Ciscomani
Re: the March 5 article “Spanish fluency pays off for Ciscomani.”
Were Ciscomani’s parents undocumented when they came to this country? Does Ciscomani favor a path to citizenship for Dreamers and a framework for undocumented workers to get legal work permits?
I think it’s irresponsible to print such a “puff piece” unless these questions are answered. Voters deserve clarification on Ciscomani’s position. After all, I hope he’s not someone who wants to pull up the drawbridge after he and his parents are safe.
Jim McWilliams
Midtown
Constitution matters!Re: the March 2 article “College borrowers see disconnect.”
For those of you who can’t understand why anyone would vote for Trump, look no further than the articles this week after the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding student loan forgiveness.
People are also reading…
Two liberal, social activist judges made comments that demonstrated they don’t even remotely care what the Constitution says. Sotomayor said the decision should be left to the education “experts,” because people will suffer if the program is struck down and they default. Here’s a novel idea. How about not defaulting and paying back what one committed to when one took out those loans! Brown Jackson lamented about the hardship for her, and her father, to pay what they owed. I almost worked up a tear on that one. Neither of these two made comments that demonstrated they understood that these lawsuits were about what the Constitution says about the separation of powers. Trump was an egotistical, narcissistic, bloviating bully, but at least he appointed judges who seem to understand that the Constitution matters.
Kevin D. Kaatz
Oro Valley
Conservative talk radio
Re: the March 4 article “Blame liberal policies, not talk radio.”
Bob Lee’s piece consists of 10 paragraphs; the first five seem to present a factual and interesting history of the evolution of conservative talk radio; the second five are an opinionated rant against liberals and Democrats, essentially a diatribe replete with unsubstantiated assertions, projections, and bad grammar. In 170 words, I can’t begin to refute, or even discuss, his numerous absurd statements and allegations, many of which are characterized by sweeping generalizations. For instance, he writes: “Democrats love to spend our money, Republicans do not” (is he not aware of Arizona Republicans’ voucher program, or Ducey wasting millions on the border container barrier or the Cyber Ninjas?) It is also disconcerting to read about liberals no longer carrying a “big stick.” Trump threw that stick away in his support of Putin and Kim Jong-un.
On and on he goes, trading in hackneyed stereotypes, clichés, and falsehoods.
He should have stuck with his first five paragraphs.
Katharine Donahue
Foothills
Head in the sand logic
Re: the March 4 article “Blame liberal policies, not talk radio.”
Bob Lee’s article is laughable in its naivete. Here in the real world, conservative policies have been the bigger problem for over 50 years. Climate change denial, trickle-down economics, eviscerating unions, pandemic denial, institutional racism, censoring history in public schools, voter suppression, marginalizing women, poor people, immigrants, Muslims and LGBTQs, blocking universal health care, prioritizing corporate profits over people and the environment, protecting unlimited money in politics, rejecting common sense gun control, promoting Trump’s big lie, these are the policies that have been fueling our country’s descent into tribalism, mediocrity, and fascism. (Speaking of defunding the police, it’s conservative politicians who constantly reject taxes to fund public services.)
It’s going to take fact-based policies to solve our problems. Fox News and talk radio are not helping. Their outrage-for-profit business model is, indeed, a huge factor contributing to this country’s decline. Burying one’s head in the sand won’t change that.
Duncan Stitt
Midtown
Book Festival needs to do better
Only 1,000 people saw Linda Ronstadt at the Tucson Festival of Books. Some got in line at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning to be sure to get in. Why wasn’t a location with more seating used for such a popular and wonderful woman? McKale Center holds 14,545 and the Main Auditorium holds 3,200. I’ll bet McKale would have been filled if Festival honchos were a bit wiser and selected that location. Limiting the number of people that could gain access to only 1,000 is just one of this year’s Festival disappointments. Other ticketed authors, ones you really need to donate money to obtain a ticket to be able to gain entry for, were Maggie Haberman of the New York Times and Katie Tur of MSNBC. Both cancelled. Tur cancelled on Friday, the day before her scheduled appearance. Better decisions should be made and more reliable authors should be asked to appear.
Ricardo Small
East side
Truth behind HB2546 breaking up TUSD
Re: the March 6 article “Voters should be asked to split up TUSD, lawmakers say.”
Truth. Nothing but the truth. Rep. Rachel Jones argues that TUSD should be split up because it wastes so much money on administrative costs. But the truth is that, according to the State Auditor, although TUSD spends $6,509 per student (more than the state average), its administrative costs are $62 per year per student (lower than the state average). She says Superintendent Trujillo is paid half million dollars per year. Not true, only $250,000.
Rep. Jones says her new law will make it easier for parents to have a say. But she will not say how the district will actually be split up.
Does she want to give more voice to the TUSD parents mid-town, downtown or on the southside? No, the truth is she and her mostly white, higher-income, anti-vaccine MAGA Republican allies want their own personal school district on the far east side.
John Higgins
Southeast side
Break up TUSD? Why not Arizona?
Re: the March 6 article “Voters should be asked to split up TUSD, lawmakers say.”
State Rep. Rachel Jones said she wants people in the Tucson Unified School District to vote on breaking up the district. That’s because, she said, east siders “are not in agreement with some of the decisions being made by the five-person board.”
Applying that logic, let us also vote on breaking up Arizona. That’s because people in Tucson are not in agreement with some — actually, many — of the decisions being made by the Legislature, including the House decision allowing a vote to break up TUSD.
When do we get to vote, Ms. Jones?
Shraddha Hilda Oropeza
West side
Drag shows no threat
To the Editor:
The issues that keep me up at night: Arizona’s water being used to grow alfalfa for foreign countries; the high rate of traffic accidents from people running red lights; inflation; the poor pay scale for teachers. What does not keep me up? Drag queen story hour, or which pronoun a teacher uses for a student.
Republicans prove, once again, that they have no real ideas to improve life for our citizens. They only care about culture wars and “owning the libs.” How anyone can vote for a Republican candidate is beyond me.
Karen Micallef
Oro Valley
