Award shows have devolved
Watching the 2021 Grammy Awards was as entertaining as watching a rock grow. I felt like I was at a soft-core porn show. Really.
Outfits with suggestive female genitalia sewn on the panty part were cheap and reprehensible. Cardi B’s act was bootyville meets pole dancers.
It doesn’t take talent to imply doggie-style affections, while writhing on the floor. Maybe a boycott of the Grammy’s is needed to bring back family entertainment, presented as music by our favorite musicians, not half dressed fools.
Kudos to those who were dressed tastefully.
Rene Lachance
Catalina
Forecasting
the social weather
People are also reading…
Today’s residents of the Intermountain West seem to be only a shadow of our hardworking, ethical, independent and knowledgeable ancestors.
For example, we watch the weather forecast every night. But we don’t spend much time on the social forecast — learning how to get along with family members, when to meet neighbors, how to get to know customers. That forecast is even more uncertain and turbulent than the weather.
Our people are more concerned about elk poaching than the poaching of Black, Hispanic and Asian lives by the police. We are more concerned about the number of credit cards we can pile up in our wallets than the interest rates charged on them.
We beat our breasts over a single favorite issue rather than invest time in studying all the many important issues of the day.
We seem much less interested in science than in passing along speculative tales like the government is putting tracking devices into vaccines to take away our freedoms
Kimball Shinkoskey
Downtown
Legislature committing public-school robbery
Over 90% of children in Arizona attend public schools. For them, state-supported funding is currently around $10,000 per pupil annually.
For the other 10% of children who attend private schools, state-supported funding for vouchers is currently $20,000 per pupil annually. This gross inequity is appalling, and it is about to get worse.
With the passage of the proposed Voucher Expansion Bill, the amount allocated for private school vouchers will double to $40,000 per pupil. Once again, there will be no transparency concerning who receives these funds and no accountability concerning how they are spent.
This bid to overfund private schools is tantamount to robbery. It’s a clear misuse of our tax dollars, which are intended to fund public education.
Public schools are being systematically shortchanged, as are 90% of our children who are being denied the education they deserve.
This blatant super-funding of vouchers at the expense of our public schools must stop. Call Gov. Doug Ducey at 602-542-4331. Demand that he veto SB 1452.
Darlene Sumners
Oro Valley
Cuomo abandoned
by fellow Democrats
Stop and consider the similarities and the differences. Both Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo are recognized as elected leaders of their different parties.
Both men lost favor with their parties, while in office.
There is one major difference within their respective parties. High-ranking members of their parties responded differtently as their favorability diminished.
How many high-ranking members of the Republican Party called for Trump’s resignation?
Michael Ullery
Midtown
Weary students to be inundated with tests
Re: the March 16 article “Kids returning to school for tests, tests, more tests.”
Kudos to Darlene Rowe, third grade teacher at Coronado K-8 School, for her op-ed regarding testing of students.
As a retired educator and reading supervisor of 37 years I cannot believe that students who have not been in class for a year are going to be tested over and over again.
Guess what the results will be? And teachers will be blamed for the poor scores.
Also, what wasn’t addressed in the op-ed is the extreme cost of purchasing all of these tests. If I were a parent of a young child I would opt out this year. Time in the classroom is so much better spent on education instead of testing.
Margaret Allen
Northwest side
Sinema takes a stand
against mob rule
Democracy does not mean majority rules. A democracy protects the individual as well as the minority. Majority rule is tyranny, it is not democracy. We do not want a cruel or oppressive government.
What we need is compromise. Why do you think we have two senators from each state, no mater the population of each state? Too many citizens, Democrat and Republican, want majority rule without compromise.
Big mistake. Just look at Washington D.C., a total mess, corrupt as it can get and very stupid, with no transparency. Congress is nothing more than a mob.
Valentine Ferraris
East side
Sinema wrong
about filibuster
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema should reconsider her position on the filibuster.
The purposes for which the filibuster was initially intended — encouragement of bipartisanship and protection of the minority — are served only when both political parties legislate in good faith.
Unfortunately, we have come to a time when the Republican Party is primarily concerned not with legislating but with obstruction. The filibuster now is the guarantor of gridlock.
But gridlock is not the immediate concern. Republicans are engaged in a voter suppression effort in the states unprecedented since the Jim Crow era.
They will succeed if that effort is not countered by congressional action — action that evidently will be impossible if the filibuster is not eliminated or effectively modified.
Would a future Republican Senate majority hesitate to discard the filibuster if necessary to their essential legislative goals? The answer is obvious. Democrats must now do no less in defense of democracy.
Robert Thompson
Foothills
Reappointment
of Hale a travesty
Our mayor and Tucson City Council prove that ignoring the voices of the majority crosses party lines.
In spite of more than 35 persons in the legal profession that spoke out against reappointing Magistrate Geraldine Hale, “several sources” in favor of Hale were enough to overturn the Merit Selection Commission’s recommendation.
Before anyone dare speak out against another appointed official, best to find out the mayor’s opinion first.
Sherry Kay
Northeast side
No government benefits for the unvaccinated
In a more perfect world, an adequate supply of vaccine would be available and anyone receiving a stimulus check would have to show that they had been vaccinated. It’s not just important, but necessary, to reach herd immunity sooner than later for the world to open back up for normalized social, educational and economic interactions.
Going forward, our country’s mantra should be: No vaccination, no government-derived income including government paychecks, government pensions, unemployment, food stamps, etc.
Our country is in a war against the pandemic and we shouldn’t be taking half steps. For the benefit of all we must take strong action to overcome the pandemic.
Patricia Heasler
Foothills
Don’t mess this up, Sinema
Dear Sen. Kyrsten Sinema,
Either negotiate meaningful voter protection that Republicans will support, agree to a voting rights exception to the filibuster rule, or take responsibility for allowing Republican state legislatures all over the country to disenfranchise millions of voters, effectively ending democracy as we know it.
It’s pretty much up to you.
Mark McKinney
East side
Maybe Dems should look in the mirror
A Daily Star contributor writes that racism must be rooted out of my GOP offering three types of our transgressions:
First, those of us who don’t know we’re racists. We reply that Obama said America has racism in its DNA, meaning I was born a racist and will die one.
If I deny it that just proves that I am one. I proudly marched with MLK when it was all about the content of your character.
Second, there are outright practicing racists, white supremacists, Nazis. Republicans less hysterically suggest that there are a proportionally equal number of white and Black racists.
This white guy, married to Black women for 30 years, has spent time in Black communities and churches, so I know it swings both ways.
Third, described as most dangerous, are the pragmatic racists, blamed for voter suppression and other evil disenfranchisements.
Conservatives advocate for blind justice, not racial justice. Any time you put an adjective before justice, you no longer have it.
Maybe Democrats should look in the mirror.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Senators, protect our public lands
Tucson is framed by the Saguaro National Park to the east and west, with the now snow-covered Santa Catalina Mountains to the north, and the San Xavier Indian Reservation to the south.
The city is a prime example of the need and importance of conserving public lands. It fills me with pride that the city of Tucson takes action in preserving these lands!
That gives me the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the nature surrounding me — but more importantly — to do so with a clean conscience. I know that these lands will help to preserve the biodiversity and beauty of the planet for future generations, and we need to make sure that these lands stay protected.
Saguaro National Park is unique not only in the United States but the world as the saguaro grows mainly here in Tucson and the Sonoran Desert.
That is why I’m asking Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly to support the Biden administration’s 30x30 conservation plan.
Merle Weidt
Downtown
