Tucson Speaks Out: Oct. 26 letters of the day

Re: the Oct. 18 article “Court: Lawmakers can shield bar owners from liability.”

Once again, I am reminded of why I like newspapers in genuine print. The paper provides extensive coverage on a variety of issues. For example, Howard Fischer’s article on the recent AZ Supreme Court opinion on bar owner liability for their drunk patrons did a great job of explaining the opinion, the dissenting opinion, and the history of the related statutes and the Arizona Constitution.

Thank you for continuing to provide great journalism!

Harold Hallikainen

East side

Funding request

Contained in President Biden’s new funding request to Congress is $13.6 billion for border protection, including hiring 1,300 Border Patrol Agents, 1,600 asylum officers and 375 Immigration judge teams. This “border protection” proposal is a joke! It is not meant to secure the border from illegal immigration, but rather to expedite approval of hundreds of thousands of what I believe are fraudulent asylum applications made by people illegally entering the country. It contains no border wall. It takes about a year from the point of hiring a Border Patrol Agent to getting them working out in the field. Right now, they are actually assisting people entering illegally in Texas by pulling them from the Rio Grande River through barbed wire onto the U.S. side. Then processing and releasing them. There is no indication that hiring more agents would change that. I would rather have the House of Representatives stay without a Speaker so as to not not pass this phony “border protection” funding presented by Biden.

Paula Martin

Vail

Great day for democracy

Friday, Oct. 20, 2023 was great day for American democracy.

First, Trump-endorsed, Jan. 6 conspirator Jim Jordan was removed from consideration as House Speaker after Republicans got tired of receiving threatening phone calls from Jordan’s flame-throwers.

Second, former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, the mastermind of the fake elector scheme, plead guilty to a criminal racketeering indictment and agreed to testify against Trump.

Third, a New York judge fined ‘The Donald’ $5,000 for violating a gag order to not speak about any members of the court staff — and warned him twice about possible imprisonment.

Now, if we can just vote out Arizona’s extremist MAGA Representatives Juan Ciscomani, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar, David Schweikert and Debbie Lesko, in the next election we might actually be on our way to making our democracy great again.

Thea Chalow

Oro Valley

Cartoons R-us

For years we have laughed at the disastrous schemes of the hapless, witless, and hopeless coyote, geared up by good old A.C.M.E. We could enjoy a good laugh from the beginning because the ending calamity was always there to see. Now we don’t have to wait till Saturday morning to watch cartoons, all we have to do is check up on the latest efforts in Washington, to find a Speaker of the House.

Tim Canny

Oracle

Reward terrorism?

Most Germans may not have been Jew-hating Nazis, but they acquiesced in the extermination of six million Jews.

Gazans elected Hamas, a terrorist group, as their leaders — a group whose creed is to exterminate all Jews — and Gazans remain silent, without condemnation.

Should we now reward terrorism, legitimize it, by awarding it a state?

Beth Isabelle

Northeast side

Illegal immigration

On Saturday, Oct. 21, when most folks were not reading or watching the news, U.S. Customs and Border Protection quietly released their statistics for fiscal year 2023, which ended on Sept. 30. There were 2,063,000 encounters by the Border Patrol. The second consecutive historic year of more than two million people coming here illegally under Joe Biden. The Border Patrol encountered 218,000 in September. Of those, a whopping 155,000, or about 72% were released into the public with a notice to appear. For FY 2023, there were more than 500,000 Border Patrol encounters in Arizona. The Tucson Sector now has the most illegal entry activity in the country. Where is the outrage from Governor Hobbs? For FY 2023, 278,000 people applied for asylum at the ports of entry using the CBP One app. Biden has angered Muslims around the world by supporting and supplying weapons to Israel. It defies reason to think that would be terrorists have not slipped across or posed as an asylum applicant.

Gary Beachwood

Green Valley

Climate change

You may have noticed — desert vegetation grows a heavy outer layer (skin). So, grow a thicker skin and stop whining about what we should have done! The earth is warming up, be it from the awful emissions from the tiny human infestation, or just the earth’s natural cycle. It’s coming, and we can whine about until we go extinct, or we can adapt and evolve. We need to grow more heat tolerant (evolve). We must plan for the A/C power needs of this future. Nuclear power-the only true zero-emission option.

Thad Appelman

Northwest side

Civil discourse matters

Bullying and violence are threats to domestic tranquility everywhere including Tucson. I am a Democrat and more importantly, I am an American who honors all those candidates who work to preserve domestic tranquility despite today’s difficult political and cultural divisions.

Please watch the video of the Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting of June 20, 2023 including the segment beginning at 1:30:09.

You will see the Chairman of the Pima County Republican Party’s behavior that required intervention and changes to guidelines for the call to the public. This is the party that put forward the Republican candidates on your ballot.

Then watch the local proceedings of the current City of Tucson Mayor and Council on YouTube.

Vote for those who demonstrate with their actions a commitment to functional, civil, and non-violent local government.

Our 2023 City election ballots and the future of Tucson are in our hands.

Stephanie OLeary

Northeast side

Guns don’t kill

Guns don’t kill, nor do they protect. It depends on who is holding the gun.

In the hands of a criminal, a crazy person, a terrorist, or an immature child, guns can and do kill.

In the hands of a trained, rational, honest citizen they can protect.

Some groups want you to believe that trying to keep guns out of the hands of the former will also prevent the later from having guns … that is a lie. We can keep the right of honest citizens to protect themselves and others, while making it harder for dishonest, irrational people to get their hands on guns.

Vote for candidates who favor rational gun safety; reject those who refuse to do anything to stop gun violence.

Floyd Newsom

Northwest side

Smarter strategy for Dems

The House Democrats have scored a lot of cheap political points by opposing every candidate proposed by the Republicans for the Speakership. This strategy is embarrassing the Republicans, but the Democrats are missing a golden opportunity to have a say in who is elected speaker. In negotiations, some Democrats could agree to support a moderate Republican for speaker instead of the radicals who have been nominated by the far right. Neither party has the votes to elect their ideologs and that’s a good thing. With a moderate speaker, each party gets half a loaf, and we can move on. Do the Democrats have the courage to make such a proposal and do the Republicans have the wisdom to accept? The only losers are the radicals in both parties and the winners are all of us.

Loring Green

Foothills

Prop 496: Yes for our kids

As a parent of two TUSD students and someone who has dedicated two decades to Arizona’s public education, I grapple with this question: what holds more weight for a student — a toilet or a textbook, A/C or A/V, security or a school bus? The truth is, they’re all crucial. TUSD’s Prop 496, offers a clear solution. A yes vote means we can provide all these essentials for your kids and mine. A vote against 496 is a blow to them — over 40,000 students, 2,500 teachers, and countless others who work tirelessly to serve them. It punishes them. Now, picture this: your yes vote means investing less than 20 cents a day, creating a $480 million difference for 40,000 young lives. It’s a legacy in the making! Be the catalyst for change because our kids deserve better, they need your help. Vote yes on Prop 496.

Ricky Hernandez

Sahuarita

Water treatment

Re: the Oct. 22 article “City Council endorses treating wastewater for drinking.”

I read recently that Tucson Water is considering tertiary treatment of effluent for drinking water like San Diego has. This is very expensive and I must ask why it is being considered. Our current treated effluent is dumped into the Agua Caliente wash to percolate down and replenish our aquifer. The water is not wasted. If we go the tertiary treatment option the aquifer will only be replenished by rain water. So where are we ahead? We could tap the aquifer for the same amount of water the tertiary treatment facility will provide and avoid the expense.

Morton Smith

Foothills

Who speaks for peace?

On Sunday, Oct. 22, I attended a community rally opposing military aid to Israel. I appreciated the large turn-out given the oppressive heat. However, I did not appreciate some of the chants or signage. Some were overtly antisemitic and cast the impression that Israel bears sole responsibility for this tragic war. I am not excusing the current bombing of Gaza and the West Bank and 70 years of Israeli oppression. It must end. Nor am I excusing Hamas terrorist attacks. The killing of non-combatant civilians must stop. It seems to me that nobody is right when everybody’s wrong. The siege of Gaza will only continue multigenerational violence between these groups when non-violent ways need to be employed to create a lasting peace.

Who speaks for peace?

Richard Fridena

West side

Say NO to TEP

As the City considers the appeal by TEP to the City’s master plan, consider interests. The City has an interest in maintaining its long standing Gateway Corridors — routes leading to major recreation attractions favorable visual impression of Tucson the citizens and visitors to the City.

It’s clear that Kino-Campbell and Kino-Aviation Highway are key gateway corridors to the University of Arizona and Downton. The City has an interest in maintaining beauty, not allowing 10-story tall power poles visually detracting.

TEP is owned by Fortis, a Canadian company; annual revenue $64 Billion, 30 times the annual budget of the City; 486 million shares of stock outstanding with a dividend of about $2, an annual payout approximately $1 Billion.

Weighing the interests of the two entities, TEP’s interest is representing shareholders. Our City Council must represent the stakeholder citizens of Tucson and say NO to TEP’s request for an exception to the City’s Master Plan. City Council represents us against the shareholders of Fortis.

Mark Ziska

Midtown