CRT promotes understanding
Critical race theory is not about hating America or assigning blame toward Caucasians. It is about realizing that throughout the evolution of the country there have been dark periods that many want to overlook and not understand that the residual effects are still being felt today. However, in order to truly evolve into a true melting pot we must learn from the errors of the past to create an even better country.
Gabriel M. Bustamante
South side
Vaccination common sense
I just don’t get it. I thought Trump was the one who instituted the “Warp Speed” program to get a vaccination made to save the country, maybe the world. It actually worked but now those followers won’t get vaccinated. Why? With the many variants flaring around the country, putting more people in the hospital, is stupid just taking over. I thought these people followed him blindly, but they won’t get vaccinated.
People are also reading…
Vaccinations have been solving disease problems for decades. Remember polio. Remember measles. All the different childhood diseases we got immunity from. Sure no vaccine is 100% without potential problems, but it’s far less than the disease.
Come on, people, remove your heads from the ground, join the human race again and help end the horror. It isn’t political, it’s common sense.
Carl Olson
West side
Home-sharing to have impact
At the end of June, Pima County Supervisors Matt Heinz, Adelita Grijalva and Rex Scott voted to back Tucson Home Sharing with a $100,000 investment, this pilot project will match housemates: those seeking a home with older adults who have one. It’s a low-cost model that has the potential for high impact in the senior housing sector. The approved county funding builds on financial support committed by Mayor Regina Romero and the Tucson City Council.
Investing in shared housing is one of the solutions to the critical shortage of affordable housing in Pima County. I want to personally thank the elected members of our community who voted to fund this important effort. Your foresight, commitment to affordable housing, and vision is a model for the state and the nation.
Over 100 letters of support were submitted for the project. If you want to stay engaged and get updates on the progress of the now-funded pilot program email Tucsonhomesharing.com.
Judy Clinco, Tucson home sharing adviser
Midtown
Teach about our own massacres
Re: the July 10 article “New law requires schools to teach about Holocaust.”
Legislation crafted by Rep. Alma Hernandez, D-Tucson, and passed by the Arizona state Legislature requires schools to teach students about the Holocaust at least twice between the seventh and 12th grade.
Students will be taught about the murder of 6 million Jews by Germans in World War II but will not be taught about the murder of untold millions of Native people by Europeans and Americans since Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.
Do Rep. Alma Hernandez and the Arizona state Legislature not think that Native people are important enough to teach our children about what was done to them?
Susie Morris
Midtown
Non-politicians are valuable
Re: the July 11 article “An epidemic of unqualified candidates.”
Sometimes you read an opinion column that reinforces your worst fears about how we are governed. Recently an opinion writer lamented that people are running for higher office without having the requisite political experience. His theory is that decisions made that affect our lives are best made by career politicians. Any real-world experience is not worth much. I once had everything I owned invested in a business. You will pardon me if I am less than serious about legislation made by career politicians who have never had to make a payroll or lie awake at night worrying about a business and its employees. It would be nice if decisions made regarding things like regulations or minimum wages (a major concern of my restaurant business) would be made by people who have experienced some of the side affects of their actions. Maybe less politics might be better.
Gary Stoeger
Northwest side
Why no filibuster at state level?
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema believes that the U.S. Senate filibuster rule protects the minority and forces bipartisanship. If so, then why should it only apply at the federal level and not at the state level, where Republicans’ narrow majorities, as in Arizona, give little credence to minority opinion nor does the minority have a filibuster at their disposal? The U.S. Senate already allows for the disproportionate power of rural and less populous states over the majority population.
Unless Sinema and others change their minds regarding the Senate filibuster rule, then the Democrat majority will be neutered by the Republican minority at the federal level while the Republicans at the state level attempt to ensure they retain power forever.
Ironically, Sinema’s position will allow for the disenfranchisement of millions of voters while protecting the veto power of Sen. Mitch McConnell. Senator, our votes and our democracy are at stake. Believe McConnell when he has repeatedly stated the Republican goal is obstruction and not bipartisanship.
Michael Hamant, M.D.
East side
Dems once loved the filibuster
In 1917 the Democrat-controlled Senate adopted a rule, allowing a two-thirds majority vote to end a filibuster by the minority.
Democrat senators, when in the minority, used filibusters to block civil-rights legislation. While trying to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Democrat Sen. Strom Thurmond set the record for the longest individual speech: 24 hours, 18 minutes. Years later, to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Senate invoked Rule 22 after 60 days of filibuster, which included Democrat Sen. Richard Byrd’s 14 hour and 13 minute filibuster. Today’s Democrat-controlled Senate has rooms named after segregationists Byrd and Thurmond. So much for Democrat virtue.
I learned early that democracy meant majority rule, which Democrats forsake when they flee a state (Texas is just the latest) to prevent a democratic vote, a debate-less filibuster. They seem afraid their ideas will fail.
Dane Hall
Sierra Vista
