Thanks to those
on litter patrol
Our community is blessed with a multitude of volunteers. We can never thank them enough. Many get recognition from the organizations with which they work. Others are recognized in publications such as this paper. Many silently contribute just for the satisfaction of helping. Recognition isn’t why they volunteer. Among the unheralded are those volunteers who toil along our streets picking up the litter deposited by our prolific litterbugs.
These volunteers help keep our streets clean and safe. Next time you notice someone on litter patrol and the opportunity is right, slow down and give a light tap of your horn (hopefully not scaring them) and a “thumbs up.” Or roll down your window and holler “thanks” as you pass. That recognition never fails to bring a smile to their face.
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Guy Brunt
West side
Hart’s salary part
of bigger problem
Re: the Sept. 22 article “UA paid ex-President Hart $800K for 2-year role after stepping down.”
I was on the faculty of a large public university in California. If we were granted a year’s sabbatical (at 50% salary), we were required to serve the following year, to benefit our students and colleagues from our sabbatical research. A sabbatical could not be a golden parachute to retirement or another job.
My wife and I are UA alumni. Every year we get phone calls from a college-aged voice asking us to donate to the UA. We do give to some specific funds. But the next time she calls, we will be thinking about President Ann Weaver Hart’s golden parachute, the UA paying for fixing up Reid Park golf course, and the $150 million for improving Arizona Stadium, money that could be used for reducing student tuition. Nah, the UA is clearly awash in dollars.
Roger Carpenter
West side
Rule-breaking
a habit of Trump
Quite a few years ago, it was said that we had a “Teflon president” in Ronald Reagan. Now that reputation has been upstaged by our current POTUS, Donald Trump. According to a recent whistleblower, Donald Trump has involved a foreign power in a U.S. election, shades of 2016.
Again, he is evading and obstructing justice. Again, he’s ordering aides not to testify. Again, he’s saying that the whole thing is a witch hunt. Does anyone see a pattern?
Throughout Trump’s career, even before he became president, Trump knew very well how to get away with things, again and again. When will Republicans in Congress take action? And when will the Democrats? Or will they turn their heads again?
Kathleen Pastryk
Oro Valley
Sweetheart deal
erodes public trust
Re: the Sept. 22 article “UA paid ex-President Hart $800K for 2-year role after stepping down.”
I will not spend much time on this. $800,000 for a sweetheart deal, no pun intended. Taught no classes, walked away leaving students and taxpayers continuing to suspect that something is rotten. There “It” is, located between Euclid and Campbell and Broadway and Elm.
Tom Grissom
West side
US, Brazil are laughingstocks
Even as the fires rage, even as “The Lungs of the World” gasp their last dying breath, two Heads of State have forged an anti-environmental alliance over what they believe to be a global conspiracy theory.
Presidents Trump and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, both populist presidents, both climate skeptics, both raping our environment for personal profit, will meet in New York this week for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit.
With climate change being the major existential threat to our national security, with the mass migrations of peoples already beginning, the two major players in the Western Hemisphere believe climate change to be one big joke.
We who used to occupy the moral high ground and lead the nations of the world have become a pariah on the international stage.
Richard Donahue
Huachuca City
Pick one: economy or Mother Earth
A non-economist thinking about economic advancement and economic decline by looking at economic numbers through non-economic eyes after an economic recession and hoping for an economic recovery to improve the economy in an economic-driven country. Nothing can go up forever, including GDP. Increase population produces more buyers: good for economy, bad for Mother Earth.
Zero population growth: bad for the economy, good for Mother Earth. Coming out of a recession, manufacturers increase production for consumer goods they hope to sell. When people start buying for their needs, the economy starts feeding on itself. Then consumers start buying their wants, like home remodels, vacations, RVs, etc.
After that has been mostly satisfied, the economy slows down and people pay off debt and start saving. Manufacturers cut back. The economy slows and heads down. And repeats. The service economy transfers wealth but does not produce it.
Donald Plummer
Northwest side
Steller knocks it out of the park
Re: the Sept. 22 column “Tucson police see election as referendum on them.”
Every so often, Daily Star columnist Tim Steller hits a home run. His Sunday, Sept. 22 column does. The column presents the sanctuary issue with an understanding perspective that, to me, says why fix it when fixing is not needed? The implications of sanctuary status to a segment of our community is fairly presented and should be heeded.
Edward Staten
Foothills
Baby boomers, shame on us
Instead of voicing our concerns, it takes youths’ voices to draw attention to climate change. There is no doubt that climate change is affecting all of us. Politicians are the real ones to blame. They put politics ahead of the real problem, fossil fuels, relying on these instead of promoting solar power and wind turbines.
As a boomer, I take responsibility for doing little. I am at a loss as to why we are afraid to confront the use of fossil fuels, especially coal. I do have one suggestion: why can’t we pour more subsidies into re-educating minors, creating jobs in other areas, such as facing other problems, one being the infrastructure? We need to get politicians on board instead of relying on young people to move for changes.
Tracy Reimer
Northwest side
Government
just an old jalopy
Tens of millions of voters chose Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in 2016, convinced that our political system is broken, but with quite different ideas on how to fix it. The conundrum is that those in a position to fix it are those who benefit most by it being broken. Like an old automobile, it keeps lurching forward, appearing to function, until it ultimately expires. A depressing legacy to leave our heirs, but that’s the road we’re on.
Bob Booth
North side
One special nurse can make all the difference
As another retired nurse of 47 years, trained and licensed in Arizona, I would like to give a loud shout out to the nurse who wrote such an astute letter about how understaffed hospitals are (the norm). There is a lack of schools, classrooms and instructors. We need nurses at the bedside as well as in the classroom teaching.
In the later years of my career, I had two hip replacements, so I found positions where I could teach. The pay was low, even with a master’s degree in education (beyond the degree level), but I was able to pass on my bedside skills and my nursing philosophy.
Sadly it has always been and will continue to be about the “corporate” priority of the “bottom line” while the patients must hope to find that one special nurse willing to go the extra mile, because she really cares about her patients (not her paycheck).
Janice Campos
Foothills
