Tucson Speaks Out: June 29 letters of the day

“The PAC-12 Conference of Champions.” UCLA and NBA Champion Bill Walton uttered those words in a joyful manner often during his back-up host appearances on televised basketball games and at other times. Now unfortunately, both big Bill and his beloved Conference of Champions are now consigned to the letters of history. Both will be missed.

Robert Hennkens

Marana

PBMs are unchecked and are hurting us

Dear editor,

I’ve been on a combination of antidepressant medications for over a decade. With this medication, I’m able to feel normal almost instantly every morning I take it.

But whenever I miss my medication, I get terrible headaches, and it takes a few days to get readjusted. I take generic medication to save on costs, but even their prices have increased in recent years. After doing some research, I found out that a big reason for this is the presence of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) in our drug marketplace.

PBMs are the unchecked middlemen that control 80% of all treatments on the market. This means they have a disproportionate grip on access to medication, and they frequently abuse their power to send patients to specific pharmacies that give them more cash back in rebates, hurting patients’ well-being.

Patients shouldn’t be left at the whims of shady middlemen, and the DRUG Act ensures that will no longer be the case.

Sincerely,

Ramina Izaak

Sahuarita

Stick to the three Rs

Re: the June 20 article “Unfounded fear of social emotional learning and DEI.”

A microcosm of DEI has just played out in Grangeville, Idaho concerning DEI for public school students in K-5 grades. At Grangeville’s open school board meeting, one man defended Amplify DEI’s mission statement: “We help teachers craft rigorous learning experiences that reflect the diverse histories, culture, and identities their students bring to the classroom.”

But a concerned parent speaks differently of that rhetoric: “Amplify sexualizes and desensitizes children, undermines traditional values, as well as parents and their parental rights, refers children to harmful resources and violates natural age appropriateness. It (Amplify) does not represent true diversity and equity and is especially skewed towards non-Christian beliefs.”

The problem is it may take generations for the truth of this issue to be realized. Experimenting on grades K-5 on social themes is not the role of public schools. Stick to the three R’s: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.

Daniel Pryor

West side

Hear us, not him! Read Project 2025

Amendment 1 — Congress is prohibited from establishing a religion or interfering with religious freedom, free speech, or the right of citizens to petition the government to settle their grievances in a peaceful manner.

No religious affiliation will be required to hold office in the U.S. government, as is proposed by the previous candidate’s Project 2025.

The Constitution, U.S. laws, and treaties shall be “the supreme law of the land,” binding on every judge in every state, including Texas and the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana. If you don’t like the rules, quit, but don’t shoot children.

A maniac has disrupted the way of life we’ve enjoyed and in which we’ve been relatively safe. His fear-inducing falsehoods have forced neighbors to buy guns to defend themselves against neighbors they’ve known for years.

His three appointments to SCOTUS have hurt us with seemingly innocuous decisions. He spews hate and people hear him. Now hear us.

Before voting, read Project 2025 online. That’s his real agenda.

Sheldon Metz

Northeast side

Choose Ruben Gallego over Kari Lake

The future of reproductive freedom in Arizona is up for grabs this November.

We have two options: Kari Lake, who said, “nothing can wipe the smile off my face” when Roe v. Wade was overturned, or Ruben Gallego, who said he was “enraged” by the Dobbs ruling.

In April, reproductive rights went from being a national nightmare to Arizona’s reality.

When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Dobbs decision allowed the dormant ban, buried deep in Arizona law and passed in 1864 before Arizona was even a state, to now be enforceable, Kari Lake rejoiced.

She called it a “great law,” complained when Democrats temporarily paused its enforcement, and begged sheriffs to throw women and doctors in jail for providing basic healthcare.

Ruben Gallego disagreed. He said the ban was “devastating news for Arizona women, whose rights have been set back 160 years.”

Who do you trust more to determine our future on reproductive rights? I think it’s clear that the answer is Ruben Gallego.

Marion Weber

Northwest side

I-11 and climate change

Local government leaders, and not just “environmentalists,” have realized for decades that the unique beauty of the Sonoran Desert attracts millions of visitors — and their money — to Tucson every year. Representatives at all levels of government have for decades protected the home of Saguaro National Park, Ironwood Forest National Monument, and Tucson Mountains Park, with Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.

Why is Governor Hobbs now ignoring decades of precedence and making preparations to accommodate more CO2-spewing cars and trucks for decades to come when everyone else on the planet is working toward burning less fossil fuels? Those who still deny the science of human-caused climate change are either ignorant, incredibly greedy, or both. We should be planning ways to move goods from Mexico more efficiently — maybe by rail, but not truck — and using the right-of-way that largely already exists along the I-10 and I-19 corridor.

Mike Cardwell

West side

Rapes, murders thanks to Biden border policy

Laken Riley was a nursing student in Georgia. She was brutally murdered by a Venezuelan man, who had entered the country illegally and was released from custody. Rachel Morin, a mother of five children, was brutally raped and murdered in August 2023, by a man illegally in the country from El Salvador, where he fled from being wanted for murder. He was recently arrested in Maryland. He is also a suspect in an attack of a nine-year-old girl in Los Angeles. Joycelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl, was raped, strangled to death and dumped in a creek under a bridge by two Venezuelan men here illegally. In New York City, Samaritans came to the rescue of two 13-year-old girls, who had been tied up in a park and raped by a man from Ecuador, who had entered illegally. In Missouri, state troopers stopped a vehicle with 5 undocumented accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl. Biden’s open border policies caused these horrific crimes.

Gusher Adams

North side

Biden’s budget

The following is taken from an article published by E.J.Antoni: This needs to read! The monthly mortgage payment on a median price home has more than doubled since President Biden took office, rising 119.5%! Yet Biden continues to push for even more of what created this mess: trillions of dollars in new government spending. His latest proposed budget would set yet another record for government spending, even exceeding anything America has seen during wars, recessions, or COVID.

But all this government spending must be paid for, one way or another. The Biden administration has chosen to use the hidden tax of inflation to cover their budget shortfalls, resulting in a veritable cost-of-living crisis across America, with housing costs playing a large role. To be clear, this is not a matter of politics but policy. Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike have been complicit in facilitating the Biden’s administration’s big-government agenda which has resulted in the present cost-of-living crisis.

Linda Schaub

Southeast side

Rationalizing fascism

Re: the June 24 letter “Presidential race.”

I found the logic of this letter to be suspect. The author says, “But between Hurricane Hillary, Incompetent Joe and Felon Donald, I’ll take the felon any day”. But Donald is more than just felon, he’s a fascist and a sociopath. Once people have accepted the Trump brand, it seems that no amount of facts can dissuade them from his product. Rationalizing the support for such a flawed man is the harbinger of fascism. Author Jason Stanley has said that fascism is the politics of “us vs them.” This is exactly what Trump has been selling since 2015. The “them” must be overpowered and marginalized so that a one-party system can be established, free of the so-called evil left. Many of the MAGA acolytes I’ve spoken with, want a one-party system. This is what authoritarianism is all about. Our Founders would not be amused.

Steve Rasmussen

Foothills

Name change

For those with a strong stomach, I suggest reading Project 2025, a guide to the next conservative administration. Its authors are particularly grateful to have the help of dedicated members of The Heritage Foundation’s management and policy teams. I think it would be more honest if the Heritage Foundation changed its name to the Hemorrhage Foundation. Implementing this manifesto would drain the lifeblood from our democracy and replace it with the formaldehyde of theocracy. Vote like our freedom depends on it; it does.

Spencer Elliott

Oro Valley

Trump tortures us

While the catalogue of Donald Trump’s lies and fabrication is vast, his most recent claim to have been tortured while being booked at the Fulton County Courthouse is absurd. Does he really expect people to believe that while surrounded by his secret service guards he was abused and/or tormented?

It’s hard to believe that someone who wants to run our country can spew such lunacy. Unfortunately, there are millions of people who will believe this assertion simply because it comes from his mouth. And send him more money.

I wonder if the folks at the Fulton County Courthouse can sue for slander?

But I guess it’s just another example of the verbal diarrhea that free flows from Trump.

Scott Lukomski

Northeast side

Hooray for Delaney

We should celebrate and get behind Delaney Schnell, who is going to her second Olympics in the incredibly hard sport of platform diving. Not only is she one of the best in the world but she is a terrific person, both sweet and kind. I used to dive at the U of A with her and I knew she would go far.

Her parents did a fantastic job and must be thrilled.

Robert McNeil

Midtown

Reply to Gil Shapiro op ed of 6/23/24

Re: the June 23 article “Have Trump supporters been seduced by the supernatural?”

Gil Shapiro accuses Trump supporters of “supernatural beliefs,” and although he talks about “that pesky need for evidence or proof,” he offers none to support his supernatural belief charge. As for facts: inflation remained under 2% under Trump but ballooned to 9% under Biden. Illegal Southern border crossings under Biden exceed 6.4 million, more than four times than under Trump. Wages outpaced inflation under Trump, the opposite of Biden. Currently, 36% of Americans rate the economy as poor and another 41% rate it as “only fair.”

So although Mr. Shapiro would like to portray belief in Trump as “supernatural beliefs,” we see there are sound reasons for supporting Mr. Trump over Mr. Biden. Perhaps next time, Mr. Shapiro can include some “evidence and proof” in his attacks on Trump, rather than resorting to ad hominem attacks with no proof offered whatsoever.

David Pearse

Foothills

Arizona needs Gallego

Arizona, we are at a crossroads. As a member of the state Senate, I have had a front-row seat to the Republicans’ efforts to chip away at our rights.

School choice, voting rights, and our reproductive rights have all been under attack.

It goes beyond the Legislature. This November we have Kari Lake at the top of our ballot, who, on the day that Roe was overturned, said “nothing can wipe the smile off my face today.”

Kari Lake called the 1864 ban a “great” law. She encouraged local sheriffs to enforce it. To try to jail women.

This November we must flip the Legislature blue. We must pass the Arizonans for Abortion Access initiative to safeguard reproductive freedom.

Our opponents have made it clear they will not hesitate to strip away our rights, but we will not back down.

By voting for Ruben Gallego and supporting Democratic candidates in the legislature, we can fight back and secure a future where reproductive rights are protected.

Priya Sundareshan

East side