Letters to the Editor: Feb. 13

As the new year has started, low-income families in the United States still face a heightened hunger crisis. Inflation has led to higher food prices, which has now become a prime factor contributing to the food crisis. The pandemic has receded, yet why are families still struggling with food insecurity?

Almost 798,000 individuals in Arizona are still going through that traumatizing experience of standing outside food banks for hours. Multiply that number. Then multiply it again. And again. More than 34 million U.S. citizens suffer from food insecurity.

Looking at this objectively, we cannot expect that number to change overnight. However, it should at least be decreasing. At the end of the day, it is due to the failure of national and state bureaucrats. As U.S. citizens, we cannot simply ignore this impending issue, and instead should raise awareness in our communities for a change across the spectrum.

Fatimah Amer

Downtown

Security concerns

Honestly, we really shouldn’t be worried about the security of the classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home, even if they concerned secret military operations. I mean, “one if by land, and two if by sea” is old intelligence.

James Nesci

East side

Stupidity unveiled

Re: the Feb. 6 letter “Vote will tell.”

Since this letter opened up the stupidity discussion, here are my thoughts. Are you stupid if you support the Biden administration’s: responsibility in raising the cost of the average family’s basic needs by $5,000 per year; the failure to enforce current immigration laws, thus allowing 5 million undocumented to enter our nation in less than two years and the flood of fentanyl: profligate spending causing record-breaking inflation; insistence on promulgating a flawed green energy policy that will result in a fragile energy grid; and obvious lack of recognition of rampant crime in many parts of the nation? Are you stupid if you support: forgiveness of legal student loans totaling nearly 500 billion of our dollars to obviously buy votes; or the use of the FBI and the Department of Justice for obvious political means? To quote Forrest Gump, “stupid is as stupid does”.

Loyal M. Johnson Jr.

Oro Valley

More than enough blame to go around

Parents, teachers, school administrators, the police.

Every time there is a school shooting the finger-pointing begins. And most likely the usual cast of characters share some blame for the tragedy.

But rarely is the real blame and finger-pointing directed in the more guilty direction. The NRA. Gun enthusiasts. Pro-gun elected officials. Lax gun laws. Parents, teachers, school administrators, caring citizens and elected officials need to band together to direct their energy at the real source of the problem.

Fran McNeely

Foothills

Another year of the rodeo

Definition of “rodeo”: Grown men earning a living by abusing animals. As the rodeo moves from town to town, the animals are trapped in a miserable existence of continual abuse. New York banned rodeos many years ago. During a rodeo, a bull had its leg broken. So as not to draw attention to the animal that couldn’t walk, it was tethered to the side of the arena. When the rodeo concluded the animal was removed and most likely destroyed. Breckenridge, CO, a ski resort in the winter and a delightful place in the summer, allowed a rodeo company to operate in the summer.

After two years, public opinion forced the town’s officials to disinvite the rodeo. People look past the cruelty to the animals and use the comfort terms, “but it’s our Western tradition.” In Spain, there’s a tradition of throwing a live goat from a tower. “It’s our tradition.” Bullfighting, “It’s our tradition.”

If tradition causes animals to be killed or abused, those traditions should have ended long ago.

JD Shulec

Foothills

Lake showed voters’ signatures

The statute that Adrian Fontes is addressing with his complaint against Kari Lake is pretty clear. Furthermore, it is obvious that not only does Lake fail to qualify as one of the exempt persons, but would appear to fall into the category of prohibited persons. She has a vested interest as a candidate and is therefore neither a government official with official duties nor a news person gathering information as part of her job.

One can only wonder if her attorney is subject to disbarment for his role in this? Being her advisor, he should have known what she was doing was in violation of the law. Maybe he would feel differently if she had taken a ballot to the polls for a disabled neighbor and got arrested for “ballot harvesting”? Seems the new playbook is blame politics when you get caught breaking the law.

Dan Pendergrass

West side

Southwest Gas rate hike

The very recent rate hike for SW Gas is ironically yet another nail in its own coffin. Environmental and human rights advocates throughout the country are working in opposition to gas as a toxic fuel in households, particularly in the use of gas cooking stoves, from which gas leaks cause asthma and other respiratory illnesses, especially in children.

The availability of induction cooktops with convection ovens offer a much healthier and climate-friendly option for both households and restaurants. The new national Inflation Reduction Act offers significant financial incentives (with obvious health benefits) for purchasing these newer gas-free stoves. In addition, paired with an increasingly more affordable and tax-deductible heat pump on your roofs, for heating and cooling your home, and solar electricity, we can make significant gains in addressing and reducing climate change with our increasingly hotter environments. Let’s turn off our gas lines instead of paying higher prices.

Barbara Warren MD, MPH

North side

Banning drag shows

I see that Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, states that SB 1028 as written would make drag performance shows a crime should and if shows are before children and/or held in government buildings. He calls it a case of “good versus evil.” He pontificates that such acts are ”lustful, lascivious, sadomasochistic, etc.,” and could, if convicted be considered a felony and carry a year in state prison. I did not realize that government buildings throughout the state schedule drag shows.

But there is an up side to passing SB 1028. If enacted as law in the state of Arizona, the chances of U.S. House Rep. George Santos visiting Arizona anytime soon seems unlikely.

Tom Staab

East side

Knock, knock

Trumplicans are now criticizing President Joe Biden’s thoughtful handling of the Chinese balloon incident, even though Trump’s administration failed to address three similar transgressions during his presidency. The failure to address those provocations does make sense, though, when one considers the fact that the Chinese are less of a threat to the U.S. republic than Trump was/is. One shouldn’t be watching the skunk when the wolf is at the door.

Rick Cohn

West side