HUD’S rules trump common sense
Regarding “Feds target complex for hearing-impared”
Wednesday): It boggles the mind that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants 75 percent of the units in a lowincome housing complex that is specifically oriented to the deaf and hard-of-hearing (a heretofore unserved affordable-housing niche in Arizona) to be occupied by non-hearing-impared tenants.
At some point, shouldn’t common sense and logic be allowed to override an illogical federal regulation?
Apache ASL Trails is an idyllic environment for its low-income, hearing-impaired residents. HUD apparently wants to, quite arbitrarily and irrationally, undo the immense good that this project has done.
— Brian J. Smargiassi,
Mexico’s economy was just apparently making a comeback when the Maldonado case came to light this week.
This case is a huge setback for tourism to our southern neighbor. And it’s not just the ill-advised imprisonment of a clearly innocent bus passenger. Of greater importance to Mexico tourism is a justice system based on GUPI: “guilty until proven innocent.” (Not to mention the other twin reasons to never go there — chronic drugoriented violence and widespread police corruption.)
Why would any Americans be willing to risk their lives or their personal freedom to vacation in Mexico? It makes no sense at all, even in the unlikely event that the country were able to curb the drug trade and greatly decrease police corruption. The main reason being that GUPI can put you away for a long, long time.
— Daniel Hasley,
Mexico arrest a setback
In a very newsy week, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was the topic that drew the most letters to the editors, mostly sounding off on the failed recall and the racial-profiling ruling against him. In all, we got 26 letters on the sheriff.
The next biggest issue was the Jodi Arias trial. That brought in 24 letters a week after jurors were deadlocked on whether to sentence her to death.
Other issues included the Mexican gray wolf, 21 letters; immigration, 16; President Barack Obama, 16; the Arizona mom in a Mexican jail, 15; Sen. Jeff Flake, 13; the IRS scandal, 12; Linda Valdez column, 12; and Steve Benson cartoons, 12.
For the week, we got a total of 457 letters. ways to bargain for her release.
— Tony Horacek,
We shouldn’t be complacent about the serious border wall injuries that Linda Valdez details in her column. The unintended consequences — a constant source of injuries since 2007. Thirty to 50 cases a year of shattered, splintered bones, spinal-cord injuries. Some lose feet or legs to amputation; others are permanently crippled, and about six people a year wind up paralyzed.
These are the cases treated at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson. Linda Valdez quotes Dr. John Ruth, head of orthopedic surgery at the UAMC, as saying, “We have to figure a way to prevent this.”
These unintended consequences of the18- to 30-foot border wall cannot be lightly dismissed by blaming those who desperately jump to better wages/conditions in the USA. The human toll is too high. Without a remedy, this will undoubtedly continue for years, and I don’t think anyone wants that.
— Sarah Sorem,
Bible verse is no solution
A recent letter talked about the Bible’s stand on migrants. “If a stranger dwells with you in your land ... shall be to you as one born among you ...”
That is the problem with ancient documents. Yesterday’s proclamations don’t address many of today’s problems. What does “a” stranger have to do with a systematic invasion of our borders by tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, smuggled in by money-hungry cartels, tearing apart families in their homeland?
Legal immigration has always been part of our country’s makeup, whether it is one or thousands. Illegal immigration has not. This problem is upon us, and only modern proclamations are going to solve it.
— Barry Cassak,
Regarding “Phoenix unions, not pensions, are Goldwater Institute target” (Valley & State, Thursday):
Thank you, E.J. Montini, for having the intestinal fortitude to translate what Clint Bolick and the Goldwater Institute are really doing. You could not be more spot on. The only thing they are concerned with is busting any union, public or private, and padding their wallets.
Also, thanks for not making the word “union” sound like a bad disease.
— Jerry Cluff,
Goldwater motive clear