Let RTA facts speak for themselves
Re: the April 24 article “RTA audit demands a closer look.”
I serve as chair of the Regional Transportation Authority’s citizens’ oversight committee. To date, the committee has recognized the RTA’s outstanding performance to deliver projects from its 20-year regional transportation plan approved by voters in May 2006.
As chair, I do not agree with the personal assessment of the RTA by Ruth Reiman. To be clear, she does not speak for the committee.
Through the remaining RTA plan timetable (June 2026), the RTA has committed funding up to the ballot amount as pledged to Pima County voters in 2006. After the Great Recession, the RTA Board directed that federal and state regionally dedicated dollars be used to meet that commitment.
People are also reading…
I can attest on behalf of the committee that the RTA is meeting voter expectations to deliver the plan, leading to increased crosstown mobility, reduced congestion, improved safety, and transit, bike and pedestrian improvements.
Contact the RTA at RTAmobility.com for the facts.
Charlene Robinson,
Chair, RTA plan oversight committee
Downtown
Separation of church and state
With regard to Roe v. Wade: it is my understanding that the Supreme Court should base its decisions on the law, not on religious convictions. What happened to separation of church and state?
S.A. Bayless
Green Valley
How our democracy works
The authority to decide whether to continue a pregnancy must be removed from the woman who will have to bear the child and returned to the politicians and bureaucrats, where a determined minority thinks it belongs!
Douglas Osborn
Southwest side
Wake up, America
Wake up, America. The protections you depended on from the 14th Amendment no longer exist, and now the federal government can no longer protect those rights. The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade affects more than the right to choose — it allows states to decide to remove the rights granted to citizens for decades. Now, I think many states will deny the right to birth control, the right to marry regardless of your race or gender, the right to education for immigrant children and gay marriages. The reason for this change? Justice Samuel Alito states, “such a right is not deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition,” thus not protected by the 14th Amendment. This statement changes everything for our future protection. Write your members of Congress, be active on Twitter or Snapchat, run for office, and vote! My fellow Americans, you must fight for democracy and your freedom.
Michele Clark
Midtown
“Unsettled” settled law
In as much as we have a confirmed and authentic leak from the Supreme Court that indicates Roe v. Wade, which all three Supreme Court justices — Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — testified as “settled law,” is now via this leak potentially open to reversal and removal by five of the nine Supreme Court justices. I feel that in trying to win their nominations, these three nominees lied to both parties and the people supporting their nominations. Whether this constitutes an impeachable offense must be determined by an impeachment trial to determine this; should this be the case, they need to be removed from office and President Biden must select three new justices to supersede the previous three. Time is of the essence, as Mr. Biden must select the three new justices lest the three slots be stolen by Mr. McConnell as he did to President Barack Obama if the 2022 elections cause a shift in the House and Senate.
Richard Rebl
East side
The hypocrisy of the right
The old adage of “watch what they do, not what they say” applies to the conservative right wing. It looks like they will get their wish to overturn Roe v. Wade, all the while telling us they want to protect children and life is sacred. However, they will go to the mat to prevent sensible gun laws to protect our children. Last year, 1,055 children died from gun violence. They claim to be champions of free speech. I guess it’s important to be able to spread misinformation about an election, but they certainly are worried that teachers may say something that goes against their rather limited views. Conservatives are all for free market enterprise, but are convinced that one man, President Biden, caused our current inflation problems. They claim to be all for law and order, but look what happened on Jan. 6.
If anyone thinks that our democracy is not in danger, just watch what the right wing and the Republican Party does.
Mary Zimmerman
SaddleBrooke
Air Force One operation
I looked up how much we pay for Air Force One to operate and just about fell out of my chair. The American taxpayer has to pay $206,337 an hour to operate that one plane, and of course it takes several other planes to accompany it on all flights. This is a lot of money to transport one person somewhere and that needs to be changed. How many average taxpayers paying their whole life does it take for a one-hour flight in that plane?
Thomas R. Crawford
Foothills
Government is the problem
Re: the May 8 article “City spent $7 million on internet to connect 995 homes.”
On May 8, the Star’s lead story reported that Tucson spent $7 million to create its own internet network that was used by only 995 households and termed an ‘embarrassment’ that might continue to be a drain on taxpayer dollars.
Two days later, in the same top right front page slot, we read that our president announced 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to people with low incomes, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households eligible for free service through an existing federal subsidy.
Does anyone, of either party, actually believe that this federal Democrat boondoggle will fare any better than our local one?
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Two-party system has failed
Despite the fact that the framers of the Constitution rejected political parties and George Washington warned us against them, we have long embraced the two-party system. It has failed us and facilitated our current extreme political and social division. We need to do better. First, we need to eliminate party primary elections. And our general elections must embrace ranked-choice voting. Only then can we begin to take extremism out of our elections. If you value our country over either major party, we need to go down this path.
Rick Jones
Downtown
How to channel anger, energy
I cannot fail to see the depth of conviction that some pro forced-birth Americans feel on the issue of abortion. Although there are plenty of opportunistic politicians who use the issue to keep the populace divided and stir up their base, I believe there are many more sincere people who believe they are stopping a ‘murder’ by their behavior. Let me invite these good souls to acknowledge the current human population of over 7.9 billion people . See the needs of the millions of displaced persons right now; the ongoing and predictably growing immigrant population at our border as well as in Europe. With some training they could join Doctors Without Borders or any number of other humanitarian outfits that are trying to alleviate suffering in this world. They could actually be of use to humanity and not just another virtue-signaler interfering with women’s reproductive rights.
Michael Judd
East side
