Tucson Speaks Out: June 22

Trump the new Midas

The great dealmaker brags about his agreement with Iran, but in reality, he is the loser having to negotiate with the very Iranian leadership he had wanted to destroy. The Iranians managed to resist and even badly hurt the greatest military might; they continue building weapons, and they will not abandon their efforts to create a nuclear bomb. Iran has realized that with their control of the Strait of Hormuz, they have the tool to blackmail all industrial nations. Sadly, the Iranian people suffer the most and now face a radical religious regime worse than ever before. Trump had promised them his support to gain democracy, but they got only bombs. In fact, from now on, democratic movements can no longer rely on the USA. Similarly, all our allies in the Middle East know that we are not trustworthy protectors. The new deal represents our caving in to Iran for economic reasons. In fact, Trump is like Midas, except whatever he touches turns into debris and ashes, defeat and betrayal.

Albrecht Classen

Midtown

Party time?

They say Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Will ours dance (or tweet) the night away as the rest of us pay some hundreds of millions of dollars for his ballroom and monuments, plus an undisclosed amount for the second set of “beautiful” border walls, another still undisclosed sum for past and continuing operations in the Iranian war, and yet another undisclosed amount for the “compensation fund” being created for that nation, while we miss our own vacations, watch our gas and food prices rise and have thousands more of our citizens lose their health-care assistance? Why do our legislators and courts continue to enable such behavior; why do we?

Wes Ward

Oro Valley

Joanna Mendoza for Congress

Please vote for Joanna Mendoza for Congress. She is strong enough and smart enough to stand up to DJT’s unhinged presidency in order to advocate for the needs of the American people. Her military leadership demonstrated a fearlessness in doing what was right and necessary. Mendoza is who we need to defeat Juan Ciscomani. He has not even once challenged Trump in his self-serving, unconstitutional actions.

Ellen Marshall

North side

Becky Burke LTE

I read with great amusement the letter to the editor on 6/20/26, referencing the response to Becky Burkes social media announcement that her and her wife were expecting their second child. The letter writer begins by writing that the hateful comments addressed to coach Burke were "vicious homophobic words" and that he condemns the people who felt the need to make those hateful comments. Beautifully written! However, the letter then takes an immediate turn and somehow places part of the blame on her for posting this on her social media accounts, saying that you or I would make the announcement through friends and family. I ask, what world are you living in? People are literally taking pictures of what they had for breakfast and posting them online. Are you saying that people aren't posting about the addition of a child on their social media accounts? It's really simple, she should have been able to make the announcement and not have been subjected to the abuse.

Mark Redding

Northeast side

Political signs

There is an interesting development in this year’s election signage. There seems to be only one political party putting up signs; the Democrats. There are lots of signs for “Conservative” and signs for “Faith Family and Freedom”, but I have seen only one sign for a Republican.

The problem with these generic slogans is that they mean different things to different people. Who’s Faith? There are many. Who’s Family? What constitutes a family? Freedom? Is that for the pardoned January 6 rioters? For Dreamers? For whom?

It looks to me that someone has learned that if you have a toxic brand to sell you need to obfuscate. You just put out generic terms and hope that people associate them with something they like. What actually get may not be what they expected.

Jack Garner

Southeast side

Fool's gold

The denigration of the White House, both inside and outside, is such a fitting metaphor for Donald Trump — gaudy, garish, gauche, tacky, tawdry. Just like the guy who thinks these "special touches" are great. The absurd UFC fight on the lawn was capped by the winner screaming a denigrating, racist remark about Michelle Obama at the top of his lungs — so classless and degenerate, just like Donald. No comment on this uncalled-for disgusting behavior from any of the big sponsors of the ridiculous 60 million dollar event. Trump and his cronies have normalized such racist hate. Shame on America for putting this sorry excuse of a "leader" back in the White House, and for being willing to overlook such crassness. The present government is a sad, tragic cartoon show with a large, accepting audience.

Deb Klumpp

Oro Valley

Pentagon vs. The Arch

Before World War Two, the War Department had offices scattered throughout the Washington metro area. In May 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, realizing a world war was imminent, approved plans to build a structure large enough to consolidate all military agencies under one roof.

The unusual five-sided shape of The Pentagon was intended to fit a site in Northern Virginia, one with existing roads on all five sides, hence its iconic pentagonal design. But that location had an unanticipated problem.

Critics pointed out that the height of the edifice would block views from Arlington National Cemetery of the District’s existing monuments. Because of this, FDR rejected the proposed site in favor of one further east, where the old Hoover Airport had been. However, the five-sided architectural blueprint remained. There wasn’t time to design a new building.

The height of the relocated five-story Pentagon is 77 feet. The height of the proposed Trump arch, which will definitely obstruct traditional sight lines, is 250 feet.

Ron Lent

East side

Returning to greatness

As I watched the grand opening ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center, I had to wonder how we could have fallen so far from the intelligence, grace, class, seriousness and competence of the Obama years of public service into the toxic wasteland of Trump and Trumpism — a land defined by cheap vulgarity, non-stop lies, incompetence and childish, self-serving bullying. How did we elevate this empty shell of a pathetically insecure, hateful little person masquerading as a human being to the position of power he currently holds? I believe we the people have the power to right this frightful wrong in November with an overwhelming blue vote to return decency, humanity and yes, joy, to this country in a way that creates a true opportunity to restore the American greatness that Trump has destroyed. Let's give the boot to all the enablers and sycophants that made the Trump horror show possible.

Hope Gastelum

East side

Star quality

I was totally dismayed to open the Star this morning and see, yet another, error in either printing or editing. In the Tucson & Region front page the article regarding the Gibson Food Hall & Market has the word "peak" in the title intending to take a PEEK at the location. This is a major error.

I have noticed many errors over the past couple of years. There is no excuse for these. We all should all strive to be the best that we can be, including the newspaper!

Wondering if this is just part of the trend in our country ...

Gail Tout

East side