Glad to help you out
Re: the June 8 letter “Help me out here.”
A letter writer asks for help explaining why 80 million people voted for Joe Biden. I’m glad to oblige. The other choice was a twice-impeached liar, fraud, bigot, narcissist, con man, and lap dog to Vladimir Putin who I think is guilty of seditious conspiracy and attempted election fraud, if not more.
How hard was that?
Andrew Browning
Foothills
Empty bottles added to empty cribs
The birth rate in America has been spiraling downward for decades, and now we can add to that the unavailability of baby food to feed the few who do appear on the scene.
Once again, ordinary folk are being treated to the reality of the extreme deficiencies of a monopoly economy, with only a handful of large companies cranking out this and other products and services in America.
People are also reading…
Since the 1970s, America turned hard in favor of monopoly in business, industry, finance and just about everything else. Monopoly is the economic system of autocracy. Both systems want to limit the privilege of participation to only a few favored persons or entities.
The people need to commit our political candidates to an antitrust agenda and then follow their every move if elected. Our babies are depending upon it.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Downtown
Equine fatalities at Rillito Park Racetrack
My 33 years in the animal protection field demands a response to the pathetic carnage at Rillito Park Racetrack this year. Ironically, after the death of seven horses in eight days of racing this season, General Manager Mike Weiss had the gall to boast that their Equine Wellness Program was in full gear. That statement implies that without this “wonderful program” in effect there would have been many more equine fatalities. Indeed, the program has been shown to be largely ineffective in reducing the number of casualties from horse racing. It would have been more forthcoming had Weiss just admitted that the program is not the “saving grace” the industry is hoping for. These magnificent steeds are still doomed to the same fate, the same luck of the draw that the next race could prove fatal.
Gary Vella, president of
Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal
Kingdom, a local charity
Southeast side
Arming the next insurrection
I think the Jan. 6 event was a preview of what’s to come. The facts being uncovered by the special commission detailing the depth of planning that led up to the coup attempt support this. We came close to losing our democracy, and that’s scary. Consider the record sales of assault rifles over the past few years. You can bet that most of these weapons of war are not being purchased by the large majority of Americans who support more gun safety laws, but by MAGA extremists and others who actually believe the Big Lie and no longer trust our democratic process. What happens when these angry people don’t like the results of a future election? The only way to minimize this threat and also to reduce the awful mass shootings in our schools and elsewhere is to ban all assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And the only way to accomplish this is to vote out of office every elected official who supports the status quo.
Dennis Murano
Downtown
Utopian world will stop gun violence?
Re: the May 31 letter “Our national tragedy.”
In this letter to the editor, they state that gun violence can be traced to a “destructive, evil path” that we have been on. The cause of this evil, destructive path is too much divorce, too many unwed mothers, too much pornography, and abortion. “Only when we return to God and His truth will (we) be able to fight this evil plaguing our nation.”
I agree that there are problems in our society, and that it would be better if we did not have too much divorce, etc. But how do we achieve the ends he desires and still give people a degree of freedom that citizens crave? The letter writer, I believe, envisions a religious utopia, but how do we get all citizens to “return to God and his truth”? Force? The letter writer probably believes that we could at least limit pornography, so why can’t we at least limit gun ownership? Then the “destructive, evil path” he talks about will be at least a little less destructive.
Tim Chamberlin
Oracle
Politics
I think the GOP yearns to destroy the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Their ascendence means the American dream will become the American nightmare.
We’re all aware of GOP attempts to limit voting, family planning, marijuana use, and public health. Currently, the GOP is in the limelight for its failure to protect the lives of victims of mass shootings. There is a solution to mass shootings that would address the rights of victims, the police, and gun enthusiasts — namely, any sidearm that gives a tactical advantage over police should not be allowed in civilian hands, except at licensed gun clubs. I think the GOP rejects this sort of practical solution for fear of losing gun lobby money.
Either we vote out the Republican Party or we become a Third World country where honest people are no better than slaves.
Robert Mann
Northwest side
GOP wants to outlaw early voting
Do Republicans know how ridiculous they look trying to outlaw early and mail-in voting in Arizona when 90% of Arizonans vote that way? State Sen. Kelly Townsend proposed just that, and similar efforts are underway all over the country.
What’s next? Will Arizona Republicans propose strict gun-control laws, because they really like guns? They like adoption for unwanted newborn babies, so they’ll probably outlaw that. The GOP likes tax cuts, so they will definitely want to raise taxes next term. You can’t argue with their logic.
Oh, Republicans might let you have a mail-in ballot if there’s something really wrong with you. Fortunately, Donald Trump can still vote by mail, thanks to a flare-up of his bone spurs.
John Vornholt
Northeast side
Let economic need dictate immigration
Re: the June 1 letter “Migrants come for economic reasons.”
Yes, most people come to the United States for economic reasons and always have, especially white people from Europe, filling millions of jobs.
We still have millions of jobs to fill – 11.4 million at the end of April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported – and plenty of people wanting to immigrate for jobs.
What’s stopping them? They are people of color and thus unacceptable to many in the United States. Immigration laws don’t prioritize economics, instead serving to prevent “replacement,” the phony theory pushed by some white people.
Rather than prosecute Central Americans for abusing asylum, as the letter writer suggests, change laws to emphasize economic immigration.
As immigrants, we are doctors, landscapers, entrepreneurs, cooks and more. Millions of us were welcomed to this country and contribute economically. With such great need, why not allow that for still millions more?
Shraddha Hilda Oropeza
West side
Prayer in school — and out
Re: the June 1 article “AZ GOP blocks vote on gun background checks.”
In this article, Howard Fischer of Capitol News Service reported that Arizona Senate majority leader Rick Gray (R), stated in debate that the reason mass shootings occur is because children can’t pray in school.
To the contrary — children, and their parents, all over the country, are praying in school and out that some individual (who shouldn’t even be trusted to carry a bb-gun), doesn’t come through the school door spraying bullets from a 100-round magazine attached to an AR-15. No one can stop their prayers, just as many politicians are unwilling to enact reasonable gun-safety laws to help stem the carnage.
Madness.
D. A. Robbins
Foothills
Mass shootings emblematic of U.S. moral decline
I believe mass shootings are emblematic of a decades-long moral decline in America. In 1996, James Dorn wrote an article “The rise of government and decline of morality.” Dorn postulated that increased economic and social legislation over the decades has led to a decline in morality and virtue. He cited increased out-of-wedlock births, absence of fathers in households, increased criminal activity, a decline in civility, and a lack of integrity in public and private life. He believed individuals “lose their moral compass when the state undermines incentives for moral conduct and blurs the distinction between right and wrong.” It has been the Democrat Party that has expanded government dependency through more social and economic welfare programs. Their pushing gender neutrality, transsexual and CRT teachings in schools, the legalization of drugs, abortions on demand, no cash bail for criminals, limiting free speech via political correctness, etc. All this has eroded individual and community morality in America. Guns are just emblematic of the underlying decline in morality.
Linda Kelly
East side
Shootings
The gun is a common denominator in all shootings.
The shooter always has the advantage because of their mindset and a gun at the ready. They can often start shooting before the police are called.
The long-range answers are there if our politicians have the courage to do something.
Will it take a kindergarten shooting to do something?
Donald Plummer
Northwest side
Hazardous waste monthly events
Twice I have loaded household hazardous waste into my Prius with the intent to drop it off at a 2nd Saturday event. Twice I have driven away because there are many dozens of cars already in the line. My desire to do the responsible civic thing has been thwarted by the idea of sitting in the heat for an hour or more with engines idling in all those other cars. I have no idea how many other Tucsonans have been disappointed with the procedure, driven away, and not turned in these materials. This time I drove to the nearby Patrick Hardesty recycling location and dropped my collection of glass into the large container. The old paint cans and old antifreeze remain in my car for now. I am discouraged. Why is this event held only once a month?
Gwendolyn Evans
Midtown
January 6 house panel
In view of the revelations delivered by the Jan. 6 House Select Committee on Thursday, June 9, the content of these bring to mind a quote made by John Adams, second President of the United States of America: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Donald Ellingsberg, J.D.
wNortheast side
Guns and abortions
Blinders and Reminders:
Womanhood: Females can have babies
Manhood: Males can have guns.
Camille Gannon
West side
Reducing gun violence isn’t complicated
The more junk food we eat, the more obesity we have. The more cigarettes we smoke, the more cancer we have. The more guns we have, the more shootings we have. Reducing gun violence isn’t complicated.
Ron Andrea
SaddleBrooke
Why AR-15s won’t be banned
A lot of people try to make the NRA the bad guys on gun control, but it is not them. I think the real problem is the Republicans’ insatiable need for power.
Hand an AR-15 to a Republican and their face will light up like a kid on Christmas morning. The power of life and death is in their hands and they love it. They won’t give it up and will only vote for someone that will let them keep it.
Weapons of war only belong on the battlefield. Imagine if Kyle Rittenhouse went on his looter safari with a flamethrower!
Robert McNeil
Midtown
Guns: as a man thinketh
As the gun debate rolls on, I suggest immediately blocking all violent shooting, killing, and maiming, videos, TV shows, and games. Anything where guns are used as intimidation, injury or death.
Cause and effect. The topic of mental illness comes up frequently, but never goes to the root of it. I think people are so frustrated with life as it is today, the government as insensitive as it is, who wouldn’t be angry? And where direct that anger toward?
As in the book, “As a Man Thinketh,” what begins in the mind develops through his actions.
Nancy Reid
North side
Not exactly correct
The saying “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” It would be more accurately stated: “Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.”
James Galvin
Sahuarita
