Truth seeker
I am proud of Liz Cheney, an earnest seeker of truth. Her ethics and logic remind me of my deceased father, a staunch Republican from Rawlins, Wyoming.
Joe Sanchez
Marana
Lock who up?
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the...” You all know the rest, followed by the bellowing chant: Lock her up! The joke is that if Trump really wanted Hillary to be locked up, he would have given her a job in his administration. Which begs the question, would he have ever given her a pardon?
What’s more important — and a lot of us would like to know — is who got their hands on these secret files Trump squirreled away from the White House. What were his intentions (souvenirs for sale?), and whom of his many swamp creature cronies were shown this secret stash: Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, or our own real life Seven Days in May General, Michael Flynn. All did business with shady, sometimes enemy foreign individuals. God knows who has picked over, examined or scanned this information and where it has traveled since. Lock who up?
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William Muto
SaddleBrooke
Federal college loans failure
The student loan forgiveness issue has revealed the fatally flawed experiment of earning college degrees funded by federal loans to create upward economic mobility for the financially disadvantaged and people of color.
Starting in 1965, the federal government abandoned required areas of study (math, science, teaching, etc.), assuming a college degree, in any area of study, would be rewarded with good jobs as in days of old. Majors chosen with no attention to marketability. Student loans became easily obtained, which greatly increased college enrollments, triggering new, larger facilities and higher tuition. Many colleges, especially prestigious ones, became cash cows competing ferociously against each other for faculty who demanded and received higher pay. Days of prestige of professorship exceeding income long gone. 1992 loan death knell: Interest on loans now accrued while in school not after leaving. Forestalling repayment, job market now glutted with liberal arts degrees decreasing market value of degrees. Suggestions: Forgive current interest only; Accrue interest after leaving college. Require marketable degrees for funding; Fixed, manageable student tuition for colleges enrolling fed-funded students.
Glenn Johnson
Midtown
‘Arizonans are struggling’
Mark Kelly is running TV ads wearing a black T-shirt saying “Arizonans are struggling.” Well, yeah, because of Kelly’s support for Biden’s agenda. In March 2021, Kelly voted for the $1.2 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that many economists cite for causing decades-high inflation. He voted for Biden’s first Build Back Better deal, containing trillions in taxes and government spending that were projected by the Congressional Budget Office, if government programs did not expire as they rarely do, to have added trillions to the deficit. Kelly voted for removing the long-standing filibuster rule in the Senate. He recently voted for the Inflation Reduction Act that economists say will not reduce inflation but does add 88,000 new IRS employees. People are flooding across the border at Yuma, and smuggled fentanyl is killing Arizonans. Kelly has opposed ending Title 42 and supported filling the border wall gaps at Yuma, but has that been for border security or just for getting re-elected?
Gusher Adams
Midtown
Traitor
Three Top Secret documents were found in Donald Trump’s desk drawer in Mar-a-Lago. They weren’t even stored in the unsecured storage rooms of Mar-a-Lago. Has the former president, who was reported to own three passports, already spilled the beans? Has he already called people, possibly foreign government officials, and told them what the documents said?
If anyone else had illegally stolen Top Secret documents and tried to cover it up, as Trump and his employees have, wouldn’t the obvious conclusion be that this was the action of a spy engaging in espionage against our country? Wouldn’t we call such an ex-government employee: Traitor!
Bruce Joffe
South Tucson
Lake and Hobbs
Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs has declined any televised debates with her opponent Republican Kari Lake. This is a decider for the undecided.
My vote will go to the hopeful who isn’t afraid of confronting adverse opinion.
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
The earth is flat
The media has been targeted as “liberals” by extreme right-wing groups and especially Trump, and as a result there has been a noticeable chilling effect on content. If 1,000 climate scientists say climate change is real and human-caused, but two scientists disagree, then the media is cowed into publishing these extreme outlier opinions.
Trump reps sue 60-plus times in state courts to overturn elections based on fraud and 60-plus times they lose, not infrequently ordered to pay attorney fees for filing frivolous litigation. Yet the media continues to publish extreme outlier opinions (letters and op-eds) that election fraud was rampant and resulted in stolen elections. (see Lake, Kari; Finchem, Mark; and Masters, Blake.)
The Earth is not flat. The sun does not revolve around the Earth. Publishing the opposite conclusions would be nuts. Continuing to court or give any space to individuals spewing election fraud or climate change hoax or QAnon child sex trade blah blah is nuts, too.
Stand up for truth, stand strong and don’t look back.
Rick Rappaport
Oro Valley
Labor controversies
Recent comments surrounding Labor Day point up the tremendous flux in today’s labor market: demands for minimum wage, (weak) ascendancy of unions, massive worker shortages, robots replacing humans, effect of baby-boomer retirements, management vs. employees. But for some historical context, I recommend seeing Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer prize-winning play “Sweat.” It’s a modern play, but with historical echoes and is on view at Rogue Theatre through Sept. 25. The plot is riveting, and the acting, direction and setting just superb. You’ll leave with lots to think about.
Denice Blake
Midtown
Appreciate the calm argument
Re: the Sept. 14 column “Pro-life movement not going great, but it’s just beginning.”
Thank you for printing the column by Ramesh Ponnuru on the pro-life movement. It is rare enough that we who support the protection of unborn babies see anything positive for this issue in your newspaper. I subscribe to this newspaper because it is the only organ still being issued in Tucson, even though I often disagree with your editorial policy. It is heartening to read something positive on this issue, as well as practical suggestions put forward by the author of this column. I appreciate the calm with which the issue is addressed. Many people who identify as pro-life have profound sympathy for women facing unwanted pregnancies, but we want the baby’s life to be saved.
Elaine Behling
Northeast side
Slur pulled from place names
As an Arizona history buff and student of place names, I support the ongoing effort to remove the derogatory word “squaw” from our maps. In the case of Piestewa Peak, however, I will note that Indigenous people did not name places after persons. Names such as Cochise and Geronimo were applied by Anglos.
Lacking written languages, Indigenous place names tend to describe recognizable features of places so named; thus the mountain we know as Sentinel Peak (aka “A” Mountain) just west of downtown was named Chuk Shon (dark at the base) the name that evolved into Tucson.
William Thornton
Midtown
Vote Republican
VP Kamala Harris has said that if Democrats hold their majority in the House of Representatives and pick up two more seats in the Senate that the first order of business there would be getting rid of the long-standing filibuster. Then, only a simple majority vote of 51 would be needed to pass their far-left legislation, much of it already passed in the House.
It would include banning semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, turning non-complying current owners, who bought them legally, into criminals; radically changing the Supreme Court by expanding the number of justices, adding more liberals to protect their agenda; bestowing citizenship to over 11-plus million illegally in the country; codifying abortion on demand into the third trimester; passing their multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better tax-and-spend legislation, further increasing inflation, depressing the economy and adding trillions to the deficit; and fully implementing AOC’s radical Green Deal. Just about anything on the Democrat’s leftist agenda will be passed. Vote Republican to save America from it.
Taylor Greenway
Midtown
Reject Purple for Parents
Re: the Sept. 10 article “Let’s protect public schoolchildren from Arizona’s witch hunters.”
As a parent of a Catalina Foothills School District middle schooler, a dedicated school volunteer, a public education proponent, and voter, I am deeply invested in the outcome of the CFSD Governing Board race.
David Fitzsimmons recently highlighted Arizona’s anti-public education candidates who are on the November ballot. He specifically mentioned Purple for Parents, a group that supports anti-public education school board candidates and stokes fear and paranoia among voters.
I am horrified that three candidates who are backed by Purple for Parents are hoping to take over the CFSD Governing Board. I am proud of all CFSD offers, such as Spanish and Chinese immersion, 22 AP courses, visual and performing arts, and PE at every grade level. CFSD boasts a 99% attendance rate, 97.5% graduation rate, and 90% college attendance rate.
I urge CFSD voters to do their homework. Reject radical Purple for Parents candidates. Vote for governing board candidates who support public education: Amy Bhola, Amy Krauss and Gina Mehmert.
Lori Lundberg-Leung
Foothills
Why change the comics?
I was very disappointed to see the change in the paper Tuesday morning. The comics are one of my favorite sections of the daily morning paper! We don’t need to see the TV schedule or the horoscope information. If you want to save money, stop printing so many letters to the editor and use that space to bring back all of our comics!
Jerry Howell Vail
Kamala Harris: Border is secure
On Sunday, Sept. 11, Kamala Harris appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and told moderator Chuck Todd that “the border is secure.” Todd challenged her statement citing a record number of 2 million already encountered this year illegally entering the country. Harris reiterated that the border is secure and blamed Trump for breaking our immigration system.
Harris apparently thinks Americans are stupid. She’s lying or completely ignorant of the border situation. She was appointed as the “Border Czar” but never visited the border to get a firsthand look at her and Biden’s disaster. Just a quick stop over in El Paso on her way to a political fundraiser in California.
How many Star readers think the border is secure? Under Trump’s last year in office there were 405,000 Border Patrol encounters, a reduction from 900,000 the previous year because of his newly implemented border policies.
The Biden administration continues to lie to the American people. They want an open border, assuming more future Democrat voters.
Christy Daniels
Foothills
Changes to Star are a hot mess
Having spent years of my life on a computer for my job, I thought I would get a reprieve when I retired. Now the Star is pulling the option for me to treat myself to a full two pages of cartoons, two daily crosswords and a cryptoquip. Not everyone who has subscribed to the paper version does so for the miniscule sections for national and local news (which can be accessed through TV or the web), or needs to have every possible bit of minutiae about U of A sports. I both like and need a break from electronic media.
I’m especially upset that I just renewed my paper subscription, which has been costing more all the time. What distresses me more is that if I and others like me are unhappy enough to drop our subscriptions, where does that leave our loyal, considerate and dedicated paper carriers?
Georgianna Murphy
Foothills
