Republicans use gov’t as hammer
Historically, the Republican Party has touted small government and individual rights, correct? I find it quite interesting that the new Republican mantra is to be deeply entangled in people’s lives so much that they are now in the business of making health care choices, bedroom choices, sexual orientation choices, and marital choices. They now think government should prosecute parents for seeking treatment for their transgender child, prosecute women for choosing whether or not to have a baby, and prosecute health care professionals for providing services with which they don’t agree. Some of them are even suggesting that states can choose whether or not it is legal to marry someone of another race. How far does this go? They have nothing to offer to bring Americans together. Instead they offer fear, racism, sexism, and homophobia. Is this the direction we want this country to go, back to the dark ages where only white heterosexual males controlled everything? Yes, I believe that is the goal. Please vote in the midterms.
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Terri Hicks
Northwest side
Religious right has gone too far
When it comes right down to it, the anti-choice, so-called “pro-life” movement is based on religious belief almost exclusively. It began with the Roman Catholics and is now red meat for the evangelical Protestant right. Their own Bible does not have a single reference to fertilized eggs or fetuses other than that the husband of a pregnant woman is owed money if someone causes his wife to miscarry. Not a single word about “pro-life” or fetuses with souls. It was created out of whole cloth and now will keep women from accessing reasonable care. Overturning Roe will simply cause backroom septic abortions and self-abortions.
It’s time for Congress, the states, and all Americans of good faith to wake up and see that this is the cynical move of the religious right minority to enforce their beliefs on the rest of us. So far they are exceeding all predictions. Laws must not involve religion except to limit its encroachment on government in a secular democracy.
Jeffrey St. Clair
North side Computer gaming is hardly a sport
The UA is sponsoring something called e-sports. Apparently, college-age people sit at a computer terminal and play video games competing against other players all over the country. This is all well and good and typical of the way today’s youth spends the majority of their time. My issue is that it is called a “sport.” A “sport” by definition requires physical movement and/or exercise. Playing video games competitively is fine, it’s just not a sport. I imagine if the participants break out in sweat or have to stand up and stretch from sitting too long, it might be a sport. I would also imagine they have very well-developed wrists and could be on the e-injury list for carpal tunnel syndrome. It really would be closer to a sport if they at least had to stand up to play.
Richard Bechtold
West side
A great piece on Health Start
Re: the April 17 article “Healthy start for babies.”
What a great story. It tells about an unsung Arizona program called Health Start. It pairs community health workers with pregnant women or new moms to support and educate them. What a wonderful program! I wish them continued success. Hopefully this program will catch on in other communities nationwide.
B Jerry Lujan
SaddleBrooke
Don’t succumb to N-blackmail
I propose the U.S. immediately begin a humanitarian airlift to Ukraine much like the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. Well-publicized and well-escorted by U.S. fighter jets who are authorized to provide all protection needed. What, you say? 1. Ukraine is not part of NATO. Yes, we are simply watching well televised war crimes against humanity. Yes not NATO; just human beings. 2. Putin could escalate to nuclear war. Yes, he could. But couldn’t he do that if he attacked a NATO country such as Poland or Estonia? We run the same risk of him running off the rails before his command staff could stop him in both situations. What protection do we offer NATO if we allow ourselves to be blackmailed by fear of a truly evil person going nuclear? Every day we wait makes it that much worse that we did not do this weeks ago.
Michael Judd
East side
Can ADOT finish what it started?
Re: the April 16 article “If the city wants money for roads, show us work.”
Steve Devitt’s recent article about streets and highways got my attention. He stated that if special levies pass, we citizens deserve to see demonstrated results for our extra tax dollars.
I would like to add that we citizens would feel better about our highway tax dollars if we saw street and road construction brought to completion. Can ADOT finish what they started? On my occasional trips to Tucson from Green Valley I pass sections of freeway barriers on the east side of I-19, starting below Valencia and extending north past Irvington, that look thrown-together and insecure. Mostly they’re wire fencing. Are they safe? Who knows? They surely don’t provide much noise abatement to their adjacent neighborhoods.
All of this would not be so perplexing if the sections in question didn’t contain an already completed stub of tall barrier wall north of Valencia. The stub goes nowhere, looking like an orphan in Southern Arizona’s otherwise attractive freeway corridors. One can only wonder why it was never completed.
Ron Swanson
Green Valley
Right to choose changed history
We’ve come a long way, baby! It started in the late 1960s with Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem and in the 1970s with Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” and we’ve never looked back. We now occupy some very high-profile and powerful positions in the private sector, government, military and countless others because we were able to make choices during the course of our lives. Equal rights has always been our goal and we are still focused on achieving it, much to the chagrin of old men in powerful places. They and other religious zealots must stop trying to control the choices we make regarding our bodies, our lives, how we choose to live them and with whom. Here’s hoping my 10-year-old granddaughter will have the freedom to make her own choices about her body and her life when she becomes an adult. Hopefully, the Supreme Court won’t cut her and the next generation of women off at their knees and rob them of their freedom of choice.
Debbie Smith
North side
