Letters to the Editor: Jan. 17

FinchemPlease take your phony cowboy persona and your phony conspiracy theories and ride off into the sunset. Arizona does not want you. We have had enough.

Jeanne Herstad

SaddleBrooke

Innocent peopleRe: the Dec. 3 letter “A modest proposal.”

In this letter, the writer lists several recent mass shootings that have taken place around the country. They then go on to make the ludicrous assumption that the victims “sacrificed” their lives for some particular freedom, in this case the right to bear arms, which makes absolutely no sense. The real reason these victims should be honored is that they were innocent people who were murdered by a crazy person with a gun.

Roger Boesch

Foothills

One American freedI have read several opinions on the Brittney Griner prisoner swap and they range from armchair generals criticizing President Biden “I could have gotten two prisoners traded” to outright racism “I would have traded for a white veteran instead of a Black drug-using basketball player.”

What they don’t get is the prisoners were in Russia and they hold all the cards. If they don’t want to trade, they don’t. Biden had a chance to free an American and he took it. It was the right thing to do.

Robert McNeil

Midtown

Humanitarian crisis within our bordersWith Title 42 possibly coming to an end, many government agencies scrambled to take steps to deal with the tremendous amount of immigrants that are flooding our border. Warehouse, hotels and empty schools were being prepared to house the influx. I commend these agencies for their effort to mitigate this problem for it is truly a great humanitarian crisis. We can never imagine what the conditions these people had to endure to get to our border.

I do wish, however, that the same amount of financial energy and urgency was put into place for our nation’s homeless. Since the pandemic and prior to, many families and individuals have lost jobs and homes and been forced to live on the streets due to simple economics. This is our humanitarian crisis and yet we seem to accept it as the norm. Our government and all of us have to rethink our priorities.

Fred DiNoto

Northwest side

Border control

President Biden has just, after two years of ignoring and deflecting, imposed several new rules regarding immigration into the United States. He also indicated that the border problems will not be solved until there is a comprehensive immigration policy, now held up by Republican obstinance. Who is he kidding? Until our government decides to halt entry into the United States to anyone not following the existing immigration laws, the illegals, with support from the cartels, will continue to pour into our nation because the word is out, get across the border and they will support and take care of you, no questions asked. This nation cannot survive as the nation we know if we do not control entry into the nation. No other country in the world has the open border policy that we currently have and I wonder why.

Loyal M Johnson Jr.

Oro Valley

Tax fairness

Donald Trump’s early disclosure show he often paid no taxes and used write-offs to do so. The IRS didn’t audit his 2016 returns until 2019 and relied on his accountants. Some of this may be legal under tax codes. A study showed if everyone paid what was due the deficit would be eliminated. I use Trump as an example. It’s ludicrous that the average taxpayer pays a third of their income and millionaires and billionaires game the system and pay a fraction or none of what ordinary citizens pay. They are the real welfare queens. Most inherited the money and aren’t creating new jobs.

Craig Miller

Northwest side

Thinking critically

Re: the Dec. 22 letter “Critical thinking skills.”

This letter implies that UA students aren’t thinking critically in asking to divest of fossil fuel interests. On the contrary: At a minimum, the students of a UA course called Ecological Catastrophes consider the pros and cons of getting off oil (fossil fuels generally). They realize how hard it is.

Even more, by analyzing ecological catastrophes of the past, they realize that continuing life in the same old way, i.e., following the status quo, can bring consequences that ultimately wreak ecological havoc. Accordingly, they realize that taking little, or even no, meaningful action now on climate change risks ecological catastrophe in the future, their future.

Far from not thinking critically, the students of Ecological Catastrophes are considering problems across multiple scales of time and space, and across concepts. Surely, students in other courses at the UA and elsewhere are thinking just as hard, i.e., critically.

Paul Sheppard, instructor of the UA course, Great US

Ecological Catastrophes

Midtown

Think it through

Desalination of seawater is a very bad idea for Arizona. The process is extremely energy intensive, which will make climate change worse. Climate change is a significant reason Lake Mead and Lake Powell are dangerously low in the first place. Not only is desalination very expensive, but it also creates up to six gallons of brine for every four gallons of drinkable water. Those thousands of tons of brine created would be mixed with chemicals from the processing and then must be sequestered safely somewhere. Desalination is no answer to our freshwater problem. Instead, we have to put pressure to save and reuse on those who are wasting the freshwater we do have. Seventy to 80% of Colorado River water goes to agriculture. Urban and suburban water users should subsidize installing the latest water-saving irrigation technology for farmers who currently have water rights in return for keeping the water saved for urban and suburban use.

Mark Hengesbaugh

Foothills

Arizona statehood

Re: the Jan. 9 article “History blooms as AZ tops records with 5th female governor.”

This article implied that President Taft vetoed statehood for Arizona in 1912 over the issue of women’s suffrage. The truth is that he vetoed the draft state constitution because it included a provision for voter recall of judges, believing it would limit judicial independence. Arizona submitted a new draft without that provision and was admitted to the Union in 1914, and promptly restored the recall provision.

David Bartlett

Midtown

Education funding

As a former teacher, I have some suggestions for actions that the governor and Legislature can do to help both teacher retention and the quality of education in our state. It’s very simple, but, yes, it does take money. Many of the issues Arizona educators are facing could be remedied if we did this one thing: reduce the number of students in each classroom, from kindergarten through high school.

There is a huge difference between a classroom with 22 students compared to one with 34 (sometimes more). With fewer students, pupils can be held more accountable for their actions, their study habits, and their attendance. There can be a better bond between teacher. parent and student, and, for the teacher, the amount of paperwork and extraneous duties can be diminished. Being able to do your job well and build relationships with students will go a long way in keeping Arizona-educated teachers in Arizona.

Gov. Hobbs, please add classroom size reduction to your list of educational reforms.

Don Adams

Southeast side

McCarthy’s speech broken downKevin McCarthy said, “…. our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 IRS agents.” (Protecting wealthy Republican donors, owing billions in back taxes. That number is a distraction from the fact that Donald Trump fired thousands of agents and others upon taking office; much necessary equipment is over 15 years old; and dismissed clerks and aides are needed to process claims and disputes caused by Trump’s actions).

“We are going to fix … the ‘wide-open’ southern border … America’s last energy policies…’woke’ indoctrination in our schools…the debt and the rise of the Chinese Communist Party … we will hold the swamp accountable — from the withdrawal of Afghanistan (surrendered by Trump in 2020) to the origins of COVID to the weaponization(?) of the FBI.”

Ironically, McCarthy quoted Abe Lincoln in saying, “We are striving to maintain the government and institutions of our fathers …. and transmit them to our children and our children’s children forever,” all the while cutting funds for public education and shifting those funds to private and parochial schools.

Sheldon Metz

Northeast side

Have a heart

Re: the Jan. 11 letter “Discounts for some.”

The writer is outraged not because of the increase in his Southwest Gas bill, but because “low-income customers may see lower bills because of my unsanctioned assistance.” He’s upset because he can’t “vote out” SWG, because the allocation is not a legislative act, and “I have no power to not pay my gas bill.”

That’s right. So he needs to get a grip on two things: 1. His heart: ruining anyone’s assistance to the needy is shocking (some people “have no power” to pay their gas bill); and 2. A history book: As he actually sees, SWG’s rate structure is pure capitalism. In fact, capitalism with a glimmer of a heart.

Happy New Year, sir. You will survive. Maybe somebody else will, too.

Regula Case

Midtown

Soaring egg pricesRe: the Jan. 11 article “New egg rule will hatch higher prices.”

This article about the new Arizona law requiring a decrease in the inhumanity of corporate farming rules that will now require a whole square foot of space per hen for her egg-laying lifespan was a scare tactic from Big Egg.

The headline threatens egg eaters with a whopping $2.71 to $8.79 per year in potential increased costs brought on by the new luxurious space requirements. As if these birds were minimum wage workers hedging for another buck an hour. Big Egg went on to speculate about potential increased costs due to culling for Avian influenza. We are aware, Big Egg, that overcrowding makes flocks vulnerable to disease and wonder why you don’t carry an insurance policy for just such an event. We know that you make unimaginable profits on the backs of farmers, hens, and eaters alike.

Stay strong, Arizonans. You passed this law because of the unbelievable suffering imposed upon these glorious birds. Big Egg will be back with millions in marketing scare tactics to try to get you to reverse this law. Don’t be fooled again.

Cynthia Duncan

Midtown

Defending Hobbs’ ‘stats’Re: the Jan. 12 letter “Governor Hobbs’ stats are wrong.”

The letter writer states that Katie Hobbs’ “stats” are wrong.

First, they aren’t her stats: (short for statistics, not opinions or beliefs). They aren’t made up, but are derived from polling a percentage of the population, and reporting the results. They aren’t 100% accurate, but are certainly more accurate than the letter writer’s sources of “I’m not sure where she got those numbers,” and the final authority of “In my household” he doesn’t know where numbers come from, because he didn’t look. Google “abortion, Arizona” If you get any response that is fact-based and states that Arizona’s people are against abortion, let me know? Spoiler Alert: Your opinion is not held by the majority of Arizonans, the country, or the world. I would do this research for you, but that’s your job if you’re going to spew forth in a public forum. You’re a big boy, it’s time we stop explaining to you, knowing we can’t understand it to you. Meanwhile, he is entitled to his deliberately uninformed opinion.

Robert Brabham

West side

McCarthyism, the sequel?Watching the antics of the 118th Congress thus far has been both entertaining. However, I am most concerned about the way we will discuss what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his gang leave us as their legacy.

Will we have to devise new terms to distinguish this 21st-century McCarthyism from the 20th-century version? Will we use JMcCarthyism for the earlier version? Or McCarthyismOne? We could use KMcCarthyism for Kevin’s brand, but some might think it emanates from Korea much like the pop music we hear today. I have concluded we won’t have to distinguish between the two! The version we see unfolding before us now seems to follow the same template the original did. Just the names and faces of the perpetrators have changed as have the dates.

Alan Barreuther

Foothills