Water conservation
Ironic the newspaper has a number of suggestions on water conservation. Meanwhile, we see code changes for smaller lots, obtaining building or well permits easier. Remember Gov. Ducey pledging farmers millions to dig wells deeper to suck more water out of aquifers. A 169-unit project on Cortaro Road is being built. Arizona approved smaller lots to build casitas. Legislators want to lower corporate taxes to entice companies to Arizona. Leaders want a list of pre-designed casitas for people to choose, making it easier and less costly to purchase and build. They want to lower the $120,000 to $200,000 price to build, so low-income people can participate. Question, how many low-income people have a lot big enough, or can afford the money for a casita? These are our leaders’ suggestions, ideas on how to save water in Arizona. You think they don’t know we have a water shortage?
People are also reading…
Arizona is going to get $250 million to give up some of our water. Are we supposed to drink it?
Jose Salgado
Northeast side
Competing ideas on choice
Pro-choice advocates for the freedom of a woman to determine if she wants to bear a child or not. Pro-life advocates for the idea that life should be respected from conception to natural death.
Clearly the freedom to be one’s supreme advocate for one’s own body is a necessary right. Conversely, the right to demand that all humans respect human life is undeniable.
Generally speaking, both sides of the debate recognize each other’s viewpoint, but the degree of respect for the other’s view is where the friction starts in earnest.
I would like to advocate for the idea that using abortion as a means of birth control when used multiple times is clearly a demonstration of wanton disregard of life and should therefore be considered a crime, and make the people involved subject to criminal trial. If the accused can demonstrate its necessity before a jury, so be it. Otherwise, penalties could be imposed.
Competing ideas for compromise are here-by solicited.
Vincent Allen
Northwest side
Trump news
Since Trump announced, that he would be indicted, news media have been speculating breathlessly.
Newsflash: Trump thrives on media attention. As long as people talk about him and think about him, he has influence. When the media report on what he says, on what he posts on his blog, and speculates on what he may or may not say, on what he may or may not do, Trump gets attention that empowers his influence. Media attention fuels a trumpster fire that few can resist looking at.
Responsible reporters and pundits who want this alleged criminal to be accountable through our system of justice must stop speculating on his every word and action, and let the system do its function in the dispassionate, objective way it is designed to work.
Bruce Joffe
South Tucson
Bodily autonomy
Do these smug Republican legislators not hear what they say? Republican members of the Arizona Senate recently passed, along party lines, Senate Bill 1250. The House had previously passed a similar bill, also along party lines. These bills dictate that employers can be fined if they require employees to get certain vaccines, if an employee requests an exemption based on religious belief. In the discussion prior to the Senate vote, Mesa Republican Justin Heap said, “I believe it’s my body, my choice, and the employer has no interest in what I do with my own body,” to laughter and applause from Republican colleagues. Bodily autonomy for vaccines, yes; for abortion, no! Thankfully, Gov. Hobbs has said she will veto any bill passed along party lines. Come November 2024, please vote these Republicans out (are you paying attention to the bills the Republican-controlled Legislature has been proposing and/or passing, District 17 voters?).
Randy Garmon
North side
Kolb widening
Hats off to the landscape crew and designers for the work on the Kolb Road widening. Thank you for going an extra step to add wildflowers. The poppies, penstemon, etc. I’m sure they bring joy to all who pass by. That extra step in my opinion reaps huge rewards. I have yet to see a single piece of litter tossed out on this gorgeous roadway.
Sue Lebby
Foothills
Perversion of law
The GOP has adopted the Trump strategy of undermining the rule of law and winning by any means necessary. The strategy works by flooding the public square with misinformation and performance art to undermine the truth and legal authority. That is what Jim Jordan is up to in New York. He has no legal authority over a state prosecutor, but he pretends he does. Jordan is trying to plant an alternative narrative before the law can act. As a result of such actions, there are now two spheres of reality operating in the country: the first is the rule of law, the only thing that holds this diverse republic together; the second is abasing the rule of law to undermine democracy and capture power. That’s called autocracy.
Roberta Jensen
Green Valley
