Letters to the editor: April 28

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.

Submit your letter to the editor

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.

Submit your letter to the editor

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

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Arpaio’s doing his job

This is a letter to the various religious leaders who want to speak out against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his crackdown on crime, which happens to include arresting people who are in this country illegally.

Mind your own business. The majority of the people of Arizona have spoken out against illegal immigration. We have approved laws that are supposed to make our officials, whom we elected and who have sworn to uphold the laws of our community, address specific criminal activity and see to it that our public servants also follow through with enforcing the laws. We had to do this to strengthen the laws already on the books that too many public officials want to ignore. It seems to me that Arpaio is one of the few who seem to realize this.

On the front page of the Tribune, the same day that this letter by various clergy appeared, is an article about the serious increase in kidnapping by these Mexican illegals in our community. Do the clergy want us to look the other way with this, too? What about the murders, rapes, thefts and every other crime done by illegals? Are there certain levels of crime that are OK? Is it OK for people to come here illegally, break our laws, use our social service resources and put our own people in need? If the clergy feels so strongly about the welfare of the people coming into this country illegally, the far majority of which are Mexican, why don’t you move to Mexico and minister to them? Teach them the laws of God if that is your calling — laws which include thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.

LYDIA LOPEZ

MESA

Arpaio's looney tune

I know Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he is not a racist.

Does this mean we will soon have sweeps through downtown Scottsdale and on Lincoln Drive in Paradise Valley, where people with white skin will be stopped and made to prove they are not Canadians sneaking into to the U.S.A?

I am sure Sheriff Joe will agree with me, that these illegals from Canada must be deported. We can’t let them drive up prices in Arizona with their overvalued dollars they call “loonies.”

You let one of them Canadians stay and next thing you know they are calling their neighbors back in the frozen wasteland they call home and encoring them to sneak into Arizona to enjoy the warm weather with them.

Sheriff Joe, if you’re not a racist, I’m sure you will be soon making all the people with white skin prove they are not illegals.

MIKE ROSS

TEMPE

HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATIONS

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State must rein them in

In response to Harold Dripps’ not-so-silent majority (Letters, April 14): After 10 years of studying this issue as both a board member and an advocate for members’ rights, I have had to conclude that Arizona must regulate, or outlaw, homeowner associations in their present form.

After having read literally hundreds of different covenants, conditions and restrictions, I have found that they are long, convoluted terms of legalize and each describes the conditions under which a few of your neighbors who, for whatever reasons, decide they want to serve on the governing board of a non-profit corporation that will, in effect, assume controlling interest in your property.

These board members are volunteers who decide to run for the board whether or not they have any experience in managing other people’s property and/or money. They almost never know the statutory limitations on the board’s powers. As a result, these hapless volunteers hire a property management firm to handle their jobs for them. These firms either have an attorney on retainer and charge the board for his services, or the board hires an attorney, to bring lawsuits against the homeowners who are in violation of one or more of the encyclopedic, often changing without notice, restrictions.

This state allows these scoundrels and amateurs to place a lien your property, whether or not they have cause, and to proceed to foreclosure and eviction. In short, almost every right to which Americans are entitled under the law is breached in these documents.

Dipps has a right to belong to any association of like-minded individuals. He has no right to force others who are not of the same opinion to submit the controlling interest in his property to anyone else, or to join him in his association.

DOROTHY JONES

MESA

DECADES THEME PARK

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Everyone can be a kid there

What a great thing for the state of Arizona! It’s about time. Decades Theme Park is a well thought-out plan and will bring revenue, jobs and tourism to our great state. People are always going to gravitate towards things that evoke good memories. Music is the best example of something that evokes these memories. It is a way for people to have fun and feel like a kid again all the while, listening to the same music that they did back then. There is no way this could fail — just build it!

EVELYN CADMAN

PHOENIX

TEMPE ELECTION

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Jakubek understands business

I am writing in support of Julie Jakubek for Tempe City Council. On May 20, Tempe residents will vote to fill two council seats. My family and I will be voting for her because she is a successful small business owner who understands both the importance of protecting small businesses and the need for citizen involvement in the community. I know that her experience as a community activist, making neighborhoods better, and as a small business woman make her very qualified to represent us on the council.

Jakubek understands the danger of overtaxing vulnerable citizens during difficult economic times and the importance of protecting residents from the consequences of poor leadership. She has pledged to correct the recent vote to overtax Tempe citizens.

Please join my family and me in voting for Julie Jakubek for Tempe City Council.

NORENE THOMAS

TEMPE