Arizona deserves better
Having recently moved to Arizona, I carefully followed the 2021 Republican-led Arizona legislative session, and was disturbed to find that Republican legislators are weak, feckless and irresponsible.
Weak: In both the House and Senate, legislators are pawns of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded bill mill whose goals are to defund public education and push through voter suppression bills.
Feckless: Republican legislators did not even know what was in the ALEC bills. I witnessed that firsthand watching committee meetings.
Irresponsible: Republican legislators illegally stuffed ALEC bills into the flat tax bill, and wasted thousands of taxpayers’ dollars trying to discredit Arizona’s election integrity.
Worse yet, they used their razor-thin majority status to block beneficial bills, and debate on controversial bills. Do Republican legislators read, follow the will of the voters, care about health care, the water crisis, and public education? No! Republican legislators are only committed to staying in power and spreading divisive hate speech and misinformation. Arizona deserves better. Vote out extremist Republican legislators in 2022.
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Tina Whitley
Northeast side
Raw sewage not just a Mexico problem
Re: the Dec. 12 article "Hours from AZ, sewage oozes at beach getaway."
Kudos to Emily Bregel and Kendal Blust for their in-depth reporting on the issue of raw sewage flowing into waterways in Guaymas, Mexico. We'd like to think that such a dangerous and unsanitary problem is only occurring in foreign lands. However, last Sunday, CBS' 60 Minutes had a story of how, in Alabama, the poorest communities there have dozens, if not hundreds of neighborhoods where home sewage pipes run right onto the land behind properties. The homeowners cannot afford septic systems and the local governments won't step up for the sake of health and safety. This is the kind of problem Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan might have addressed. What a pity Sen. Joe Manchin won't see that our tax dollars ought to be plowed back into the community to help American citizens, and do what it takes to pass Build Back Better.
Karen Micallef
Oro Valley
What the print edition of the Star means to me
In November 2020, after 47 years of living in New York City, I moved back to Tucson, my hometown. The final spring in NYC was highlighted by my catching COVID and landing in a Manhattan quarantine ward.
I thought I would never see my beloved desert again.
But I made it back to my sweet home shadowed in the Tucson Mountain foothills.
I immediately subscribed to the print edition of the Arizona Daily Star. And every morning when I go out to retrieve my paper, I look at the turquoise sky and majestic saguaros and know I’m home.
My bout with COVID ravaged my 120 pound, 5’2” frame. I lost 10 pounds. But during the last year and starting my day with the Star, I began to get my appetite back.
I now stay between 118 and 120 lbs. Those pounds were hard won. And the print edition helped me win them back. I survived COVID, but I might not survive the loss of my beloved Star print edition.
Karen Papagapitos
Marana
