Star’s letters to editor
never fail to entertain
Love Letter to the Star: Please never change! I open the letters page every day in anticipation — and I’m never disappointed. It’s always a wonderful master class in how other people should live their lives.
The subject doesn’t matter. Be it social distancing violations, careless bicycle riders, irresponsible water use, electric scooter shenanigans, or countless other real and imagined issues, the Buttinskis and do-gooders of the Star’s letters page will map out how everyone else in the county should live their lives.
No matter the crisis, it’s comforting that the know-it-alls and nannies of The Star’s letters page will always come through with marching orders for the rest of us.
To all of these heroes I say: “Don’t ever stop!” You wannabe “General managers of the universe” will guide us down the right path while entertaining us in immeasurable ways!
People are also reading…
Bill Buth
Marana
Reasons some say no to mail-in voting
Re: the April 25 article “The left’s all-mail voting fantasy must be put to rest.”
I think the real reason the Pima County GOP chairman and others of his ilk don’t want vote by mail is because, as his president has admitted in one of his few honest moments, if too many people vote no Republican would ever be elected.
We conduct important business of all sorts by mail and computer; instead of flimsy excuses we should improve voter access to the polls and not force people to risk their lives to exercise this basic right.
I have had my signature questioned in the past by those pesky Democratic recorders’ office devils and have never had an issue through decades of voting by mail. Particularly now we need to decrease large gatherings and vote by mail is a no-brainer. A chairman of a political party should be seeking better ways for people to vote, not thwarting them.
Larry Fleischman
North side
Showing support
for the US Postal Service
I, like most people, value the United States Postal Service. Virtually every day of the week USPS workers risk getting sick. Like many health-care workers, many USPS workers have tested positive for the coronavirus.
It is distressing hearing our president rail against the USPS at this critical time and insist that he will not support the USPS unless they do as he demands. Forgive my paranoia, but I can’t help linking the president’s continuous campaign against the USPS with his absurd and false attacks on mail-in ballots. As an aside, he voted by mail, and we should be able to also.
Yesterday, I was delighted to discover how easy it was to show my support for the United States Postal Service by going to the USPS website and ordering 200 Earth Day Forever stamps.
Dave Gallagher
Foothills
We must not waste
creative, different ideas
When will unproductive criticism of creative ideas stop? Six Sigma facilitators recognize opportunities in novel approaches.
Recently, President Trump engaged (unwittingly?) in a SixSigma idea generation technique called “wish, wild wish, fantasy brainstorming” with comments about possible treatments (light, heat and disinfectants).
This idea involves generating wide-ranging ideas, impractical as stated, yet sparking thinking to turn them into practical solutions that routine idea generation would not produce. Trump never said “do this”, “this is practical now.” He asked people to look into it, exactly what Six Sigma facilitators do.
Let’s not waste opportunities. We saw heretofore unattainable rapid adaptation of production facilities with collaboration between companies (Ford building GE medical devices), and new types of personal protective equipment.
Consider the 14th-century Renaissance. Many different disciplines collaborating, rapid generation of ideas and solutions sparked the most productive period in history.
Stop criticizing wild ideas.
Celebrate multi-disciplinary teams refining ideas, removing obstacles, producing new better products/techniques providing worldwide benefits, and new businesses/jobs to revive the economy.
Warren Hatcher
Marana
Uranium mining around Grand Canyon
If Arizonans weren’t aware of the threats to the Grand Canyon from uranium mining, now is the time.
The Nuclear Fuel Working Group released its long-awaited report suggesting that the uranium mining industry be revitalized, and that regulation and land access be streamlined for extraction. It means that uranium mining could happen again soon on the rim of our treasured canyon that is loved by all Arizonans and many others around the world.
As a hunter and angler, I cherish these lands and waters. With spectacular scenery and cold, clean water, wildlife flourishes here. I come here for solitude and quiet, and connect with nature. I bring my children here just as generations before me did, and with any hope, generations to come will too.
Given the history of uranium mining here we can guarantee contamination to waters in this arid landscape. Even from many miles away, seeps and springs carry contaminants that will affect fish and wildlife.
Cyndi Ruehl
North side
Consider what is lost with opening US
As we attempt to reopen up our country, what is it exactly we hope to accomplish? Is it simply a return to normalcy? Is that what this is all about — this restlessness, this cry for self-liberation?
Are we ready to return to “pre-COVID,” to turn the page and put this chapter of social distancing, of masks and hand washing behind us?
If we do choose to deny the undeniable, we are headed for a disaster. Large numbers of people will continue to die until the herd is culled, some of them young, most old.
Are the deaths of our husbands and grandmothers, our wives and grandfathers, our brothers and our sisters, the price for our restlessness, our self-liberation, our normalcy?
Is there not a middle way, a well-planned road of continued caution, of testing large samples of our population, of strategic tracing of those with the disease, of prudent isolation?
Do we continue to deny the awful truth? Or do we finally conclude that there is no return?
Jerry Greenberg MD
Foothills
Celebrate our faith
in a coming vaccination
One of the really positive effects of this terrible virus assault is the firm faith we have that our scientists WILL find a vaccine that will protect us. We fret the when, not the if; there is no if. We do trust our scientific community. We have learned from our history.
Claudette Haney
Green Valley
Quit whining, Mr. President!
Trump has been president for over three years now, and he’s still blaming Obama for “a bare cupboard” of medical supplies to combat the pandemic.
That’s highly debatable, but even if it were true, couldn’t he have replenished them in that time?! Oh, but “I’ve had a lot of things going on,” he tells David Muir in an ABC News interview.
Oh, really? Like watching TV, tweeting, calling in to Fox News hosts, golfing, holding campaign rallies from the time he took office?
A sorry excuse for a president, someone who’s supposed to lead us, unify us, inspire us. Really, a sorry excuse for a human being.
November can’t come soon enough.
Karen Schickedanz
SaddleBrooke
It is a virus,
not a narrative
I am hearing a lot of coronavirus narratives these days.
The Arizona economy is being opened. The teams that are modeling the disease data are being “suspended.”
As a community, we certainly have to weigh cost/benefit of maintaining a healthy economy and job environment.
But COVID-19 is a virus, not a narrative.
A virus, like everything in nature, is perfect. It will take perfect advantage of every opportunity it is given. Magical thinking or a biased parsing of imperfect data cannot will it away. A counter-narrative won’t negate its truth. You can’t gaslight a virus.
Individuals must continue to view themselves as vectors for a virus that may or may not kill them, but might infect or kill persons close to them.
Take precautions. Wear your masks. Wash your hands. Protect yourselves and our whole community.
Greer Warren
Midtown
