Tucson Speaks Out: July 30 letters of the day

I am woman, watch me vote!

I have four granddaughters (ages 13-24) who deserve unrestricted access to reproductive health care and all medical procedures.

My husband, mother and a dozen cousins have been public school teachers. We believe in community and government-supported public education. Giving tax money as vouchers to parents who send their children to private schools must stop!

Watch me vote!

About 50,000 people die of gun-related injuries annually in the U.S. We must restrict access to guns, limit gun ownership and outlaw assault weapons.

We need more mental health providers and treatment centers. We need affordable child care, expanded elder care, and affordable prenatal care to reduce our 20,000 infant deaths annually.

I believe in science, global warming and proactive legislation to solve problems. We must elect legislators whose priority is improving our country and state rather than preserving their party and power.

I am woman, watch me vote!

Janet Pugh

Oro Valley

Responses to my border Local Opinion

Re: the July 22 article “Biden is leaving a shameful and disastrous border legacy.”

My Local Opinion received criticisms from Democratic writers. I spent 20 years as a Special Agent with U.S. Customs Service and ICE. I know about border issues. Democrat writers continually cite the Senate’s Border bill. The Senate bill was crafted secretly for weeks by just three Senators, Republican Langford, Independent-Democrat Sinema, and Democrat Murphy. Republicans rejected it when they surprisingly learned that it codified into law 5,000 people a day, who entered illegally, could claim asylum. Something Langford had repeatedly denied. That amounted to 1,800,000 a year. It excluded from the count people coming from “non-contiguous countries”, aka China, Middle East and Africa. It continued the 1,500 daily asylum applicants via CBP One at ports of entry. Historic illegal immigration occurred under Joe Biden. Encounters at the border are only down now, still historically high, due to his politically motivated Executive Order issued in June. He often claimed not having that authority and could have done it in 2021.

David Burford

Northwest side

Great letters

The Sunday July 21st Arizona Daily Star editorial section was one of the best ever, especially letters by Jeff, Danial, Deb, Rick, Richard, Terry and Ron. They expressed their thoughts beautifully to like-minded Democrats and Independents, and perhaps some Republicans.

Tho’ I haven’t attended recent secret meetings in the old tin shack on the outskirts of Catalina, I perceive that the fight for Truth, Justice and The American Way is robust.

So, there you have it MAGAs, we share sources and shine the bright light of truth on your world of lies and misinformation, we inform ourselves by reading newspapers, magazines and even books, search engines, TV and radios. These varied sources are available to anyone who cares to develop their world view, enabling them to use their own thoughts and words with accuracy and truth.

Ted Morrison

Midtown

Just listen to him

We don’t have to read 900 pages of Project 2025 — just listen to what he says every day. Example: Trump speaking to Christians at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, FL: “Get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what: it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians…. Get out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

Yeah — thanks, Don, but your “fixed so good” for your Christian followers may not work so good for me. So I think I’ll just keep voting — starting with not for you, so I can keep voting — for Democracy, not a Christian Nationalist Autocracy.

Kathleen Harris

North side

French health care

Re: the July 27 article “What US health care could learn from France.”

I went to the Lyon regional hospital about 10 a.m. I was put in a gurney in a hallway with thirty other patients. From the attitude of the staff, I could tell that this was situation normal.

Around 6 p.m., having been given no water or blanket, I saw a doctor and put on IVs then back in the hallway. At midnight, I was wheeled into a large single room. I must admit that all the staff I encountered were very professional, if overworked and obviously understaffed. The large room was their idea of intensive care, even though the only equipment in the room was a heart/blood pressure machine and oxygen.

The next day I moved to a double room. The only difference was, the nurse came every six hours instead of hourly.

If this is the kind of medicine you want Ms. Katz, I suggest you go to France, as I certainly had enough socialized medicine, and want no part of that for MY regular health care.

Frank Grazier

North side

Democracy or Republic?

With a hundred days until our national election, we are deluged with pleas to preserve our democracy and I am puzzled since the United States has never been one.

Our Founding Fathers were very concerned with the “tyranny of the majority” so they set up an elaborate system of checks and balances, not only among the federal executive, legislative, and judicial, but also between the federal and the states, both large and small.

If you need proof that democracy leads to tyranny, Russia’s Vladimir Putin was democratically elected in 2012 and PLO President Mahmoud Abbas is now in the 19th year of his four-year term.

Our Constitution has seen us through a civil war, two world wars, and others, hot and cold. It has also provided us with individual prosperity, freedom, and liberty unique in human history, without the threat of tyranny.

America is a republic if we can keep it.

Jeffrey McConnell

West side

Democrats didn’t get to pick a nominee

I keep reading opinions and comments about the Democratic Presidential Nominee selection. Republicans complain that Kamala Harris has become the nominee without Democrats having the opportunity to choose. Democrats were disenfranchised they say. I ask, though, did Republicans really get to choose who their nominee would be? Trump declared early on that he would be the nominee, then he intimidated anyone who went against him in very public and insulting ways, bullying them. This created fear that if you didn’t support him, you suffered. He spewed lies and with these lies, he claimed that only he can fix things and even that God has chosen him. He created a system where allegiance to him was imperative. It is mind control and manipulation. Is this freedom of choice? It is similar to when Putin or other autocrats are elected. These elections are “shams.” People vote for these despots for their own safety. There was a Republican primary but, by that time, the Trump machine had run over and destroyed any other choice.

Rosalinda Barrios

Southeast side

No need for elections after 2024?

July 2024 will go down in history as the month Donald Trump announced a total blockade of any future participation in government by the American people.

He has said if he wins there will be no need for coming out to vote again after November 2024. Everything will be already fixed and under control.

On the other hand, if he loses the 2024 election, voting will not be possible, since civil conflict will likely break out to try to rectify that enormous injustice.

One interesting aspect of this new electoral reality for America is that children and grandchildren will no longer need to pay attention to social studies, history, or law while in school. The education needed to teach people how to govern themselves will be as useless to America as an election.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Downtown

Words and knowledge

I recently overheard a conversation in a restaurant between two individuals discussing how well the Republican grooming operation was doing in Tucson. By ensuring that young people are schooled in “correct thinking” through strong discipline and exposure to “the right messages,” the Arizona Republican Party is hoping to subjugate the state.

The development of writing helped to drive innovation through shared knowledge. In scientific literature all published data, reasoning and conclusions are subject to peer review. News organizations once prided themselves on the accuracy of their stories. Since 2015, facts and truth rarely matter, only ratings.

If my opening paragraph is true, perhaps that is a warning sign. But what if I made it up and someone believes it. Who’s at fault? After all, they’re only words on a page.

Republicans are so inept that they take the word of a lying narcissistic felon as gospel. Worse, the stuff they accept as true is so blatantly wrong they would flunk a fifth-grade essay.

I see stupid people!

Dr. George Ball, PhD

Midtown

Biden-Harris’ SCOTUS plan

Biden and Harris are proposing term limits for SCOTUS Justices. Why? Because they cannot not get their way on the 2nd Amendment, Abortion, EPA mandates, etc. Conservatives are the majority on the court. I do not oppose the idea in general, but make the term limits apply to future appointments, as that would be fair to existing Justices who took the nomination on a lifetime tenure basis. And why are Biden-Harris not proposing the same for Federal U.S. District and Appellate Court Justices who also serve a lifetime tenure? Limit their tenure too. Oh, but Biden has already appointed dozens of left wing federal Judges and dozens more to come if Harris is elected President. Cannot limit them. Wink wink. The founders made SCOTUS and Federal Judges lifetime tenure to remove them from political influence. The reality is that Republican Presidents appoint conservatives, mostly, and Democratic Presidents appoint liberals, always. This proposal takes 2/3 of states to ratify. Will never happen and politically motivated before the election.

Terry Garland

East side

My primary election vote

It seems like a lot of Republicans are writing letters urging me to be outraged by my primary election vote for Biden being transferred to Harris. It was my vote and I’m perfectly fine with my delegates voting for Kamala. It’s energizing to Democrats and seemingly terrifying to some Republicans. I’d urge those concerned about how my vote is being used at the Democratic Convention to be more concerned about their candidate’s statement that this November will be the last time people have to vote. That is what should outrage and terrify them.

Rick Unklesbay

Midtown

Letter to J.D. Vance from ‘childless dog lady’

Dear Hillbilly Vance,

I am a childless dog lady who would like to educate you on some of the reasons for childlessness: 1. Unable to get pregnant — sometimes the “childless cat male” is to blame; 2. Post-surgical for cancer of the reproductive organs which were removed; 3. Infertility due to chemotherapy or radiation treatment; 4. Endocrine disorders causing infertility; 5. Financial hardship; 6. Time-consuming career choice; 7. Just don’t want kids — would rather have a cat or dog.

With the global population explosion contributing to climate change, depletion of natural resources, pollution, disease, violence, and poverty, perhaps a better idea than taxing the childless would be to tax the parents to help pay for the damage being done to the earth?

Hillbilly Vance and your MAGA Mafia — Please get back on your couch and try to come up with policies to better the lives of Americans and improve our country, and keep your noses out of women’s reproductive organs.

Sandra Katz, M.D., J.D.

Foothills

A breath of fresh air

Re: the July 19 article “For Trump — God is good ... and Trump’s work is clearly not finished.”

I want to thank the Red Star editors for publishing the National Opinion column by former Connecticut Congressman Gary Franks, who happens to be Black. It was a pleasure reading a refreshing, positive piece for a change. He was sympathetic and supportive of President Trump after his near-death experience Saturday, in contrast to the angry, hostile and vitriolic letters from liberal writers the Red Star publishes every day.

It’s amazing to me that liberals who pride themselves on “acceptance”, “inclusion” and “tolerance” can be so disgustingly negative about another human being.

Perhaps the tragic incident will give pause to the liberal’s nasty comments about President Trump and they realize the significant benefits his first presidency provided them and America.

Face it: he will our president again soon!

John Evans

Southeast side