Tucson Speaks Out: Sept. 27 letters of the day

Congress needs to do what’s right

As a pediatric nurse working with children who are battling a range of illnesses at the children’s hospital, I am a firm supporter of and believer in the power of medical innovation that helps our patients live healthier, fuller, and more active lives.

To protect medical innovation while still benefiting patients, Congress should look to reform Pharmacy Benefit Managers and rein in the outsized control they have over the prescription drug marketplace. These groups, usually owned by insurance companies, employ a number of business practices that chip away at patient access and increase out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.

Hopefully, Arizona’s congressional leaders can help steer the conversation away from misguided price-setting policies and toward real reform of PBMs and their profit-focused business practices that threaten patient access and contribute to the high out-of-pocket expenses too many Americans pay at the pharmacy counter.

Alexis Ortega

Northeast side

Star is neither liberal or conservative

Re: the Sept. 20 letter “Daily Star’s radically liberal slant.”

A recent letter writer complains the Star has a liberal bias because it fails to report that “homelessness, crime and drug flow” are caused by the “Democrats open border.” This is simply not true. Homelessness is largely due to increased rents, not an open border. Criminologists say that criminal behavior is “inherently a state/local problem,” not a result of who is in the White House. Drug seizures spiked in 2016 and continue despite the building of an ineffective border wall. The Star regularly publishes conservative columnists, including Cal Thomas, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Gerson, and George Will. The Star recently published an op-ed by James Quigley, which made numerous unsubstantiated claims attacking Bidenomics and disparaging attempts to mitigate climate change damage. The writer wishes to see solely his own unsubstantiated, false viewpoints published. The Star is a community newspaper and regularly publishes a variety of voices, including his. Some of those voices are liberal; some of those are conservative. That is totally appropriate.

Mike Carran

Oro Valley

HSSA’s demise

What has happened to our venerable Humane Society of Southern Arizona? I volunteered there for two decades before electing to leave and volunteer at PACC one year ago. Every new story paints an ever-darker portrait of the HSSA. Numerous letters tell of their callous treatment of pets, including unwarranted euthanizations. Now there’s an ominous report of 250 animals currently “unaccounted for”.

Steve Farley, CEO, contends a Maricopa rescue group adopted out all 250 animals in a few short weeks with no public announcements. Rescue professionals don’t believe this is possible. Farley refuses to name the rescue. Also disturbing is the absence of social media posts by the adopting families. New pet parents love to share their joy with comments on HSSA’s Facebook or Instagram pages. From among those supposed 250 adopters, we’ve seen not one post! The HSSA Board must take this seriously with a thorough investigation.

John Lacinski

North side

Thank you, Eddie

Today we were in Sahuarita, going to pick up our dogs from camp, when we got a flat tire on Wilmot.

We called AAA and were told it would be an hour for help to arrive. After about 50 minutes, a man stopped and asked if we needed help and we said we did. His name is Eddie. He works at TEP and is a member of the IBEW Local 1116. He jacked up the car and had the tire change in short order. He was on his way home after working the night shift and was still happy to stop and help. We are very grateful.

Bruce Wysocki

Southwest side

Tucson is about to get ugly

Our street corners are about to get ugly with the posting of campaign signs. They litter our city and are an eyesore. Not to mention a distraction for motorists. Does anybody really vote for a candidate because they saw their name on a sign posted on a street corner? If so, that’s pretty pathetic, don’t you think?

Let’s clean up this mess before it starts. What we need is a city and county ordinance prohibiting any printed or audio campaign message from being seen or heard from any public thoroughfare. That ought to go a long way towards helping keep our city clean and beautiful, or at least less ugly.

Frank Cara

Southeast side

Homeless camps

Re: the Sept. 24 letter “Homeless camps.”

This letter was the best solution I have seen so far. A copy of that letter should be sent to every elected official in Arizona. It is an outrage that taxpayers can’t use facilities on public property that they paid for because someone has put a tent on it. What is going on now cannot continue.

Jeff Britt

East side

What’s at stake in Presidential election

Re: the Sept. 25 letter “The Roberts Court: A supremely bad example, allowing outright bribes for decisions” and “SCOTUS and Democracy are at stake. Deja vu?”

Two letters presented crucial points that help us understand what is truly at risk in next year’s Presidential election: the future of The Supreme Court of the United States.

One letter writer noted how “Justices Thomas and Alito have repeatedly accepted gifts worth great sums of money,” and they “knew it was wrong because they did not report the gifts until outed.” The letter writer added, “They shouldn’t need rules to know what is right and wrong, which is what the Supremes should be arbitrating.”

Another letter writer wrote about the reminder “that the Supreme Court and democracy were at stake in the 2016 and 2020 elections.” The letter writer concluded with this point we MUST have in mind when we cast our ballots next year: “As many of No. 45’s mistakes over four too long years have been rehashed, we cannot forget his biggest, most dangerous action (except for treason) — his lifetime SCOTUS appointments.”

The “ageism” issue being touted is not anything compared to the SCOTUS being destroyed, possibly forever!

John Roldan

West side

Triumph of OSIRIS-REx

We watched the reentry and recovery of the capsule on NASA-TV Sunday morning and were thrilled to see how well it went. The whole mission was an engineering triumph for NASA, the U of A, and the rest of the team members. They were able to launch the spacecraft and rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu 3 years later and to establish an orbit around it. A recovery vehicle landed and vacuumed up a sample and returned it to the spacecraft. Then there was a long ride back to Earth and at the precise moment the capsule with the sample was jettisoned and proceeded to re enter earth’s atmosphere with the shield reaching 5,000 degrees but the sample was protected and kept cool. The parachutes were deployed and and the capsule slowed from 27,000 mph down to 11 mph for a soft landing on the preselected spot. Wow, what technology we have developed. The spacecraft is now on its way to a rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis in 2029.

Jim Killackey

Oracle

What about the students?

In all the letters regarding Arizona’s universal scholarships being bad for our public schools, I’ve seldom seen concern for our students. Nationally, as of 2019, only 37% of our high school graduates were proficient or above in reading. In math, 38% rank below basic. Internationally, we rank 30th in math. Almost 20% of Arizona schools are rated D or F. In any other enterprise, these results would be considered abject failure.

Despite massive increases in public school spending, student results over the last three decades remain flat. Comparisons on standardized tests show that private, parochial and charter schools and even homeschooling give better results.

These scholarships benefit working people most who struggle to give their children a better education. Certainly, the rich benefit, but they already pay much more of the school budget in higher real estate taxes.

Let parents decide what’s best for our children.

Al Westerfield

Southwest side

RIP John C. Scott

The recent loss of long-time Tucson Radio personality John C. Scott reminds me of a moment in time, 28 years earlier, when our new Green Valley development, Madera Reserve, engaged his hour-long program to help promote our project.

One day, I related to him a story about the mother of my second wife, having told me how she had been bilked out of some money by a local (Tucson) church.

Sometime later, he asked me how that was turning out, and I told him not very well.

So, one day, he, too, without my knowledge, contacted that same pastor and told him that he was an investigative reporter who had heard a story and asked for a comment before potentially airing it. That same day she got her money returned. (John asked that I not tell that story to anyone.)

Thank you, John, for being a great human being. Rest in Peace.

Carl A. Bosse

Green Valley

Government spending

The US has spent 10s of billions of dollars on Ukraine support (which I basically support, but Europe has to stand up as they are most threatened), multiple billions of dollars on migrant housing, food, healthcare, etc. (to those who have done nothing for the US but take) and now $100 million to Haiti via Kenya (Haiti has received multiple billions over 30 years, all down the toilet). Why can’t the government support Americans: Provide school breakfast/lunch, provide mental health care for those with issues so they don’t have to commit crimes to get help, provide plans to assist homeless, particularly Veterans, among other local/national issues that affect citizens?

Robert Emery

Foothills