Floridians in harm’s way grateful to Arizonans
I wish to thank the family members of the city of Phoenix, Arizona Task Force One — Urban Search and Rescue team for your sacrifice during their deployment over these last weeks.
It is always hard to send emergency personnel off to their daily job. It is even more difficult when that job is an extended mission to help others during a major disaster, such as Hurricane Irma.
It can be distressing not to have that loved one around and to worry about their safety. It may also require you to take on additional responsibilities while they are away.
On behalf of the City of Marco Island (Fla.) Fire Rescue, the residents of Goodland, Fla., and the thousands of individuals who have been helped by your loved ones during their time away from you, I want you to know they made a tremendous difference.
Please accept our heartfelt thanks for lending us your family.
You, the City of Phoenix Fire Department and the citizens of Phoenix should be proud of all of them.
However, above all, I want to thank you for your support and sacrifice at home during this deployment. Without you, this mission would not have been so successful. — Mike Murphy, City of Marco Island Fire Rescue, Florida
Governor and AG are AWOL on Corporation Commission
After reading and hearing so much about the Arizona Corruption Commission (thank you, Republic columnist Laurie Roberts and reporter Ryan Randazzo) and its scandalous behavior, one would think the governor and attorney general would be concerned.
It would seem that the Arizona Corporation Commission is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arizona Public Service. Whatever one’s party affiliation may be, the challenge for citizens is to reverse a corporate takeover of our elections and of our elected officials.
The Corporation Commission stands for crude power that concedes nothing, scorns civility and conducts its business in darkness.
With its thinly veiled authoritarianism and blatant perversion of the democratic process, the Corruption Commission is a shining example of why members of the general public have little trust and much disgust for those in public office whose double standards and hypocrisy are so evident.
— James Kimes, Prescott Valley
You get what you pay for. Arizona doesn’t want to pay for anything
The front page of The Arizona Republic paints such a rosy picture of why Phoenix (or Arizona) represents a good candidate for Amazon’s second headquarters.
Well it ain’t going to happen and here’s why.
Fifty-thousand employees are going to want to have their children educated. Arizona doesn’t want its children educated unless by a for-profit or religiously driven charter school.
Arizona has among the lowest teachers salaries in the nation and the lowest per-pupil spending. Our commitment to education is a joke. Yeah it’s cheaper to live here, but you get what you pay for and we don’t want to pay for anything.
Amazon is committed to diversity. Arizona is committed to exclusion. Everything we do here is to marginalize anyone who is (pick your favorite minority/religion/gender designation/political affiliation and insert here).
Gee whiz, where else would one get SB 1070? Our Hispanic population lives in fear of being targeted by police (thanks to Sheriff Joe) and our avid support of ICE encourages employees at Motel 6 to turn in “paying guests” for investigation by the authorities.
Being bilingual here is an invitation to deportation. How can we expect a company headquartered on the “Left Coast” to ever find Arizona to be an environment that supports their principles.
Amazon move here? Not in a million years. — Steve Schlosser, Scottsdale
Did Steve Benson watch the same Trump speech I watched?
After observing Benson’s editorial cartoon of President Trump’s speech at the United Nation I was left wondering “What speech was he watching? “
Ah, the bias of Benson never ceases to amaze me.