Tucson’s hidden history
April marks another anniversary of the Camp Grant Massacre, an event that should be familiar to the citizens of Tucson. The 1871 vigilante attack was organized and led by prominent Tucson citizens, including two early mayors, William Oury and Sidney DeLong. The slaughter of over 100 Aravaipa Apache women and children and the enslavement of another 28 children was followed by a nationally publicized trial in which a Tucson jury found the defendants innocent of any crimes.
While the Camp Grant Massacre has been extensively documented by historians, the city of Tucson seems to want the event hidden in the shadows of the past. To date, there has been no official recognition of the massacre, and no historical markers memorialize the horrific events that transpired. It is long past time for Tucson to formally acknowledge the Camp Grant Massacre as a truly regrettable but nonetheless important part of our civic history.
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Drew Colenbrander
East side
Mexico suing gun dealerships
So if Mexico can be allowed to sue a gun dealership in Arizona, our attorney general can sue them for allowing the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants into Arizona? This has a tremendous effect on our community. People are dying from the drugs flowing across our state borders as well as the immigrants that die on a daily basis trying to come here. As I see it, the monetary amount the taxpayer in this state has to pay to accommodate immigrants with the benefits and housing cost is too much. So maybe a petition from the people get together and file in a federal court to sue the country of Mexico for allowing this to destroy our country. And kill our children. The strain on Arizona is too much and needs to be paid for by Mexico if they allow this to continue.
Maybe I should run for AG or Governor since the standards seem to be fake it till you make it.
Larry Boze
Southeast side
Opinion and facts
Re: the April 23 letter “Lamb not fit for office.”
In response to the comments about Sheriff Mark Lamb, here is one thought: It’s a good thing this is a collection of opinions because that’s the only thing that was shared. How about speaking facts? Sheriff Lamb has an impeccable record of public service and has actually worked to protect citizens from gang activity and human trafficking. He speaks for the values of many Arizona citizens and has the fortitude to serve our state even after his own struggles and the loss of his son. Why not share facts about Democrat candidates and how they are qualified to represent Arizona residents in the US Senate? Oh. That’s right. Because there aren’t any. But that’s just my opinion.
Jaime Marie Spicker
Southeast side
Supported by science
Re: the April 21 article “Vetoing tamale vendors is one too far for Gov. Hobbs.”
Tim Steller’s article is dangerously misguided. Anecdotal evidence of the safety of home-prepared foods by State Representatives Travis Grantham and Alma Hernandez is refuted not only by testimony from professionals charged with the inspection of food preparation, packaging and distribution but by countless studies by health professionals, nicely summarized in the article “Food Safety in Home Kitchens: A Synthesis of the Literature” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
It is important to note that Rep. Hernandez’ Master’s Degree in Public has a concentration in Public Health Policy and Management. While greatly valuable in addressing the many inequities in our state’s healthcare system, it provides little expertise in the area of food safety, certainly not enough to outweigh the overwhelming opposition to HR2509 by food-safety experts.
Gov. Hobbs acted in a responsible, scientifically-supported manner.
Stanley Kissinger
Northeast side
Squatting
Could someone please explain to me why someone who occupies or vandalizes government or businesses is guilty of the crime of trespassing, yet when squatters break in and occupy a private residence or occupy property illegally after the termination of a lease, it is referred to as a civil matter and takes months to evict.
Why do trespassing laws only apply to businesses and government buildings? Why are landlords exempted?
Thomas Wenzel
East side
Mortgages for low credit scores
Poor money choices result in a low credit score and are a pattern, not an oops. While making money for a place to live and food, they often are without money before payday. Are wages too low or poor choices spending money? These people have poor credit scores, and the problem isn’t the money, it is poor financial choices. One cause is the lack of education to teach financial planning and money management and gets worse with age. Toys and entertainment become more expensive, but the income can’t keep up. Biden’s latest vote-buying scheme is to help people with poor credit scores to get into a house, the largest debt most people have in their life after they have proven they can’t manage money. Who will end up paying for these losses? Biden’s solution for the country is to go deeper into debt, but once again, who will end up paying? My taxes and your taxes.
Loran Hancock
Northwest side
Guns
To have a fire, you must have: fuel, oxygen and heat. Eliminate one of those and you have no fire. To have a mass killing you must have: a shooter, a weapon and victims. Which would you eliminate to prevent mass shootings? A shooter — plenty of them around. A weapon — plenty of them around too. Victims — plenty of them around. So which would it be easier to eliminate and eliminate mass killings?
Jerry Lujan
SaddleBrooke
Why is Trump not in jail?
There was a time just about 100 years ago when a political zealot and authoritarian fascist attempted a forceful takeover of Germany’s government. This attempted takeover was organized and spearheaded by the zealot himself — Adolf Hitler — on Nov. 8, 1923, with a march on Munich. It is called the Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch), and pitted 2,000 of his paramilitary Nazi troops against government police (sound familiar?).
Hitler and his troops failed, and although he fled, he was soon captured, arrested and charged. At trial, he was found guilty of treasonous conspiracy. He was sent to prison. All this happened in that month of November.
Like Hitler, Trump organized, conspired and was present during his attempted overthrow of America’s democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. The motives of these men were/are uniquely and unmistakably aligned.
What’s taking so long? Why is Trump not in Jail?
Ernest Saccani
Foothills
Hass disses supporters
Re: the May 11 article “AZ lawmakers pass $17.8B budget despite Dems’ concerns.”
This article reported on an extreme example of official cowardice. The centerpiece of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ campaign was opposition to universal school vouchers. Indeed, this was the centerpiece of her 2024 budget message. She caved on this vital issue, accepting vague gains on issues of far lesser importance to her supporters. Why didn’t she show the same political courage as John McCain when he rejected his party’s attempt to kill Obamacare? Instead, she joined the Kyrsten Sinema example of rejecting her party’s and supporters’ clearly expressed policy preferences. Without some unknown confidence-building measures, Hobbs will likely be a one-term governor.
Ron Bechky
SaddleBrooke
Republicans want to help Russia, China
Imagine permanently paying 10 to 20% or more for gasoline. Think about paying that same amount for clothing, food and everything else not made or grown in the United States. Why?
The Republican leadership in Congress wants to do what Hitler and Khrushchev couldn’t do: Take away the United States’ control of the international currency market. By having the US default, other currencies take over as instruments of payment. While Euros now have 30% of the world’s payments, the Chinese yuan would become stronger quickly and could replace the dollar in oil transactions. The default would undercut Iranian and Russian sanctions, thereby making those two countries stronger. Default would be equivalent to the Confederacy in the Civil War printing counterfeit US currency, when 33% of all US currency was counterfeit by the end of the war, thereby weakening the Union. Basically, the Republican leadership could accomplish what the Confederacy could not—destroy US currency value.
As the clock ticks until the United States defaults on its debt, Republican leadership fiddles.
Matt Somers
Midtown
Mine Tales
William Ascarza, the author of Mine Tales, announced he is signing off after 10 years of publishing in the Arizona Daily Star. It is always a pleasure to read informative articles such as Mine Tales, but I am especially grateful to Ascarza, whose knowledge of history and geology has given life to the struggles and successes of the mining industry in Arizona. His tales will be missed.
Linda Willmore
West side
Reduction in border encounters
President Joe Biden and Secretary of DHS Mayorkas are now claiming that since Title 42 expired, that their new tough border policies have cut Border Patrol encounters by 50%, from about 10,000 a day to 4,000. New border policies include having asylum seekers apply in another country before coming here, immediate deportation and not allowed re-entry for five years, sending 1500 military personnel to the border for administrative duties, and pressuring Mexico to place law enforcement on its southern border with Guatemala. The obvious question to all this is why were these policies not put in place two years ago before over five million people crossed the border illegally? My opinion is that President Biden, immigration activists in the White House and DHS Secretary Mayorkas wanted to have an open border. Their non-actions proved it. They only implemented the new stricter border policies when criticism from both Republican and Democrat leaders mounted, and the encountered numbers at the border got to be a political liability.
Michael Wayne
Midtown
Thank you, Tim Steller
Re: the May 14 article “A warm, hopeful man departs a sinister era.”
Thanks to Tim Steller for a wonderful story and write-up on his Dad. I’m sure this story hits home for a lot of us. It certainly made my day. Note to Arizona Daily Star — Don’t ever lose columnist Tim Steller. He is truly a diamond in the rough.
David Keating
Northeast side
Santa Ritas mayhem
The Santa Rita Mountains are a Southern Arizona treasure, home to human communities offering good lives, unique public lands, and an abundance and diversity of wildlife in special places of international significance. It is a destination site for visitation by many Americans and visitors from around the world.
Great thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity for its efforts to stand up for the stewardship and protection of this irreplaceable place. The recent Appeals Court decision to permit ruinous mining in the mountains and the unsustainable consumption of groundwater, supporting free-for-all dumping and destruction of public lands by a foreign company is … breathtaking. Property values, water supplies, world-famous research sites, a place visitors once wanted to come to, the sustainable use of our natural resources for the benefit of the local communities … not an issue?
Where is the Arizona Congressional delegation? Where do our Senators and Representatives stand?
Roger McManus
Midtown
Guns have changed
Our founding fathers, good and wise men all, enshrined the right of gun ownership into constitutional law via the Bill of Rights nearly 250 years ago. Not being omniscient, they could not have conceived that their state-of-the-art muskets would evolve into weapons that could kill a dozen people in a 20-second burst or that the ammunition they used could turn a human body into a mass of blood and tissue identifiable only by DNA — or sometimes by a pair of small, blood-stained shoes. If they had, I would bet all I own that they would have been far more precise and thoughtful in the wording of the second amendment.
Maya Angelo once wrote of her youth, “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better. We know better now. Why can’t we do better?
Carol Conniff
Foothills
Rosemont
Thank you, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, for giving carte blanche to any foreign entity that would like to continue digging and desecrating what is left of the mountains, deserts, and sacred locations in Arizona. The land stewards of Arizona have long sold out to foreign mining interests, and Circuit Court, you have set out a welcome mat.
Barbra Kingman
Southwest side
