'Right to work' anything but
Wages are lower in Arizona and profits for the rich are higher than in states without the misnamed “Right to Work” law. The PRO Act will change that.
Arizona workers are smart enough to decide for themselves whether they should join a union. They do not need the government to make it easier for the bosses to deny workers union protections.
Workers in "right to work" states make nearly $9,000 less per year than workers in states without these laws, and the rate of workplace deaths is 37% higher in right to work states.
We do not need to help Big Business any more. The economy is recovering at a healthy pace. It is time to help Arizona workers.
Tell your Senators that it is time to pass the PRO Act, and give the citizens of this nation their rights back.
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Elizabeth Knepp, former Union President of SMART-TD 807
East side
Only women can decide
Do you remember when you became an adult and you were finally able to put yourself into someone else's shoes and see the world from their perspective?
You saw other people as peers and not just different. Your eyes were opened.
Well now, many of us have another hurdle to leap in our understanding of our gender and status differences. Specifically, we need to recognize that unless you are, or have been, a pregnant woman you simply do not have the knowledge to judge what a pregnant woman does to/with her body.
We also need to recognize that God and a pregnant woman alone are able to determine what is right at any particular time. We, by making onerous laws that confuse and intimidate a pregnant woman, become responsible for the result.
It could very well be an unloved, uncared-for person, with little self-respect, ability or ambition.
Vincent Allen
Northwest side
No outrage for white kids
In January, an unarmed 19-year-old white guy named Bradley Lewis, a new Army recruit, holding a key fob, was shot and killed in front of his grandparents' home in Tucson.
Deputy Gilbert Caudillo stated he mistook the key fob for a gun. There was no video recording of the incident because PCSO Deputies do not wear body cams.
The new Pima County Attorney will not be prosecuting the deputy. Where are the protests, rioting and looting of businesses over the killing of a white man by the police?
Statistics show 457 whites were killed by police last year versus 241 blacks, and 169 Latinos. Why is the killing of Mr. Lewis not on the national news media, with pundits asking why he could not have been tasered or shot in the leg?
Where are the demands that PCSO wear body cams? Where are the chants in the streets of White Lives Matter? Lewis was wanted by police for criminal activity, but so were George Floyd and Daunte Wright.
Tomas Ortega
North side
Trump's new vote total
There is only one purpose for the recount of Maricopa County ballots: to change the honest outcome to one desired by Trumpeteers, by disallowing Biden ballots, by damaging and/or losing ballots cast for Joe Biden and changing the ballots.
Across the country, not just in Arizona, Republican brazen disregard for the people and truth blows away oversight and ethics. They're getting away with it. Most of us get riled up but do nothing.
There's probably not a single Republican in Congress or in any of the state legislatures who shouldn't be recalled. So, what's your guess Sen. Karen Fann and her accomplices will decide their vote count to be: 2,000,000 for Trump, 100,000 for Biden?
Or less overtly crooked totals: 1,100,000 vote for Trump, 1,000,000 Biden. It will be for Trump.
Charles Larson
Green Valley
Amazon and the CCP
Both believe that they know best for those under their control: Amazon for its workers and CCP the Chinese people.
Both are skilled at profiting from their clienteles, with a smile: Amazon with its stockholders and customers, and the CCP with its collaborators and admirers.
Each is determined to dominate its targeted area: Amazon the market and the CCP the world.
For their survival and victory, they suppress all liberating ideas contrary to their ruler’s: for Amazon the CEO and CCP Chairman Xi. Hence, they terminate all dissidents, expropriate fair elections, and eliminate labor unions.
While workers can leave Amazon freely, the Chinese people cannot.
Simply because Amazon is still in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” To keep democracy alive, let’s pray and work for the people’s right to vote and defeat authoritarians, be they communists, fascists or capitalists.
Let’s start with loving our neighbors as ourselves!
Ke Chiang Hsieh
Midtown
A new way to make laws
With our stark political divisions in Arizona, and essentially one-party control, the public needs to be informed of the major pluses and minuses that each political party believes would result if the proposed law is enacted.
Ideally these statements would identify research and analysis that support the stated point-of-view. I would further propose that legislation that is enacted without an impact statement can be challenged in state court with an impact statement that shows serious deficiencies in the law.
There would be no opportunity for the state to respond except with related points in an existing impact statement that was available at the time of the governor's signature.
Vincent Allen
Northwest side
Tucson needs a Memorial Forest
In 2020, Mayor Regina Romero announced a plan to plant a million trees in Tucson to provide cooling for a heating city. She acknowledged that it will be expensive but said she’s hoping to offset costs through public-private partnerships with nonprofits and local companies.
Recent letters to the editor expressing opposition to zoo expansion that reduces precious green space urge the city to instead increase our green spaces, including planting urban forests, as we face increasing heat and drought due to climate change.
A Tucson Memorial Forest would be a wonderful gift to the community and would bring enormous returns. A memorial forest offers families who choose cremation a beautiful, private and permanently-protected place to return their ashes to the earth.
Instead of tombstones, ashes are interred into the base of beautiful trees. Surely the costs of burial and a climate-appropriate tree to commemorate a loved one would pay for the associated costs and, eventually, create oases of shade in a heating world.
Peggy Hendrickson
Green Valley
