Letters to the editor - Thursday, Nov. 23

We were driving through Tucson on the way back from El Paso when transmission problems forced us to stop. Chris at the Golf Links AAMCO said he’d do his best to get us back on the road soon. With that encouraging note, my wife and I checked into the J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa to take advantage of our unplanned vacation — something we learned to do over a 22-year USAF career.

However, as nice as we found the city to be, the friendly people who greeted us so warmly everywhere we went will remain our fondest memory. After a lifetime of traveling around the world, and meeting so many wonderful people, Ezdy and I, once again, find our lives enriched; this time by the good people of Tucson. Three days later, we were happy to be on our way home, yet thankful we were forced to stay a little longer than planned.

Vito Tomasino

Las Vegas

A recent reader opined that it was unfair that the top 20 percent of the population paid 69 percent of the taxes. What he didn’t mention was that the top 20 percent own 80 percent of the wealth. Is that fair?

Paul Czopek

East side

Re: the Nov. 16 article “TUSD board mulls cutting salary of longtime employee who filed complaint.”

In early October I called for the resignation of Rachael Sedgwick due to her harassment of a TUSD employee. Now I am calling for the resignation of both Sedgwick and Mark Stegeman for their continuing harassment of this employee. These two members of the board have called for a review of this employee’s salary — an obvious retaliation for the complaint filed against Sedgwick. Are we really going to allow these board members to violate this employee’s rights?

Karen Clifton

Midtown

Candidate Trump made three statements I agreed with: the system is rigged, he will drain the swamp and he is a great dealmaker. One year later, I still agree with two: the system is still rigged, instead of draining the swamp he has protected Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. And, he is a fabulous dealmaker as evidenced by one of the greatest bait-and-switches in history.

William Krauss

 Downtown

Why do medical doctors have a female nurse in the exam room when attending to a female patient? Because a false charge of molesting — even an unproven one — can ruin the doctor’s medical practice. The same for most male managers, as they want witnesses when they may be alone with a female to ensure they are not accused of improprieties. I was commander of a unit in the U.S. Army when a civilian female accused a soldier in my unit of rape.

She told a time and place of the rape to the police. She didn’t check the time well, as the soldier was a member of a parade at the time she said she was attacked. The soldier had to go to court to defend against the charge, which was easy with all the witnesses. Point is, do not believe anyone accusing one of sexual improprieties without proof, as it is so easy to accuse and the accused can never be completely cleared.

John Ricketson

Sahuarita

Re: the Nov. 17 column “Justifiable impatience with unelected ‘elites.’”

I love the Star’s new humor column penned by Rachel Marsden! She’s a riot, I haven’t got that many chuckles from reading a column for a long time. Her latest is a perfect case in point. First, considering President Trump has been in office over a year now, how snarky to declare a doctrine is already taking shape — yeah, ‘bout time, eh, Rachel?

I see where she’s going with that. The best though, the one that had me wiping away tears of laughter, was her description of Trump taking away influence from unelected Washington elites — you mean like Steve Bannon and the Koch brothers? She’s funny in such a sly, subtle way. Thanks for bringing us this new humorist!

Tiffany Abeloe

West side

As a lifelong Democrat, it was with great sadness that I saw Paul Durham elected Ward 3 councilman to the Tucson City Council. Gary Watson, an independent, was far and away the better candidate and so much more attuned to the issues and concerns in Ward 3.

Once again, the Democrats are sadly out of tune with people they claim to represent. The local and national Democratic party does not have clear and resonating messages for voters.

Mr. Durham apparently believes bike lanes and solar energy are important to the people who live in Ward 3. The real issues in Ward 3 are jobs, job training, wages, better education and schools.

Instead of new ideas and new direction, the Pima County Democrats gave us a political hack with same-old, same-old for the Old Pueblo. When the residents of Ward 3 are riding bikes to work — not wearing fancy spandex outfits while doing so — the message we get from our new councilman is clearly, “Let them eat cake.”

Frances Luchsinger

Midtown

Our northern neighbors are in escape mode and starting to trickle into the Old Pueblo. In the interest of providing a public service and perhaps preventing a few fractures, we thought a recap of our basic driving rules might be in order.First, always travel at least 15 miles per hour over or under the speed limit. Either one is entirely permissible and will never attract any law-enforcement officials.

Second, the use of turn signals is discouraged because they tend to confuse other motorists. Just turn at any time from any lane in any direction.

Third, and most importantly, always have your cell phone positioned so you can easily text your friends to break up the monotony of driving. You might occasionally glance at the other cars, but it’s not really needed.

That about covers it. Enjoy your adventure on our streets.

Tom Hemingway

Southeast side

When you go online to do your holiday shopping, consider what effect your short-term savings have upon the long-term health of our community. Brick and mortar stores set the tone and flavor of our retail areas. They are the places we go to spend time; the places where we bring our out-of-town visitors. What image is reflected back when every third or fourth store is closed and boarded up?

Even large chain stores hire local employees; those employees depend upon their jobs to do their own holiday shopping. Ask yourself where you want your money to go: back into our local economy or into corporations like Amazon? You may never get quite as a good a deal shopping brick-and-mortar as opposed to online — stores have overhead costs that warehouses do not. But your money stays here, supporting our local economy, and I think that is a great deal for everyone.

Dawn Stone

Oro Valley

Re: the Nov. 19 column “Staggered by pedestrian deaths, Tucson awaits solutions.”

Columnist Tim Steller is “staggered” by pedestrian deaths in Tucson, and he should be. But pedestrians walking after dark can do something to help themselves: wear white shirts of jackets and light-colored pants — and cross streets in cross walks! I see pedestrians after dark and they are normally wearing dark clothing. That is foolish. I even saw a Tucson police officer once wearing his dark uniform clothing crossing a street after dark, and not in a crosswalk.

Jeff Dean

Northwest side

Re: the Nov. 19 letter to the editor “Appropriate dress brings respect.”

The letter writer implies that women bring sexual harassment on themselves by the way they dress. This is the standard defense for men who harass women. This shows a continuing and historically imprinted belief that men are fundamentally sexual aggressors and that this is an unchangeable fact.

This must be the reason women will not come forward to report sexual abuse/harassment. They will simply be blamed for having invited it in the first place. After all, don’t they know how men are? This is not OK, has never been right, and attitudes need to change. The letter writer has the right to respect whomever he wants, but he shouldn’t suggest that women are to blame for men’s inappropriate behavior.

Brian O’Cain

Northeast side

Re: the Nov. 19 article “At 90, Tucsonan shares story of how she survived horrors of the Holocaust.”

Thank you for publishing the feature story on Edith Fox. The Holocaust must never become a category of human history that is “out of sight, out of mind.” May the unimaginable horrors experienced by Ms. Fox and millions of other Nazi victims never be forgotten, minimized or denied. And thanks as well to Nina Trasoff and Sharon Price for their compassion in documenting Ms. Fox’ life story.

Bob Freedman

Midtown