Tucson Speaks Out: Aug. 1 letters of the day

Ortega best for Ward 1

The Ward 1 incumbent makes a big deal about not accepting PAC contributions. Well, who needs to accept $500 PAC donations when several PACs have collectively spent over $60,000 to date without the politician having to declare anything?

This is part of what drives me to support Miguel Ortega: he believes in governing closest to the people.

As a working-class Chicana, I’d probably agree with some of these PACs’ values. What I DON’T appreciate is state-based or national groups telling us for whom we should vote locally. I don’t recall those organizations polling Tucson communities about our priorities, nor do I know of any endorsement process open to all candidates.

However, I should acknowledge one of the ways the incumbent is garnering local money: taxpayers are additionally footing $58,951 so far in matching funds.

Pernela Jones, Barrio Hollywood

West side

TEP storm-related outages

Countries with underground power lines include Germany and the Netherlands. It is significant that these countries do not experience the same risk of power outages and electricity-related injuries and death due to power line dangers that TEP with above-ground power lines do. The underground lines are protected from wind, rain, wildfires, and tree branches falling. I blame the Tucson City Council members for relaxed regulations for TEP. It’s time to take care of Tucson tax-paying citizens to ensure that TEP power storm-related outages across the area that happens too frequently is something that needs to be fixed. One outage is one too many, and it happens all too frequently during monsoon weather.

Don Cotton

Northeast side

Women able to play team sports

Whatever happened to the concept of team sports teaching sportsman/woman ship, learning to work together in a group, enjoying working together? The whole push to disallow trans girls from participating cites “competition,” the all-important emphasis on winning. At least below the college level, so many young women, both cis and trans, are being discouraged from playing sports just for fun and exercise. I believe that success in life is more about getting along with others and working as a team than it is about winning.

Judi Brauns

Green Valley

Really?

Feeling nauseous with a headache and chills, I took out the test kit. I swabbed then swirled the swab in the fluid. Then I poured four drops into the tray. I waited the required 15 minutes, and yes, I was positive for Trump Fatigue. I have been bedridden ever since with hives and itchy toes. If I even hear the name Trump, I become delirious. When I am lucid, I think of the poor Republicans. How is it that they think that a twice-impeached, out on bail, facing a string of civil and criminal trials, is the best they can do for a presidential candidate? Who is the GOP going to put forward for VP, Kari Lake? My lovely wife went to the drugstore to pick up a script for me and found out the pharmacy is out of Trump Fatigue test kits. This is becoming very serious. Republicans? Trump? Really?

David ben Avram

Marana

Summerhaven congestion

If you have driven up to Summerhaven on a weekend, you’ll know what I am going to comment on. Parking! The Summerhaven community cannot absorb the volume of cars driving up from Tucson to escape the heat. Parking in the village and Marshall Gulch is very limited and almost exclusively along the sides of roads. Pima County should invest in a parking structure as a benefit to its citizen taxpayers. There are lots large enough to accommodate construction of a multi-level parking structure. To use a phrase from Nike ... “Just Do It.”

Dennis Winsten

Northeast side

End of an education experiment

Re: the July 30 article “Mayes right to warn parents of voucher issues.”

Chris Mayes’ concern about the school voucher system being implemented in Arizona is appropriate. It is true that there will be no accountability for discrimination because schools may enroll whomever they choose and, clearly, a homogeneous population is easier to teach than a heterogeneous one. Accountability for children with learning disabilities will be uncertain. What’s more, in these schools that live on vouchers, many teachers are not certified — they have failed to meet State requirements and are, therefore, simply unqualified and would not be permitted to teach in the public schools. Obviously, too, our taxpayer dollars are going to this “black hole.” But, perhaps, most important of all is the very clear, frontal attack on the historically unique American experiment of FREE MASS PUBLIC EDUCATION. This is something no nation has attempted because it is so difficult to achieve, and with a heterogeneous citizenry no less! And this attack, combined with book burnings, bannings and sheer dumbing down of our society poses a danger!

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

Trump documents

Re: the July 22 letter “Understanding of simple laws.”

The letter writer states that “classified documents must be stored in a secure and guarded location. Bathrooms, bedrooms, and ballrooms are not secure locations.” I think he is assuming ALL the boxes of papers are classified documents, which I expect is not the case. The classified documents were in a locked storage room which the FBI asked Mr. Trump to secure with an extra lock, which he did. I am assuming the other boxes of papers in the unsecured locations are not classified, such as newspaper articles, pictures, business letters, etc. Following the letter writers logic, all the boxes stored in a garage, a beach house, a dining room and an office on a university campus, by Mr. Biden, would also preclude Mr. Biden from holding office. As he states, “you are not fit to be President of anything,” if you have done this.

Carolyn McSpadden

SaddleBrooke

Tucson Loop Trail

Global climate change, a world drowning in plastic, immigration crisis, the threat of nuclear war, an increase in gun violence, the specter of a presidential choice between a madman and an octogenarian — it’s hard to keep your chin up these days.

We moved to Tucson from Green Valley recently and were pleased to learn that life continues. Our apartment has a balcony with a sweeping view of a section of the Tucson Loop Trail. What a boon to the human spirit!

A stream of people use the trail: young and old of all colors and shapes, runners, walkers, racing pelotons, pleasure cyclists, tandem bikers, hand bikers who have lost legs, horse riders, dogs who dutifully match their owner’s pace, and yes, even a unicyclist and an Orthodox priest in full cassock.

Bum leg and all, I join this stream of humanity, a metaphor for an imagined world.

David Cowan

North side

School choice

Re: the July 30 article “Mayes right to warn parents of voucher issues.”

Your editorial item on school choice vouchers shows your distrust of parents to make sound choices for their children to have an opportunity to have a good education. You and the AZ Attorney General are acknowledging that many AZ public schools are failing their students in not teaching the basics and providing a meaningful education. The fear of a mass migration to parochial and private schools is very telling. It is an acknowledgement that the grass may be greener on the other side. Tom Horne is focused on trying to make the public schools as good as possible, but he is being opposed every step of the way by teachers’ unions (not necessarily all the teachers), the Governor and the Attorney General. An interesting cabal. Your paper should be focused on getting the best education possible for the children within your distribution area, not supporting Woke politics. Why can’t you support Horne’s drive to get back to basics? Good schools don’t lose students.

Mark Prose

Oracle