Immigrants are integral to health-care system
Have you noticed the COVID-19 coverage on TV of hospitals and medical facilities, and how many of the doctors and nurses have names that sound like they are from the Middle East. I have noted on my medical visits to Banner-UMC over the last 15 years how many of the good doctors and residents have Middle Eastern-sounding names.
I raise this as evidence of how important immigrants are to our medical care system. I am concerned when our president now claims he is going to shut off all immigration to the U.S.
How shortsighted!
He is not paying attention to how important immigrant doctors and nurses are to our health-care system.
Raise your voice. We need an intelligent immigration system. With the pandemic projected to be a problem until a vaccine is available, an estimated 18 to 24 months away, we will need all the good doctors and nurses we can get.
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George Workman
Marana
It’s Republicans’ turn
to watch Dems squirm
Re: The article “Dems in bind as GOP attacks Biden’s alleged sexual assault.”
I am heartened yet surprised to see that this important story has finally found its way to the front page of the Arizona Daily Star. The headline speaks volumes and the article does not disappoint.
Biden and Democrats are sympathetically portrayed as challenged by this awkward situation while reported GOP “attacks” are misdirected. Republican ire is primarily targeted at the left-wing media for sweeping this story under the partisan rug for the past five weeks. The Sleepy Joes will come and go, but systemic news bias is far more important.
Republicans are actually the ones in a bind since we categorically reject the Democrat’s “believe all women” mantra and advocate for due process for all under the law. We will not be engaging in the witch-hunt-style hysteria that Justice Brett Kavanaugh was forced to endure.
We prefer to sit back, enjoy and watch you folks sort this out for yourselves. Donald, please pass the popcorn.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Our lungs aren’t getting any help
Weeks ago, the Trump administration relaxed mileage standards for vehicles. Then the administration dramatically relaxed coal-plants emissions of mercury and other health hazards.
In the midst of the coronavirus, a virus attacking the lungs and respiratory system of infected patients, these deregulations show the disconnect between Trump and public health and safety.
Hopefully the dropping approval rate in the president’s performance during this pandemic reflects Americans increased awareness of his lack of ability and competence.
Roger Shanley
East side
Direct federal funds
to real small businesses
I just learned that Ruth’s Chris Steak House got $20 million in the coronavirus small business Paycheck Protection Program. Seriously? Small businesses are the ones around the corner, the local restaurants, retailers, auto repair, florists, et cetera. Not some international multimillion business with over 100 restaurants worldwide and millions in reserve. I trust going forward we can get this right or when we come out of this only the wealthy and well-connected will have a place to dine!
Norman Patten
Midtown
Give Trump
2% of the credit
I would like to compliment Tim Steller’s April 17 column. He was right on. The point that caught my eye was that Gov. Doug Ducey and Sen. Martha McSally praised Donald Trump for sending 100 ventilators to Arizona. People, do the math.
That is about one ventilator per hospital. They admit they asked for 5,000 then dropped down to 500, which is 10% of the requested amount. Then down to 100, which is 2% of what was needed. They are very happy with that minute amount.
It sounds like it doesn’t take much to please them. But then again, about 2% is quite an accomplishment for what the Trump administration has done.
Al Lindseth
Benson
The Loop isn’t a place for speeding cyclists
This is to thank Marcy Tigerman for her letter in the Arizona Daily Star. I would like to add a comment, directed toward the hotshot cyclists who use The Loop as a speed-training facility. You are more dangerous than walkers using earbuds, and you seldom give any warning as you approach from behind, even though there are signs reminding you do do so.
A friend of mine was riding on the path and was run off the road by a hotshot (with a baby on the back of his bike, no less!), and ended up with a broken arm.
My advice to hotshots is either give a loud warning like you’re suppose to, or stick to the roads — there are plenty of those with wide bike lanes where you can do your speed work. Leave The Loop to those of us who are out for enjoyment.
Ken Shearer
Northeast side
Time for millennials to meet the challenge
When I turn on the TV, what do I see. Protests. Protests from a younger generation that never learned to suffer.
What do you suppose this same generation would have done during the Great Depression or World War II? Would they have gone to the streets in protest because they were without jobs? Would they have said, “No, we will not enlist” and defend our country? What is different? The Greatest Generation.
A generation of Americans who were up to the task of sacrificing their immediate satisfaction for the greater good. They gave their lives and fortunes to save our country when it was needed.
Is the present generation made of the same stuff that the Greatest Generation was made of? That is the question, isn’t it?
Gil Ward
Marana
Trump has made lying acceptable
Donald Trump’s greatest achievement may be the normalization and acceptance of lying. Everyone knows he lies like a rug, and some people care and some people don’t. Believe what your favorite news source tells you.
The VA administration says they have sufficient PPE and tests. Medical staff working there say they don’t. Is someone lying like Trump?
Gov. Doug Ducey says all Arizonans will get tested because he ordered 250,000 tests for 7 million Arizonans. Is he lying like Trump, or is he just bad at arithmetic?
Over 60,000 Americans are dead of COVID-19, this we know to be true when we say it and when we count them. No more lies.
Connie Marking
Foothills
Kelly has something that McSally lacks
A letter writer asked, “What qualifies Mark Kelly to be a senator?” She then went on to campaign for Martha McSally. She tells us, “at least McSally ...” unable to use any superlatives about McSally.
In my experience with McSally, I found her to be a poor representative for our area. She tended to send emails praising herself, telling us she was working for Arizona, while she was, and remains, a Trump lackey.
What qualifies McSally to be our senator? Nothing of value.
She ran for senator and lost because of her mean-spirited, dishonest campaign ads. McSally is our senator now only because she was appointed ... not because we wanted her or voted for her.
What qualifies Kelly? He is not a career politician, not part of the swamp. Kelly is extremely well educated, a military academy graduate, who served our nation as a naval captain and as an astronaut. However, Kelly’s greatest qualification is something McSally doesn’t have: integrity!
C.G. Jones
East side
Feeling naked
without technology
If the national parks can’t provide decent cellphone service, I just may have to forget about any hiking or sightseeing again. How did I ever hike the Grand Canyon 15 years ago without a phone? Apparently, I was a reckless fool.
Not again. It is simply too dangerous and I must admit that I cannot be responsible for my own safety. Until I get chipped, I’ll have to have that phone 24/7. Just this morning, I forgot to carry my cellphone on our early morning walk. I felt absolutely naked. Next time, I’ll cover up!
Timo O’Connor
West side
Federal government
is doing an abysmal job
The 60,000 dead Americans and their families think the federal government is doing an abysmal job at handling the pandemic.
My terrified mother-in-law, in a nursing home, unable to have visitors, thinks the government is doing an abysmal job. The health-care workers still lacking PPE think the government is doing an abysmal job at handling the pandemic. The doctor who ran a small hospice clinic until FEMA took all of his PPE and he had to close down thinks the government is doing an abysmal job. The Americans who think the best people with experience in public health and emergency experience should be in charge of the pandemic crisis team — not Jared Kushner — think the government is doing an abysmal job.
The fear and sadness across the country is palpable. Real Americans don’t live in an ivory tower.
Ann Richards
Northwest side
Hey, my friends, have you seen Dr. Trump?
President Trump says he is not a doctor but likes to play one daily during the COVID-19 updates. Dominating the daily updates (63% of the time by some reports), his ramblings seem to take precedent over the real doctors.
His latest suggestion is that injecting some sort of disinfectant and light treatment just might be the cure for the virus.
After all, disinfectants like Lysol kill germs on the outside of your body, why would they not work in the inside of the body? Try it! What have you got to lose?
Of all the people on earth, would you choose Donald Trump to make health decisions for you? True believers would!
Bob Tarpchinoff
Northwest side
Remembering Kent State, 50 years later
May 4, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of when National Guardsmen fired shots into a crowd of student, anti-war protesters at Kent State University in Ohio. They killed four students and wounded nine others. At the beginning of May 1970, student protests throughout our nation contested the U.S. participation in the Vietnam War, in general, and the recent bombings in Cambodia, in particular.
I was not there on that fateful day, but I had been a Kent State student and in the Reserve Officers Training Corps from 1966 to 1968. Even then, I had witnessed student protests, sit-ins and silent vigils directed against our country’s fighting in Southeast Asia. This anti-war feeling extended to all things military, including the ROTC program.
As an ROTC member in uniform, I had been cursed, spat upon and jeered. It was a disheartening experience that affected me for many years afterward and that I painfully remember every May 4.
Christopher Roe
Southeast side
Mr. Trump, please stay home
How much is the president’s trip to Arizona this week going to cost us, the Arizona taxpayers? If I remember correctly, he still owes Arizona thousands of dollars from previous visits. He is coming to talk about “industry.” Really?
Why? If he wanted to address the megadrought, water and solar energy, then coming to Arizona might make sense. We do not have the money to host a pointless display of presidential authority and we do not have the time to waste listening to uninformed statements about the current crisis. Trump should stay home and shelter in place like all sensible Americans.
Bonnie Poulos
Midtown
President is the master
of deflecting blame
When Donald Trump was campaigning for the presidency, he frequently portrayed the federal government as being corrupt and unwieldy. Now that he is the head of the federal government, he has switched to blaming the states (especially the states with Democratic governors) for any of our current problems relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whatever serves the purpose of deflecting blame away from himself.
Tony Banks
Oro Valley
Jobs versus stocks
If ever you needed proof that the stock market does not represent most Americans’ economy, just look at last month. As of Thursday, the Dow’s gains in April were extraordinary, while during that same month, unemployment claims soared faster and higher than during the Great Depression. That’s 30 million Americans watching their pennies while a minority sits back and watches their stocks.
What’s wrong with this picture?!
Hollace Lyon
SaddleBrooke