How long must this go on
Re: the July 3 article “Players detail struggles under ex-coach Amato.”
Caitlin Schmidt, who reported for the Star in September 2020 on claims of abusive, neglectful behaviors being practiced against U of A track program student-athletes by their coaches, now has reported a similar story regarding the U of A women’s soccer program under departed head coach Tony Amato.
University of Florida athletic officials, where Amato arrived to coach after leaving the U of A in May 2021, terminated him in April 2022 after he had exhibited the same toxic, harassing behavior now being alleged by former U of A women players.
Amato lasted eight years at the U of A, four under current Athletics Director Dave Heeke. Schmidt noted in the spring of 2020, a Wildcat player emailed Heeke outlining her concerns about Amato’s behavior — the player didn’t get much of a response.
People are also reading…
How much longer must we put up with an athletic department that allows this type of coaching behavior to continue after athletes have reached out to them for support?
Don Wagstaff
Oro Valley
Please step up and vote
In 2016, many Democrats didn’t vote. So we got Donald Trump who created major chaos — chaos that will go on well beyond my lifetime. Perhaps most consequential was the appointment of three Supreme Court justices. Roe v. Wade was overturned. Gun rights were expanded. EPA’s ability to address climate change has been restricted. Barriers between church and state are being diminished. Future court decisions may include election law, reduced gay and minority rights, and elimination of affirmative action. Women’s rights not specifically guaranteed by the Constitution may be whittled away.
In the 2022 midterm elections, people should consider what else could happen if they don’t vote.
If Republicans win, they could appoint more judges and state attorneys general to further erode current protections. We can do nothing about the rulings of the justices. The only way to fix this is to elect legislators who will put laws in place to protect us. Younger generations must step up. Vote!
Sharon Cotter
SaddleBrooke
Read between the lines
When you read real estate ads, you need to be able to decipher what they really mean. Cozy is distressingly small, old world charm, needs remodeling badly, and close as in — on a busy street. The same goes for the voter education pamphlet that is full of buzz words for Republican candidates. Being a warrior for children means they are only taught a conservative viewpoint. Counting every legal ballot tells us it’s going to be harder to vote. Woke corporations are any business with an environmental and social conscience, things that don’t go over well with Republicans. Then there is the ever popular “Arizona values,” which is whatever the right thinks is best for all of us.
Let’s stop electing the kind of candidates that make this state a laughing stock. We don’t need any more Cyber Ninjas trying to overturn the will of the people.
Mary Zimmerman
SaddleBrooke
Analogy
Pre-emergent herbicide = prevents vegetation seeds from germinating
Roundup = kills unwanted vegetation
Birth control = prevents unwanted pregnancy from occurring
Abortion = kills unwanted babies
Considering how effective and safe the many birth control options now available are, are people just too lazy to take them?
Alan Kohl
Northwest side
Biden and high gas prices
Re: the July 12 letter “Biden caused high gas prices.”
The referenced letter blames Biden for the high price of gasoline and quotes the American Petroleum Institute (API) that “they are almost at refining capacity” and that a “third of their refining capacity has been lost to conversions to renewable fuels.” The API statement implies that the cost of gas has increased due to the inability of the petroleum industry to refine enough oil to keep up with increasing demand. However, we can buy as much $5 per gallon gas as we want. There are no shortages.
Crude oil prices are now near/over $100 per barrel compared to an average of $68.17 in 2021 and $39.68 in 2020. When COVID first hit worldwide, and fewer people were on the road, major oil-producing companies/countries cut back on their oil production. Now worldwide demand has increased and oil and gas companies are enjoying record profits and soaring stock prices. Trump had no control over the decline in price and Biden has no control over the increase.
James Witkowski
Northwest side
Trump did three years well!
Shakespeare reported that Brutus said: “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred in their bones.” So it is with Trump.
In Trump’s case, we had three surprisingly excellent years — all forgotten now, particularly in the Star’s letters pages.
In his fourth year, admittedly, he handled the COVID crisis badly, and then turned completely stupid at his election defeat, fomenting ridiculous actions from loyal supporters as the Capitol was breached.
I am satisfied to dismiss any comeback of Trump, but in the disaster that the Biden presidency has become, is there not a little room for wistful thinking?
DeSantis, Pence and the rest have three remarkable years to emulate. Wish the Star would see that!
Chuck Josephson
Midtown
Impeach Biden over border
Re: the July 20 article “June border encounters top 200,000; 1.74M for fiscal year.”
In this article, Ms. Gonzalez-Perez cited the overall encounters by the Border Patrol at the border, but throughout the article she attempted to minimize the numbers by citing “repeat offenders,” which usually constitutes about 25%. This is a common tactic used by the Biden administration and news media people sympathetic to those entering the country illegally.
I think the argument is irrelevant! The Border Patrol spends as much time processing a “repeat offender” as a new encounter. If the Biden administration wanted to reduce these recidivist numbers, they could easily prosecute people for re-entry after removal. Of the 200,000 that were encountered in June, about 79,000 were allowed entry, including 15,271 unaccompanied children. Multiply that by 12 months and it approaches one million.
Biden continues to ignore the border crisis and should be impeached over it.
Ryan Bodsworth
East side
Vouchers are a scam
Re: the July 20 letter “Confused on school vouchers.”
A recent writer said he was confused about school vouchers. Vouchers take our tax dollars and move them from public schools to individuals to use for private or religious schools or homeschooling. There is no accountability for how that money is spent — no school board oversight.
Private and religious schools can teach whatever they want, no matter how misinformed. They can, and do, cherry-pick their students, leaving behind those with more costly learning disabilities for the public schools.
Taking state funding from public schools means local taxes must make up the difference. The extremist Republican Legislature has been starving public schools for many years and then decry it as failing. Petitions are circulating now to repeal the universal voucher bill (HB2853). I encourage everyone who cares about education in our state to sign one before the Sept. 24 deadline.
Gail Kamaras
East side
House Speaker Rusty Bowers
Well, now the level of intelligence of the Republican Party of Arizona is on full display. Kelli Ward and her co-conspirators have censured Rusty Bowers for being honest, failing to follow the lies and not joining in with the remainder of the state’s Republican Party that is willing to propagate baseless claims that President Biden’s election was not legitimate. By refusing to adhere to former President Trump’s proposal to replace the state’s electors with an illegal list of his choosing, the state Republican Party has stated that Bowers is “no longer a Republican in good standing.”
What is really obvious is that the state of Arizona Republican Party is corrupt. The voters of Arizona best be warned to remove that group at the coming election.
Thomas Wilson
Northwest side
Here in Kyiv
Dear world,
We’re still here in Kyiv
Here in a cave
We wait
I know they are coming
It could be days, hours
But they are coming
They could be in Mariupol or Kharkiv
They have a mission to achieve
To bomb innocent women, men and kids
Putin’s men are coming
No one will stop them
The UN has not stopped them
NATO won’t stop them
It could be tonight or tomorrow
No time to borrow
Is the world waiting to count our graves
as they remember us as brave?
Or waiting for the day Kyiv will fall
For the UN emergency meeting call
Then Antonio Guterres will say:
“This is unacceptable”
Sam J. Ssemaganda
North Tucson
Sundareshan a solid candidate
As a longtime educator in Tucson, I was thrilled to see Arizona Legislative District 18 has a Democratic Party primary candidate for the state Senate who seems to perfectly reflect Tucson’s values. Priya Sundareshan is the product of public schools and the University of Arizona, where she now teaches natural resources law.
Like so many of us, Priya believes that Arizona public schools need to be properly funded by the state for top-quality education for all our children.
In addition, she agrees that the recently expanded voucher program allowing private, unaccredited, even religious-based schools, to receive Arizona taxpayer money is clearly not the path to that top-quality education.
We in Tucson are lucky that someone of Priya’s caliber — who reflects the best of us — wants to run for state office. Her effort is testimony to the vibrancy, diversity and commitment to a more equitable state that so many of us want.
Maggy Zanger
Midtown