Tucson Speaks Out: May 14 letters of the day

I wholeheartedly agree with changing the left turn rules from flashing yellow to green at dual lane intersections to prevent crashes for safety reasons. However this has created a problem of long delays due to backups at some intersections, most notably at Craycroft and Grant. I believe the time allotted to left turns should be increased to prevent drivers from needing 2, 3, or even 4 cycles to pass thru these intersections. Unless the allotted time is increased, frustrated drivers will be tempted to “run the red” light or cause rear-end accidents due to other drivers not “running the red”. Hopefully this issue can be addressed by City traffic engineers soon for everyone’s benefit.

Keith Zwickl, Retired Structural Engineer

Foothills

Baby boomers need to step up, not sit back

I’m a baby boomer but also one of the youngest. I learned to work hard get an education and to contribute to the better good. I learned to voice my opinion about what’s right and wrong about our community and society. This is not the time for us to sit back and let the millennials take over. We have two older boomers running for president and one represents the best of the boomers and one is just a lying individual that puts himself ahead of country. Boomers don’t write in a name just to feel like a “renegade.” Consider the country you grew up in and what it would look like with the second coming of the vile orange idiot that flaunts the laws of our nation and has seen more indictments than years of age.

John Bingham

Northwest side

Water and pecans

Re: the May 9 letter “What are the real issues.”

The letter writer says the elephant in the room isn’t Copper World, but is the Santa Cruz valley pecan orchards. He believes Hudbay will only use 6,000 acre feet of water annually, and that they will recharge 100% of that. He neglects the toxic things that happen to mining water, the leakage back into the aquifer, and the future unavailability of non-aquifer recharge water.

He also misses major benefits of pecan orchards. The water is partly returned undamaged to the aquifer, partly evaporates cleanly into the air, and is used for highly beneficial photosynthesis. Roots soak up water, mix it with atmospheric carbon dioxide, and produce sugar, energy and oxygen. Trees are a carbon-capture oxygen-generator, exactly what the climate crisis needs!

I wouldn’t call pecan orchards the “elephant in the room”, rather I would call Copper World the “whale in the swimming pool”.

Stanley Hart, retired academic geochemist

Green Valley

Wildcat leadership

As the former Surgeon General of the United States as well as a 5-decade member of the University of Arizona faculty and numerous other progressive leadership positions in the military, government and private sector, I have a deep understanding and reverence for selfless informed nonpartisan leadership. In fact, recently, I was asked by members of the newly formed University of Arizona Presidential search committee my opinion regarding what qualities we should be looking for in the new UA President.

Since I teach leadership, I immediately ran off a leadership checklist which included, selflessness, integrity, mentorship, passion, compassion, being an excellent communicator, leading by inspirational example and much more like being available and engaged at every opportunity in order to always be building value in the enterprise. I was then thanked for my input and asked if I had anything else to add. I said yes, in fact the person I just described is not a theoretical construct. Dr. Bobby Robbins fits this profile perfectly.

Richard Carmona

Northeast side

Troon’s destruction of Starr Pass Golf

For more than 20 years, Starr Pass area residents and the golfing public co-existed peacefully with the wildlife, cacti, and trees that grace this special area of the Tucson Mountains. Troon’s indiscriminate razing of the vegetation adjacent to the golf course destroyed the habitat that provided cover needed for bobcats, coyotes, deer, roadrunners, quail, and other desert creatures to travel, rest, breed, feed, and nest.

Residents and golfers protested Troon’s vegetation management practices but were dismissed. Troon was “too busy” to stop the destruction until local authorities (Pima County and AZ Fish-Game) stepped in to halt the cutting. Shockingly, Troon noted at their recent community meeting that they did not bother to check the various agreements, conservation easements, and regulations that prohibited their outrageous actions.

Troon points to their “environmental stewardship,” as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Surely, they no longer qualify for such a designation. Today’s guest will see the course lined with tree stumps instead of beautiful paloverdes, mesquite, and cacti.

Joan Watson

West side

Vote for Scott

Letters to this page are frequently negative, but I hope you have room for a positive message about Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott.

I’m impressed with Scott’s positive commitment to make government work for all the people in our county. His message is always constructive, and he doesn’t push social agendas, complain about stolen elections or denigrate his fellow citizens. It’s refreshing to listen to a cogent policy rather than political diatribe. He believes that government can and should be a force for good, and his actions back up his words — he has been a driver in the expansion of early childhood education, road and parks maintenance, water rate reductions, affordable housing and increased staffing for corrections officers. Rex Scott gives politics a good name and I intend to vote for him to return as Pima County Supervisor for District 1 and encourage others to do the same.

Jim Lombardo

Oro Valley

Ukrainian military package

The news this morning (May 12) is that Russia has retaken five more Ukrainian villages. Any American reading this information has to be beyond outraged. For over six months Biden pleaded for passage of military support to Ukraine while Republicans dithered and bickered to pacify the MAGA fringe. Speaker Johnson was only focused on keeping his job. It was the adults in the room (aka Democrats) who finally got him to do his job and get the support passed. He is no hero here. That opportunity passed six months ago when he should have done what he belatedly did last week.

Now Ukraine has lost momentum that it may be impossible to regain, even with the eventual arrival of U.S. weapons. How could we have allowed this to happen? Ukrainians are willing to spill their blood so we don’t have to, and yet we dither and squander the opportunity.

Juan Ciscomani, did you do anything to prevent this? It is a sad time for America.

Jack Evert

Oro Valley

Criminal trial of Donald Trump

The criminal trial of Donald Trump is reaching a pivotal point with Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, taking the stand. This situation raises a pivotal challenge to our society: Will genuine justice prevail or will we, per the words of songwriter Mark Knopfler, “punish the monkey … and let the organ grinder go”?

Wayne Satten

Northwest side

Like this picture?

The southern border is easier to cross than a street in downtown Tucson.

Prices at the grocery store are high, prices at the gas pump are high.

Criminals have no consequences, Antisemitism is tolerated.

Leftist protests are all mostly peaceful according to our leaders, conservative protests are riots according to our leaders.

You need ID to do almost anything except to vote.

Don’t do anything wrong if you are a Republican, you will be prosecuted, do something wrong as a Democrat — no prosecution — Hilary cleaning her computer, Joe storing documents in his garage.

Children can make decision about gender without parental knowledge but can’t take an aspirin at school without parental permission.

Let statues of George Washington be dressed like Hamas — no consequence.

Personally I don’t like this picture and I definitely will not vote to continue to support this picture.

Gayle Blackwell

Southwest side