Tucson Speaks Out: Sept. 14 letters of the day

What is right

Re: the Aug. 15 article "Ciscomani should defuse calls for war with Mexico."

In the Opinion section Michael Burgoyne wrote an excellent admonition to Congressman Ciscomani about his wrong thinking in advocating military invasion of Mexico. Burgoyne's analysis tells us what is wrong; I would like to suggest what is right.

Like Congressman Ciscomani, I believe U.S. military action is necessary if Mexico wants help in eradicating its criminal cartels and in cleaning the corruption from its national and local police forces. I have no doubt that the vast majority of Mexican voters would favor an American partnership in getting this job done, as they are certainly suffering more than we. Here is a three step outline of what I believe should and can be done.

1. Lopez Obrador (the current president) will be term limited in June of next year, and a new president will take his place. We need to use this time for numerous discussions with the three leading candidates to craft a plan (or two or three) for cooperation and a time specified to begin. Each candidate will surely have a different view, but I feel certain that each one would like to make Mexico safe from the cartels.

2. Such a plan should include: a) a NATO-like joint command of a joint force (details to be worked out), b) American foreign aid specifically for raising pay and standards for police forces throughout Mexico, and c) 100% American funding.

3. Any plan must state a goal accomplished or a date certain for our military's exit.

It's hard to imagine that we could give ourselves a greater present.

Jeff Bruce

Green Valley

I don't get it

Re: the Aug. 13 article "Nuclear weapons are an existential catastrophic threat."

The author decisively and chillingly brought our attention to the deadly nightmare of nuclear war. The world cannot be trusted with nuclear energy, period, especially in these chaotic times. We're living through real and capable threats of the bombing of nuclear installations and unfathomable nuclear plant accidents. Thousands of abandoned radioactive uranium mines hourly leach their contaminants into our groundwater. And now the Japanese want to discharge irradiated water into the Pacific ocean.

Indigenous tribal lands on every continent have been excavated for uranium, causing terminal diseases to those with the least amount of resources to do anything about it except suffer. And if that is not enough, we have domestically exploded 814 nuclear bombs on Western Shoshone lands!

And yet we rush to fund new nuclear power plants with a mind boggling history of horrendous cost overruns, gigantic amounts of water use and decades to approve and build. Carbon free? What a joke. Extraction, transport and infrastructure are anything but. I don't get it and neither should you.

Marian Fish

Oro Valley

Stop the bans

Some public library systems in the U.S. have recently been forced to shut down due to bomb threats. Fearful angry groups seeking to intimidate and stop the free flow of information and ideas want to ban books, cut library funding, and install school curricula that indoctrinates students with their extreme worldview. Don’t they realize that books are necessary to help children understand themselves and their place in the world? Or is this what they’re afraid of?

Parents have the right to tell their children what not to read, but they don’t have the right to control what all children can read. In a democracy, citizens are free to share their ideas without fear of retaliation or censorship. In 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups publicly burned “un-German” books in university towns and cities which became a powerful symbol of Nazi intolerance and censorship ultimately paving the way for fascism. Today, we’re seeing the erosion of our democracy. What do we plan to do about it?

Cindy Bordelon, retired lawyer and former board member of the League of Women Voters, member of CommonSense American

Downtown

Survey says

Re: the Aug. 22 letter "Survey says: Money is everything."

Thanks to the writer of this letter. Yes! Samples can be flawed. Studies can be flawed. Surveys can be flawed, too. Results of surveys can be flawed by whom you ask. If you want a certain answer, you ask a certain population. If the sample is only Republicans or only Democrats, the results will definitely differ. One of the first things taught in statistics is that many studies are flawed.

Toni Kane

Oro Valley

Pay attention to Trump's economic policy

If Trump is re-elected, he will not just renew his culture war against the so called "woke," He plans to wreck our economy by imposing up to 10% in across-the-board tariffs which will be passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices spurring inflation. He also intends to give more tax cuts to the top 1% that, like his 2017 cuts, will not trickle down to the rest of us. The Heritage Foundation has developed a 1000-page handbook for him to use to gut the federal civil service which will make it harder for people who rely on programs like Medicare and Social Security to receive and use their earned benefits. President Biden has been pursuing a successful economic policy that focuses on the middle class by rebuilding American manufacturing and our infrastructure. Trump will gut that effort and return to a policy that only benefits the rich and the special interests that support him. The economic contrast could not be starker.

Eileen Hollowell

Oro Valley

Inflation blame game

By traditional standards the US economy is doing fine. Unemployment is low, wages are up, inflation is abating and consumer spending is strong. But to the average consumer the economy is still bad because of high food and gas prices.

Oil prices are determined by a world market based on supply and demand. People say the US should pump more oil and force prices down. Increased US production would result in an OPEC production cut (already done) with little change in prices. Seasonal demand and the oil cartels set gas prices.

Higher consumer prices resulted directly from supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic. Business closures and quarantines left people unable to work. To prevent a possible recession, stimulus funding was approved which prevented a recession but ultimately led to higher inflation.

The US has avoided a recession and returned to full employment but at the cost of higher prices. Many blame the President for higher prices but the real culprits are COVID and OPEC.

Michael Mulcahy

Northeast side

Wadsack recall liberal opinion?

Re: the Aug. 11 letter "Wadsack recall report."

If that's what the letter writer from Marana thinks, here are some facts:

Let's start with her being in the mob who interrupted a Vail school board meeting. Then Wadsack declared the Uvalde mass school shooting a false flag event. She has tweeted the QAnon slogan and shares false claims of the 2020 election being stolen. She loves her guns so much that she had her picture taken holding a weapon of mass destruction, posing in her high heels. She does not live in the district she represents and claimed spousal privilege so her husband could not testify to this fact. So only the other radical right Republicans would be the ones to have voted her "Freshman Senator of the Year." Oh, and isn't the Republican party for less government? She has written thirty (30) bills since January.

Constance Amspaugh

Southeast side

Don't let facts get in the way of what you want

The attorney for Mark Finchem and Kari Lake says there is no actual evidence that electronic tabulating machine improperly counted any votes or were that they were hacked. However, he says the mere possibility that vote tallies could be altered is enough to basically throw the machines and/or votes out. Well then ... there is no actual evidence that I have won the Powerball lottery, or that I have even bought a ticket. However, the mere possibility that I could win should be enough for the money to be awarded to me.

Karen Micallef

Oro Valley