A heartbeat away
John Nance Garner, FDR’s vice president for his first two terms, famously described the Office of Vice President as “not being worth a warm bucket of spit.” Some historians say he used a more colloquial term for another bodily fluid.
At any rate, the more I hear Mike Pence make mealy-mouthed statements about his former boss’s “politically charged prosecutions” or his impeachment over a “simple phone call” and see the hypocritical refusal to honor legitimate subpoenas while professing “respect for the rule of law,” the more Pence is proving his own worth for history.
A. Lawrence Glynn
East side
Who deserves the right to life
Re: the March 16 article “Bill could give S.C. women death penalty for getting an abortion.”
People are also reading…
We’ve entered a topsy-turvy world in the wake of Roe v. Wade. To the astonishment of the rationally minded, a lawmaker in South Carolina places women in jeopardy of facing the death penalty for having an abortion by proposing “pro-life” legislation that assigns a higher “right-to-life” to the unicellular organism formed at conception than the woman in whose body it resides, all the while failing to grasp the irony.
With roughly 30% of all pregnancies terminating spontaneously and most of those due to genetic aberrations, this law effectively grants greater priority to nature’s doomed failures than to living women.
With federal protection now defunct, the triumph of this upside-down morality could well presage the advent in some jurisdictions of an agenda of even greater provincial oppression, such as abolishing contraception altogether to ensure the rights of the yet-to-be conceived.
Nature abhors a vacuum. How tragic that the void left by the departure of reason is so readily occupied by simple-mindedness.
Robert Gavlak
Midtown
Patients need patience
I recently spent two nights at TMC following a procedure. A great hospital. Many stays over the years have been made better by the fabulous staff.
TMC nurses and techs should be proud of their TLC, attention, thoughtfulness and expertise. I’ve read letters from unhappy patients at TMC. Remember, you are not their only patient. One nurse is responsible for six to 10 people, all ringing for a warm blanket or pain shot (that only the doctor can prescribe) — all at once.
Nurses are people. Smile. Talk. Treat them as such, and they will reciprocate. Nurses will not ignore you, and your stay will go well. Nurses have patients; patients need patience.
I want to thank the nurses and techs who helped me this time. Alexa (pre-op), Daniel (surgical), Peter (transport), Lydia and Elizabeth (post-op), Kathleen, Jasmine, Wendy, Lisette and Liz.
Especially Dr. Andrew Wright (Arizona Urological).
Sheldon Metz
North side
Why now?
Check the copyright on banned books.
Two questions: Why now? What changed?
Eric Flohr
Midtown
North Vietnam
During the 1960s war in Vietnam, over 58,000 American soldiers lost their lives, and our government just announced we want to strengthen our relations with that country, thousands of miles away, still Communist, still not particularly concerned with human rights. No American soldiers died in the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. They, too, are a Communist country not too interested in human rights, and they are less than 100 miles from our shore, yet we have no diplomatic relations with them, our neighbors, and we don’t want to even consider ending our blockade of their country. Something is very wrong (and hypocritical) about all of this!
Bob Feinman
Foothills
Guns and people
Guns aren’t the problem. People are the problem.
Then why do you want the problem to have an AR-15 weapon?
George Mathes
Green Valley
Guns
I have lived in the USA for 40 years (I’m a naturalized citizen). I’m amazed that many of my fellow citizens feel they need military-style weapons to live safely in our country.
The USA has more guns than people. Most children’s deaths are from guns (not disease or illness). Whereas “mass shootings” grab headlines, most gun deaths result from accidental firing, domestic disputes, or other such incidents. The common factor? Guns!
If a country like Australia can buy back assault weapons and limit gun ownership, what is so exceptional about us that we cannot do likewise?
I suggest that too many politicians are beholden to the gun industry and its lobbyists.
If you, dear reader, wish to reduce gun deaths and eliminate our children’s fear of dying at school, the solution is clear — elect politicians who will ban assault weapons and pass sensible gun legislation.
Douglas Syme
Green Valley
Sinema is filling a gap
Everyone is asking what our independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is doing as she approaches her re-election campaign. I think she’s being very smart. She realizes that the body politic has abandoned a huge, wealthy constituency — what we used to call the Establishment. Donald Trump kicked them out of the Republican Party, and they never felt comfortable with the Democrats. When Karrin Taylor Robson lost the GOP primary for U.S. senator to Kari Lake, the Establishment was kicked to the curb in Arizona.
These Country Club Republicans are up for grabs, and Sinema has her eyes on them and their checkbooks. She has actually been an effective first-term senator, relentlessly pushing for compromise while stressing how pro-business she is. Next to Sinema, Ron DeSantis looks like a delusional liberal when he battles a behemoth like Disney World.
Tired of culture wars and want to make money? Vote for Sinema.
John Vornholt
Northeast side
Our daughter, the schoolteacher
My daughter has been teaching elementary and middle school students for 15 years. She holds two master’s degrees in education and is committed to her profession. Just after the recent Nashville shooting, which took the life of six innocents, including three children, she sent her mother and me the following:
Every teacher you know has a plan for an active shooter
Every teacher you know has walked into their classroom looking for blind spots
Every teacher you know has wondered how fast they can lock their door
Every teacher you know has had the talk about the “spread out” or “group together” method
Every teacher you know has thought about if they would “fight or flight”
Every teacher you know has walked past their classroom to see what it looks like from the outside
Every teacher you know has checked their windows to see the best way to open them
Every teacher you know has walked into another classroom and looked to see where the doors and windows are
Every teacher you know has thought about how to keep young kids quiet
“This job is hard enough. Schools should be a safe haven for kids and teachers. Today I walked into my classroom and checked all the windows and made sure everything was in place ... just in case. I’m so tired of it and something needs to change.”
It breaks my heart to read this, and it breaks my heart that, for the sake of our citizens, especially our children, our leaders have failed to enact real and meaningful gun control.
Floyd Nobler
Foothills
Mifepristone and the Dark Ages
Science is science; politics is politics; religion is religion. When religion and politics invade science, it takes us back to the Dark Ages.
And that is exactly where the MAGA movement wants us to be.
Alan Rubens, MD
Northeast side
