Letters to the editor - Saturday, Sept. 23

A group of mothers bonded together in the in 1920s by mutual loss. Each had lost a child to military service. They named their support group the American Gold Star Mothers Inc. after the gold stars that families have been attaching to service flags since World War I.

One year ago, reporter Johanna Willett wrote a beautiful article in the Star about Jeane Stevens-Allen. Jeane is a Gold Star mother. Her son, John Bradford Stevens, died in action during the Vietnam War. It was 50 years after her son’s passing before she was recognized as a Gold Star mother. Jeane is not the only woman who has not been validated and recognized as a Gold Star mother.

Gold Star Mother’s Day has been recognized on the last Sunday in September since 1936. Please honor and remember these women this Sunday.

Jeanene Kaiser

South Tucson

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have devastated so many places and affected millions of lives adversely. I am a veterinarian and wanted to do something to help, so I applied with national animal groups to volunteer. My team of four veterinary technicians from Benarda Veterinary Hospital and I leave for Houston on Monday.

We will spend the week working with the Best Friends Society. The past two weeks have been spent collecting supplies for a veterinarian in the British Virgin Islands, Dr. Sarah Weston.

They are in desperate need of vet supplies and medications. With hundreds of animals (dogs, cats, donkeys and other species) injured badly and even basics running out, time is of essence. The animals desperately need painkillers, antibiotics, etc.

Some animals are stranded with (or without) their families, many are hurt and hungry. A lot of us would like to do something but don’t really know how. We are so fortunate in Arizona, sitting in the comfort of our homes! Learn more at https://www.gofundme.com/tucson-animal-aid.

Let’s rally and do something good!

Kayomee Daroowalla

Midtown

Gov. Doug Ducey made a statement that the current Senate health legislation would be better than the Affordable Care Act. No matter what was in the bill. He hadn’t read it, and his staff was still working on reading it. But he just knew it was better.

He didn’t know if Graham-Cassidy would take insurance from 400,000 Arizonans, as the other GOP-care plan would have. He just knew Graham-Cassidy would be better than the ACA. Is this the level of caring and understanding we want from our leaders? Are we so accustomed to ignorance and the blind leading the blind? Remember the performance of these elected representatives when it comes time to vote.

Leonhard Goeller

Midtown

Re: the Sept. 20 article “Grijalva, 2 other congressmen arrested outside Trump Tower.”

Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva should be representing his constituents by helping to write a piece of legislation dealing with the “dreamers,” as the president has asked, rather than blocking traffic at Trump Tower. Grijalva and his congressional colleagues seem to find time for such childish behavior while America laughs. Leave the sit-ins to the misguided millennials. Many Arizonan’s are not laughing and having second thoughts about Grijalva’s next election.

Frank Tussing

North side

Re: the Sept. 13 article “Study: Hormone pills don’t shorten older women’s lives.”

The hormone replacement therapy drugs discussed in this article contain pregnant mare urine (PMU), hence the names: Premarin and Prempro.

Few women are informed by their health-care providers about the ingredients in these drugs, nor the blatant cruelty involved in their production.

The horses/mares on PMU ranches/farms are continually confined in small concrete stalls with rubber urine-collection bags attached to their bodies at all times. They are forcibly impregnated over and over again until they are physically and quite literally worn out. The babies resulting from these pregnancies are frequently sold to slaughterhouses.

There are many viable alternatives to these pharmaceuticals, including plant-based phytoestrogens and wellness- promoting lifestyle/diet changes, all with no dangerous nor inhumane side effects. These options should be honestly discussed in a healthy patient-doctor relationship.

Deb Thompson

East side

Re: the Sept. 18 column “Yes: Reduce employers’ burden and watch wages soar.”

Matthew R. Shay is CEO and president of the National Retail Federation. He cites a study from his own trade organization to demonstrate, according to him, that lowering corporate taxes would raise wages as much as $4,690, which is his study’s presumed employees’ share of the present corporate tax rate. Using this specious statistic and equally suspect logic, Shay goes on to say that a lower tax rate would automatically result in this money being transferred to workers’ salaries.

He never bothers to explain why employers would make this generous redistribution of wealth, especially since large tax cuts under Reagan and George W. Bush failed to create anything but deficit increases. It is this kind of sloppy reasoning that may explain why so many business owners saddled us with Trump and why so many workers fell for Trump’s demagoguery!

Thomas Rogers

Midtown