Kindness, understanding are key for future leaders
“What is more wise than to be kind? And what is more kind than to understand?” — Thomas Tyron
Wisdom, kindness and understanding, three things I expect more of from our national leaders. And how little we get from them in these difficult times.
Let’s disperse the peaceful demonstrators with tear gas so we can wave the Bible outside a church. Even the leaders of the church decried this misuse of their sacred space and book.
I was raised a Christian and one of the values I was taught is to treat others with kindness and understanding. Giving these values lip service is one thing, honoring them in our actions is difficult but important.
If we’re going to make America great again we need to think about what made it great in the first place. White supremacy and racism have no place in our country or with our leaders.
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Keith Gentzler
Marana
Protesting will not hasten wheels of justice
Protests demand peace and justice. The pundits interviewing protesters should ask the only important question: What specific action do you recommend be done?
Abstractions like peace, justice, fairness and such, only have meaning when translated into action. Protesters seem to think that protests are action. That’s nonsense.
The demand for punishment of the four officers involved in George Floyd’s killing seems, often implicitly, to be a call for swift justice.
Our elected leaders should point out the simple truths we have been required to follow since the passing of the Bill of Rights. Laws are designed to punish the guilty, but even more important, to protect the innocent.
The wheels of justice cannot be forced to turn in haste just because of an aroused public.
Charles Josephson
Midtown
Dr. Christ needs a math lesson
Our state health director says that when you test more, you get more cases, accounting for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 diagnoses over the past few weeks. However, it is not just the absolute number of cases, it is the percentage of positives among those tested that is going up. One learns in statistics class that the proportion of positives in a valid sample is not a function of sample size, but a function of population incidence.
More testing does not produce a higher proportion of positives; if the incidence remains the same the ratio of positives to negatives in the sample remains the same, even at 100% population testing. Absolutely, mathematically, the incidence of COVID-19 in Arizona is increasing, not due to testing but due to spreading of the virus, as mitigation practices are loosened in the name of economics.
We still have no treatment and no cure. The fatality rate remains between 5 and 10% of those infected. How many deaths will be economic?
David Vernon, Ph.D.
East side
Gatorade player
(and person) of the year
Hello. Our nonprofit received a $1,000 dollar donation check from Schwab Charitable on behalf of Ms. Alyssa Brown. This came as a surprise to us and we would humbly like to say thank you to young Ms. Brown.
It is my understanding that Ms. Brown, Arizona Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year, was given the chance to choose a local charity and she chose us.
It is also my understanding that Ms. Brown is a minor and so I decided not to post anything on Facebook until permission has been given. Fortunately, your paper followed and covered her success, and so I’m wondering if you, in the middle of so much bad news, would like to pass along my gratitude on behalf of our local nonprofit helping veterans and low income families right here at home. We are an incredibly young and small charity and so any gifts like this certainly make a huge difference in carrying on with our mission and vision.
Thank you.
Engel Indo
Downtown
Reform our failed
long-term-care system
Failing to plan is planning to fail, as nursing homes have proven. They’ve accounted for a quarter of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths. That’s 26,000 lives lost so far. With their medically fragile residents, nursing homes are familiar with death. But making things worse are outdated facilities, weak regulation and oversight, miserly reimbursement rates, and staffers who are poorly trained, underpaid and overworked.
Fixing this mess won’t happen overnight. But there is something we can do right now: Insist that all nursing homes have a detailed emergency plan, including what to do during a pandemic.
Many don’t. A study by ProPublica found that between November 2017 and March 2020, “6,599 facilities, equal to about 43% of the country’s nursing homes” were in violation of federal disaster-plan rules in place since 2016.
We must do better. Please tell your representatives in Congress it’s time to demand reform and transformation of our failed long-term care system. That could be you, suffering in the next bed.
Judith B. Clinco, R.N., B.S.
West side
Class of ’20 ready for real world
The top 10 things people may not know about the graduating class of 2020:
The students are: 10. hard working; 9. introspective; 8. talented; 7. multitaskers; 6. uber tech-savvy; 5. tolerant; 4. serious; 3. going to inherit our debt; 2. going to have an uphill struggle for jobs; 1. going to do just fine with the educational tools they have been given!
Mary Jo Swartzberg
SaddleBrooke
Honoring teenager who helped change world
Does anyone remember the name of the 17-year-old who recorded the death of George Floyd in spite of being threatened with pepper spray? I don’t. This a great shame because had it not been for her, we might have just added Floyd’s name to the thousands of other African Americans who fell victim to racist prejudice.
Because of her up-close and personal recording, protests erupted around the world and the dialogue about racial injustice has changed forever. Please remember her name and honor her with a street name or a high school named after her and even consider the woman for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Glenna Sheerin
SaddleBrooke
Trumps has grown bored of pandemic
President Trump doesn’t want the country to believe the COVID-19 pandemic is as bad as it actually is — this much is obvious, and its most pernicious manifestation is his strong encouragement (followed by Gov. Doug Ducey) to reduce restrictions, which kept the virus in check to a degree.
With the relaxation of these restrictions we now see a substantial spike in cases in Arizona and I predict, along with many other health professionals, it will get worse yet over the next few months. This is a very dangerous virus with many ways to kill or disable people, a fact that still appears abstract to many people.
Trump is comfortable allowing tens of thousands of people to die, and hundreds of thousands to become ill so he can be reelected. This is the essence of the man. COVID-19 is now boring to him. Think about it when you vote.
Norrman Epstein, M.D.
Midtown
McSally ad leaves out connections to China
Martha McSally’s latest campaign ad is about bringing jobs back from China. She claims that Joe Biden supports doing business with China and that Mark Kelly has business ties to China. Seems that she failed to mention the Trump’s ties: Ivanka’s clothing line, made in China. Our president’s red MAGA baseball caps, made in China.
Martha, did you accidentally forget to also mention the Trump’s business ties to China? I somehow think not.
Suzan Van Thull
Green Valley
Significant policy change still in reach
The good news: two otherwise terrible events, the pandemic and racist police violence, have energized public protest to levels not seen in decades. Added to a more progressive federal administration likely to take over in January, it looked like significant policy change was possible.
But now the bad news: the energy and focus of the protest has taken a turn down a path with limited local outcomes. “Defund the police” seems sensible: take local tax money away from the police and give it to local social agencies that will work on our missing safety net, reducing some of the problems police shouldn’t deal with anyway.
These are not “bad” actions, but will be if they take our focus from the federal government, where the safety net has to start. This seems like a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. Please, let’s not blow it!
Ron Staub
Foothills
Let’s not second guess Bighorn response
Vitriolic criticism of the firefighting efforts on the Bighorn Fire leave me angry and ashamed at the self-centeredness of Tucson citizens, especially those who chose to build or live near the wild lands interface. The behavior of these fires has everything to do with weather (wind and heat), as well as topography. The fire spread to the southern face of the Catalinas could not be predicted or controlled.
The fires are also being fed by invasive grasses, including buffelgrass sown by ranchers, and other invasive grasses homeowners chose over fire-hardy native species.
If you choose not to, you put yourself and them at risk. Remember that, in the past 17 years, 313 firefighters have lost their lives, mostly in defense of life and property. The emergency services deserve your deepest respect, not criticism and second-guessing.
Elisabeth Roberts
Midtown
Ducey is serving Trump,
not Arizonans
Arizona’s COVID-19 infection and death rates are dangerously spiking because Gov. Doug Ducey is a Trump sycophant. Trump told governors to open up businesses because it was worse for Americans having them closed than open. So Ducey immediately opened Arizona businesses even though CDC guidelines advised against opening until a steady decline in infections and deaths was achieved.
Now, Arizona’s infection and death numbers are spiking, pushing emergency rooms and ICUs into emergency status. Ducey, you aren’t serving Arizona. You’re serving Trump. Ducey needs to resign or be recalled.
Glenn Johnson
Midtown
Taxpayers should know who’s getting virus loans
Many worthy and deserving small businesses have been able to take advantage of the taxpayer backed virus loans that total around $551 billion! However, the White House administration is unwilling to disclose who got the money. One can only wonder who they’re protecting and/or what they’re hiding. There is no logical rationale for withholding this information from us, the taxpayers.
Scott Lukomski
Northeast side
Ducey must follow CDC guidelines for rallies
Dear Gov. Ducey:
I believe your oath is to the people of Arizona. As such, with rising COVID-19 cases/deaths in Arizona, you need to be crystal clear to anyone wanting to hold a rally within our state: Obey the CDC guidelines or go elsewhere!
There is no excuse to permit any gathering that endangers Arizonans’ lives. You must do your duty to me and my fellow Arizonians and there is no excuse. Yes, protesters may have violated safe distancing. But remember your mother’s rule: two wrongs don’t make a right. Do your duty!
Norman Patten
Midtown
Discrimination
by a new means
To Becky Nutt, Gail Griffin, Bob Thorpe, and everyone else who voted “yea” on HB 2706, I am very displeased that you voted for HB 2706, disarmingly named the “Save Women’s Sports Act.” While I see the bill no longer requires tests of anatomy and testosterone to prove students are male or female, obviously it still has the same goal of targeting transgender students by requiring any student in athletics whose status as female is “disputed” to submit to a genetics test.
Sure, you now have included a litany of articles and court cases affirming biological differences between males and females. Who are you trying to fool with your papers and your court cases? Discrimination is still discrimination.
Winston Fredrickson
Bisbee
Coronavirus too deadly for UA to open for fall
Re: the June 11 article, “Robbins’ quick response becomes game saver.”
Burt Kinerk’s loyal guest opinion praising University of Arizona President Dr. Robert Robbins was touching but obscured many facts.
Over 1,300 Arizonans and over 120,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus the past four months. Even now, the rates of death and infection in Arizona are increasing. Robbins’ opening of classes at the University of Arizona this fall would add to the deaths in this state and would unnecessarily bring the virus increasingly into the community. How many more must be sickened and die for the UA?
It seems to me that Dr. Robbins is using his position as a doctor to persuade parents that it is OK to send their children to the UA. I thought the Hippocratic oath called for doing no harm. Robbins’ opening of the campus with its additional increase of infections would bring shame to the University of Arizona.
Matt Somers
Midtown
