Vulnerable power grid
When the heat hit 105 on Sunday, the 14th of May, there was a brief mention in the local newscasts about loss of electricity in a neighborhood on the west side. It stated there was no information about cause or expected duration of outage. The same brief mention was replayed the next day. There was no on-site reporting. No comment from the affected residents. As an 84-year-old Tucsonan, I consider this to be a life-threatening situation. What happened? How did these residents deal with this? Where did they shelter? Did the food in their refrigerator have to be thrown away? Shootings and car accidents get much more coverage.
DeWitt Weatherly
Northeast side
Where were the good guys?
The often repeated mantra “the only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun is a good guy with a gun” was finally proven as an utter fantasy when an entire police department of good guys with guns refused to intervene in the active shooter incident at Robb Elementary School. As parents pled with them for an hour to enter the school to rescue students, they apparently stood around scratching their heads. Two good guys who attempted to intervene early on were driven back after being shot by the bad guy.
People are also reading…
So where do we get these so-called, apparently bullet-proof, good guys? The elementary school supposedly had one on staff.
We must do something real to prevent gun violence and the slaughter of innocent children.
Peggy Hendrickson
Green Valley
Guns and pity
Pity the poor forensic pathologists that have to examine the little kids murdered in Texas.
Pity the poor funeral directors that have to prepare the bodies of the blown-apart little kids in Texas.
Pity the poor florists that have to find enough lovely flowers to mark the graves of the little kids slaughtered in Texas.
Pity the man who made the wrong decision for the little kids that died in Texas.
Then do something about the gun lobbyists, and the U.S. senators that block any sensible gun laws in this country.
Then do something about the revolting gun companies that sent me five emails advertising sales of guns and ammunition the day after the little kids were butchered in Texas.
I no longer wonder who we are, but what we are.
Virginia Gethmann
Northeast side
Use common sense to stop slaughters
Stop handwringing over the Uvalde, Texas, massacre. Instead, grab tools we use to fight child pornography to track down and stop other incipient killers before they shoot.
Journalists discovered that the Texan teen terrorist had been online for years harassing girls around the world on social media platforms. Some had complained, but most had suffered silently.
When he was old enough to buy military weapons, Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother, stole her vehicle and proceeded to a public school where he mowed down schoolchildren and their teachers as inept cops stood by cringing until brave federal government border patrollers ended the slaughter.
America must adapt its animus toward child molesters and apply law enforcement techniques that track down those criminals to seek out incipient domestic terrorists who telegraph their warped views and intentions and stop them before they’re able to spill a drop of blood as they vent their spleens.
This ain’t rocket science. Let’s do it!
Mort Ganeles
Foothills
Health crises
When you see “health crises” something should jump out at you. How come an 18-year-old can buy an AR-15? What’s wrong with regulating these “dark web” sites, these places are beyond the pale. Don’t talk to me about your Second Amendment rights, no one should be able to purchase a weapon of war. No police or sheriff officer, should be outgunned. There are people out there that want to fix this. There are people who are not tied to the NRA. Most them are Democratic. Vote!
Mary Bradley
Northeast side
Amend the Amendments
We need an amendment to amend an amendment. The Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. I am agnostic in this fight between the gun-rights people and their opponents. But squabbling over the type of gun, the amount of ammo or whether we have a militia, etc. seems pointless to me and to date, has not accomplished much. A constitutional amendment written by our Congress that clarifies these points is difficult, but that is what we elect these people for. Then let the American people vote on it.
Frank DeMayo
Northwest side
Blackout warnings
First TEP, then the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation (NERC), a regulatory body that oversees grid stability warns us that blackouts are possible throughout the country this summer. How did we get to this point? I believe the primary reason is politicians and regulators looking to gain votes for re-election have pushed and subsidized energy providers to rush to what they call renewable energy sources. Unfortunately, they have not ensured there are plans to continue providing the reliable energy we get from “dreaded” fossil fuel power plants. Without a well-thought out plan to convert from fossil fuels to the “renewable energy vision,” we will continue experiencing the energy interruptions commonly occurring in Third World countries and California.
The only realistic alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear power. We need more discussions on nuclear power safety, reliability, costs and current technology. We need to be more logical and less evangelical in our approach to returning to a reliable energy system.
Calvin Rooker
Northwest side
American fabric is unraveling
We recently read that Mattel Toy Company has introduced a LGBTQ Barbie Doll and Oreo cookies now offers pride cookies with rainbow colored frosting. These are yet two more American icons being flushed down the leftist toilet.
Let’s go down memory lane:
Circuses, rodeos, beauty pageants and horse or dog races are verboten
XY chromosome athletes are allowed to participate in girls-only sports
Inspirational art, literature, music, culture is dismissed by the intelligentsia
Non-woke statues of historical significance are destroyed
Spectator sports such as the NFL, NBA and MLB are infused with politics
The Boy Scouts are bankrupt while required to admit girls
Religion (the biggie) is under non-stop attack
I think the political left destroys everything it touches and builds nothing.
The fabric of America is being unraveled one thread at a time. Very sad.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Ruined for all by a fewRe: the May 29 letter “Mass shooter/ domestic terrorist.”
The writer thinks it “unfortunate” that the Uvalde shooter “ruined things for the millions of law-abiding citizens who own these firearms.” I’m sure the 19 children and two teachers and their families experienced some ruin themselves. Consider that millions of people around the world are inconvenienced every day due to TSA regulations precipitated by heinous acts of a handful of terrorists several years ago. Should we eliminate the TSA checks because this has “ruined things” for the flying public?
Charles Nelson
Sahuarita
Violent video games a big problem
An online video gamer reported that Uvalde mass shooter Salvador Ramos made a threat to “shoot up a school” with an AR-15 after losing the video game “Dead by Daylight.” Another gamer reported that a player, believed to have been Ramos, made threats about shooting up schools while watching the video game “Call of Duty.” She was so disturbed about the comments that she allegedly reported them to the FBI. President Biden once commented that “It is not healthy to have these games teaching kids the dispassionate notion that you can shoot somebody and just blow their brains out.” A 2019 Washington Post article reflected research by the American Psychological Association showing a connection between violent video games and increased aggression, as well as “decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy and sensitivity to aggression.” Violent video games may not cause mass shootings, but I think they desensitize the effects of killing by firearms on psychologically troubled people like Ramos. Where are the calls from Democrats to ban these videos?
Marsella Mavis
Northwest side
