Letters to the Editor (8/15)

Vote McComish and Dial for a strong economy

Dear Editor:

With the rising food and gas prices, I'm feeling the strain. We need state representatives who understands economic matters if we ever hope to improve our economy and strengthen the job market.

John McComish has long been one of those representatives who I trust with fiscal matters because of his demonstrated ability in the State House and strong background in business.

I've been told that another seat in the house will be vacant. Jeff Dial proposes smart solutions to everyday problems and important issues. He, like McComish, has a lot of experience in business management and offers a solid position on how to improve the economy.

Among many things, McComish was national sales manager with Johnson & Johnson and has decades of business experience. Dial has worked for his family business for 20 years and serves as executive vice president.

I feel confident that with McComish and Dial in office, economic matters will be dealt with by experts who have learned from real life experiences. And with fuel and food prices soaring, that's what Arizonans need right now.

D.R. Shebesta

A ‘green' tip

Dear Editor:

Do you ever wonder how many people think about how to water their lawn and keep their vehicle clean without wasting water?

My family fits into that, but it is mostly my dad. I propose a solution (a way that you don't have to waste water): wash your car while its on your lawn so the water will run off the vehicle and into the soil. Makes the grass greener and your car cleaner - without wasting water!

Joshua Ekstrom, 13

We don't need another tax increase

Dear Editor:

Based on the TIME Initiative (Proposition 203) our governor is in full support of raising the state sales tax by 17.8 percent.

This is based on a review of the citizens/groups that filed the "For" and "Against" statements with the Secretary of State. A total of 61 were filed out - 43 "For" and 18 "Against."

It is of interest to note that of the 43 that were "For" the proposition - 31 or 72 percent were paid for by the TIME Coalition - even the one that our governor submitted.

I believe the TIME Coalition is really "stuffing" the ballot box on this initiative and hopefully my fellow citizens will just say no when it comes time to vote on Prop 203 this fall - as TIME has expired - we don't need another tax increase.

Jim Jochim

The U.S. is too prosperous

Dear Editor:

"A desire to live more simply..."

The words of a local biophysicist who means well and probably views the world through the eyes of an hysterical environmentalist. We appreciate his cycling to the mass transit station to go to work in Phoenix. He's doing his part to keep the planet from drowning in its own prosperity, which, if he has his way, won't last much longer.

Our prosperity is always at the expense of the other nations of the world? Will we be happier when we reduce our standard of living to that of Zimbabwe? Or Mexico?

Let's give up our air conditioning, electricity, autos, etc. After all, only a hundred or so years ago the inhabitants of this planet didn't have those amenities and they survived. They were lucky to live to the ripe old age of 60 or 65. Probably didn't enjoy it much, either. And their productivity certainly wasn't anything to shout about.

By the way, progress and prosperity create jobs, which create wealth, which creates better methods of controlling greenhouse gases, which is his complaint. This isn't a zero sum game.

Roll back the vision of progress, which technology gives us, and replace it with the curtain of mediocrity, diminished progress and all of the niceties that socialism allows us. Is that to be our fate?

Biophysicists probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for the prosperity and progress enabled by the pollution of free-market capitalism, republican democracy and all they allow us to enjoy.

Don Kennedy

Do not call it marriage

Dear Editor:

My life-long educational, business, social, fraternal and religious connections en robe a quality of life in harmony with God and his handy works, the laws of Nature.

Indeed, it is unsettling to hear and read much about same sex marriages, its practitioners worshiping at the altar of abomination.

Creation! Two males cannot procreate; two females cannot procreate. Nature does not permit it.

Since our ancient beginnings, our values have evolved over time into a unique and deeply-rooted social, legal and religious institution; marriage between one man and one woman pre-dates the state and its patronizing laws. Marriage reflects the natural biological complementary union of a man and woman. It is an integral thread in the social and religious fabric of every major culture and society.

Our ancestors understood marriage as an intimate union between one man and one woman. Most people in the 20th and 21st centuries define marriage that way, too. Along came the deviates who wanted the same social esteem as the heterosexual population. They wanted to be "married" and "respected without bias and prejudice." The homosexuals who choose to share their lives together as a "couple" have a right to do so under law.

That does not make the law right, only condescending. It does not make their homosexual lifestyle harmonious with Nature. That lifestyle is not, by any ancient or modern definition, a marriage. So please do not try to dignify your unnatural lifestyle by calling it one.

James McGrath