New faces
for tired places
When I woke up this morning, I was thinking about how we keep electing the same old politicians expecting change and ending up in the same situation. People are quick to say “Biden has been in politics for 40 years — how come he never made changes to help American citizens?” Well Joe isn’t alone. He represents the typical career politician who enriches their personal well-being while stepping on the backs of others. These career politicians have failed for decades to enact universal health care, immigration reform, fix income equality, illegal drugs, crumbling infrastructure, climate and more.
Meanwhile locally we have an opportunity to reject the same old business as usual and place a new face to the prosecutor position. Laura Conover will have fresh ideas infused into a governmental agency that desperately needs them moving forward.
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Larry Robinson
Northwest side
Conover will address pair of critical issues
In the 45 years I have lived in Tucson, I have worked closely with those most likely to be victims of fraud. Serving on the Pima Council on Aging and the Governor’s Council on Aging made me aware of how vulnerable our elderly population can be to perpetrators of scams and frauds. The reinstatement of the Financial Crimes Unit proposed by Laura Conover would go a long way in addressing this vital issue.
I became aware of a second major issue when serving as a pastoral counselor at the State Women’s Prison in Tucson. I saw firsthand what a tragic mistake it is to put people behind bars for problems with addiction rather than getting the treatment they need. Conover’s commitment to ending the use of jails for those who are mentally ill and/or suffering from addiction is the right plan to confront this concern.
Laura Conover, as Pima County attorney, will address these vital issues that plague Tucson.
Robin Klaehn Quilliam, RN, BSc, CNA
East side
Tear down that wall
Now that we’re removing Confederate monuments, how about tearing down Trump’s border wall? I can’t think of a better symbol of entrenched racism.
JoAnn Sheperd
Foothills
I’ve seen Mosher push for justice reforms
In the race for Pima County attorney, experience matters. Jonathan Mosher has handled the most complex cases involving murder, sex crimes, and violent offenses targeting children and the elderly. He’s also trained other prosecutors nationally on his success in the courtroom. What voters might not know about Jonathan is that he is deeply committed to reforming a broken system that wastes resources on prison as a “solution” to drug addiction. I know this because I am a prosecutor, and I’ve seen him pushing to create alternatives to prison for nonviolent drug offenders. He has led the fight to increase treatment options, rather than costly and inhumane prison sentences for those in our community who need help.
Jonathan has more than just ideas. He has the experience to get the job done. Jonathan Mosher is the most qualified candidate to be our next county attorney.
Dan South
East side
Trump’s achievements vs. Biden’s hypocrisy
Congress just passed a massive $3 billion conservationist bill, the Great Outdoors Act, advocated by Rep. Grijalva of Arizona and Ivanka Trump. President Trump is expected to sign the legislation. The bill spends about $900 million a year, double the current spending, on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and another $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and rangelands. The measure would be the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century.
Meantime, Joe Biden is out there calling Trump a racist. But it was Biden who eulogized at the funerals of racist Sens. Byrd and Thurmond, called Obama an “African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Helped draft a 1994 law that disproportionately incarcerated more blacks for drug offenses, made his “you ain’t black” remark, and has touted his working with segregationist senators.
Stella Murphy
Midtown
Pandemic management
has been a disaster
When President Obama introduced his health-care plan, there was talk of so-called death panels. Under his plan, everyone would have been covered, even for preexisting conditions.
What we have now, people are dying because of mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic by President Trump and his cronies. He has destroyed Obamacare and has no health plan of his own. A perfect situation to be called Trump’s death squads. The U.S. is the world’s worst in handling this pandemic.
The president is now giving lip service to wearing masks so he can improve his chances of reelection.
We do not need another four years of the same mismanagement by a president who is unfit for the job.
Anant Pathak
Foothills
For normalcy to return, we must mask up
Want to return to work? Wear a mask now. Want schools to re-open? Wear a mask now.
Want to not be the cause of serious illness/death to yourself or others? Wear a mask now. Want restaurants, movie theaters, gyms to reopen? Wear a mask now.
Want to return to a “normal” lifestyle sooner rather than later? Wear a mask now.
Want to be seen as a mature person who takes responsibility for her/his behavior? Wear a mask now.
Dale Gehring
Midtown
Politicans are not suited to make these decisions
As a retired educator it struck me as both ludicrous and sad that Gov. Ducey’s chief of staff, Daniel Scarpinato, recently stated that “Schools are ... the most essential service” in the state, yet the governor and state Legislature have combined to provide such paltry monies to schools that Arizona is ranked last or near last in per pupil spending and teachers’ salaries.
Scarpinato goes on to say that there need to be “options for students who have no place to go, whose parents work,” subtly implying that teachers should provide a baby-sitting service, which is a slap in the face to those many educators who are trying to shape the citizens of tomorrow.
Children need to be educated, but in the age of COVID-19, when and how that is achieved is best left up to the educators and health professionals, not the politicians whose main goal seems to be getting reelected. In my opinion, teaching is the highest calling on earth, but it’s not worth dying for.
Ron Locher
Oro Valley
Give yourself
a fighting chance
How is it that the United States, the richest country on Earth, has the highest number of COVID-19 cases? We don’t have universal health care, spending on public health is down, our medical system runs on an “operate and medicate” formula rather than prevention. Some 60% of adults have at least one of the conditions that appear to make the virus more lethal: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic lung disease and obesity.
These diseases are primarily caused by poor lifestyle choices: eating too much sugar, processed and fried foods, and tobacco use. Early in the pandemic I went to Walmart. The shelves where the macaroni and cheese and Top Ramen usually are were totally bare. If that’s what we’re eating, it’s no wonder we’re susceptible to chronic illness!
Medical schools teach very little about nutrition; likewise public schools teach little about nutrition or principles of good health. We’re on our own, people. Try to take better care of yourselves!
LeaDawn Anderton
Southwest side
Medical profession
invited this distrust
Re: the July 23 letter “Vote because your life depends on it.”
The letter illustrates that some of the distrust of the medical profession that is hindering the fight against COVID-19 has been well-earned. Women with chronic debilitating symptoms are dismissed as psychiatric cases, while people of color cannot get treatment for pain. Research into the devastating epidemics of chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease, and autism is underfunded in favor of research into expensive treatments for rare diseases.
This neglect drives many patients into alternative medicine, where some find healing and some learn distrust of Western science, including vaccines. Perhaps the public’s “maddening” response to the pandemic will lead to a reevaluation of medicine’s practices and priorities.
Lisa Sagrati
Midtown
Selective reading
of the Constitution
How many decades have we been hearing some groups misquote the Second Amendment and misidentify the reasons it was included in the Constitution?
A favorite justification for some of these self-styled patriots to own numerous mass-killing weapons is to defend against a rogue government sending unidentified and disguised jackbooted agents to assault and seize citizens off the streets. Well, mercenaries like Mussolini’s Blackshirts have been deployed to Portland to use tear gas, rubber bullets to the face and kidnapping people from the streets. None of this anywhere near a federal property.
How many rocks will we have to turn over to find even one of these ersatz patriots ready to step up and defend our constitutional rights?
Gary Susko
Midtown
COVID testing
at Kino was quick
You may see long lines on national news for COVID testing, but not so here in Tucson. I made an appointment at the testing area, at the sports complex on Ajo. My appointment was at 11:40 a.m., I got there a little early 11:20 a.m. I was tested and out of there at ll:45. The staff was very helpful and organized, adhering to all the CDC standards. Thank you, Pima County.
Don Newton
East side
We are a republic, not a democracy
I keep hearing politicians and pundits referring to our country as a democracy. This is false. The word democracy appears nowhere in either the Declaration of Independence, or the U.S. Constitution.
In fact, Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.”
We are a constitutional republic, not a mob-rule democracy.
James Cross
Midtown