We all must ensure our land is preserved
I just returned from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I am a steward at Babad Do’ag, the Catalina Mountains, and my dear friend James Martinez is an extraordinary steward at Waw Giwulk on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Wells should not be dug in our International Biosphere Reserve to build this wall in this extreme environment where endangered Sonoyta mud turtles, pupfish and snails are struggling for life in the Quitobaquito Springs right by the border wall and where a small population of pronghorn reside. Please, we must safeguard and protect the natural and cultural heritage of the reserve.
How could this destructive wall, bulldozers and other damaging vehicles possibly be permitted in this critical habitat, the only place in our world where the Sonoyta mud turtle lives in this tiny spring? It is astounding and deeply disheartening. This is not about partisan politics! This is about life preservation.
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Dr. Amy Eisenberg
Northwest side
State senator has much to gain from firework bill
Every year on the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, my neighborhood sounds like a war zone because of the use of fireworks by private individuals. The sad aftermath of this activity includes the traumatizing of veterans with PTSD, terrified dogs running away from home, and a collective sigh of relief that no wildfires were started.
State Sen. David Gowan has sponsored Senate bill 1667, which would allow the setting off of aerial fireworks (currently illegal) by anyone in Maricopa and Pima counties. Aerial fireworks are designed to explode loudly in the air and send sparks onto the ground.
Gowan, who by the way, represents Cochise County, and who also sells fireworks, and the lobbyists from the TNT Fireworks company will be the only ones to gain from this legislation.
Please contact your state legislators and tell them to vote “No” on SB 1667.
Deb Thompson
East side
It’s time for the DOJ to stop Trump, Barr
To U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors:
We’re appalled by President Trump and William Barr’s attempts to interfere with Roger Stone’s sentencing. If a perpetrator’s well-deserved sentence can be waved off, we can expect them to persecute any citizen of this country on a whim.
Which brings us back to you. You didn’t ask for this, but you’re now defending the front lines of the law and citizen’s rights. Like it or not, you’ll have to fight. Otherwise, any of you who object to what Trump and his minions do in the future will get picked off, one by one.
As a concerned citizen, I urge you to call a department-wide strike or work action against this corrupt, illegal action.
You need to cover each other’s backs.
Trump does not have your backs. Barr does not have your backs. The American people do, and we will stand by you.
Richard Bennett
Foothills
There’s a reason for my Trump ‘derangement’
At least one dictionary definition of derangement suggests its a serious state of mental disorder.
I may as well confess upfront that I suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
But I’d like to know if the supporters of President Trump are really correct when they identify mental illness as the primary reason for the widespread criticism of our president, a criticism that now divides our nation?
And are those Trumpian psychiatrists equally correct in their view that the majority of Trump’s critics are pathologically mired in a disturbed confused disordered state?
Okay, you got me. I’m going nuts.
Because derangement is the perfect word to describe our current state of affairs. Since our laws and institutions no longer apply to our democracy, since tweeting lies instantly transforms any fiction into truth, and since right-minded behavior will always be wrong if it is incapable of supporting Trump’s new order, how could I be anything but deranged?
Jerry Greenberg
Foothills
