Tucson Speaks Out: March 30

Truth

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene held an inquisition (euphemism for Congressional hearing) last week. The thrust was her objecting to the aired reporting of NPR and PBS. Nobody inquired when she listened regularly to either. Because the answer is known. And this was a hearing seeking truth. That's why when it was disclosed that a few years ago, an NPR report called Trump "a deranged racist sociopath." I concluded that truth was, in fact, the reason to hold the hearing.

Kenneth Haber

Northwest side

Legislature bad

Why do some Arizona legislators think they are more special than the voters?

Once again, the Legislature has failed to eliminate its unfair traffic ticket status, allowing lawmakers to postpone or eliminate their speeding tickets issued during the session.

At least some lawmakers agreed the special program needed to be abolished. But this proposal died in committee.

Speed on you, lawmakers! We voters will continue to pay our traffic tickets just as the cops told us to do.

Joe Schula

Foothills

A possible projection

If you take a look at the intent of the 2025 plan that has become a blueprint for the Trump-Musk presidency, you'll note that federal civil service jobs were going to be replaced with patronage jobs. It appears that Trump-Musk is cleaning house in preparation for that situation. Trump letting Musk do most of the dirty work because he has no public accountability. What will the criteria for the patronage jobs be? Payroll deduction going directly to the RNC and then to Trump? Will Musk's stormtroopers violate voting records to see who has been loyal to Trump? Could happen.

GOP dream coming true? Sayonara democracy.

Scott Lukomski

Northeast side

Housing density

While I understand that there is a serious housing shortage, I must comment on Bob Lanning's opinion that high density is the panacea to housing prices and traffic. While he mentions "live-work" and "mixed-use" projects, he glosses over the myriad of services needed by a community — whether in a single-family home or a high-rise apartment. His example of Manhattan simply cites high density as the metric for its "greenness," and omits the fact that there is excellent mass transit in NYC, a bodega on every corner, and a fruit stand/dry cleaner/barber within walking distance. And never, in these pro-high-density commentaries, is it mentioned the positive impact for most people of having a little "piece of dirt" in which to scratch around.

Monica Wadsworth-Seibel

Northeast side

Incompetent, traitorous

Defense Secretary Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Gabbard should resign or be removed. They willingly participated in a Signal chat to discuss a military operation in real time, which included classified launch times, locations, and weapons.

They put our military at risk and made it easy for bad actors to infiltrate our national security. They were warned by NSA one month prior that the app Signal was not secure. They ignored the warning. They were briefed about the dangers of private phone use as well as securing private and national security data. They ignored it. When asked for transparency, they lied, downplayed, deflected, and cried "witch hunt."

This is not just incompetence, it is traitorous.

Jean Meconi

Oro Valley

Auto tariffs are a fool's gambit

Trump is putting a 25% tariff on all foreign-made cars and car parts. According to the Tax Foundation, tariffs are taxes imposed by one county on goods imported from another country.

Every buyer will pay more for their vehicle. If foreign-made, consumers will pay 25% more. U.S. automakers will raise prices up to 25% yet remain competitive. If 20 new factories are built in the U.S. over the next decade, at 2,500 employees per plant, that's only 50,000 jobs. Trump claims the tariffs will raise over $100 billion annually, which will allow further tax reductions, not reduce federal debt. If the average increase in the car price is $6,000, that's 17 million foreign-made cars purchased each year! U.S. car buyers will pay $1 trillion more so 50,000 more can be employed in the auto industry over the next decade (offset the newly-DOGE unemployed?), the 1% can keep more of their “hard earned” money. No debt reduction! Only higher taxes!

Ira Adler

Foothills

Questions about 'national security' team

I was amazed at the use of Signal for "attack" or "war" plans presentations.

For one, Signal removes messages after a week. Republican administrations since George W Bush have used private servers like the Republican National Committee's server to get around saving classified information so that there would be no record of decision making for the National Archives. Republicans have always tried to hide their decision-making. This use of a non-intelligence, public platform was disturbing.

Second, The Daily Beast reported that Wired Magazine pointed out that Michael Waltz's Venmo friends list was set to public. This begs the question of why would you need a Venmo list of fellow Republicans? Is there money changing hands between Republicans? For what reason?

Also, Der Spiegel, a German magazine, found email addresses and phone numbers and other personal info of top Trump security aides.

The classified documents cases against Donald Trump showed his lack of discipline. This laissez-faire attitude to National Security seems endemic in his present administration.

Matt Somers

Midtown

Contact your senators, representatives

The scandal involving use of Signal to communicate classified military plans to attack Houthis in Yemen and inadvertent inclusion of a magazine editor in a group chat with national security leaders reveals a number of alarming facts: The President is not the acting as commander-in-chief and has no idea what his leadership team is doing; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military is not involved in decision-making either; those involved are unwilling and unable to utilize secure communications for classified operations, are liars, are cavalier about killing, and are undermining the U.S. relationship with European allies. None of them has resigned or been removed by the President. Congress has failed so far to do anything either. Call and email your U.S. Representative and Senators. Demand they take action now. Articles of impeachment should be filed against those involved, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Vice President JD Vance.

Amelia Cramer

Downtown

Who will be next?

On March 26, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and Fulbright scholar at Tufts University, was taken from a street near her home, kidnapped by a masked, black-shirted squad. Readers here must watch the cell phone video, a truly terrifying moment.

Then, defying a judge’s orders, she was moved 1,500 miles away, to an ICE prison in Louisiana. Her offense? One year ago, Ms. Ozturk was the co-author of an article in her student newspaper, critical of the devastation and civilian deaths and casualties in Gaza. These are the actions of a police state.

Like Ms.Ozturk, I am a Fulbright scholar, and study Education Policy. I was welcomed at Ankara (Turkey) University in 2014-15. Turkish people value their Constitution and its ideals. Today they are protesting its violation. Their opposition presidential candidate was arrested, and imprisoned. We can only imagine their thoughts, as this video is public worldwide, and only imagine Rumeysa today watching these protests, from an American prison.

Dr. Guy Senese

Midtown

Hablando se conoce la gente ...

There's an old Spanish saying,"hablando se conoce la gente", which, to paraphrase, means you learn more about a person by listening to his/her comments and inferences than by the subject talked about. Old adages endure because they are wise. This particular saying is more appropriate than ever because it is imperative that we need to not merely listen carefully to our politicians at all levels but actually hear what they are saying and compare it with what they actually do. A case in point is the attempt to cover up the security breach that failed to use secure communication lines.

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

Isn't that bribery?

Isn't Elon Musk's paying Wisconsin voters $100 to sign a petition in opposition to "activist judges" and then paying one of those Wisconsin voters a million dollars, considered a bribe? This vote to fill a seat in their Supreme Court is important but supposedly it is a felony in Wisconsin to offer, give, lend or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote. I know Musk did the same thing in several states to get people to vote for Trump, however no one called him out, filed a lawsuit for fraud, bribery or protest that it was just blatantly wrong, so maybe it's legal and approved of by our states, congressional members and American voters.

Christie Cummins

Midtown

Citizen speaks to Trump

Dear President Trump:

You do not own Panama.

You do not own the Gulf of Mexico.

You do not own Canada.

You do not own Greenland.

You do not own Gaza.

You do not own the American people.

You do not own me.

J. Lisa Jones

Midtown

Thankful

We should all be thankful and relieved that Kamala Harris was not elected President. Would the border still be wide open? Yes. Would known criminal illegals be allowed to remain in the country? Yep. Would cashless bail and no ramification for committed crimes continue to be allowed? You betcha. Would the current education test score disaster be allowed to continue with no effort to improve? Of course. Would government spending audits still be considered off-limits? No doubt. Would trans men continued to be allowed to pummel biological women in competitive woman’s sports? Of course. Would the $34 trillion budget deficit continue to be viewed as a minor, insignificant problem? Most certainly. Would common sense still be considered a perverted attribute? No doubt. We truly dodged a high-velocity bullet.

Loyal M Johnson Jr

Oro Valley

Fascism

So now we’re snatching legal foreign residents off the streets and whisking them away to an uncertain Kafkaesque fate merely for indulging their constitutional right to dissent. Yes, non-citizens legally in this country are protected under constitutional law and are entitled to speak freely and not be subjected to illegal search and seizure or cruel and unusual punishment. To arbitrarily disallow speech running counter to the narrow agenda of the current administration and use that to violate human rights is fascism pure and simple.

A visa is a privilege that permits one to be in our country legally, but also tacitly acknowledges the right to be subjected fairly to our laws, particularly those that secure human rights. How can we claim to embrace an ideal of freedom that welcomes a plurality of ideologies when we are willing to condone reserving the harshest punitive measures for those who inconveniently remind us of the level of tolerance demanded of that ideal?

Robert Gavlak

Midtown

Ciscomani Town Hall — not

During the past three weeks, I have called Juan Ciscomani's Washington D.C. office asking when there will be a town hall in Tucson. Each time I'm told "there are none planned". Seems to me that Ciscomani has forgotten the slim margin he had in 2024 to win his re-election. Hopefully voters will not forget his unwillingness to meet with his constituents come 2026. His website is full of "self-praise" but nothing about 1) The economy and cost reductions for food and energy, 2) Risk of cuts in Social Security Medicare/Medicaid and 3) the destruction of our Government by DOGE. If you are concerned about these issues, then one thing we can all do is contact his office and express our concerns. His Washington D.C. office is (202) 225-2542, per his website.

Gloria Purdy

Marana