Tucson Speaks Out: September 4

A measure of the man

Dolly Parton’s passing prompts this letter. Dolly was renowned for her many contributions to the world, but perhaps her greatest gift was her philanthropy. She generously contributed to literacy for children, medical research, disaster aid and the support of high school and college students, to name a few worthy causes. If she hadn’t donated millions of her earnings to them, she likely could have been a billionaire. Likewise, many other celebrities, including Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, have contributed millions of dollars to a wide variety of causes. Although they weren’t billionaires, previous presidents, including Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and most famously, Jimmy Carter, were generous with their charitable donations both nationally and globally. This generosity contrasts strongly with the billionaire who currently occupies the White House. The Donald J. Trump Foundation was mostly self-serving and ended up being forced to close down by the courts because of misuse of charitable funds. Doesn’t this say volumes about the character of the man?

Ted Fleming

Northwest side

Vaccine-autism myth

Are you unsure about vaccinating your children due to worry about vaccines causing autism? Trump and RFK have both repeated this claim. Where did this idea come from?

In 1998, British doctor Andrew Wakefield published a paper linking the MMR vaccine with autism based on a small study (n=12). The data were falsified. The paper was retracted and Wakefield’s medical license revoked. He was setting up a test kit business which he believed would yield $43 million per year. Furthermore, he was paid over £400,000 by lawyers seeking evidence that the vaccine was unsafe. Serious conflicts of interest.

The results of this study have never been replicated. There is no evidence that the vaccine, as Trump recently claimed, is “quite lethal”. Studies involving millions of participants have shown there is no link between autism and vaccination, and that the MMR is safe and effective.

Don’t take vaccine advice from just anyone. Follow your doctor’s advice and vaccinate yourself and your loved ones.

Melanie Bell, PhD

Midtown

Lake Powell is proving John Wesley Powell right

John Wesley Powell has been dead for 124 years, but somebody might want to start listening to him.

The one-armed Civil War veteran, geologist and explorer warned in 1878 that the arid West was fundamentally different from the wetter East.

Water was the limit.

America spent the next century trying to prove him wrong with dams, canals, pumps and massive engineering projects. Then we named a reservoir after him.

Today, Powell the man may be talking to us through Powell the lake.

Lake Powell has fallen roughly 31 feet in the past year. It now sits about 28 feet above minimum power pool, where Glen Canyon Dam can no longer generate hydropower normally.

That does not mean it will reach that level next year. But the comparison is hard to ignore.

We learned how to move water. We never learned how to create it.

John Wesley Powell warned us. Maybe Lake Powell is warning us again.

Rusty Childress

Foothills

Social Security

People have become more concerned about the health of Social Security (SS), rightfully so. For those of you who get a regular paycheck from your employer, 6.2% of your wages, up to $184,500 annual income, is deducted from your paycheck for your future SS benefits. I suggest Congress remove the $184,500 constraint. Why not make all wages, no matter how high, taxable? This would increase the annual SS taxes going into the Trust Funds and extend the life of SS.

This should make a lot of people happy, especially those that want to tax the rich! Right!

Cal Rooker

Oro Valley

Women's health

In a society currently plagued with health inequities, the cost of women’s medical services continues to reinforce the walled garden of healthcare.

In 2024, 14% of Arizona women reported that they had not seen a doctor during the previous year because of cost. That number was even larger, reaching 20%, among Hispanic women in Arizona.

For many women, the first screening they face is a wallet screen. Patients are left asking themselves: can I afford the appointment, the test, or the medication that follows?

These financial barriers exacerbate existing health disparities, particularly among historically underrepresented women. Cost is not the only reason women delay care. However, its growing presence aggravates the current healthcare crisis.

Reducing disparities in women’s health requires making essential care more affordable and accessible. That can only be accomplished when our community speaks up and reclaims control over our health and future.

Umaiza Amer

Oro Valley

Time for a change

For those who have voted Republican all their lives, how has that been working for you? Are you OK with $4 gas, $8 ground beef, children dying of diseases that were eradicated years ago, a needless war that abuses our military, and families being sent to detention camps? To my fellow baby boomers, do you remember all those beautiful young people on the hills of Woodstock who believed in peace and love and in making the world a better place for all? How did so many of us end up voting for the most hateful, incompetent and corrupt man ever to hold the office of president? This November, let's send some younger and more progressive people to represent us, and end the mess the Republicans have made of our country. Maybe it's not too late for peace, love, and making the world a better place for all.

Mary Zimmerman

SaddleBrooke

Data center skeptic

It seems to me that the drive to build wasteful data centers is driven, to a significant degree, by crypto mining and artificial intelligence. I’m of the opinion that cryptocurrency is fake money useful only to money launderers and grifters; and that artificial intelligence is a tool for those wishing to hack on an industrial scale, create “slop” videos, and cheat on school assignments. Seems like a waste of our precious water and electricity.

Donald Reese

Southeast side

Thanks for the book rec

Recently, a letter writer recommended a book pertaining to climate change: “Solvable,” by Susan Solomon. Intrigued, I got the book and read it. It first covered global-scale environmental problems of the past, all of which appeared unsolvable due to their size and complexity. However, humanity acknowledged the existential threats and got together and changed course to solve past issues.

The last chapter then applied lessons learned from past case studies to the current threat of climate change. As in the past, climate change will be hard to solve, but not impossible. Solving it will take global acknowledgment and cooperation. What won’t work to solve climate change is ignoring it.

I thank the letter writer for this book recommendation and the Daily Star for printing her letter. Book reading has been in decline for years now, but books give both breadth and depth on topics that tweets, social media posts or news articles can’t provide.

Paul Sheppard

Midtown

City retirees feeling the brunt

Imagine for a moment that you are a retired City of Tucson employee receiving your monthly pension checks on time and for the correct amount, then all of a sudden your monthly pension check is now hundreds of dollars short! You check with former coworkers and the city to find out that many retirees were also affected! There are numerous city retirees who are on fixed and limited incomes for various reasons. They will now have to absorb fees and interest penalties, credit damage and in some cases, legal action. Don't city retirees deserve better?

Max LaPlante

Southeast side

Editor’s note: The shortage impacted about 100 of the 3,364 retirees in the city’s system and was caused by health plan changes. The city began processing corrections by the next business day and has initiated changes to prevent a reoccurence on the next checks.