Bad choices?
Exemptions: Those who drive trucks for landscaping jobs. Those who drive vans equipped to carry wheelchairs. Those who drive cars with large families. Those who regularly need to haul large amount of anything around town.
Those not exempt: One person driving a truck to pick up a coffee. Someone regularly driving a van or SUV with no passengers. Someone regularly driving a large vehicle around town hauling nothing more than their purse or a fanny pack.
We frequently hear of people making bad choices: the homeless, the person with a substance abuse addiction, or someone who needs to use a food bank.
So what about the choice of the kind of vehicle to drive and the resulting gas costs? Bad choices?
Fran McNeely
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Northeast side
Teacher bashing
Re: the March 23 letter “Teachers’ unions brought this on.”
How disturbing to read so many teacher-bashing letters in the Arizona Daily Star. A recent letter accused teachers of trying to convince students their parents are “evil.” Really? It went on to bash teachers’ unions and brought up critical race theory and how teachers are trying to make white students feel bad. Amazing that anyone accepts and believes such garbage, but plenty of people do.
I come from a family of teachers and have had many teacher friends over the decades. Not one would even come close to warranting such vicious, untrue and ludicrous accusations. Where does this propensity to bash teachers come from? Look to right-wing ideology. I’m glad I don’t personally know any teacher bashers. Their beliefs about teachers and education speak volumes about them.
Deb Klumpp
Oro Valley
World War III
The world stands at a T-intersection. Turn one way and the ghost of Neville Chamberlain in 1938 appears. Turn the other way and World War III begins immediately. I think World War III is inevitable. When, is the only unknown. The Ukraine army is giving the world time to get ready. But will the current day Chamberlains wait until it is too late to stop the dictator before he takes Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. and marches on Paris? He could threaten London and Washington with his long-range missiles, Neville. Stop him at Kyiv.
Mimi Pollow
East side
Follow the leader
I think he is a child-like, narcissistic, pathological lying, despicable human being. He holds rallies and the masses cheer him. He lies and the masses believe him. The masses would follow him off a cliff as if lemmings to the sea. Just as the masses follow Tsar Vladimir.
Jon Langione
Marana
AZ Legislature
The Arizona Legislature’s proposal to exempt firearms and ammunition from state sales tax because firearms, like groceries, are essential is absurd. Arizona Citizens Defense League lobbyist Dave Kopp suggested that by eliminating the sales tax on gun purchases, some low-income families wouldn’t have to choose between buying groceries and buying a gun.
I suggest that if we exempt firearms purchases from sales tax because guns are essential, then we should also eliminate sales tax from clothing purchases. I believe it’s against the law to go naked in public; furthermore, clothing is necessary for protection against the elements.
Just one more example of our state’s growing reputation for ignorance and shame.
Sharon Olbert
Northwest side
Corporate greed
I expected gas prices to rise after the pandemic and the problems in Ukraine and Russia. I’m old enough to know that, when bad things happen, it usually means that costs go up. But gas prices are ridiculous. And it’s beyond “bad things happen”; we apparently have bad actors, too.
Oil and gas companies are raking in profits by raising costs. Exxon Mobil doubled its projected earnings and told investors that they are benefiting from the high costs. Chevron is “generating excess cash” and is giving it to Wall Street instead of reducing prices. I can’t believe that companies like these are raising prices while we’re on the brink of war.
People are struggling to afford their lives. I’m sick and tired of big corporations looking out for themselves and think others should know about it, too.
Judy J. Gillies
Oro Valley
Prescription drug prices
I shouldn’t have to dread going to the pharmacy whenever I’m prescribed a new medication. But I do. And so do countless others in Arizona and across the country. Even with insurance, I know from experience that a five-day prescription for C-difficile costs about $400 out of pocket and a shingles shot about $200. And there’s no telling what new medicines will be required next.
I appreciate Sen. Mark Kelly’s persistence in working to get affordable drug pricing legislation on the table. Back in August 2021, Kelly co-introduced an amendment to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and he signed on to a letter calling on Senate leadership to include Medicare Rx negotiations in their reconciliation package.
Few Republicans support measures to lower prescription drug prices, having been unduly influenced by big pharma companies. That is why we need to stand up for ourselves and make our voices heard by calling our senators and representatives and pressuring them to make drug prices affordable for everyone.
Jan Counts
Marana
A good laugh
Re: the April 12 article “Javelina grabs Cheetos, gets ride.”
Every morning I read the state briefs, usually a litany of car crashes and criminal mayhem. But today I was treated to the best belly laugh I have had while reading the paper in a long time. It was the saga of the javelina in a Subaru eating Cheetos while cruising down the street. I’m sorry that the owners of the car are having to deal with the consequences of the trashed upholstery and bad smell. You have my undying gratitude for providing this moment of levity in an otherwise dreary world. I wish there was a video!
Barbara Tanzillo
Downtown
Fighting for his life
Re: the April 8 letter “Chuck’s sneaky exit.”
Chuck Huckelberry is not exiting sneakily, as the letter writer’s astonishing letter alleges. He was hit by a car downtown, riding a bike as generous-minded townsfolk do when they can, and has since been fighting for his life. All civilized societies are flexible about compassionate leave.
As a Tucsonan reporter living abroad who returns often to write about Arizona, I’ve watched Chuck operate since the beginning. Largely because of him, Tucson is flanked by protected foothills reserves for hikers and horseback riders. His bike loop around the city winds through what Sonoran desert splendor has not been blotted by obnoxious overdevelopment.
He worked hard for a decade to protect the magnificent Santa Ritas — and the county’s water supply from Hudbay Minerals, a Canadian company planning to bulldoze and gouge vast open-pit copper mines.
To the letter writer — you say Chuck Huckelberry’s lawyers acted perhaps legally but not morally. Please, sir, look in a mirror.
Mort Rosenblum
Catalina Foothills
