Tucson Speaks Out: May 1

Ballroom

I think that the last thing that America needs right now is a $400 million vulgar Epstein dance hall where the East Wing used to reside.

Terry Louck

East side

Hold him accountable

DJT wants Mark Kelly "held accountable." For what? For warning military members that they swore to follow the Constitution? For warning military members that following an unjust command is against the Military Code of Conduct and will be punished? For using his right to free speech? For questioning the removal of top- ranking military members? For questioning promotions that were withheld from females and non-whites? For doing the job for which he was duly elected? I think Mark Kelly should be held accountable for all of these things, and he should be thanked and honored as well as being "held accountable" for his decency and his respect for the United States and its Constitution.

Cynthia Schiesel

East side

Charlottesville revisited

Ray Bradbury’s 1953 sci-fi novel "Fahrenheit 451" is a classic in which firemen no longer put out fires — they start them. Now, 73 years later, the nonprofit civil rights Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which presents itself as a watchdog tracking "hate" is lighting the fires of political hatred instead of extinguishing them. Their multimillion-dollar machine has nothing to do with poverty or law.

The SPLC is indicted for wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering; allegedly secretly funneling $3M+ in donor funds to pay informants who were active members and leaders of violent extremist groups — the KKK, Aryan Nations, others. The donors were never told their money was bankrolling the very people they were fighting.

SPLC preposterously claims their paid informants are infiltrating to expose. That’s the FBI’s job.

If you can’t find hate to keep your revenue streams flowing, you must manufacture it.

Jeffrey McConnell

West side

Water concerns

Living in the Southwest, there is always the concern that we may run out of water. Did you see the article about Lake Mead running out of water? Is there enough of a concern here to invest in increasing the water supply? The problem is not just tomorrow, but decades in the future. We can’t change the amount it rains, and the Colorado River is already being sucked dry. The solutions are to increase the supply, properly use the available water, and reduce waste as much as possible. Desalinating ocean water is expensive, but if we properly recycle the water, it will last more than a single use. Water, once cleaned, is just water, but we have a phobia about drinking or washing with recycled water. Is it time we grow up and accept that everything about Earth is recycled? Can we put together people who work on solutions instead of making signs and protesting?

Loran Hancock

Northwest side

Injustice of the Justice Department

The Justice Department, in indicting Comey, proves that it is not a department that is blind to all but the rule of law and justice, but a department that blindly follows the directives of an autocrat and his political retribution campaign. Trump is doing exactly what he falsely accused Biden of doing. Where are the checks and balances that are supposed to be in place to stop this type of injustice?

Tim Peterson

Northwest side

Segregation history

Sollenberger's April 27 LTE ignores history. Let's see what Southern Democrats did: opposed Reconstruction, encouraged and supported the assassination of Republican President Lincoln, enacted Jim Crow laws and carried out lynchings. After the Depression, Democrat FDR, was elected. His administration passed the Social Security Act and the G.I. Bill, both opposed vociferously by Southern Democrats until assured no threat to southern segregation or disruption of the low-wage agricultural system in the South. Democrat Truman succeeded and ordered desegregation of the armed forces, all acts giving access to benefits afforded to all citizens.

Southern Democrats became the Dixiecrats, opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (including the Fair Housing Act). Both acts passed. Conversion of the Dixiecrats to the Republican Party began along with the Nixon wedge approach to American politics that persists to this day.

Republican President Eisenhower's order desegregating schools in the South and Republicans as the Party of Lincoln is an idly convenient alternative to the truth.

Hector Estrada

Downtown

Formula to positive future

Anarchy is a way of making decisions by might. Proper government avoids anarchy by providing means to compromise without the use of might. Government consists of the legislative branch, which creates laws representing the best needs of the voters, the executive branch, which enforces laws equally, and the judicial branch, which determines fairly if the laws have or have not been followed. The Constitution, which sets up the government, indicates that any legislator who does not represent the interests of their voters, anyone from the executive branch, who does not execute the laws equally, or any justice who does not apply the laws fairly, is in violation of supporting the Constitution and should at the very least not be able to continue their position under the law. Either you support the Constitution and the government it created, or get out of the way of those law-abiding citizens who only desire life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Stephen Weiss

Oracle

The number 86

The basis of Trump’s new indictment against Comey seems to be an expression from the 1930s. The only times I ever heard of it was when someone was refused service in a bar.

The horrible thing is that every taxpayer is being forced to fund the prosecution which could last up to and including the Supreme Court. A lot of wasted money. Flat out wrong.

Pat Bannon

Midtown

Elephant in the room

To Representative Ciscomani: Your choice to maintain "radio silence" in your newsletters by not mentioning the elephant-in-the-room war in Iran will not make it go away.

The deleterious effect on the world economy and on Americans in particular is worth communicating at least something. $25 billion spent so far on this war, while you and the rest of Congress are looking the other way, is the worst way to exercise your power as a sitting U.S. congressman. The increase in energy costs alone are rippling through to consumers' wallets — your failure to comment tells me you continue to hide in Donald Trump's shadow. That is not leadership.

We expect more, but frankly, are not surprised. Your constituents deserve to know what you are doing and thinking with regard to this unnecessary conflict. Silence will not make it disappear.

Paul Emmert

Marana

The loss of American ideals

As a former University professor with many international students, I'm ashamed of the current state of affairs in America.

Trump and the Republican Party continue their campaign to destroy everything that America has come to stand for in the last 250 years. The Republican Party prefers indoctrination over education and suppression over independence.

Republicans want to return to a period in which males were considered superior to women and white males mentally superior to all others. Women were considered less intelligent than men and education would just waste time and money. If you weren’t born white, well, too bad.

Trump survives by the phrase that “there is a sucker born every minute.” (Check out www.trumpstore.com)

It’s time for Democrats and non-aligned voters to restore American democracy. Vote the clowns out of office. Mandate equanimity in voting districts. Consider ranked choice voting. Put term limits on all elected offices, especially the Supreme Court.

Your vote can bring back America.

George Ball

Midtown

Participate and vote

With the Supreme Court's decision upholding Louisiana's gerrymandering, thereby gutting the Civil Rights Act, we see the end of Lincoln's Republican Party and Chief Justice Richard Taney's replacement: the shameless "umpire" John Roberts. Republicans know they're losing power and are trying to hang onto it at any cost. Participate and vote.

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

MAGA got what they voted for

Before the 2024 election, I and many others wrote letters warning voters of the consequences of electing Donald Trump to a second term. Obviously, it fell on deaf ears. They didn't read Project 2025, nor realize the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. They were certainly willing to overlook Epstein and January 6th. I'm not sure what they thought he was going to do for them. Did they want to "own the libs," did they believe his empty promises, or was it just good old racism and misogyny? Trump's only real agenda was to avoid prison and rob the country. So, they put on their red hats, went to the polls, and made the greatest mistake in history. Now all of us are living with the consequences. MAGA, how is your dear leader working out for you?

Mary Zimmerman

SaddleBrooke