Bravo to all with courage to exercise, defend rights
Thanks to Larry Rother, principal of Chandler High School, for recognizing and honoring the right of senior Devin Booker to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Most importantly, thank you for educating your teachers on the rights of students regardless of what said teachers personally believe to be true.
Thank you, Devin, for showing the courage and for respectfully standing up for your rights and for the rights of all of us.
Please continue to be a positive force for helping us all to better understand what freedom of expression looks and feels like.
I applaud your courage, Devin. You will make a difference in this world, I am sure. — Donna Bates, Phoenix
Money is much better spent on roads and bridges than walls
Let’s say you don’t like your neighbor behind your house, and want to build a high wall to isolate him. On the other hand, your house has a severe termite problem, and is subject to impending damage, even collapse.
Which problem would you spend from your limited funds to to solve? So it is with all of us. Should we build a wall to have a feeling of better security, or repair our failing infrastructure to achieve safety, and improve the economy. The decision should be easy.
— David Woodland,
Scottsdale
No justice, no peace until you admit wrongs of people in power
Protests, no matter how big or loud, can in fact create dialogue and positive change. But you have to listen to the message, not the smoke and mirrors of distraction.
Consider Rosa Parks compared to Martin Luther King Jr. or Tommie Smith and John Carlos (fists raised, 1968 Olympics) or Muhammad Ali or Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (Dakota Access Pipeline) or Colin Kaepernick.
These protests have never been about disrespect to the United States, the flag, the police, the military and so on.
It is about people being tired of being tired. People tired of being scared. People tired of being angry. People tired of being treated as less than.
Do you remember Rodney King? What about Emmett Till? What about the Lovings? None of these people meant you disrespect.
You who disagrees with their way of life, their thoughts on how they should be allowed to live their life, the way individuals use their celebrity status calling attention to the world we live in.
It is about the disrespect of human beings based on orientation, skin color, religion, identification and so forth. Until people acknowledge the division and wrongdoing of people in power there can be no discussion, no justice and no peace.
— Laura Luxenburg, Gilbert
In foreclosure, HOAs have only reward and no risk at stake
Weeks before your HOA series was published, I lost a battle to remove the foreclosure clause from our CCRs.
“It’s a standard clause,” argued the attorney. “We’ll never do it,” promised the board. “We didn’t do it during the meltdown,” a board member assured us.
Your story demolished every one of these statements. How is it that homeowners must pay the legal fees of the entity seeking to seize their home as well as the legal fees to defend themselves?
If HOAs had to pay their own legal fees, as plaintiffs in every other legal action do, they might think twice before moving forward.
As it stands, HOAs and their attorneys have only reward and no risk at stake. In a foreclosure action, business owners can’t seize someone’s home for non-payment of a bill. They just have to adjust to the fact that a small percentage of customers may become deadbeats.
HOAs should do the same. At the very least, the home equity should be paid back to the homeowner, not the HOA, after the delinquent fees have been collected.
In America, the punishment is supposed to fit the crime.
— Michele DeFilippo,
Phoenix
Again, John McCain represents the interests of John McCain
Thank you, Robert Robb, for calling out John McCain for what he really represents — himself.
Trump called out the ego maniac. McCain’s selfishness has been exposed. He doesn’t represent Arizonans in his elected position.
— Rich Schnakenberg,
Phoenix