Author Salman Rushdie speaks Sunday during the 16th Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona.
The Khalifa-Rushdie parallel
After reading the Monday article about Salman Rushdie, who appeared at the Tucson Festival of Books, I can further appreciate Tim Steller's column on Sunday about the parallels between Rushdie's life and Rashad Khalifa's life. Luckily, Rushdie is still with us.
I continue to enjoy Steller's columns and learn a lot from them.
Matt Somers
Midtown
Stop calling it genocide
In an otherwise laudatory commentary by Abraham Byrd this morning, he threw out the slur of "Genocide in Gaza" by the Israelis. For the umpteenth time, let me assert, the terrible things that happen in war are not "genocide." At no time has it been the intention or policy of an Israeli government to eradicate an entire Arab or any other people from the face of the Earth. That would be genocide. That is what the Nazis wreaked on the Jewish people of Europe. Gaza is where Hamas held sway, and a great portion of those killed in the war in Gaza are Hamas soldiers, who are usually included in the body count of casualties. In World War II, the US and its allies bombed and burned German cities, thousands died, but it was not called genocide. It is what happens in war. Nobody called Hiroshima and Nagasaki genocide.
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Was it Eisenhower who said, "War is Hell"? Dr. Byrd's slur is gratuitous.
Harvey Wolfe
Foothills
Iran and waste
An LTE (March 12) asks Dems if Iran poses a danger and if there is waste and fraud that enriches individuals.
Yes, Iran is a danger, but the current King did nothing about it in his first reign (except tear up the agreement that slowed their nuke enrichment) and has yet to provide we the people a clear rationale for investing the lives of our children and billions of our tax dollars in war.
Yes, here are examples of waste and fraud:
— Federal investigations to satisfy the King’s thirst for personal retribution and baseless re-investigation of the 2020 election.
— Presidential pardons for bitcoin billionaires convicted of fraud.
— $20B tax dollars for Argentina to settle the debts they owe billionaire cronies of our King.
— Billions to support showy military operations fighting the flow of drugs, but that will only end when U.S. citizens stop demanding those drugs.
Vance Holliday
Foothills
Women's March Madness
As many others, I am excited that the U of A men's basketball team is going to the NCAA Tournament. However, at the same time, I would appreciate knowing which women's teams will be participating in the NCAA Tournament. I looked for the brackets in the paper, but there was apparently no interest of letting the people in this area know. Basically, that is not a surprise since the coverage of the U of A women's team was limited. I truly believe there are others in the area that would like better coverage of women's sports.
Melva Irvin
Green Valley
RTA Next
The RTA Next has passed setting the stage for the next 20 years of development in Pima County. To many of us in Tucson, RTA stands for "Rob Tucsonans Again". Another 20 years of paying for roads I won't use.
Most of the projects are in response to unplanned growth and will lead to more unplanned growth. I predict that RTA Next will lead to more congestion and more pedestrian and bicyclist deaths on Tucson streets.
Another 20 years of trying to look like Phoenix without the freeways. What I'd like to know is how the City of Tucson voted. Did it pass with those who reside in the city?
Steven Brown
Midtown
Thanks to our elected leaders
Thank you Sens. Kelly and Gallego for putting the interests of your billionaire donors ahead of the citizens and state of Arizona by continuing your refusals to fund the TSA (causing much hardship to airline passengers and TSA workers along with adverse economic impact to tourism in our state) and placing our citizens in potential harm's way by not funding Homeland Security during a time of heightened terrorism threats and a major military action in Iran.
Thank you to Rep. Ciscomani for supporting the 2025 budget bill, though my 2025 retirement income increased slightly, I paid 46% less in federal income tax than the previous year; I can use my additional return funds to pay my Arizona state income tax. Though misleading TV ads accuse you of cutting Medicare to benefit billionaires, thank you also for removing unqualified recipients from the Medicare rolls so that the program remains solvent for those who truly deserve and depend on it.
Tom Furlong
East side
Courage requires conscience
Thanks to the courageous resignation of Joseph C. Kent from his directorship at the National Counterterrorism Center and for his revealing how our government was tricked by Israel into starting the war against Iran, consistent with Marco Rubio’s declaration right after the war started, but denied by the President — a true story of the tail wagging the dog. Mr. Kent resigned because of his conscience. Yes, courage comes from a clear conscience. He ran for Washington’s 3rd congressional district in 2022 and 2024 unsuccessfully. Had he won, how would he have voted in the House? How his fellow Republicans in the House, such as Rep. Ciscomani from my district, have never shown such courage, hence having no clear conscience. Let’s vote for a Congress having a clear conscience, before our voting rights are stolen by the Save America Act. Only when we the people have a clear conscience can we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Wake up!
Ke Chiang Hsieh
Midtown
Movie night at the cemetery
My husband died a couple of years ago, and I chose Evergreen Cemetery on Oracle as his final resting place. It was close, so I could visit his grave often. This week I learned Evergreen is having a movie night on March 28, showing “Goonies” with “local vendors, food trucks, live music, popcorn, bring your blankets and chairs and enjoy a movie in the old cemetery.” I chose this cemetery because its brochure promised a serene, peaceful and respectful environment. The cemetery sign says it begins at 5 p.m, still visiting hours for the cemetery. I did not intend that my husband be laid to rest at a drive-in movie. I am appalled. It is disrespectful to my loved one and to me, our children and grandchildren. It is disrespectful to the military section of that cemetery and all the families whose loved ones are laid to rest there. They are breaking some of their own rules and regulations. The cemetery is not a community center.
Martha Cunningham
Northwest side
South32 mine concerns remain
As a resident of Lake Patagonia, I read South32’s recent article with concern. It sounds reassuring, but reassuring words are not the same as real protections.
A Draft Record of Decision and Final EIS do not mean local concerns have been resolved. Many of us who live here still have serious questions about water, contamination, traffic, emergency services, and what happens if the promised protections fail.
We keep hearing words like “responsible,” “transparent,” and “community-shaped.” But too many of the hardest issues still seem to be pushed into later studies, later agreements, or later promises.
That is not enough for those of us who live with the consequences. This is our home, our water, our roads, and our future. Wanting clear written protections, independent oversight, and real accountability before impacts occur does not make us anti-mine. It makes us responsible citizens.
Alex Castaneda
Nogales
Penny dreadful
Regarding “Penny rounding now legal in Arizona”, Arizona Daily Star, March 16, Page B1:
A quarter isn’t worth a nickel these days — so it’s no surprise that a penny costs more to make than its face value — but you know that a penny here, a penny there, sooner or later amounts to real money.
That’s why I suggest that Arizona make its own penny.
The euro one-cent coin, by the way, is copper-covered steel. (I remember an impromptu Irish wishing well at St Enda’s Chapel in the Aran Islands. An old stone with a hollow was filled with .01 euro coins. Unfortunately the color bled and tainted the water in the basin. I poured them out.)
But the Arizona penny should be made of 100% Arizona copper. Maybe instead of a penny it should be worth what it’s made of … maybe it should be a $.15 piece.
John Leech
Foothills
