Tucson speaks out: March 22

Democrats’ hypocrisy

With all of the coverage of the moral outrage expressed by a hypocritical Democratic Senator, I’m sure everyone enjoyed the foot-stomping declaration of Mark Kelly donating his Tesla in reaction to the work Elon Musk is doing in conjunction with President Trump. But there are a couple of funny parts to this presentation; First, Tesla already has Kelly’s money from buying the Tesla in the first place (childish liberal reaction and wasting money); and second, Kelly bought a great big gas-guzzling Tahoe, completely offsetting any green from the time when he owned the electric car. Why is it that liberals just leave all of the principles behind to make a point (could have bought a small Toyota Prius)? What is Elon Musk doing that deserves this level of retribution? DOGE is cutting wasteful spending and shining a light on all of the deals hidden by the Biden Administration, kinda like the deals hidden by the mayor that caused Prop 414 to be proposed and rejected.

Loran Hancock

Northwest side

Embarrassed to be American

In my 72 years, I have always been proud to be American. Trump is trying to end all that. What he did to Ukraine was so wrong I never thought it was even possible. He abandoned our allies and tried to shame a real hero, Zelenskyy, as if he were reading from Putin’s playbook.

Now, Trump is willing to give Putin whatever he wants, rewarding him for invading our Ukrainian friend. I believe he should get nothing but war crimes. Ukraine should get all its previous territory, reparations, and NATO membership (that is what NATO is for).

Trump is ready to throw away the American dream to impress his gangster man-crush. Putin will do it again if not punished.

Robert McNeil

Midtown

Would the facts matter to you?

Mr. Frost writes implying Democratic senators are trying to shut down the government. Fact one, Trump is shutting down the government, not Democrats. Frost bemoans billions of dollars being spent to provide condoms to Africa and sex change operations in South America. Facts two and three, these are both lies spread by Trumpers to justify shutting down USAID, a program that has for generations worked to improve the United States’ image in the world and promote democracy. Please Mr. Frost and others who accept MAGA propaganda at face value, take a moment to fact-check statements that you use to formulate your opinions. Or do you really care about facts? Because if you do not care about facts it begins to look like your opinions are based on blind faith in our liar-in-chief and his racist views. What else explains taking down public recognition of soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor and sacrifice defending our country?

Ken Graham

West side

Correction to previous letter

Jack Frost recently sent a Letter wrongfully claiming our senators voted to send billions of dollars in condoms to Africa, and billions to Central America for sex change operations. He goes on to say Social Security sent checks to Americans over 120 years old. There is a Jack Frost on Facebook who claims he is a “certified white boy” and this letter is sure consistent with that.

All of these statements are lies, and just a little research would have told him so. But as with so many conspiracy theories, no evidence is offered. The accusations are made in one paragraph, and as with most of these conspiracy theories, are easy to make. These were started by DOGE and Elon, and will be believed by many without any proof, even after Elon backs away from them as he has. Very sad.

Howard Strause

Foothills

Firefighter exonerated

I am very disappointed with the coverage of the recent “FF Road rage” incident that was reported in the Star and local news outlets. The entirety of the reporting was told from the perspective of the “victim.” When the judge saw the actual facts, video footage and spoke with the “victim,” all charges were dropped. None of that has been reported. The “victim” changed their story multiple times to the officers, prosecutor and judge. Firefighter Carrasco has not once wavered from his account of the incident, that the other driver was the aggressor. Again, this was not reported. The media was quick to point out that a Firefighter with over 25 years of service to the City of Tucson was charged in a road rage incident. The same media has made no effort to report that he has been cleared of all charges.

Xavier Otero

East side

God might change her mind

President Trump relishes being a bully. He bullies Canada, Mexico, Ukraine, Panama, Greenland and Europe. He even bullies our judiciary, universities and independent press.

Trump may get what he wants by bullying others some of the time but in the end things don’t usually work out well for bullies.

Trump has said on more than one occasion that he believes God saved him so that he could save America. Maybe so. I wonder though if Trump ever considers the possibility that God, not liking bullies or corruption, might change her mind?

Dave Gallagher

Foothills

Deportation of Venezuelans

The Trump administration has violated a court order by U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg not to deport 261 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador. The people were deported in spite of this order.

The Trump administration argued that the executive branch has “absolute and unreviewable authority relating to national security” and that it acted under the Alien Enemies Act which has only been used during times of war declared by Congress.

These individuals were deported with no proof that they were alien enemies or had committed crimes that were a threat to national security.

The assertion by the Trump administration that it has absolute and unreviewable authority to violate court orders is another step in asserting absolute executive power. It a move toward an authoritarian government.

Rep. Ciscomani and the other members of Congress can stop this overreach by bringing impeachment proceedings against President Trump. I want them to do just that.

Robert White

Foothills

Are You an R or a D?

If Arizona Republicans in our Legislature get their way, candidates for school boards will have to declare their party affiliation with an R or a D. The way Republicans are taking over education, banning books and creating all kinds of pretexts to defund schools at all levels, it won’t matter if candidates are branded R or D. No one will be able to read or reason. Perhaps that is their ultimate goal.

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

Wow

Let me get this straight, if you attack a Tesla or write graffiti on a Tesla dealership, you are facing up to 20 years in prison for “domestic terrorism.” However, if you attack the Capitol, attack Capitol Police, threaten to hang the Vice President and do who knows what to our Congressional Representatives, defecate in the Capitol’s halls, destroy government property and personal items in offices, steal government property, and your actions result in deaths and physical injury to many others you are designated as a “patriotic hostage” and pardoned for all your actions. Unreal.

Dianne Lethaby

East side

Faith is a driving force

Critical thinking is a tool for making logically valid conclusions based on chosen presuppositions or axioms. Through it, false assumptions lead to contradictions. Faith is a driving force. The two are of incompatible categories like cars and drivers. Each human endeavor starts with axioms followed by a process aiming at the goal. Believing the material universe behaves in an orderly way and can be understood by humans motivates science. This is a belief, because we don’t yet know the entire universe nor human capacity. By using the scientific method, including critical thinking aided by intuition and imagination, scientists found apparent laws that govern the universe. Humans also experience the immaterial, e.g. good and evil, and our need to choose. Here comes rational faith as a beacon. Like science, there is good religion and bad religion. The Civil Rights movement was driven by good religion. Interested readers may consult the writings of Immanuel Kant. Through critical thinking, my faith guides me to live as a physicist and an Episcopalian.

Ke Chiang Hsieh

Midtown

Protest source

Thankfully, a source of action and inspiration comes in the newsletter from Legislative District 18 as well as those from other legislative districts. In the most recent email was information about events of protest, like the one held in front of Representative Juan Ciscomani’s office and the upcoming event at Catalina High School with Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Greg Casar. The newsletter urges contacting House and Senate members and includes phone numbers. I laud this effort and these methods to activate individuals looking for a way to voice their opinions and displeasure with the current administration’s actions.

Roger Shanley

East side

Re: Unions, not the NRA are ‘buying’ politicians

The letter writer’s source of information must be Fox News. If he would do a simple Google search, he would find out “$Bs to an African country to pay for condoms” was $50M for condoms to stop the spread of aids in Africa (USAID 2022 report). “$Bs to pay for sex changes in a Central American country” is a $2M grant to a Guatemalan LGBTQ+ rights organization to deliver gender-affirming health care with $359,000 allocated (Snopes Fact Check Feb. 12, 2025). And no Social Security checks are going out to people over 120 years. Old. The agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old. The confusion is because the agency keeps a master death list of everyone who has died since 1899 but some dates are unknown and therefore shown as still living (see AP News Feb. 19, 2025 for in-depth explanation).

Kathryn Baron

Midtown

Biden-less administration

President Biden had the fewest press conferences and media interviews of the last seven presidents. Media questions were preselected and the answers prepared beforehand. It is now revealed that most of the Executive Orders signed by Biden were by autopen, begging the question of his awareness of what documents he was signing. Also, Mike Johnson, House leader, asked him why he signed a bill forbidding LNG shipments overseas and Biden claimed he did not sign the signed bill. The Biden Administration should be renamed the Biden-less Administration. One could argue that lackeys were running the government but that infers the boss is directing the lackeys. More appropriate is that these veiled, unelected puppeteers controlled the puppet. The Administration and the liberal media hid the fact that the President was experiencing severe mental cognition issues, allowing unelected shadow puppeteers to control the government. With this unchecked power, they directed ultra-left, fanatical, virtue-signaling policy and massive, concealed expenditures to their cronies, special interests, and fraud, regardless of resulting damage.

Loyal M Johnson Jr

Oro Valley

Illegal website

Fox News reports this. “This week, a website called DOGEQUEST became active and purports to have compiled a list of Tesla owners, their addresses, phone numbers and email addresses in an apparent effort to dox ordinary Americans who drive Teslas. The site also contains a map of Tesla dealerships and charging stations.”

Trump should order DOJ to shut this website down. It is illegal. The Supreme Court ruled long ago that freedom of speech has boundaries. It gave as an example that you cannot shout “Fire” in a movie theater when there is no fire. People and property can get hurt and damaged. This website more than fits the bill as it appears just when Teslas, Tesla dialers and Tesla owners are being violently attacked. Shut it down.

Steve Sollenberger

Foothills

Squash democracy with Ciscomani

Does anyone think Ciscomani will represent the concerns of the constituency of this district with regard to the Trump-Musk assault on democracy? Will he read the Constitution and understand the principles set forth? Does he need someone to explain it to him? Or is he willing to continue to cower at the feet of the beast so that the Trump-Musk $$$ continue to roll in? Is Ciscomani just another Trump-Musk lapdog?

I’m guessing that the latter is more likely, just like all the other GOP legislators who are afraid to challenge the oligarchs for fear of their jobs and bank accounts. Just oligarch wannabes?

Scott Lukomski

Northeast side

Section 8 – What about the landlord?

There is a lot of talk about how many families are looking for houses that accept Section 8 and now it has become illegal to refuse tenants because they are S8. But S8 is all about the needs of the tenant and the landlords are all treated like slum lords. Annual inspection of a house with a burned-out light bulb. If I don’t rectify, I can lose my S8 payments. A tenant damaged the heating element on the electric stove. I repaired it and when it happened again, he turned me into S8. I was told I had four days to fix. One tenant left the pipe leaking under the kitchen sink for so long I had to remodel the kitchen. S8 wanted me to provide a kitchen. So have you thought that you are losing so many landlords has nothing to do with not wanting to rent to those with financial aid. We don’t want to because of the abuse from Section 8.

Karen Thompson

Midtown