Recovery depends on healthy, safe individuals
Re: the June 18 article “To best recover, we must restore economic freedoms.”
I think it was extremely irresponsible of the Daily Star to print the opinion piece. If we were not in a pandemic, the logic might hold. But the reality is that we are and the piece completely ignores that important fact. It is misleading and dangerous. The writers might be experts in economics but they seem to lack understanding of how to adjust to a global health crisis.
I hope most of your readers are smart enough to dismiss the column and listen to our local leaders who make decisions based on keeping Tucsonans safe.
Penelope Starr
West side
Court ruling on DACA
People are also reading…
actually a win for Trump
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to end the DACA program enacted by former President Barack Obama via an executive order for about 2 million people brought into the country undocumented as children by their parents. The Supreme Court did not rule on the legality of the program, just ruled against it based on a procedural technicality in the government’s filing.
This decision is actually a win for Donald Trump four months from the election as a ruling against DACA would have incited Latinos and there would be nationwide protests. Joe Biden and Democrats would resort to their usual scare tactics. Trump never intended to deport 2 million people in DACA, but rather believed the program unconstitutional and wanted to use it as a bargaining point for comprehensive immigration reform legislation, including border security.
Democrats would do standalone DACA legislation granting legalization to the parents, thus providing an incentive for this scenario to continue into the future. The DACA issue has largely been deflated for now.
Rory Smith
Marana
Personal freedom
is not self-centered
I have to ask myself, what is personal freedom? To me it represents self-control. We have a right to the pursuit of happiness, but does that justify infringing on the rights of others at the cost of the common good? We are all unique but still a part of something bigger.
Personal freedom is not self-centered or selfish. It is the ability to make wise choices and show compassion for our fellow mankind. It is freedom gained by respecting ourselves and others.
A child can’t handle personal freedom, yet we act as children when we refuse to act as adults. We always have a choice. Always. How we respond to any given situation is in our control. Temper tantrums, fits of anger, lashing out at others is not personal freedom or a right. It is abuse of ourselves and others.
We will never be free until we contribute to a better world. Let’s do our part. Rights only work when they result in personal freedom.
Pamela Fauxbel
Green Valley
‘Pro-lives’ means pro-solutions
Re: the June 14 article “How I became ‘pro-lives’ instead of only ‘pro-life.’”
I congratulate Carol Dolaghan on her conversion to pro-lives. Many of us have been asking for years of both sides of the abortion issue to stop striving for power over the other side by passing laws and start working for an end both sides want. That means only wanted babies are conceived and hence there are near zero abortions. There will always be a few due to medical complications.
By pooling efforts we could have very few unplanned pregnancies. For those that do occur we could have the support both before and after birth that would make the pregnancy viable to the parents. That means medical care, financial support for the family, maternity and paternity leave and decent wages among others.
If we had a just society there would be far less need for abortion. Until that happens the rich will always have the availability of an abortion, legal or not, and the poor will still need them.
Donald Ries
Southeast side
Big generational difference
What a big difference between the greatest generation and our current generation.
Our fathers and grandfathers were willing to sacrifice their lives to defend their fellow citizens and themselves in World War II. Some in our present generation now find it simply too inconvenient to wear a paper mask to protect our fellow citizens and ourselves.
Michael Piccarreta
Downtown
Star cartoonist evokes thought and discussion
Contrary to a reader’s letter, I find David Fitzsimmons’ cartoons are the best part of the newspaper. David has the ability, with a few pictures and words, to put his finger on the pulse of Tucson, Arizona and the United States. With a combination of humor and wit, David helps us understand the cause and effect of many of today’s issues.
Today, for example he showcased Gov. Doug Ducey, whose lack of leadership has contributed to a spike in COVID cases. The “I love Trump” button made me smile because Fitzsimmons cleverly unearthed the motivation for Ducey’s lack of leadership. As the reader said in his letter, newspapers should “encourage discussion.” Well, Fitzsimmons does that and more, he makes us smile and think, possibly for a solution.
Saul Ostroff
Midtown
Trump-hating Dems will make Bolton rich
Donald Trump-hating Democrats rushed out to buy books written by former FBI Director James Comey and Michael Wolff, who viciously criticized president Trump. A USDOJ Inspector General found Comey to have been insubordinate in the Clinton investigation. Trump fired him.
Many of the allegations made against Trump contained in Wolff’s book were proven to be false. Democrats full of Trump derangement ran out and bought both books making their authors rich millionaires. So here comes John Bolton, the short-lived National Security Adviser appointed, then later dismissed, by Trump.
Bolton is on record for previously praising Trump’s foreign policy. Now he is about to release a book highly critical of him. The democratic news media like CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and The New York Times are loving Bolton now because he has turned on Trump. The same news media not too long ago despised Bolton saying he was a war monger when appointed as National Security Adviser. Democrats will now rush to buy Bolton’s book making him a millionaire. How pathetic.
Al Ruiz
West side
In COVID-19 fight,
we could do more
During our wars on foreign soil we sadly understood that our troops faced the possibility of becoming collateral damage.
We are in a different war at home, and we could lessen collateral damage here even while restoring the economy. But I don’t see that happening on the individual level.
How are we protecting our most vulnerable? Our answer: Stay inside. We who have been released from the bonds of responsible action can’t manage to wear a mask or stay 6 feet apart; it’s too much to ask.
That’s what I see and I often hear, a lightly-veiled version of the above. Our most vulnerable have become collateral damage.
We can do better. We may even be saving ourselves in the long run.
Coronavirus is still contagious and virulent. We can do something, we can care for each other.
JoAnn Yeoman
Southeast side
Ruling on DACA was absurd
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion rejecting President Trump’s executive order reversing President Obama’s executive order on DACA. Roberts justified his decision arguing the Trump administration had not followed certain federal procedures. What a bunch of nonsense. DACA was done by an executive order, not legislative law passed by Congress.
Roberts simply devised an excuse to justify another Obama policy that he agreed with and concocted an argument to uphold it. This same Justice Roberts rewrote Obamacare, deeming it constitutional by interpreting the individual mandate to be a tax and not a punitive penalty, therefore constitutional. This even ran contrary to Democrats in Congress who had adamantly declared that the mandate was not a tax.
Add to all this that the court as lead by Roberts turned away cases that could have expanded gun rights, sided with a California sanctuary city law against ICE and expanded a decades old Civil Rights law to protect gay/transgender employment. A hollow conservative majority SCOTUS!
Frederick Summers
East side
A message from Danny’s Baboquivari
We are sorry. We misread the pandemic and thought it could be safe to reopen. We were wrong. Danny’s Baboquivari Lounge is a place for adult recreation and it is unreasonable to assume healthy COVID practices across the board. In consideration of our employees and customers we shall close our door until a seven- to 10-day decline in infection rates is achieved. Danny’s Baboquivari Lounge stands with those that believe in a healthy, safe and kind Tucson.
Richard Snyder
Midtown
Some DACA questions for Republicans
So I am 75 and the son of a man who came from England as a child. I do not understand why those younger folks under the DACA program continue to be used as a political football by our elected officials. Hey folks, they were brought here as kids and now they are working and studying contributors to our country. Let them become citizens, let them stay.
Why on earth do we keep screwing them around? Yes, as 4- to 12-year-olds they did not come across legally. Get over it, Madam Sen. Martha McSally et al. Reminds me of politicians, I must say my fellow Republicans, who keep using Social Security and Medicare as problems they can play with. It is an easy fix to make Social Security solvent for the next 20 to 30 years; why do they not do it?
And move on to real problems, I hear there is some sort of virus going around now and maybe that should warrant their attention.
Mike Judd
East side
Coronavirus spread explained
My nurse daughter sent this to me early on during the pandemic:
Karen got infected yesterday, but she won’t know until 14 days later.
Karen thinks she’s healthy and is infecting 10 persons per day.
These 10 persons think they are OK. They travel, go out and infect 100 persons.
These 100 persons think they are healthy and keep infecting 1,000 persons.
No one knows who is OK or who can infect you.
Do you understand why it is important to stay at home?
Wear a mask when you go out. You may not care, but I do!
Barbara Wittel
Green Valley
Removal of House speaker portraits
Politics is pathetically comical sometimes. Nancy Pelosi’s symbolic action is the latest example. Pelosi is removing four portraits of past speakers who she says were confederates. The portraits have been there for many decades.
She has been there for over 30 years, and speaker for some of those. She “just recently” found out about the existence of these particular portraits. So just how offensive could they have been?
Three to be removed served as speakers well before the Civil War (or Confederacy) even existed. Her reasoning that they were Confederates is comical, but it plays well. Also, three of them were Democrats, one Whig.
Fortunately, however, racism will evaporate in the next few days as a result of her action. Assuming, of course, that William Jefferson Clinton expunges his middle name also.
Instead, Pelosi should remove the portraits of three Democrat speakers in the 20th century from Southern states who supported poll taxes to suppress poor black voters.
Matthew Scully
Sahuarita
Truly grateful
to firefighters
Kudos to the Mount Lemmon Fire Department and Hotshot crews who helped save our Summerhaven community. I, and I’m sure everyone else, am truly grateful for your gallant and successful efforts. Thank you!
Jan Dickman
East side
The verbosity
of academics
Re: the June 18 article “To best recover, we must restore economic freedoms.”
The article written by two economics professors used a quote from a Scottish economist from the 1700s on “beneficence and justice” to expound on our economy. I read the article three or four times and concluded it meant mutual exchange of goods and/or labor and protection of business from interference from government.
They took approximately 800 words to say business should have been left free to operate unfettered by regulation regardless of the pandemic. What they omitted was any reference to population suffering and deaths. Was the verbosity an attempt to obscure that unfortunate result of the pandemic or was it just the wordiness by two academics? I would guess it’s the former.
John Kuisti
West side
