Mixed messages on abortion, guns
Recently, Gov. Ducey signed a law restricting women’s right to abortion because as he said, “every life has immeasurable value.” At the same time he offered no support for the children, who in many instances, would require a lifetime of care. Shortly after that, he signed another bill designating a gun store as an essential business. In 2019, 1,136 Arizonans were killed by guns. Every year in the United States over 39,000 people die by guns. You are 25 times more likely to be killed by a gun in the US than in any other high-income country.
Apparently, these lives do not have immeasurable value. We talk about Second Amendment rights but not the right of citizens to go to a mall, a grocery store, school and church without worrying that some person with a gun is having a bad day.
Mary Zimmerman
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SaddleBrooke
Election audit bad for our democracy
I hope in my heart that true Republicans are as upset, as the rest of us are, with what’s happening in Phoenix. My God, has your party gone crazy? Is destroying our democracy really all you guys have to do? Remember the “Big Lie” in the 1930s? Well, that resulted in people being complicit to millions of Jews, homosexuals and others being killed by “white supremacists.” The GOP is destroying our democracy and that is what’s scary. All for the sake of power and greed. God help us!
Mary Bradley
Northeast side
Dark Ages thinking thrust on schools
Re: the May 6 article “Bill takes aim at differing views.”
As an educator I teach my students to be analytical and critical thinkers. This bill is returning the way of thinking back to the Dark Ages. The Renaissance taught humans to look at themselves and the world in a new way using logic, reasoning and the scientific method that we utilize today. Our students deserve better and must beware of false knowledge. It is more dangerous than ignorance.
Rene Teyechea
South side
Cheney demoted for telling truth
The Republican Congress has decided to demote Rep. Liz Cheney for telling the truth about the election lie from Donald Trump. That makes them even worse liars. If you vote Republican, you need to vote these reprobates out of office. These supposed representatives of democracy have sworn such a strong loyalty to Donald Trump that it feels Hitler-like. They forget that they took an oath to defend our great democracy, even if it irks Donald Trump and his base.
Kevin Marschke
Oro Valley
Health job gratifies ex-restaurant worker
I work for a home health-care company in Tucson caring for the elderly. I started in the industry at the beginning of the pandemic when I got laid off from my job as a cook at a restaurant on Fourth Avenue. I’d been a cook since I was 15.
From other caregivers, I’ve heard the job at certain facilities can be thankless, and wages and support from those organizations can be inadequate. My experience with the company I work for, Catalina In-home Services, hasn’t been like that. The company appreciates its employees, demonstrated through offering valuable benefits, holiday bonuses and personalized praise.
Service industries themselves can’t be to blame for subpar working conditions. The companies and organizations operating in the industry and the philosophies that inform them make or break what a job will be like. Hold employers accountable!
For 20 years in restaurants I was treated as expendable and unimportant. I would not return to a kitchen for any amount of money.
Martel Bird
Midtown
Democrats should welcome the audit
Over the past few days and weeks, I have seen a number of letters to the editor indicating the audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County is not worth it and should not be completed.
I would think that Democrats would want this audit — why? What better way to discredit Donald Trump and the theory that the 2020 election was full of irregularities, than to let the audit proceed. If the audit comes back that there are no irregularities in the Maricopa County 2020 election, Democrats would be able to once and for all discredit Trump’s 2020 election fraud claim, using the audit results as their evidence.
So, what is there to hide? Democrats should embrace this audit, then use the results to discredit Trump.
And, this is not a recount, it is an audit. The results of the audit will will not overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Jim Witt
East side
Biden has it easy? Not with this GOP
Re: the may 7 article “Biden has had it easy; tests to come.”
Los Angeles Times columnist, Doyle McManus, claims President Biden ain’t seen nothing yet, that events yet-to-come will be the true test of his presidency. McManus speculates that kids at our border or an aggressive foreign power might derail the Biden administration.
Events don’t always happen overnight. This may be why Mr. McManus overlooked the biggest challenge any modern president has faced: an assault on truth, science and democratic principles which, unimaginably, is an assault led by the Republican Party.
Repeating “The Big Lie” is how Republicans prove their fealty. There is no place in the now-radicalized GOP for anyone who does not embrace this corrosive disinformation. Just ask Liz Cheney, of all people. Cheney urged her party to “steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality,” and she will lose her leadership position for speaking that truth.
What “event’ could be a greater challenge for any president than combating lies and disinformation, believed by millions of Americans, in order to preserve our democracy?
Leslie Kanberg
Downtown
Rising water fees will alienate many
As a longtime resident of Pima County (21 years) currently living in District 1, I strongly oppose raising fees for Tucson Water users outside city limits. Those of us in the county provide the lion’s share of sales tax for both the city and the county. We pay our bills. We contribute.
Should this raise (be it 1% or 50%) go through I will be inclined to do less citywide shopping, see less entertainment and participate less in city-owned and or sponsored events. If the idea is to somehow drive a wedge between the two entities, this will be a start.
Perhaps those of us in the county should ask our supervisors to erect toll booths on I-10 and I-19 for those vehicles and transporters leaving the city and entering our zone.
There are many other ways to skin this cat.
Make the city work to figure it out and not just add a perfunctory raise in a utility that everyone needs and uses.
Baird Thompson
Foothills
