Many seemingly have death wish
I don’t have a death wish. Apparently there is a number of anti-mask and anti-vaccine people who do. The sad part is that they are not only wishing death for themselves, but their for loved ones, me and my loved ones, too. The good thing is that these people probably weren’t around when smallpox and polio was eradicated in America in 1980 and 1979 respectively, both accomplished because the population got vaccinated. If we don’t get COVID-19 and it and its stronger variants under control and eradicated, it has the potential to kill us all.
Will someone please explain to me how these people can claim it is an individual’s right to not wear a mask or get vaccinated, but their deathbed wish in many cases is “Can I get the shot now?”
By the way, Donald Trump was vaccinated and recommends it.
People are also reading…
Dave Glicksman
Northwest side
Being drawn back into AZ politics
I don’t normally follow state politics, but recent events caught my eye. First, the Arizona Legislature forbids the use of health protection measures in schools. I can’t believe they actually want children to go without protection during a deadly epidemic. Outrageous.
Then, I read about some of the bad bills passed this year. One bill will put an identifying code on our ballots. They’re trying to take away our right to vote in private. The secret ballot is a basic principle of democracy. Even more outrageous.
My outrage meter moved enough that I decided to locate where I could sign the citizen petitions circulating to repeal the worst of these laws. I found a signing table outside my local library and helpful volunteers who explained each petition before I signed.
I guess I’ll have to follow state politics (and who I vote for in the next election) more closely. Sure hope the repeal petitions work and we can all still cast secret ballots in 2022.
Teddy McGraw
Oro Valley
A better use for vigilantism
With the new Texas law on abortion which encourages private citizens to sue accessories to an abortion and be rewarded with $10,000 from the state plus legal fees, the legislators are concerned with protecting potential lives of fetuses.
Perhaps the Texas Legislature should consider expanding this law to protect actual living human beings, by allowing private citizens to report and sue people — and be rewarded with $10,000 — who have refused to be vaccinated against COVID and who are refusing to wear masks, thus endangering many lives of those in the community.
If we are going to allow private citizens to enforce laws (as President Biden said, “vigilante”), and reward them for protecting unborn lives, we could also have vigilante enforcement for protecting actual living human beings from death or serious illness from the coronavirus.
Sandra Katz
Foothills
Texas enlists morality police
The Republican-dominated government of Texas has passed an anti-abortion law that effectively deputizes individual citizens to enforce it. Any citizen can sue any person they suspect of having been involved in performing, procuring, supporting or facilitating an abortion beyond the sixth week of a pregnancy. A reward of $10,000 is offered for a successful prosecution, in effect incentivizing busybodies to act as informants, to invade the privacy of anyone they suspect, to spy on their neighbors and report their suspicions.
Anti-abortion activists routinely harass providers and their clients and have used violence upon occasion. This gives them sanction to do more. The potential for abuse is obvious (more harassment, frivolous suits, and possibly blackmail), as well as the certainly of deepening divisions in our society.
Anti-abortion activists are considering similar legislation in Arizona. Do we really want government-supported morality police?
Barbara Hall
Midtown
We now refrain from ‘total war’
After I enlisted in the Army National Guard and trained under Vietnam combat veterans, I read a book about World War II, titled “Total War.” As a young man I thought all wars were total war. However, total war is the bombing and destruction of civilian bomb-making factories, with no regard to civilian loss of life. In Vietnam we could have bombed North Vietnam’s cities into submission under this concept. In Afghanistan the U.S. could have bombed the Taliban into submission easily as they had no air force, no anti-aircraft missiles. The next war will also not be a total war. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan to break up al-Qaida and bring Osama bin Laden to justice. We invaded Iraq to take out Saddam Hussein. The wars should have stopped then, and the troops should have come home. There is no “nation building in the Middle East.” Our service men and women sign up for limited wars.
Frank Montez
East side
Democracy close to slipping away
Welcome to our new Orwellian world! Regression instead of progression.
Right now your voting rights are in jeopardy, as well as our very democracy. After almost 50 years women may lose their right to make decisions about their own bodies, while neighbors are deputized as bounty hunters to spy. Where is the right to protect ourselves against a pandemic with medically approved vaccines and mask-wearing? When did we condone school board meetings being turned into shouting matches and threats of harm, or worse?
When is it OK for some members of Congress to openly lie about the 2020 election results, the pandemic and protections, investigation into the Capitol riot while trying to cover up possible involvement, threatening violence and talk of taking up arms against one another? “Better get armed,” some are shouting. What about the oath they took? For whose benefit are they in office?
Are we willing to bid farewell to the democracy we cherish? If left unchecked, it could all be gone tomorrow!
Norma Guest
East side
Justices’ ruling is catastrophic
As a lawyer, I am fascinated by how our democracy has been decimated by one Supreme Court decision. The constitutional right to abortion was established 50 years ago. Historically, when a state law violated a constitutional right, the Supreme Court struck it down, or at least considered its merits. Apparently not anymore. In Texas, the state argued they could not be stopped from enforcing their unconstitutional anti-abortion law because the law turns over the enforcement of it to citizens. (Meaning, in Texas, your neighbor can now, for instance, sue you for driving someone to an abortion clinic, or even talking about it.) And based on that, the Supreme Court conservatives let the law stand.
What constitutional rights are next? Free speech? Discrimination by color, sex or disability? Jury trials? Voting? Slavery? All a state legislature has to do is give the power to enforce an unconstitutional law to citizens, and the Supreme Court can say — no problem! Vigilantism can reign unharnessed.
Coming to Arizona soon!
Kathleen Harris
North side
Don’t mandate drug price cuts
As a manager of regulatory affairs in the pharmaceutical industry, I was responsible for shepherding my company’s new drug and device applications through the FDA review process. From my perspective, forcing drug companies to lower their prices is a bad idea. It can take 10 years and a billion dollars to produce a new drug. The product must be priced versus investing that money at an average return in a fiscal instrument.
America is the world leader in drug innovation precisely because it can price its products to make a decent return. Importing copycat drugs from foreign countries would put a real dent into innovation. Not only that, the regulatory process is much quicker there, and manufacturing processes less strict. I know. I’ve dealt with the Canadian Food and Drug Directorate. I inspected my parent firm in England, and found 98 violations of FDA’s good manufacturing practices. That’s why we only sold drugs manufactured in America.
Al Westerfield
Southwest side
