Ducey should put lives before politics, economy
Governor Ducey,
Please do not risk other peoples’ lives for political or economic gain. Your call to open all businesses before reaching CDC benchmarks has increased the risk for everyone, especially those who have underlying conditions and/or are over age 65.
It is very challenging to keep vulnerable loved ones safe when there are many who ignore protocols or, quite reasonably, have difficulty preplanning, remembering how to safely touch, or not touch surfaces, and maintaining 6-foot distancing. We can’t recover a loved one who has died, but we can recover the economy.
Going forward, show that you care about people by making the morally correct decisions that prioritize life over politics and money.
Lisa Bradford
People are also reading…
Midtown
We’re captives of ‘full speed ahead’ mentality
In light of the recent rapid increase of COVID cases (4.7% higher just last Saturday), how can our governor and state health director bury their heads in the caliche and do nothing to reverse the trend?
When will they act — once hospitalizations near 90% or 95%? How about starting with one reliable measure: mandate wearing masks until this crisis recedes. How about letting the local mayors who are most familiar with their own city’s pulse be allowed to manage it.
Until crowds of people stop gathering closely together, many without masks, how can one comfortably patronize local restaurants and businesses, if one doesn’t feel safe doing so?
The standards that worked successfully at the beginning of the pandemic have been rendered impotent by reopening too quickly? Unfortunately, until there is a treatment or vaccine, one must remain captive to our state and federal government leaders who employ a “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” mentality.
Gary Simons
Oro Valley
Nation’s economics must also be reformed
Changing the policing in our country without changing our nation’s economics will lead to nothing! As long as the majority of our tax benefits go to the millionaires and billionaires, huge corporations and special interests, our income equality continues.
The fabric of protecting our workers slowly disappears and the worker become an expense of doing business. Workers’ voices are now undermined by the rules of arbitration — the worker vs. the business’s team of lawyers and its human resources department. Families are living on the streets while others buy a second and third home or that newer model private jet.
Our jails and prisons are filled with mostly poor people of color. Public money for public school systems receive crumbs while private schools double down on more tax income. City parks become tent cities and three meals a day looks like a handout for survival. It’s THEM AGAINST US. You have to wonder who is “them” and who is “us.”
Roger Engels
Oro Valley
Trump’s border wall
is a historical irony
On Friday, June 12, I was traveling along the border in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge looking at Trump’s “beautiful wall” that is destroying the cultural and natural landscapes of the area.
The wall and construction is also disrupting indigenous pilgrimage routes, destroying hundreds of saguaros and ironwood trees, endangering wildlife, threatening water supplies and bulldozing and blasting sacred ceremonial and burial sites.
I thought back to 33 years earlier, on June 12, 1987, when President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin telling then President Gorbachev of the then Soviet Union to “tear down this wall.”
President Gorbachev listened. Trump listens to no one.
Peter Steere
West side
Let’s redouble efforts to curtail coronavirus
The sharp spike in daily coronavirus cases since restrictions were relaxed in Pima County should be frightening to everyone.
It is clear that relaxation of the shutdown without further restrictions and a cavalier attitude by some county residents have increased the daily infection rate. None of us should assume that if we are infected we will have only mild or moderate symptoms.
Infections in the county for those less than 20 through those 44 years of age are actually more than double those for 65 years and older.
The virus is not only extremely contagious, but it can also be lethal, with quite debilitating, painful and long-lasting symptoms. It seems clear that we cannot expect any mandatory governmental restrictions, so we MUST protect ourselves.
Please mask whenever going into public areas, respect social distancing of 6 to 10 feet, avoid large gatherings, and wash your hands compulsively. We can stop virus transmissions by protecting ourselves.
Steve Lefelt
East side
Cancel culture
and a dystopian state
How is this not on the front page of every national news outlet? Like a scene out of “The Walking Dead,” Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood has been taken over by Black Lives Matter and protesters. Seattle’s city and police officials have abandoned the area while the de facto state has been set up.
If this were a right-wing extremist group like the Bundy clan in Oregon a few years ago, it would be headline news with calls for the federal government to quell it. But this is not the case, because it would be “offensive” to oppose the vehement, moblike movement of calls to “defund the police” and punish all who would dare even suggest an alternative view. We are erasing history, defacing Lincoln statues and calling Churchill a racist. This cancel culture is not much different than Hitler’s book burning. Let us consider our ways.
Mike Brown
Midtown
Harassment of health officials is appalling
Re: the June 13 article “Invisible army of public health workers fighting COVID-19 face growing threats.’
As a public health professional, I am appalled by the blatant harassment of state and local health department directors. At least 27 state and local health leaders have left their posts since April, largely due to hostile conditions and backlash from government bodies and disgruntled residents as states have reopened.
The backlash has taken the form of vehement protests against health officers’ efforts to keep reasonable precautionary measures in place. Last Thursday, Dr. Amy Acton resigned as director of the Ohio Department of Health after armed protesters besieged her home. In Orange County, Calif. the chief health officer, who had ordered the wearing of masks in public, resigned after an attendee at a Board of Supervisors meeting stridently read aloud her home address to an audience of nearly 100.
I am also concerned that gender discrimination might be at play as all health officers cited in the above referenced article were women.
John Newport, PhD
Northwest side
Pitts is wrong about whites and racism
Re: the June 14 column “Don’t say ‘I am not a racist’ after your racial sin.”
Today, I read one of the most racist remarks I have ever read or heard. In Leonard Pitts’s column, he says about white people, “No, the question is not whether we are racist, but what kind of racist we will be.”
So, in Pitt’s mind, he can judge all white people to be racist and he can also brand the statement of CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman, “We are not mourning for George Floyd,” as being racist.
Why don’t we all admit that no race or group of people is all good or all bad or all racist or all whatever? We are individuals. If we truly want to reduce racism, we need to start looking at character rather than color.
It is so discouraging to see people seemly trying to incite racism by making racist comments.
John Cioffi
Northeast side
Laura Conover
for county attorney
As a young person and a member of this country’s most diverse generation yet, I value cultural competence — the ability to navigate relationships between cultures effectively. This is particularly important in the office of Pima County attorney, in a county that is 49% people of color.
Among the candidates running for that seat, only one shows that she has any cultural competence: Laura Conover. She is bilingual, allowing her to bridge the language gap between Spanish speakers and government offices.
She has been a public defender, giving legal representation to those who cannot hire a lawyer to defend themselves, people who, due to our broken justice system, are overwhelmingly people of color.
Both of her opponents, on the other hand, work for the very office that prosecutes these people. This experience gives Laura the competency needed to navigate the diverse cultures of Pima County. Vote Laura Conover for Pima County Attorney.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Foothills
All people deserve dignity and respect
Re: the June 14 article “How I became ‘pro-lives’ instead of only ‘pro-life.’”
I agree that it’s true about the lives of some students. However. I would like to know what systems deny students and their families dignity and recognition of their worth.
We all know there are many organizations in Tucson that will help families. Some may be too proud to ask. We know COVID-19 has affected many lives. Food banks give out food to all that are in need. Some families may be illegal immigrants, who are afraid to ask for assistance. They think they will be reported and deported. And, this has happened.
We know about this system but not other systems. Local police will not bother them unless they break local and state law. I agree that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. All lives matter.
Duane Huckleberry
Green Valley
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly for county recorder
In 2018, I made a mistake on my mail-in ballot and called the Recorder’s Office to find out how to get a new one. I was instructed to visit one of their offices to exchange my ballot and mark a new one. It was easy for me to do, I have transportation and time during the work week to make the trip. But I question how the system works for a voter without my privileges.
Watching the debate for Pima County recorder, I was struck by the fact that Gabriella Cázares-Kelly would bring an awareness to this office rather than a “that’s how we have always done it” mentality.
I trust that she will approach the office with an expectation that voting should be easy and convenient for everyone. That’s why I’m voting for Ms. Cázares-Kelly for recorder.
Jenise Porter
North side
Let’s stay focused on police violence
Re: the June 15 letter ‘Black-on-black killings are getting no coverage.”
“Why do Democrats get so agitated over a police killing ... yet ignore black on black violence?” This is a classic “whitewash” of the true problem and what millions of protesters the world over are marching about.
Yes, Chicago and other urban areas have terrible problems with gang violence. This black-on-black violence has been in the news many times. Certain people love to deflect to this instead of focusing on exactly why minorities and any person with a soul and empathy who watched that slow agonizing murder of George Floyd are protesting. That is simply abuse of power.
Until you have lived in an inner city, gone to school there, tried to get a job and earn a decent wage, maybe you could try visualizing that life and then the impact of having someone kneel on your neck.
Martha Taubeneck
West side
