The assault rifle, a curse by any other name
To the propagandists likening the assault rifle to some innocuous little gun that shoots puny rounds, I suggest they google the Nov. 16 article in the Washington Post entitled Terror On Repeat, a piece meant to alert us to the destructive effects of this weapon. It is meant to disturb and takes one’s breath away. Look up also the May 31, 2022 NPR interview with Uvalde Coroner whose life changed forever after viewing the carnage he was obligated to investigate. Read The Intercept article on May 26, 2022 describing how AR’s are designed to explode human bodies, and the March 20, 2023 Texas Tribune story about the fear Uvalde responding officers felt knowing the shooter had a “battle rifle”. If still able to stomach it, read other stories about having to identify bodies by little backpacks, sneakers, or DNA.
People are also reading…
Assault rifle supporters and all of us who tolerate this American tragedy, should be ashamed and sickened. If not, you and we are in a different place in this country.
William Muto
SaddleBrooke
Penalize ostentatious NFL showboating
As a fan I admit that this is my own personal peeve but I suspect I’m not alone. It used to be when a NFL player did something exceptional, a touchdown, pass interception, quarterback sack, etc. he got a pat on the butt from a teammate and that was sufficient praise. Today he immediately goes into a choreographed dance in front of the cameras, alone or with his teammates as fans and TV viewers are subjected to a display of narcissistic showboating. In college ball showboating is an automatic 15-yard penalty while the NFL allows and encourages it as entertainment. Like college ball, the NFL should impose a stiff penalty for these displays, nullifying the touchdown or interception for instance. Vince Lombardy, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, always told his players their job is to play football and to just do their job. I’m tired of watching this self-aggrandizing narcissistic showboating. If I want to see choreographed dancing, I’ll watch the Rockettes.
Jeff Aronson
Northeast side
Oh, Winterhaven
Thanksgiving was something
Looking forward to Easter
It’s been a dry heat
Bring on a Nor’easter
It’s the season in Sonora
So sit on your keister
And forget about summer
That hot stretch was a bummer
Lights are a flicker
Amazing the kiddies
Looks like the whole neighborhood
Must have been busy
Shuffling feet singing all jazzy
Moving about in the nighttime tizzy
Leg of lamb waiting with all the relations
NFL blaring on all of the stations
Oh Winterhaven
The sleigh rides
Loaded with children
Oh Winterhaven
Everyone is counting the days
Choirs done rehearsing
With song o’erflowing
Planes have all landed
Families are glowing
Its Tucson in winter
It will not be snowing
Hearts do swell in any weather
Spending Christmas time together
Robert Einweck
Green Valley
Trump and Ukraine
Recent letter writers have implied that because Putin did not invade Ukraine during Trump’s time in office that Putin was afraid of Trump’ presidency. I believe the facts lead to a different conclusion.
The Russians bailed Trump out of one of his bankruptcies and helped him get elected. Putin believed he could be counted on to help with the invasion of Ukraine. Remember that Trump met with Putin with only Putin’s translator present. This is probably when Putin requested Trump’s help.
As Trump’s term came to an end he prepared a dossier containing military secrets involving NATO and other issues relevant to an invasion of Ukraine. This dossier has now disappeared. I bet it, or at least a copy, is in the Kremlin. It is more reasonable to believe that Trump aided the invasion of Ukraine rather than inhibited it.
Steven Brown
Midtown
Simplistic history of the US
There are two basic guiding documents in the US. The Declaration of Independence we cannot change and the Constitution which we may. There are two major political parties Democrats and Republicans, each supporting the same two things (hopefully); social justice and fiscal responsibility. Abandon either of these and there is no peace. The Declaration of Independence is aspirational, appealing to our “better angels” and the Constitution is legalistic, appealing to property ownership. The task left by the Founding Fathers is balancing these two equally valid concerns. Go too far to one we are broke; too far to the other and we are slaves. Courts may help, but none has the Solomonic wisdom our circumstances will always need. We citizen-voters must each look into ourselves and ask our individual gods to guide as we face the coming maelstrom of another election year. May you be guided wisely for our children’s sake.
Spencer Elliott
Oro Valley
Priorities
In a desert environment that’s been in a drought for over two decades, which is more important: supplying copper to a foreign adversary or protecting our water reserves? Think really hard about that!
Rick Cohn
West side
No more dancing
President Robbins needs lessons in leadership. A true leader says: “We got this wrong. We screwed this up. We will fix this. The right way. We have learned from this. It will not happen again.”
President Robbins can continue to dance and shovel manure but nobody’s buying.
Kurt Schroeder
Foothills
Who’s a fraud?
Re: the Dec. 26 letter “Poll shows fraudulent mail-in ballots.”
It was declared that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election that cost Trump re-election. As the letter writer enumerated, declaring massive fraud that upended the results was false.
The writer quotes answers to questions from pollsters about attempted fraud, with no empirical data regarding successful fraud.
There were people charged with voting fraud in the 2020 election. Among them were Mark Meadows, who was charged with falsifying his residential address as a storage shed in a district where he did not reside.
Another one was Barry Morphew, who was charged with, and plead guilty to, using his murdered wife’s ballot to vote for Trump.
Perhaps MAGAs firmly believe in false conspiracies because they engage in voting fraud and then inflate the occurrences and project those voluminous misdeeds onto Democrats!
Rick Cohn
West side
Year in review (sayings to live by)
There are a few sayings that make so much sense, but seem to never catch on. Maybe they will this coming year.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in to trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” — Mark Twain
“It’s easier to fool some than to convince them they’ve been fooled.” — Anonymous, though attributed to Mark Twain
“Religion is considered by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful” — Seneca the Younger
“I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.” — Ludwig Feuerbach
I am hopeful that problems can be solved logically in the coming year, but the past year’s results don’t seem to bode well for this coming year.
Finally, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one learned in school.” — Albert Einstein
Matt Somers
Midtown
Don’t say gay
Dear Editor,
I would like to point out to all those people who think that being exposed to books or other media (drag shows, etc.) with LGBT content influences impressionable young people to “turn” gay — it doesn’t work that way.
Everyone I know, myself included, “turned” gay without any outside influences. We knew we were different, and made every attempt to hide it. There was no one encouraging us — just the opposite. If homosexuality was ever mentioned it was in a very negative context. Yet most of us eventually felt compelled to stop hiding who we were, from ourselves and others.
You can ban books and drag shows, but that won’t stop people from loving whom they love. So give it up.
Beth Dingman
Green Valley
Abortion is indeed healthcare
Re: the Dec. 27 letter “Abortion is not curing a ‘disease’.”
A letter to the editor in the Star claims that abortion is murder and is not healthcare, as it does not treat a disease. His silly semantic argument is full of holes. Normal labor and delivery is also not the treatment of a disease, but of course is universally considered needed healthcare. There are multiple other examples of healthcare that do not involve disease treatment (well baby checks to screening colonoscopies for example).
Whatever one’s opinion on abortion is, let that be your personal choice and do not impose your stance on anyone else. Their individual circumstance might be such that an abortion is a medical necessity. Multiple recent cases in the news point to the fact that there are many instances when complex, subtle, and time sensitive medical decisions have to be made. Politicians can not possible write laws to foresee all those circumstances so please let physicians and families make these decisions without interference from people with rigid opinions like the letter writer.
Michael Hamant, MD
East side
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
