Tucson Speaks Out: August 5

Maccabi Games

I read in disbelief “Maccabi Games Issue” in which Mr. Sabalos calls it “grotesque to view photographs depicting the smiling faces of healthy JCC Maccabi participants ...” Does he know that there were Access players who live with intellectual and developmental disabilities? Is he aware that there were athletes from Ukraine? Yes, innocent teens just trying to live their lives while dealing with the horrors of Putin’s war? By the writer’s reasoning, the games should not have been allowed in any city, not just Tucson.

What is truly grotesque is that we can’t play, pray, attend school, or go about our lives without massive amounts of security. His antisemitism fuels those flames.

And the ignorance in comparing the ongoing terrible situation in Gaza with the Nazis who engaged in a systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews. It’s high time for Mr. Sabalos to visit the Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center. I will be happy to show him around and educate him. And please capitalize Holocaust.

Mitchell Flatow

West side

Response to Charles Sabalo’s letter

Charles Sabalos’s letter regarding the JCC Maccabi Games is both deeply misguided and disturbingly offensive. To compare a joyous, youth-centered, international Jewish athletic and cultural event to a Nazi-sponsored “Aryan Games” is not only historically inaccurate — it is antisemitic.

The Maccabi Games are a celebration of Jewish identity, inclusion, and resilience, bringing together young people from around the world to build community. These games are not a political act. They are a source of connection.

Suggesting that Jewish youth should not gather to celebrate their heritage because of complex geopolitical events in the Middle East is dehumanizing. No other community is expected to silence its joy, culture, or existence in the face of global conflict. Why should Jewish children be held to that standard?

We can care deeply about innocent lives — Palestinian, Israeli, and others — while also supporting our local Jewish community and its children. These are not mutually exclusive. Mr. Sabalos’s framing falsely equates Jewish cultural pride with militarism and injustice. That is dangerous rhetoric.

Joy Feldman

Foothills

Hate speech

I was troubled by Mr. Sabalos’ letter comparing the JCC Maccabi Games to Nazi Germany. His analogy is not only historically inaccurate but dangerously inflammatory. The Maccabi Games brought together Jewish teen athletes from around the world for a week of sportsmanship, cultural exchange, and community service — values that stand in stark contrast to the horrors of the Nazi regime. While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech it does not shield speech that defames or incites hatred. Mr. Sabalos’ letter veers dangerously close to both.

Had he attended the Games, he would have seen teens engaging in service projects across Tucson. and witnessed collaboration of local law enforcement and thousands of volunteers working diligently to provide a safe environment for all. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, I know all too well the dangers of unchecked antisemitism, misinformation, and targeted hate speech. Your readers deserve better.

I implore the AZ Daily Star editorial team to do better and call out hate speech. Giving space to hateful rhetoric has consequences.

Lori Riegel

Northwest side

Hiroshima and Nagasaki remembered

The mushroom clouds of August 6 and 9, 1945 linger in fading memory, including my own. I was young at the time, but I remember (vaguely) knowing something about it then.

Hitler’s tyranny, and the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis it spawned, also spawned our rush to beat Hitler to the atomic bomb. We used it to prevent a prolonged war with Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only gave us the terror of a mushroom cloud hanging over our future but also blanketed the earth with a heavy (now diminishing) layer of experience.

It has been said that experience is nothing more than memory, and it also has been said that the only experience you can benefit from is your own. Likewise, “wisdom.” It has been said that wisdom (borne of experience) shouldn’t be wasted on the old. So, the challenge for our future is how can the young be helped to remember the experience they never had? Hitler gave us modern dictatorship, the “bomb”, and “experience.” Whither the “wisdom”?

Gerald Farrington

SaddleBrooke

Disgusting beyond words

This evening’s ABC news (Aug. 2, 2025) showed the head of the American delegation touring some of the devastation in Palestine where thousands of men, women and children are starving to death. To my dismay and disgust the head our delegation was sporting an “Make America Great Again” hat. I am sure this hat, which was probably made in China, gave so much solace to those starving, men, women and children who are praying to see the sun rise for a few more days. Just when you think it couldn’t, the bar gets set lower and lower.

Fred DiNoto

Northwest side

Trump digs a hole

Who could ever imagine that Jeffrey Epstein could have such a far-reaching and significant impact on American politics, the economy, popular culture and even international conflict? In the past several weeks, his influence on Trump has resulted in: Coke being made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup; investigation of criminal charges against former President Obama; and the possible change of the name of the DC football team back to the Washington Redskins. And now, even the possible outbreak of a nuclear war with Russia.

How ironic that all of Trump’s attempts to distract attention from his association with Epstein and his refusal to rule out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell only dig his hole deeper.

Bruce Hilpert

North side

Clueless pro-gun rant

Re: LTE clueless gun rant, defending the gun and bashing all the clueless anti gun folks, I agree that the people with the guns are to blame. So, I ask this person, “Do you agree that sensible gun laws could prevent future carnage?” Or, are you a clueless gun-rights advocate that thinks the liberals just want to take your rights away?

I have a gun and I know how to use it. My husband is a hunter. We both believe that is a huge responsibility and we have no problem with registering our guns.

I support my argument from personal experience. My sister was murdered by her husband. She had placed a restraining order on him and yet, he had a gun. He broke into her house and was waiting for her to come home when he shot and killed her.

Maybe sensible gun laws could have saved her. I do believe they could have saved his second wife, who he also murdered with a gun.

Donna Pierce

Northeast side

Blame the gun?

Mr. Rusciolelli asks why the gun is blamed for mass murder incidents. No one blames the gun; we blame the proliferation of guns due to the ludicrously easy access to them. Apparently, he doesn’t understand the argument.

Since he doesn’t understand the complaint, he probably also doesn’t understand the fact that cars, planes, pressure cookers, and box vans all have peaceful purposes which can be transformed by malevolent individuals. A gun has only one purpose and the gun deaths of 40,000 Americans every year denote that it is not safety.

No one absolves a shooter of any blame; that is a false, absurd, denigration implying Rusciolelli’s moral superiority. What is also absurd is that America has more guns than citizens, is the only country that routinely suffers mass gun murders, and that the number one cause of our children’s deaths is gun violence.

Rick Cohn

West side

Project Blue

As the debate unfolds, we need answers to the many questions posed.

1. Proponents say this project will use 1% of our water. What water uses will decrease by 1% to compensate?

Eliminate water to current Santa Cruz ecosystem as suggested by some?

Will Pima County and Tucson development offices be required to decrease development to compensate for this 1% usage as suggested by others?

Trade golf courses we are told use similar water?

If other phases of this project use increasing percentages of our water, will these water use reductions be adjusted?

2. Will the development offset negative impacts of the digital industry it supports and pay for programs that educate the public of Southern Arizona of healthy ways to use digital media and unhealthy habits to avoid?

Fred Fiastro

Foothills

Rex Scott is definitely no expert

I have only 170 words to address Rex Scott’s disinformation. Let’s start with one point: water usage.

Back in 1922 the western states made an agreement to share water. They did this so as to enable profit off development of the land. They also did this with the world’s most inadequate, flawed math. They assumed more water than we had and accounted for no change. Today, we know this to be tremendously flawed. States have been asked to conserve more water. We are still renegotiating the agreement today.

Fast forward to Project Blue which has flawed mathematical models for water and energy. They are so bad they won’t share them. I see no fluctuations for scenarios including algorithms, architecture of hardware or temperature of the external environment. With the new gas plant at 2803gallons/MWh to operate, PB looks to need 100000x’s more water than the ‘positive’ rating.

Carissa Sipp

Midtown

When can we trust federal reports?

Trump has pretty much trumped himself by firing the Director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he did not want her to report the truth and then he publicly lied about her performance, ethics, and the content of the report. In order to maintain some modicum of trust, government reporting needs to be nonpartisan and unbiased, especially statistical reports.

If Trump is going to fire anyone who publishes statistical reports he does not like, how can anyone trust anything that comes from the Feds? Will he have a cadre of minions making sure that every report is rosy before it is released? Will every federal employee have to decide to do the right thing and lose their job or just cave and doctor the reports so Trump does not look bad? Looks like financial institutions and mom and pop investors are going to have to fly by the seat of the pants since government reports will become worthless. What is next?

Dave Abbott

Southeast side

Just a sales pitch

In his Sunday Tucson Opinion piece Rex Scott, District 1 County Supervisor and Chair of the Board of Supervisors, wants to sell us a bill of goods. He states, “given our longstanding regional commitment to water conservation and protection, it is heartwarming to know that Project Blue will use only 1% of our water supply and 6% of our reclaimed (recycled) water”.

So where does he think Project Blue is going to get those percentages?

We are in a drought and need every drop of our existing water supply.

If Project Blue is passed to go forward it just confirms our legislators sold us out to line their pockets.

Go find a cold, wet state to build your data centers.

Robbin Miller

Foothills

Massive data centers

Every day there are articles about Project Blue and the pros & cons of it for Tucson. An article appeared in Saturday’s Star about a mega data center being planned in Pinal County near Eloy, by Vermaland. Their technology is gearing towards solar farm projects using air cooling infrastructure that doesn’t involve large volumes of water. With technology improving, more efficient air and other types of cooling are becoming available. Another massive scale data center is in the planning works in Tonopah.

Tucson and Pima County officials must communicate with Pinal County on these massive centers. They each, and the public, need to know. They should be sharing information.

Just how much water is this one using or how much electric power is that one using? Without all contributing parties communicating we might just end up being a dry and dark state. BTW where is the state in these negotiations?

Hope Forrest

Northwest side

Losing moral high ground?

I am sickened by the fact that Israel, created as a refuge for the Jews after the slaughter of World War II, is rapidly losing its moral high ground by becoming the very murderers they fled in the 1940s.

For years, Hamas has cleverly embedded itself in schools and hospitals so that when Israel targeted them in those buildings, Israel could take the blame for killing innocent civilians as well.

But Israel’s targeting of outdoor relief stations and food distribution centers just because the starving people gathered there are desperate Palestinians, is something totally different and inexcusable. It is, instead, naked “genocide.”

Whatever happened to “never again?”

Israel can’t afford to lose the good will of the western world. It is becoming the enemy. If Netanyahu isn’t willing to preserve Israel’s standing among nations, he will be replaced. Not another Israeli — Palestinian or Jew — should be sacrificed to his ego.

Regula Case

Midtown

We need metals and water is precious

Contrary to the statement in Mort Rosenbaum’s August 3rd “Yes, we need mining — but the real crisis is water,” it isn’t easier to “gouge out ore in America” than in foreign locales. The easy copper was mined out during the prior 2 centuries. Arizona leads the U.S. in overall mineral production and continues to be attractive to investors because it’s a globally known copper province, has an experienced workforce and vendors, and offers political stability and a well understood legal and regulatory framework. The investment in modern, responsible, and sustainable methods to mine and process today’s complex mineral deposits costs billions and takes years to permit, therefore often requiring a consortium of companies to pool funding resources. Arizona operators are highly motivated to find new ways to reduce evaporation and water use in the processing circuit and to maximize recycling because water is precious and a matter of their survival. These professionals work daily to optimize water reuse and minimize impacts to the environment and communities.

Cori Hoag

Oro Valley

Hold off on fire finger-pointing

Laura Penny’s op-ed was excellent as was an earlier op-ed own playing with fire. I grew up on an old homestead in the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho. Forest fires large and small were a way of life 75 years ago. We had more than one. The first outside our property was due to a lightning storm which left many small fires. The local ranger station was out of available people so even though teenagers my brother and I were conscripted. Rain had slowed the fires. We hiked the couple miles to the strike with fire packs and quickly contained the fire to less than an acre. We left the scene the next day. Two days later a fire erupted in the canyon downhill from the original fire burning thousands of acres of timberland. The culprit was thought to be a smoldering cone which rolled into the canyon. Before leaving for military service I had many other experiences with forest fires.

Gerald Schwartz

Foothills