What if we were all liars?
What if we were all liars, what would we do then? If we need to believe in a lie, what do we get? If we turn over our freedom of choice to a liar, what happens to us?
Conspiracy theories are fun if we’re telling fairy tales. But what if we’re responsible for documenting the facts of a cancer cure, or technical guidance for using a complicated and dangerous piece of machinery, what do we do?
Or what if we live in a democracy whose very foundation is free, unimpeded, voting by all of us and respect for the freedom of your neighbor?
There are alternatives to democracies; we know what those countries are like. Democracy requires that we use facts to think, to establish trust. How does one trust a liar? What happens when what that person wants is at your expense? What then?
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Frank Parsons
Northeast side
Ducey’s folly
Thank God, Gov. Doug Ducey was not governor when I was a kid during the polio epidemic. His poor political behavior spread the COVID contagion for the past year, and now he injects this division into the state universities. Not content with poor vaccine rates, he wants to work college students and staff against each other.
Maybe he would like be anointed Chancellor of a new Trump Medical School in Arizona when the king is restored after the recount.
John Corbett
Foothills
America is back to being Europe’s patsy
After WWII, European nations formed the NATO alliance to protect again Soviet and now Russian aggression. Each nation pledged a certain percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to fund their respective militaries. For decades, most have never met those pledged expenditures. Instead, they knew good ole patsy America would protect their rears no matter what. We have had thousands of American troops stationed throughout Europe since WWII.
Meanwhile, prosperous European nations have spent lavishly on social welfare government freebies for their populations. Past presidents talked about NATO’s need to spend more on defense, but that was all.
Then Donald Trump arrived on the scene. He made NATO defense expenditures a priority to stop their free ride. Under his term, NATO nations vastly increased their defense budgets. And, Trump negotiated a tariff trade deal with Europe to end their unfair high tariffs on American imports. Now here comes grandpa Joe Biden and the Europeans are ecstatic. America is once again their patsy!
Doug Lawrence
Midtown
Water privilege
Re: the June 16 Editorial cartoon.
I absolutely love to read the cartoons by Fitzsimmons. His wit and humor hit the nail on the head for me most of the time. Wednesdays cartoon struck a different cord. I live in a pocket that is unincorporated Pima County. We are not affluent, or the 1%. In 30 years we’ve had no grass, no pool, no water fountains or anything more than our normal household water use. Our area will be lumped into the “Foothills privilege” to which Fitz is referring.
Being native born, I have been concerned about water in Arizona for many years. Golf courses require grass, they also bring money right? At what cost? If you want to snow ski, you go somewhere that has snow.
There was a letter to the editor recently from a retired Tucson water employee voicing some very specific concerns of abuse. There are many household and corporations who do abuse the water privilege. The target should be those that abuse, including within incorporated Tucson.
Cathy Parsons
Northwest side
Courage is a virtue worth signaling
Adding salt to ice lowers the temperature of the ice. That’s a fact. Romans may have been the first to use this discovery to make ice cream. Presumably Gov. Doug Ducey knows that making ice cream is based on this scientific fact, not on “virtue signaling.”
As a business owner, did Ducey provide a clean, hygienic environment? Let’s hope so. Customer safety should be a top priority whether you are selling ice cream or an education. That’s a fact.
Do we need Dr. Christ to explain two additional facts to our governor?: COVID-19 vaccines are remarkably effective in keeping us safe, and face masks reduce transmission of this highly infectious disease. Facts!
Here’s a final fact for our governor, and a question: Telling the truth sometimes requires courage, it’s true. But courage is always a virtue worth signaling, particularly by our leaders. Why not show some?
Leslie Kanberg
Downtown
Anti-White
Re: the June 6 letter “Dems’ policies are anti-white.”
I was disturbed by this letter, because I see them as being pro-humanity. I am an old white lady and realize that I have had it easier than people of color at my age. I hope that the children growing up now have the opportunities that I had, and I think that they are more open-minded than I was. I think the letter writer is whining, and I wonder if he is afraid for his life when he is stopped by police.
Barbara Moore
East side
