We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor on issues of interest to East Valley residents. Submissions should be no longer than 300 words, factually accurate and original thoughts of the writer. Please be brief and include name, address, city and phone number for verification. Letters and call-in comments may be edited for clarity and length.
STATE BUDGET
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Don’t slash health funding
The Jan. 10 article about lawmakers targeting AHCCCS for steep reductions speaks volumes about the real agenda of some lawmakers. Cutting dental care for seniors and prenatal care for women may sound good to legislators such as Sen. Karen Johnson, whose comments reflect a bias against health care entitlements (i.e. Medicaid and Medicare). Most Arizonans, however, who see health care as a major issue, would not look to health programs as the first place to cut.
Legislators should fix the current deficit based on a sound management approach rather than based on ultra-right ideology.
ALAN STEPHENS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WESTERN PROGRESS
PHOENIX
DEVELOPMENT
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Growth is ruining Arizona
I’ve lived in Arizona and the Phoenix metro area for more than 47 years. I’m somewhat disappointed in its condition, appearance and the direction it is going. Change is good, they say, but this transformation by man’s so-called ingenious intellect has got this state in dire straits. The sight today of the area I knew those few moons ago has ruffled my feathers, it sits hard in my craw, it’s hard to chew — and I don’t wear dentures!
Edward Abbey wrote, “Love implies anger. The man who is angered by nothing cares about nothing.”
I recently received a brochure that says, “There’s no place on earth like Arizona.” Is is a true statement? Then why are we trying to destroy its existence by the continual overbuilding, smog pollution, traffic, trashed roadways, rivers, lakes, in addition to the depletion of its valuable resources — water (water-table), energy (no mass solar projects) and the desert (bulldozing)?
If there is no place on this planet like it, then we need to put a “monkey wrench” into the path it’s headed now before it turns out the way of the buffalo, annihilated not by bullets but by our own naïve, neglectful ignorance.
LYLE ANDERSON
APACHE JUNCTION
AMERICA
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Mission provides perspective
As we start the New Year, we reflect on the last year to learn from the past. For me, it is time to reflect on the past two years because I had been serving as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South America. It was a time for learning and growing and, in reality, a humbling experience. It taught me what really matters during this life and to be content for the things that are allotted to us.
At this time I give thanks to God for the United States of America and for the liberties and freedoms that we are offered in this great land. I took for granted the blessings that we enjoy as citizens in this great nation. If we honestly examine ourselves we will see how truly fortunate we are to have all of the rights that our country freely gives us. How grateful I am for the glorious heritage we enjoy as United States citizens.
If we truly cherish the heritage we have received we must maintain the same virtues and character of our stalwart forebears — faith in God, courage, industry, frugality, self-reliance, and integrity. We have the obligation to maintain those principles that they who pledged their lives, their fortunes b and their sacred honor gave to future generations. May we always be true to those principles that make America great.
CHRISTOPHER J. GLOVER
MESA
IRAN
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Consider the source
Concerning the “wise words” of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, quoted by Tribune letter writer Kim Carter on Jan. 12, we must consider the source of those words. In his book “Guests of the Ayatullah,” author Mark Bowden reported a 2003 interview with 12 of Iran’s hostage-takers in the 1979 seizure of the American embassy. They proudly proclaimed Ahmadinejad’s important role in the event.
Ahmadinejad instructs the United States that influence of a government does not emanate from the maintenance and exercise of its military force but in “logic, justice and compassion and empathy for humanity.” However, the simplest reflection on the influence of the U.S. military on the world over the last 70 years, through the era of Naziism and Soviet communist expansionism, resulting in open, free-trading, creative societies like Japan, South Korea and many European nations, tells a different story.
Iran’s $100 million per year support of Hezbollah in Lebanon, through the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, eventually triggered their 2006 summer war with Israel. Hezbullah’s leader reported last summer that they have since been fully resupplied.
Actions speak louder than words. Maybe the “wise words” of Ahmadinejad that we should be reflecting on are those which he delivered before the U.N. about “wiping Israel off the face of the map.”
DENIS EGAN
SCOTTSDALE
ISLAM
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Other sources of extremism
Raymond Moers (Opinion 2, Jan. 12) makes the point that “radical Islamic extremism has been threatening and attacking us for decades.” I think he needs to go back a couple of thousand years. He completely ignored the Crusades, which in some cases were funded by the Catholic church. The Muslims haven’t forgotten.
Radical extremism has been a part of religious history since the written word began. Burning at the stake was commonplace in Middle Ages. Spain gave Jews the choice of becoming Catholic or being killed.
The war in the Middle East is a continuation of the fighting that started after the United Nations created a state of Israel. There will be no real peace in the world until reason and logic gets the various religions to honestly question their faith, just as they now question the faith of others.
LARRY J. KLUTH
MESA
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
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Misinterpretation led to scam
The 14th Amendment was written for blacks’ children after the Civil War, not for illegal immigrants to sponge off America.
After the Civil War, the government wanted to make sure that the blacks who had formerly been slaves were assured their children would be considered American citizens (which they have every right to be because their parents were brought here against their will and they are American citizens).
Through a misinterpretation which just needs clarification and nothing else, illegals found they could misuse it to their advantage by coming when their wives are pregnant. After she has the baby, they can now get food stamps, welfare and all kinds of benefits that are just for American citizens, and then when the baby reaches the age of majority, they can then get their relatives to be brought over (called “chain migration”). It is the biggest scam on Americans and America known to this country.
Ireland had the same problem and recently made a law that said that either one or both parents must be citizens for the child to be deemed an Irish citizen. And many other nations have done the same. Our nation needs to follow suit.
LAURA LEIGHTON
TUCSON
