrainian
Northwest side
Do us no harm
At best, we expect our elected representatives to protect our rights and improve our lives. At the very least, we expect them to do us no harm. I’m appalled that our Republican legislators have failed Arizonans on both counts.
They’ve been relentless in attacking our right to vote. They’ve proposed over 140 voter-suppression bills, each designed to intimidate, harass and discourage us from voting.
They’ve been relentless in attacking our children’s right to a first-rate public education. They’ve withheld billions from our public schools, denied teachers their right to free speech, imposed limits on what can be taught, banned books and prevented professionals from doing their jobs.
They’ve been relentless in attacking women’s rights. They’ve inflicted undue suffering, altered women’s lives and prevented doctors from acting in the best interests of their patients.
Rather than protecting our rights and improving our lives, our Republican legislators have attacked them. They deserve to be voted out of office.
Jacolyn Marshall
Oro Valley
E-15 fuel
President Joe Biden has just announced his intention of using E-15 (15% ethanol) year round to help bring down the price of fuel. The only problem is that E-15 is not recommended for use in many vehicles. In fact, some manufacturers void warranties if that fuel is used. Is it our president’s plan to destroy motors on gas-powered vehicles so that everyone will be forced to buy electric?
Thomas Wenzel
East side
