ĂŰÁÄÖ±˛Ą

Where are our Jewish values?

So much written about this Maccabee Games letter. As a Jew, this is the least of my concerns. What is my top concern? Sacredness of life, justice, accountability. That children, journalists and doctors are being shot with impunity, that the families of the hostages begging for an end to war are being ignored. As a Jew who has contributed to Israeli funds, I need to stand with those voices for justice and against the corrupt Bibi regime that, in my opinion, is aligned with Hamas in wanting the violence to continue.

Others may not agree with me, but this is a conversation that needs to happen. Israeli organization B’Tselem calls it genocide. Rescuers are bombed intentionally. We cannot close our eyes. This discussion needs to happen in the Tucson Jewish community, what do our Jewish values call us to do now? If not now, when?

Golda Velez

North side

Pulitzer-worthy photojournalism

Editor: Thank you for prominently publishing on the front page the gut-wrenching photo of the mother and son at the Minneapolis Catholic school massacre. Whether it’s Michelangelo’s Pieta or an AP photographer’s worldwide distribution, we are made to reflect on and never forget unspeakable terror, sorrow and horror.

We can only hope the mother’s anguish and the child’s ordeal have somehow touched the minds and hearts of gun “thoughts-and-prayers” advocates. Truly, this photograph deserves to be alongside the Pulitzer Prize photographs that have haunted, uplifted or captured our imaginations through the decades.

Dean Whitten

SaddleBrooke

Fire and ICE

When chaos reigns, and I can’t make sense of things, I can reach for a fragment of home-grown wisdom from a revered American poet. Robert Frost stuffed the ponderous inexplicable things into our familiarity with “ordinary things” — apple-picking, walls between neighbors, choosing a path when walking in the woods. Ordinary things can reveal great clarity about complex things. Robert Frost gave us a way to clarify some of our chaos today.

Recently, Trump’s masked ICE agents arrested two people while they were on the job fighting fire in Washington state. A political pundit called it “Fire and ICE.” Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” is instructive on the subject — the simple message greets the complex.

Some say the world will end in fire

Some say ice

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire

But if it had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice

Gerald Farrington

SaddleBrooke

Gun laws in Portugal

Another mass shooting. No big deal? “You’ll get over it.” “Thoughts and prayers” “There is nothing that can be done about it.” I beg to differ.

I found a country with reasonable laws for firearms. Here are some of their rules if you want to own a gun in Portugal.

Portugal’s gun laws are designed to minimize gun violence.

1. Guns are only allowed for hunting, sport shooting, collecting, and in limited cases for self-defense.

In order to obtain a license in Portugal, you must pass a criminal background check, a psychological evaluation, a firearms training course, proof of need, and secure storage inspection where the guns have to be in a secure gun safety cabinet and ammunition is stored separate from the guns. In addition, the owner is limited in the number of rounds they can obtain depending on the reason for using the gun.

These sound like reasonable rules. But I am afraid too many Americans would not abide by them.

Dan Beamer

Northwest side

Digital grocery deals

I have been grocery shopping in Tucson for over 50 years. I have loyalty cards to all the major grocery stores, which enable me to take advantage of special weekly deals that are offered to loyalty customers.

Then suddenly everything changed and now I need to scan digital coupons in order to get the “great “ deals, along with the required loyalty card.

Not all of us have access or time to research the digital deals. Why not make the “great “ deals available to everyone who has a loyalty card?

It would certainly be more fair to regular customers, and then everyone would benefit.

Marsha Ubick

Midtown

A model to emulate

Since March 2, 2023, Cindy McCain has served as Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program. She has been interviewed at least twice by the PBS News Hour, explaining the struggles to feed famine and underfed populations throughout the world.

The most recent interview on Aug. 29, McCain described the man-made famine in Gaza she witnessed in a recent trip to the region, stressing the immediate need to provide safe, productive food distribution. Cindy McCain, not Donald Trump, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, sending a powerful message to the ego-bloated leaders throughout the world like Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. Cindy McCain pursues serious solutions to famine and food access diligently without consideration of prizes or praise. She is a genuine humanitarian and a model to emulate.

Roger Shanley

East side

Orange bag recycling is still �on’

The Aug. 28 Star featured an article stating that ĂŰÁÄÖ±˛Ą Attorney General Kris Mayes contends that some Hefty recycling bags are misleading the public; she has filed suit against the company. Does this jeopardize Tucson’s highly successful orange bag recycling program?

Tucson’s Environmental Services staff assures me that the bags in contention aren’t the orange bags Tucsonans utilize for the collection of hard-to-recycle plastics and other items. Participants drop off their orange bags of recyclables at designated recycling centers around town. Hefty pays shipping costs for what’s collected.

A reminder: Recyclables in our blue barrels are commingled without using plastic bags, which can damage the sorting equipment at the recycling center.

Carol W. West

East side

Stamping out dissent

In recent NBC News online, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was removed by the White House administration for disagreeing with Mr. Kennedy’s panel of vaccine skeptics and their recommendations; the reasoning being,” The president was elected for a reason,” a senior White House official said in a telephone interview with NBC News. “He has a view on all these areas, and he wants to execute on those views. If there are people who don’t believe in democracy, then they shouldn’t be working in a democratic government.”

I believe the words he is looking for is not “democracy” but “hypocrisy,” and rather than “democratic government,” I believe “authoritarian government” would be more accurate.

Richard Rebl

East side

Making it harder to become a citizen

Re: “A new barrier for immigrants,” Page 1, Aug. 29: Activating dormant sections of the vast U.S. Code has become a key element of the government’s campaign of suppression against the nation’s nonwhite population. Imposing discretionary “character” inquiries into the naturalization process is a guarantee of abuse, since the same surveillance, AI, and data mining technologies already in use in the government’s mass deportation scheme can easily be used to profile applicants for citizenship.

Let’s say an immigrant happened to be spotted at a protest or political event in the years before he or she filed the application, or was acquainted with a person who was here illegally. Surely this would be a disqualifying mark against the applicant’s “disposition towards the good order and happiness of the United States.”

Robert Laux-Bachand

Green Valley

Simple logic

One doesn’t have to be a mathematician or logician to analyze the cause of gun violence in the U.S.. Causes mentioned are mental illness, poverty, easy gun accessibility, poor gun regulation, misogyny, social media, angry young males, etc. It takes only simple logic to know that IF all of the factors other than easy gun accessibility and poor gun regulation exist worldwide, and there aren’t mass shootings daily in other countries, then the causes of gun violence in the US are easy gun accessibility and poor gun regulation.

With 280 mass shootings in 243 days in the U.S. — more than one/day — how many deaths will it take until Congress admits that guns kill people and work to save the lives of Americans? They can continue with their “thoughts and prayers” for the dead, or they can have compassionate and caring thoughts and prayers for the Americans still living in fear and take immediate legislative action.

Sandra Katz

Foothills