TNR efforts are kindly but misguided
Re: the Jan. 23 article “County pause in trap-and-neuter effort shifts burdens.”
Kindhearted but misguided: That was my reaction after reading this article. There’s nothing wrong with trap and neuter, the problem is returning captured cats to the environment, where they are an invasive species. The American Bird Conservancy has found that predation by outdoor domestic cats is the nation’s No. 1 human-caused threat to birds, killing about 2.4 billion birds annually.
Well-intentioned TNR programs, in the words of the conservancy, have been found to be “a waste of time, money, and resources.” Cat releasing is just another menace, on top of habitat destruction, climate change, giant windmills etc. Please keep your beloved kitty indoors. TNR advocates seem to have anthropomorphized outdoor cats in a way that would be unthinkable in our dealings with other animals.
People are also reading…
We need to correct this mindset as the first step toward solving a serious ecological problem.
Robert Laux-Bachand
Green Valley
Do the right thing
for the wrong reason
Donald Trump has been threatening to form his own political party. Strange, since, except for the name, he already owns the Republican Party. Since Republicans don’t want a third party siphoning off votes, they are planning to vote to acquit him at his impeachment. That is shortsighted, since it has been shown that he can be beaten.
It would make more sense to convict him, and then another vote requiring only a simple majority of 51 senators could preclude him from running again. Then they can anoint a new “Trump” of which they have numerous possibilities, and have a stronger strategy for regaining the White House. Plus, they won’t have the possible onus of having a presidential candidate who is residing in prison in 2024.
Rick Cohn
West side
Want to hear a joke? The Arizona GOP
Kelli Ward and her vindictive Republicans have given us independents another compelling reason to vote Democratic. They show blind support for a traitorous, incompetent president by censoring outstanding reasonable and intelligent members of their own party, people most Arizonians admire for their independence and courage.
As my mother would say, Kelli Ward’s followers have publicly “thrown away their brains” and made Arizona Republicans a national joke.
Ellen OBrien
Sahuarita
Where do I go
to be censured?
How embarrassing. When I moved to Arizona, my Bay Area friends were more than dubious. I promised to do whatever I could to turn the state at least purple. This year proved that there is change, and for the best. And, now, a brand spanking new embarrassment, censures!
Just when I thought that there was a fair degree of sanity here, boom, a major step backward. As residents here, there should be some way to censure the Arizona GOP. For now, I’m concentrating on our brand new and totally improved administration. That’s a whole bunch of very good news. So, if John and Cindy McCain are being censured, sign me onto that list.
Binky Luckhurst
Foothills
Trump must face the consequences
Does anyone think Donald Trump is not guilty of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at our nation’s Capitol? He did it in plain view of the world! He called insurrectionists to Washington for weeks, promising them a “wild time.”
On Jan. 6, he repeatedly exhorted rally participants to march to the Capitol to save their country or they risked losing it forever. As one barrier to violence after another was smashed by this surging, deadly throng, they made their way into our inner sanctum of democracy and desecrated it, looking for Nancy Pelosi to tear into shreds and for Mike Pence to hang.
As the insurrectionists said in hundreds of published Parler videos, “We are doing this for our president because he asked us to.”
It is imperative, whether through conviction in the Senate or a court of law, that Trump face severe consequences if we ever want to see the peaceful transition of presidential power in this nation again.
Peggy Hendrickson
Green Valley
Is ‘American way’ the wrong way?
I came across two things this weekend which gave me pause to think and should do the same for Southern Arizonans.
On Saturday, at a farmers market, every vendor and customer was masked and distant except for one defiant customer and his daughter.
On Sunday on “60 Minutes” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Ted Koppel that if American COVID-19 deaths were proportionate to our population they would be at 80,000, not five times that and rapidly rising.
This morning, Kelli Ward talked about “fighting for our American way of life.”
Has anyone here ever wondered if our “American Way” of meeting these times is wrong?
Science deniers and seditionists bleat about all their freedoms to act but before that, at base, unambiguous “right” and “wrong” does exist yet people still refuse to open their eyes.
Timothy Canny
Foothills
What an honor
to be censured
What does censuring accomplish? Nothing. Two of the three censured by the Republican Party in Arizona are or were elected to offices. The other has never been elected to a political office. She is a private citizen!
The right wing of the Arizona Republican Party is only playing to Donald Trump’s base. It only has meaning to them or not since some feel betrayed by the previous president. Doug Ducey, Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain should consider it an honor to be censured by the extreme right in Arizona.
Toni Kane
Oro Valley
50 systems harder to crack than one
As I read the Sunday paper and saw the article that the U.S. Congress was again considering legislation to regulate elections across the country, I paused and reflected on what occurs with an election that has 50 referees with their own stand-alone systems.
A state-based system places responsibility for election security and election fairness within the branches of government of each state. The states’ certify their own results. Like Arizona in 2020, when our Republican governor and our Democratic secretary of state sat down together and said here’s our results.
A national system, while uniform, would lodge such powers in the federal government with some form of election czar reporting to whichever national party is holding power. Thanks to our founders, who had the inspired foresight to disperse power because they knew firsthand the dangers inherent in central governments.
And what an unexpected bonus that in this digital age any foreign actor has to attempt to intervene in 50 different systems instead of one.
K.C. Stanford
West side
Grijalva should consider the victims
Congressman Raul Grijalva cosigned a letter on Jan. 21 to President Biden to commute the death sentences of all federal death row inmates, none of which are from Arizona.
No matter what your view of the death penalty, I see this maneuver as an attempt to avoid open discussion of a very serious matter having dire consequences.
Did any of the Democratic co-signers, including our congressman, make any attempt to contact the family members affected by loss of their loved ones by these people on death row?
Were the family members of the nine African Americans killed by a white neo-Nazi, Dylann Roof, while attending a Bible study in South Carolina, consulted?
“The duties carried out by a Member of Congress are understood to include representation, legislation, and constituent service and education, as well as political and electoral activities.”
Where is the representation and/or education? I could be wrong but, don’t these people still work for us?
Paul Ostrowski
Southwest side
From barrier
to breathtaking
I propose that whatever sections of the border wall that cannot be removed should be awarded to high school and college art students to turn into a work of art. They could use torch cutters, hardware, welding, woodworking, patinas and come up with a wonderful solution to turn some bitter memories into beautiful new friendships and sharing.
Trish Wann
East side
Cats shouldn’t be roaming neighborhoods
Re: the Jan. 23 article “County pause in trap-and-neuter effort shifts burdens.”
Whoever decided that it is a good idea to catch cats, neuter them and return them to the county, surely does not like birds. Remember when the Daily Star had photos and articles adult of an quail followed be baby quail? We called them running thumbs. I have not seen one over the last two to three years.
We once had three mockingbird nests around our yard. In the last two years, there were none. I have only seen one mockingbird around my home. They nested regularly there for years. That was one female mockingbird, not a pair.
We also had sparrows nesting nearby for years, but we have two cats walk across our yard very regularly. Do neutered cats not eat birds? I vote for the birds.
I do not dislike cats. My dog is on a leash. How about cats?
Ned Russell
Northwest side
Arizona could be in for a federal windfall
If you need to worry, worry about the Democratic Party, not the Republicans. They’re out. The Democrats have 224 house seats; 94 are in the progressive caucus led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Senate doesn’t have an official caucus. Based on voting records, though, 20-25 are in the progressive camp led by Bernie Sanders. The media says the moderates will work together seamlessly with the progressives, no Republican support needed. Maybe that’s true.
More likely, Congress will endure a new kind of stalemate. Or perhaps a really old-fashioned one. Those final votes needed to pass a law, they’ll need a bribe to go along.
Lucky for us Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly are on the far edge of the Democratic spectrum. If they play their cards right, the pork barrel should overflow here in Arizona.
Walter Ramsley
East side
