Tucson Speaks Out: Jan. 20 letters of the day

Food poisoning affects 1 in 6 Americans annually — 48 million people, with 3,000 deaths. Persons younger than 5, with weak immune systems, diabetes, liver or kidney problems and cancer are more likely to suffer serious problems. Undercooked, raw or mishandled foods are a threat to our health. That is why our Arizona Department of Health Services certifies restaurants and food handlers. Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and E. coli in tamale raw materials make them high risk for consumers. There is no need for Arizona to legalize the sales of foods prepared in uninspected and unregulated kitchens. Sales of homemade foods will likely continue whether illegal or not. Individuals who harm others with their products should be held fully responsible, not protected by anti-science legislators and their unnecessary and dangerous “home kitchen” laws.

Steven Oscherwitz MD

East side

Hobbs promotes accountability

Re: the Jan. 3 article “Hobbs calls for new rules on private schools using vouchers”

Kudos to Governor Hobbs for promoting accountability for ESAs (vouchers) going to private schools. It’s rich that House Speaker Toma says that Hobbs and the Dems are trying to “... strangle ESAs and private education with bureaucracy and regulation.” Public schools have to navigate bureaucracy and regulation every day.

Hobbs is correct in saying that Arizona taxpayers must know how nearly $1 billion is being spent on ESAs without transparency and accountability: something that GOP legislators seem to discount while requiring the same for public schools.

To make matters worse, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne continues to be a cheerleader for ESAs and hawk them on his TV commercials — paid for by the GOP. Horne’s only job is to ensure that our public schools are meeting our children’s needs — not promoting vouchers.

Any program funded by taxpayers must have transparency and accountability — that includes ESAs. Current spending on ESAs is not sustainable and will bankrupt Arizona’s budget and public schools will continue to be underfunded.

Kathy Krucker

Midtown

Seeking peace

Pima Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends expresses condolences to those who are grieving and suffering due to the escalation of violence in the Levant. To its root, violence is unjust.

We urge all people, including those who hold political power, to set aside violence and aggression and to seek humane and compassionate ways of resolving conflict. We urge all to find a common humanity that respects everyone, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

We encourage honest discernment of this ongoing humanitarian crisis with faith in the Spirit of Truth that may lead toward compassion and respect for all. We honor the principle that peace should always be the goal and the way, and we support those already working on this path.

We ask for safe delivery of supplies of food, water, fuel and medical necessities to those in need.

May we feel and know peace in our time.

Sending this on behalf of Pima Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Lisa Grenier and David Wolf, Co-Clerks of Pima Monthly Meeting

Midtown

For our safety

This country has become such a dangerous place many people have concerns before attending events or venues — even going to vote. Biden’s administration is taking action.

Biden’s administration proposed a rule that requires dealers who sell online or at gun shows to be licensed and run background checks prior to sales. With gun violence happening constantly with many casualties. Tucson has had a number of these tragedies, resulting in individual and community trauma.

The FBI recently led “Operation Clean House” and made 88 arrests, targeting Pima County’s most violent criminals.

With the coming 2024 Election, it’s vital that Tucson election workers be protected, as should all others. The DOJ announced that the Election Threats Task Force has prosecuted 14 cases against those who threatened violence against election workers, resulting in years-long sentences. Attacking election workers attacks our democracy and cannot be tolerated.

The “law and order” candidate is the one who stops violence rather than promoting it. That’s the way it should work.

Bobbi Zimmer

Midtown

Readership awareness

Re: the Jan. 7 article “To Congress, President Biden: Help prevent a humanitarian crisis” and Jan. 11 article “U.S. immigration system must evolve to meet reality on border, report says”

Much of the same message was provided by the Romero and Grijalva Tucson Opinion “To Congress, President Biden: Help prevent a humanitarian crisis” and by Emily Bregel’s front page, “U.S. Immigration system must evolve ...” story. I understand completely now that for 3 years this administration has created and operated towards the progressive left’s long anticipated Bernie Sanders-type Open Borders Policy (OBP). This administration was easily steered leftward to create this borderless situation. How unfortunate that neither the writers nor our Justice Department can defend and honor the U.S. Immigration Laws as they now exist. I was taught that only Congress writes laws. These illegal crossers can now be “... legally processed ... “ and become “legal asylum seekers” faster with just more federal funding. Simple. The cartels have found a real money maker profiting from sending us something the progressive left can’t say no to.

Bruce M. Prior

West side

Help!

Did you catch Donald Trump’s performance in Iowa? To those who question Biden’s mental fitness — please ponder the idiotic display put forth for the Iowa rallygoers. Donald promised a “giant dome” to protect the U.S. from hostile sources. To be made right here in the USA! He then launched into a bizarre diatribe about magnets, magnetized elevators on warships, and how magnets become useless if exposed to water. Then, multiple repetitions of “John Deere”, to goad his moronic supporters at this rally into frenzied clapping, cheering, and possibly breaking into the rousing “USA! USA!” chant. This childish, foolish spectacle truly illustrated how he is one of those uneducated that he professes to love. It was like watching a six-year-old bragging and blathering nonsense to impress other kiddies. Utterly embarrassing to anyone with a brain. Picture Trump sitting with high level military personnel to discuss and approve national security. Picture him with the nuclear codes (what an ego trip!) This person is the frontrunner? Someone help us!

Deb Klumpp

Oro Valley

School vouchers, do the math

Re: the Jan. 13 article “Hobbs’ $16B budget plan depends on cutting school vouchers”

In 2022, Arizona expanded ESAs to any child eligible to enroll in school, allowing universal vouchers providing poor families who don’t have choices to no longer be economically locked into underperforming government schools. Yes, it was progressive, yet Arizona could be an incubator of democracy and if we succeed others will follow. Two years later let’s open our report card.

Now voucher enrollment is 74,000 and rising, faster than anticipated by legislative funding partly because of those who had children outside the public school system. We refer to them as the “wealthy.”

Our new governor intends to balance the state budget by using these 75,000 kids to offset the expenditures for 1 million children in the public schools. Do the math.

Those of us who supported this initiative believed that it would be at least revenue-neutral. When a child transfers to a new school, whether charter, private, public, home, or religious the taxpayer cost of educating that student transfers with them.

Jeffrey McConnell

West side

Trump’s one-way free speech

Trump easily sues others for defamation and slander when using their freedom of speech to tell the truth about him. However, he claims his personal Freedom of Speech is being taken away from him, legally, for violating court orders.

Unconstitutional! Supporters say keeping Trump off ballots is against what democracy stands for.

Unconstitutional?

What is unconstitutional is when someone who has taken an oath to “preserve, protect and DEFEND the Constitution ...” especially Article XIV, Section 3, then creates an insurrection, inviting people with weapons to come to D.C. to “protest,” inciting an angry crowd — “And we fight! We fight like hell! And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

He argues with his security officers about his wanting to go (martyrdom?), retreats and watches the events on three T.V.s while eating and laughing, then blocks the military from intervening. He now says, “They did it on their own. I wasn’t there” as his defense. “I did nothing wrong.”

Sheldon Metz

Northeast side

Goin’ to Mt. Lemmon

I am not a genius, and not a weatherman, but when the media people tell me/us that our road to our closest skiing destination is CLOSED, for skiers and boarders, I find that ridiculous! It then says that residents and employees CAN go up the mountain. If the road is closed to people ready to go up and spend money, why would EMPLOYEES need to go up? Doesn’t make sense to me.

Maybe employees should either live up there or stay on the mountain for the winter, with a friend. Just a thought?

I understand that road conditions can be treacherous, and that Pima Sheriff deputies don’t want to pull cars out of the ditches. So we have to just like it or lump it. Happy sledding everyone!

Kenneth Unwin

East side

Why democracy?

What’s all this fuss about losing our democracy? There are many nations that aren’t democracies. Trump and many members of the Republican Party don’t want one. Why should we care?

Our democracy, through its provisions for honest and fair elections, exists to express and protect the will of the people. ALL the people, from the lowest non-wage earner to the billionaire. No other form of government works to guarantee such individual freedom.

Our Constitution with its Bill of Rights carefully defines our democracy and its guarantees of individual liberties; and while adhering to its system of governmental checks and balances, establishes laws to be rigidly followed to insure NO ONE will be above them. EVERYONE, including the President is protected and accountable under that Constitution.

Mr. Trump incredibly claims immunity from these laws and wants “one day of dictatorship” to guarantee his freedom and to eliminate ours, to destroy our Constitution and our democracy and take over ownership.

We MUST see to it he never gets that chance!

Frank Parsons

Northeast side

MLK and breaking cycles

Re: the Jan. 15 article “Dr. King knew about breaking free”

The guest opinion by Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin does not accurately portray Martin Luther King, Jr.’s thoughts on Palestine. In a 1967 interview after the state of Israel launched the 6 Day war and seized control of land in Gaza and the West Bank, MLK Jr. said Israel should return those lands. His words were, “I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory, because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the U.S. war in Vietnam and clearly took a stand for peace. He saw resolution through a commitment to breaking cycles of violence and practicing radical peace. He would call for a permanent ceasefire now.

Sarah Roberts

West side

Violence does not break chains

Re: the Jan. 15 article “Dr. King knew about breaking free”

I want to ask the writer of this piece if he means to suggest that, if MLK were alive today, he would approve of the United States’ supplying of weaponry to continue the merciless bombardment and siege of Gaza in the name of Israeli “security.” To do so would require Dr. King to renounce the nonviolent philosophy for which he is celebrated. King’s teachers, Gandhi and Jesus, understood that violence does not break any chains; It forges chains of suffering that never end. Perhaps Dr. King, who said, “the choice is between non-violence and non-existence,” might point out that security isn’t created by bombs and guns. He might see that Israel is engaged not in self-defense, but in the basest of human impulses, revenge. Millions of Jews and non-Jews worldwide are in the streets together demanding an end to Israel’s madness.

Kim Mathews

East side