Wall parity and ecological restoration
President Joe Biden recently announced that he was ordering, for safety reasons, an addition to the border wall in the Yuma Sector. It is a dangerous area to cross, and children’s lives have been lost to drowning.
Upon his accession to the presidency, Biden, fist-thumping, announced to the public that “not another foot” of border wall would be built under his watch. The public needs, regardless of our political leanings, to be able to believe that what our leaders say, they do.
In the interest of parity, and to keep his promise, Biden needs to order retired an equal length of wall from the Tucson Sector at the San Pedro River in Cochise County, and at the border south of Quitobaquito Spring in Organ Pipe National Monument in remote Pima County. The walls in both areas have proven themselves disastrous to the movement of wildlife in the desert. Their removal is needed, and is possible.
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Carl Stoeckel
West side
Tucson Teachers College needed
The latest test results of Arizona schools, 38% to standard in English and 31% in math, are abysmal. When full testing and the grading of schools resume after the pandemic damage is assessed, we can expect further bad news to go with being among the lowest states in educational attainment and funding per pupil in the U.S. This is an emergency. Current solutions, paying a company in Chicago to teach math for TUSD via Zoom and extending vouchers that will further degrade public schools, will only make matters worse. Just as our city traded being the state capital for hosting the university when we became a state, we must establish the Tucson Teachers College to provide a quality, fully paid bachelor’s degree in education to top Tucson high school graduates in return for four years of service as an intern or teacher in Tucson-area schools. University inflation means Arizona teacher salaries cannot cover student loans. It is time for Tucson to grow our own.
Frank Hartline
Foothills
Good for goose, good for gander
Old sayings tend to fit many circumstances perfectly.
Former President Donald Trump has, over the years, expressed his disdain for people who assert their Fifth Amendment right to not testify under oath if they feel they would be incriminating themselves.
It looks like Trump has changed his mind. In denigrating Hillary Clinton and her staff in 2016 for asserting their Fifth Amendment rights, Trump had this to say: “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” In 2014 he said, “If you are innocent, do not remain silent. You look guilty as hell!”
I must say I agree with him. And he does look “guilty as hell.”
Cindy Soffrin
Northeast side
Solar panel debate
Re: the July 25 letter “Solar panels work for decades.”
The Star recently published my letter “Environmental hazards from used solar panels” in which I referenced a Los Angeles Times story written about the hazards of disposing of used panels and their having a life span of 25 years. However, a letter writer challenged my letter as factually inaccurate saying that most solar panels are warranted to be 80% effective after 25 years and that many panels installed 40 years ago are still functioning. A May 2018 article from Greenbiz.com reported that solar panels have a 25- to 30-year life span and “It’s not too far off that those are going to be coming off line, and we’re going to have a waste management issue.” That industry consensus is that they last about 25 years, then start to degrade in efficiency. My letter was not so much about the lifespan of solar panels, but the toxic environmental disposal hazards and challenges they present. The letter writer did not address that.
Ardel Francis
Northwest side
Cars and guns
Both cars and guns are lethal weapons, especially when not regulated. But it requires a driver’s license (obtained after ID verification and testing) to purchase and use an automobile. The automobile itself must also be registered (renewed annually) and be insured for liability. Guns should require no less. A July 27 article by Grace Hauck in USA Today reports that “Gun violence kills more than 40,000 people in the U.S. each year” and “Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States.” You can help save lives by asking your state legislators to regulate guns similar to how cars are regulated.
Adavern Pullen
Midtown
Ads acknowledge danger of Finchem
If a medicine is touted as a cancer fighter, that means it is trying to eliminate cancer. With that understanding of the English language, it is not surprising that ads for state Rep. Mark Finchem refer to him as an election integrity fighter — not a fighter for election integrity. Mark Finchem and other purveyors of the “big lie” are seeking to eliminate election integrity and should be soundly defeated for any elective office. Restricting access to voting is not election integrity. Neither the Republican Arizona attorney general, nor the Arizona Legislature’s audit, nor former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, nor any court in the United States of America found any evidence of voter fraud that would justify any restrictive change in election laws in Arizona.
Donald Klein, precinct committee person for the Pima County Democratic Party
Northwest side
Search warrants
The law requires the FBI to give Trump an inventory of what they found when they entered his home. If Trump wants to claim the search was a witch hunt and he had no government property in his home, Trump should release the search inventory.
Janet Pipes
Northwest side
Complete absence of Republicans
George Will is certainly one of the brightest, most eloquent and lucid people in the country. I try to read everything he writes. I do not agree with him a lot, but his thinking is so very precise that I (a longtime registered Democrat) enjoy following him. He is indeed the most worthy and able successor to William F. Buckley as the intellectual voice of conservatives. He also very publicly withdrew from the Republican Party upon it’s stomaching Donald Trump.
Britain has had for hundreds of years the notion of the “loyal opposition” or those not in power but still loyal to Britain. Therein lies the rub. I believe the vile and treasonous traitors on our ballots under the “R” heading are not Republicans. They are MAGA turncoats who have no loyalty whatsoever other than to their would-be dictator and their white nationalist sharia state, certainly nothing to do with Republicans.
Timothy Canny
Oracle
Roe v. Wade aftermath
On June 24, the newly reconstituted conservative U.S. Supreme Court released the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The hysterical reaction was that it was anti-women and pro-Roman Catholic; term limits and court-packing were demanded. In truth, the decision was about states’ rights, the federal government shouldn’t be in the abortion business and the court wisely returned decision making to the local level where it has always belonged.
Two of the 50 states have weighed in so far.
Conservative Kansas voters rejected stricter measures and continue to allow for an abortion up to 20 weeks post-fertilization, plus exceptions.
Conservative Indiana has passed a law allowing abortion only in cases of rape, incest, lethal fetal abnormality, including much of the same exceptions for severe health risks or death as Kansas.
It’s good news that abortion decisions have been returned to the democratic process.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Latinos fleeing Democratic party
The trend started in 2020, with Trump surging with Latino voters. That trend has continued with numerous Latino conservative Republicans, especially women, running for office. The Democratic Party has been taken over by mostly white elitist suburban progressives. The Latino culture still is machoistic. I think they are turned off by today’s Democrat Party of wokism, gender neutrality, transgenderism, central government dictates, etc.
Many Latinos are Catholic and are pro-life. And yes, many Latino Americans believe the border is out of control and crime rampant in cities across the country, with progressive district attorneys’ revolving door policies for criminals.
Latino Americans are patriotic, and do not like progressive Democrats’ continual denigration of our country. It is ironic that during this political realignment, that President Joe Biden’s de facto open borders policies have allowed entry of hundreds of thousands of Latinos.
It seems he and other Democrats believe that one day they will obtain citizenship and vote Democrat. But if the ongoing realignment of Latino voters trend continues, that could very well change.
Rosalinda Vasquez
South side
Sinema in the interest of Sinema
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema claims that everything she does is in the interest of the people of Arizona.
The only problem for her is that the people of Arizona know that everything she does is in the interest of — and draws attention to — Kyrsten Sinema.
Cynthia Herron
Northwest side
