Tucson Speaks Out: May 20

Persistent unreality

In Trump’s visit to the Middle East, he spoke to our troops in Qatar: He continued his 2020 election loss denial by saying, “As you know we won three elections. And some people want us to do a fourth.”

So, what causes a person to insist that their version of reality, a delusion, is correct, while all others are wrong? What causes a person to think that everyone agrees with their delusion (“as you know”)?

Those with a grandiose self-image see themselves not as a mere mortal but as a superior being, incapable of failure. Therefore, any accused failure will not be believed as reality. Only his grandiosity-based reality is true. Trump exists in his own reality that reinforces his self-image. This rejection of reality is commonly seen in those with antisocial personality disorder. This is a serious mental disorder as seen in the DSM-5. In our reality-based nation, any president with this disorder should be removed via the 25th Amendment.

Steve Rasmussen

Foothills

Medicaid pays for addiction treatment

As others in Tucson have seen, the problem of drug use and addiction has exploded in the past few years. Addressing the issue of supply is important, but demand will still be there if it is not addressed through the treatment of addiction. Medicaid is the largest single payer for behavioral health services, including addiction treatment in the United States. They cover detox programs, inpatient treatment and outpatient programs. If the Republican-controlled House passes their cruel bill to defund Medicaid or restrict its use for addiction treatment programs, the issues associated with addiction will explode — homelessness, crime and lives lost to this horrible disease. Addiction touches so many lives in America, regardless of social status, education and financial circumstances. Any progress that’s been made to address this national tragedy will be lost if Medicaid is defunded. Contact your representative and insist that they do not defund Medicaid.

Gina Chorover

Foothills

Mortensen’s theory of Tucson

Is the idea behind the 19-story tower of apartments on Speedway and Campbell to block the blighted views cast on midtown by those horrendous Catalina Mountains to the north? Apparently, the theory does not include the splendor of the view of the mountains surrounding Tucson when evaluating its impact. Such a theory may also support the return of the signage along Speedway that earned the Life magazine designation as “the ugliest street in America” in 1970? Look out Phoenix, here comes Tucson.

Ed Waymire

Midtown

Response to fire trucks letter

I would like to respond to a letter titled “Firetrucks” from Mr. Thomas Rothe.

First, let’s address the call. I believe he is referring to a medical emergency. He states paramedics and firemen race to the scene with “competing sirens.” This is an insult. There is no competition to arrive on scene first. Their concern is to arrive there quickly and safely. As an example, you use “a little old lady stumbles.” Well, why did she stumble? Is she having a true medical emergency, or did she just slip on a wet floor? If she just slipped, the medics will evaluate her and if they can handle it the engine will be cleared to return to the station for another emergency. But if this patient is experiencing a possible cardiac problem, the medics will need help to treat the patient before transport. As a retired firefighter/EMT for 35 years, I take offense to your comments without knowing the facts. Please educate yourself before condemning something you know nothing about.

Jerry Deno

Green Valley

Don’t accept this as normal

Authoritarianism doesn’t need to shock you. It just needs to have you accept it as normal. Trump talks about suspending habeas corpus and due process. A mayor gets arrested for protesting and people are snatched on sidewalks for exercising their 1st Amendment rights by masked men with no identification. Government employees and programs are axed with no justification. The dear leader wants a multimillion-dollar military parade on his birthday. We can’t just shrug and go about our business. We must resist and protest. Write your representatives, and above all, when we have the next election, vote these people out of office.

Mary Zimmerman

SaddleBrooke

Utility bill is terrible news

Governor Hobbs just signed HB 2679, a bill that is blatantly unconstitutional, since it usurps the power of the Arizona Corporation Commission to regulate finance decisions of the utilities. The 43-page bill allows utilities to move debt from their balance sheet into mandatory ratepayer charges by creating bonds. It did not undergo an evidentiary hearing or the appropriate stakeholder review. Moreover, it is a huge step backward for clean energy in Arizona, as it virtually assures that some coal plants will stay open and continue spewing deadly pollution, depleting our water supplies, and irreparably harming the health of citizens.

Independent energy experts, public health advocates, environmental groups, Arizona’s attorney general, former ACC chairman Burns, and the ACC itself all expressed their opposition to this terrible bill, which will offload the costs of bad investment decisions onto ratepayers. This is a corporate bailout of monopolies disguised as policy.

Is this the “quo” for the $371,400 “quid” APS’s parent company donated to Hobbs over the last 3 years?

Barbara Liguori

Northeast side

Another blow to Arizona families

What accounts for over a fifth of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels? What releases into the air soot-like particles, mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides that cause heart and asthma attacks, pollute waterways, soil, air, game and fish? Coal plants.

What generates over 100 million tons of ash and waste sludge every year releasing arsenic, mercury, heavy metals into the surrounding areas? What dumps waste, untreated, into unlined pits and ponds that can leak chemicals into groundwater? Coal plants.

What needs to use 75 trillion gallons of water annually in the mining and utility industry to burn only a fraction of that amount for energy? Coal.

Who wants this released into your backyard?

Who wants AZ children breathing and drinking these contaminants in the air and groundwater? Arizona ACC, Arizona GOP Legislature, Governor Hobbs

The 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant spill is a history lesson we have forgotten. Coal costs more to your family than you ever save on your energy bill. That is fact.

Carissa Sipp

Midtown

‘Eat the tariffs’ says Trump to Walmart

Everyone from Trump, Ciscomani, Bessent, Navarro and “little miss I wear a gold cross which proves I am telling the truth” Leavitt, keep pushing the idiotic and grossly incorrect argument that tariffs are paid by the exporting country. If they are indeed paid by the exporting country, why do Trump & Bessent want Walmart to eat the tariffs? Can’t have it both ways! Companies will not “eat” a damn thing! They will pass it on to the consumer just like they did during COVID, and if the tariffs are lowered, prices will not retreat below the high-water mark. Plain and simple, the Trump tariffs are a tax on the American people, but especially on the most economically vulnerable Americans. How else will you fund the billionaire tax breaks? Keep in mind that these “great” ideas are from a guy that bankrupted a casino. How in the hell do you bankrupt a casino?

Alexis Raptis

West side

Tough love for Israel

‘Yom Ha’atzmaut’ is Israel Independence Day, commemorating the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Following the Holocaust, it was a miracle, as is its continued existence through today. As a Jewish American, I don’t feel much like celebrating. What started out as a justified response to the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas the better part of two years ago has turned into something else. What appears to be a campaign of destruction, deprivation, starvation and death of mostly innocent Palestinian people. The government of Israel has taken the war to a place not consistent with the basic principles of Judaism. It is not antisemitic to criticize the government of Israel. I do not stand with Israel in its ongoing military action in Gaza. I fear for the future of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

Paul Simon

Northwest side

TCC Arena loudness policy

We saw a great concert at the TCC Arena on May 17. Dwight Yoakam, the Mavericks and a newcomer named Noah Rinker. Our seats were the farthest from the stage, top row, because that’s where the wheelchair seats are located. The sound, while well mixed, was so loud it was painful and people around us were holding their ears. Fortunately, I’m an old musician and I remembered to bring a couple sets of rock’n’roll musician hearing protectors.

When we saw Joe Bonamassa at that Arena, I complained to the sound technician that the loudness was painful. He apologetically said, “They told me that’s the way they want it.” Then, two uniformed TPD officers grabbed me, one by each arm. The officer who spoke said, “What you’re saying is right, but we can’t allow you to interfere with the concert crew.”

If the sound technician, the police and the audience all know it’s way too loud, why is this the TCC policy?

Brooks Keenan

Oro Valley

Presidential fitness

Certainly, in light of Biden’s diagnosis of prostate cancer and questions about his mental status towards the end of his term, all candidates for president and serving presidents should disclose their health status. This doesn’t mean just a report that says the person is fit and capable of the demands of the job, but a comprehensive release of a yearly physical and mental acuity exam.

Craig Miller

Northwest side

Biden’s presidency is history

Worry about the present. Tariff taxes and their effects on consumers and small businesses. Massive layoffs and firings and how they affect families and community. How soon /severe will there be a recession? Worry about your healthcare stability, Social Security & vaccine availability for you and your family. Worry about schools/education. Do some research from several sources. Study history when we had some stability and leadership.

Dan Bannon

Midtown

Immigration disconnect

It’s difficult to understand the Trump Administration’s decision to welcome white Afrikaners to the U.S. while at the same time trying to locate non-white immigrants from other places and then arrest and deport them. Didn’t Trump claim that he is not racist?

Alan Roehl

Green Valley

Birthright citizenship

Kim Mikflofsky Bayne got it partially correct in her opinion piece “MAGA Threatening 14th Amendment’s Bedrock.” The 14th Amendment meant to ensure the horrors of slavery and exclusion wouldn’t be repeated. Clearly, the purpose was to guarantee former slaves had full citizenship rights. When it was ratified in 1868, the country was not dealing with an illegal immigration problem like it has been in recent decades. To compare the children born here to parents who are in the country illegally to former slaves and their descendants diminishes the significance of the 14th Amendment.

Dan Watson

Oracle

Medicaid limits hurt veterans

I am writing in response to Chuck Barrett’s excellent letter on Medicaid (May 18.) He listed the ways Rep. Ciscomani and the other Trump Republicans seek to limit access to Medicaid.

As a disabled combat veteran, I get all my health care from the Veterans Administration. However, not all veterans do. Almost two million veterans depend on Medicaid nationally; 45,000 in Arizona alone. Some 40% of working-age veterans get their health care exclusively through Medicaid. If we consider the families of veterans, 660,000 spouses of veterans nationally are enrolled in Medicaid.

Please contact Rep. Ciscomani and ask him not to limit access to Medicaid, a program that provides health care to so many veterans and their families, as well as to civilians.

Dr. Jim Driscoll

Midtown

Pay more, get less

Beware of deceptive ads promoting the GOP budget bill for small businesses, paid for by Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Over 70% of AFP’s funding comes from wealthy individuals. The Koch brothers were founding members.

What does AFP want? They want an extension of the 2017 tax cuts that primarily benefited the super-rich. The tax cuts would balloon our national debt, reduce safety-net programs for everyday Americans, and have led Moody’s to downgrade U.S. credit, the first time in over a century. AFP also seeks to eliminate green tax credits, deregulate environmental protections, and privatize schools through vouchers.

The ads are part of AFP’s prosperity campaign, prosperity for the ultra-rich. The rest of us get increased health care costs, lose tax credits, subsidize private schools, and jeopardize our health. Small businesses are suffering under Trump’s economic policies.

JM Meconi

Northeast side