Tucson Speaks Out: November 12

The 24 million that were hoping for relief from the soaring ACA premiums — sorry. The 42 million that SNAP recipients hoping that SNAP would not disappear — sorry. Betrayed by a handful of spineless Dems. But shucks, the Repubs now have 66 million more potential voters. Because capitulation was preferable to standing up for the constituents in need.

Kenneth Haber

Northwest side

Your silence is intolerable

Let’s face it: Trump is a bloviator. And your silence is intolerable.

If Trump isn’t feeding us empty rhetoric full of nonsense, he’s constantly lying. Psychologists call this behavior “cognitive overload.” Trump lies so often that it tires us mentally. Our brain’s truth-checking system starts to fail. The more he lies, the less we react to it.

Are you tired of Trump’s deception, where even the absurd becomes normalized? Is he wearing you down with constant lying? Well, you’re experiencing “cognitive overload” as he erodes your mental defenses. For years, Trump has used this tactic in his family business’s sales and marketing schemes while avoiding accountability. He oversells everything. To Trump, his shameless disregard for the law shows strength, not guilt, and makes him tons of money. It fuels his craving for power to breach our Constitution, and rules, regulations, protocols, and business norms, and he is getting away with it. Do not be silent.

Jerry Wilkerson

SaddleBrooke

Call center for migrant children

After reading just the headline of the Nov. 11 article, “Ice to open call center for migrant children,” I was encouraged, thinking this would help greatly in reuniting migrant children with their families.

I was wrong. The purpose of finding these undocumented migrant children who came here unaccompanied is to put them in SUVs under armed guards and transport them to jails across the country until they are ultimately put on planes to unknown destinations.

Some of these children will as young as 5 or 6 years old. The same age as the migrant children I taught in 1971-72 at the Continental School halfway between Tucson and the border.

I can understand this policy for criminals, but these are innocent victims.

In Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, “Suffer the little children unto me and forbid them not to come unto me.”

I will pray that Jesus and his angels ride beside these scared children in those SUVs and guide them to safety, wherever that may be.

Karen Papagapitos

Northwest side

Thanks to TPD

The 36th Annual All Souls Procession on Nov. 9 was a great success. In part, it was due to a great police force that was visual, professional and very helpful. Every officer seemed to be vigilant, and at the same time, they were there to protect and serve the people of Tucson.

Additional thanks to Tucson’s Mayor Regina Romero for her oversight and effort making the evening safe and enjoyable for all.

The All Souls parade is a funeral procession, a beautiful celebration of love and memories and memorials, a community.

Dan Bannon

Midtown

Steller column

I agree with Tim Steller that the traffic and accidents are worse now. I’ve had people pass me on residential streets and in right-turn lanes. If you go to any busy intersection, you will see lots of red light runners. I do not, however, think it is time for radical measures. What we really need is for the mayor and council to bring the police force up to where it should be. We are at least 80 officers short which makes less people available for traffic control. Motor officers used to do a lot more traffic enforcement than they do now. We seem to be able to find money for free bus rides and homeless camps, but not the police. I personally witnessed a manager at Walgreens handle some bus riders who were shoplifting. One of the new council members said she is going to make Tucson less car-centric. Fund the police first, and don’t use this latest tragedy as an excuse for someone’s agenda.

Jeff Britt

East side

Major SNAP beneficiaries

One aspect of SNAP that isn’t often mentioned is the number of large, profitable American companies that benefit from the program.

A GAO report found that Walmart, McDonald’s, Amazon, and others have large numbers of employees, many full-time, receiving government assistance. (The GAO found that 51% of SNAP recipients work 35 or more hours for 50 weeks a year, i.e., at or close to full time.)

Effectively, the labor costs of these companies are being subsidized by the government, and their profits and shareholders benefit.

“If you’re a publicly traded private company, you’ve got to figure out a way to pay your employees a living wage without relying on the taxpayer to subsidize your labor costs. If you’re the biggest beneficiary of food assistance, you are not truly an independent private company — you’re a ward of the state.”

— Barry Ritholtz, Ritholtz Wealth Management, who has labeled McDonald’s and Walmart “welfare queens.”

Barbara Hall

Midtown

The shutdown is over

When it became painfully obvious to eight Democratic senators that the Republicans would rather let people starve than give in to the Democrats to restore your benefits they gave in to save your lives. This is America, where politicians turn their backs on their constituents to please a leader who dines on Big Macs with his friends, Mayor McCheese and the Hamburglar, as you watch with stomach growling. I wrote in a earlier letter that when I paid my taxes last year, I intended it to go to programs that support children, elderly, schools and the hungry. The Republicans keep saying no you can’t have it. The asinine work requirement to receive benefits is prison work crew tactics. I already paid for you to get those benefits so there is no need for you to “earn” them. Kind of like tossing a dollar in the Salvation Army kettle at Christmas and then telling the volunteer to play a tune on his trumpet, or I take it back.

Daniel Poryanda

Southeast side

An accurate observation

William Kendall’s LTE (1,320 feet) is an emblematic tale of the lackadaisical efforts by the political leadership in this community toward basic infrastructure work.

The Houghton Road rejuvenation project, involving an approximate 13-mile stretch of road, will end up taking over 20 years to complete. The entire interstate highway network was finished in 35 years.

I am bewildered and exasperated by the glacial pace of roadwork in Tucson, and any hope for rapidity by our local leadership is depressingly remote.

John Fristik

Southeast side

Magic and wonder

As the alien visitor from space, 3I/ATLAS, rounds the sun and returns to our view, its appearance in our skies has led to a controversy.

Some people (let us call them Scientists) say that 3I/ATLAS is likely nothing we haven’t seen before.

Some other people (let us call them Not-Scientists) say they know this is alien technology. They are certain there is a massive conspiracy to deceive us about its true nature.

As to this newest visitor, a scientist offered this description: “Its properties to date are consistent with it being an icy planetesimal that formed around another star in the galaxy and was later gravitational scattered out of its home planetary system to traverse through the galaxy until it felt our sun’s gravitational potential.”

Oh, is that all?

What the scientist described is magic and wonder, and mystery and awe. It’s science and art, and poetry too. What need have we of more?

What two-bit interplanetary alien could possibly compare with that?

Larry DeWitt

Northeast side

When’s Book Richardson’s turn?

Reading about Rudy Giuliani’s pardon, along with Mark Meadows, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell, irks me for two reasons.

One, Trump keeps pardoning those found guilty of federal offenses that supported the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. This continues to show that the Donald Trump-led Republican Party is completely morally bankrupt.

Two, Book Richardson has not been pardoned. Richardson went to federal prison and has paid severely for what is now literally legal in the NCAA. It’s now been six years since he was released, and he is eligible.

Yes, there is a two-tiered structure for justice in the United States. Most of us are second-class citizens to Trump and the Republicans.

Matt Somers

Midtown

Democrats cave ... again

Once again, the Democrats have capitulated to extortion by the Trump regime. Back in the 1980s, Reagan and Gingrich convinced Republicans that they could grab all the power they wanted by threatening to destroy the country if they didn’t get their way. It worked, and the party of Lincoln became the party of Greed, Obstruction and Paranoia (G.O.P.). With control of all three branches of government, the G.O.P. party have turned our thriving nation into a cesspool of corruption and incompetence.

The Dems had no choice but to acquiesce to this destruction of America, but when the G.O.P. threatened health care for moderate Americans, they finally refused to go along, causing a government shutdown. The G.O.P., following their founder’s plan, refused to compromise, instead threatening jobs, safety, and food for the middle class, and the Dems gave in just like Gingrich said they would.

Floyd Newsom

Northwest side

Senator Kelly and the shutdown

On Nov. 9, Senator Kelly issued a statement about the government shutdown. In part, it says: “I’ve spent the last month hearing from Arizonans worried they can’t afford health care and families who were going broke and hungry because the government was shut down. That’s who I’m fighting for.”

With respect, Senator, your kind of “fighting” is the major cause of the shutdown. You voted to shut it down. And your repeated votes to keep it shut down are the cause of families going broke and hungry, as well as the need for flight cancellations and millions going without paychecks. The record shutdown and all its downsides are a direct result of your and most of your Democrat brethrens’ votes, period.

And later on Nov 9, you voted “no” again to the latest step to reopen the government, which passed. Quit fighting for us. Your methods have caused far more harm than good.

Mathew Scully

Sahuarita