Supporting Sinema
I’m so enjoying the letters from Republicans supporting the antics of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. I truly hope she is not taking this as possible support from Republicans in 2024. I think the Arizona Republican Party in 2024 will offer a knuckledragging Trumpista as a Senate candidate and their voters will flock to give support.
Jeff Saylor
Green Valley
Sinema’s top priorities
Republicans are introducing hundred of bills to restrict voting across America, including multiple bills in the Arizona Legislature that allow for reversing elections the Legislature disagrees with. Any attempts to protect voting rights are being filibustered by the Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema interminably supports the filibuster as some nebulous protection against a future Republican Senate’s action. But as Sen. Amy Klobuchar recently pointed out, there have already been more than 160 times the filibuster has been set aside by the Senate to allow legislation to pass. I guess protecting our voting rights just doesn’t make Sinema’s list of “Top 160 Most Important Issues.”
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Mark Sawyer
Midtown
Vote out those not supporting education
Re: the Feb. 19 article “All AZ students deserve a professional librarian.”
Judi Moreillon was right in her op-ed about school librarians. The Legislature has not fully funded education since 2008. Schools have had to cut positions for librarians, nurses and counselors.
But the article just touched on another topic which needs citizens’ actions: the many bills currently in the legislature which would ban books and prevent teachers from mentioning any topic which — heaven forbid — might make students “feel uncomfortable.” One, HB2291, would even threaten to pull the teacher’s credential if such an event were to occur.
Studies which rank states all put Arizona near the bottom in their support of education. A recent one even put us at number 50 with regards to class size, teacher pay, graduation rate and per pupil spending.
It is time for a hard look at just who is proposing these bad bills and who is refusing to provide proper funding for our schools. Once we figure that out, it is just a matter of putting an X in the proper box come November.
Kathleen Dubbs
West side
Cuba and Ukraine
Re: the Feb. 22 letter “Cuba and Ukraine.”
The author has chosen to use the Cuban missile crisis to show the hypocrisy of the west’s opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is no comparison. Sixty or so years ago, Russia sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. According to the Nuclear Disarmament Resource Collection, “Ukraine does not possess nuclear weapons.” And, there is no plan by NATO to install any. A much better analogy is the invasion of Poland by Germany in September 1939. Hitler used trumped-up concerns for the welfare of German populations in Poland as a pretext to demand territorial concessions . Europe and the United States were slow to fully respond and in about a year and a half Germany had “overrun” 10 other European countries . Does the author really think Putin will stop expanding beyond Ukraine?
Terry Plaza
North side
Comparison is flight of fancy
Re: the Feb. 22 letter “Cuba and Ukraine.”
The writer believes that our support for the sovereign nation of Ukraine is comparable to Russia’s aggressive act of placing nuclear missiles in Cuba 60 years ago.
A flight of fancy so divorced from reality smells like Republican propaganda. I checked, and sure enough, Tucker Carlson of Fox propaganda, I mean News, claims that Ukraine is of no particular importance to the U.S. and Donald Trump says Putin’s move into Ukraine is super smart.
I voted for Trump in 2016, liking his idea of America first, but four years later I realize the importance of sovereignty for all nations.
Neville Chamberlain’s placating of Hitler led to WWII. Let’s not placate Putin and end up fighting WWIII.
Robert Mann
Northwest side
The pig nation
I would first like to admit that this stone thrower is not without sin. I, approaching the age of 67, grew up in a middle-class household never wanting for necessities. My parents never purchased a new television nor a new car. They had the same refrigerator for as long as I remember until my dad passed away when I was in my 30s. My dad tended to hoard canned food which he bought on sale (child of the Depression).
Today many people demand new televisions, computers and cellphones when the old ones work fine. Multinational corporations make huge profits off our addiction to the new. A lot of that profit goes to China whom most of us profess to detest. The current inflation is a symptom of our addiction to overseas goods. In the long run we would be much better off paying higher prices for better goods manufactured in the U.S. with less transportation costs. And don’t get me started on the environmental cost.
Kalvin Smith
Midtown
