Rights, freedoms are at risk, scandals show

The evils of bigger government can be witnessed in all their horror by what is happening with the IRS and with the Department of Justice overstepping its bounds with journalists.

As Americans, we must protect our individual rights from all attacks, and that includes attacks from within. Our Founders established our individual freedoms, which the very first amendment highlights. The next amendment shows the importance of protecting our freedoms.

Since America has been the beacon for individual freedom for the rest of the world, and since the majority of people wanting to immigrate somewhere have chosen America, it would appear that the majority of mankind agrees on the importance of individual freedom. Do not let it be taken away.

— Tom Scott,

Wages for single moms

Regarding “Let’s support modern families” (Opinions, Thursday):

No one could knock the good news for the rise in pay of women, but your editorial left out a very significant part of the Pew study — “the story told by the growth in single-mother-headed households is not so optimistic: Younger and less likely to hold a college degree, single mothers have far less earning potential than their married sisters. In fact, the median income for a single-mother household is $23,000 — just 28 percent of the income of one in which the female breadwinner is married, and less than half the median household income in America.”

These women, raising kids for the future of all of us, have a much harder time. Living on incomes so far under the median income for married women has to impact the children and the women in an adverse manner. These single moms are apt to work in lower-paying jobs to be- To comment on letters, columns and editorials, go to opinions.azcentral.com. gin with, and this impacts the wage gap as they age.

As the Center for American Progress concludes, “The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act helps female and minority workers challenge discriminatory pay in the courts but the Paycheck Fairness Act, which has yet to pass into law, would be an important step further and close the wage gap by prohibiting gender-based pay discrepancies and banning workplace policies that prohibit employees from disclosing their wages with each other.”

— Virginia Garcia Bunuel,

— Michael Stehling,

A solution for the Nashes

I have been reading with great interest about the trials and tribulations of the Steve Nash divorce case. Seems Steve loves his kids, but paying child support to have them live nearer to him is not favorable to him.

Being a guy whose wife left and chose not to take our son with her, I have the solution to Steve and his former wife’s problem. Give Steve custody of the kids. Steve wouldn’t have to pay child support, and he would have the kids full time.

I loved my son, but it wasn’t easy raising him alone. Try it, Steve, and I bet it won’t take long before paying child support will look like the easy way out.

Let’s see recall petitions

So, the recall against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has failed. Good news!

I find it interesting that Lilia Alvarez, the group’s organizer, said that more than 300,000 sig- natures were collected but that she will not submit them for a count “out of respect to voters and taxpayers.”

If they indeed got that many signatures, why not submit the signed petitions? Prove to the people of Arizona that more than 300,000 legitimate voters signed. I don’t think that is too much to ask.

They had to pay people to work on the petitions. What does this tell you? Sheriff Joe is doing his job. Leave him alone!

— Jean Goncalves,

Benson’s rush to forget

Republic cartoonist Steve Benson thinks the Republicans are foolish for not forgetting this administration’s scandals (Opinions, Friday).

Would he tell Pat Smith to forget about finally finding out the circumstances surrounding the death of her hero son in Benghazi?

Would he tell the investigative reporters at that they should just forget any concerns they might have about being targeted by criminal subpoenas?

Lastly, should the millions of people who contribute to conservative, libertarian or Israelfriendly organizations forget about any concerns about finding themselves on an Internal Revenue Service enemies list?

It isn’t the Republicans who are foolish.

— Dave Davis,

Why note her religion?

I was relieved to see that the Valley mother was released from the Mexican prison.

However, the article began with “A Mormon mother from Goodyear ...” I can’t for the life of me figure out what her religion had to do with her arrest or release. Had she been Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish or atheist, as an example, would that have been mentioned?

— Shelley Gottlieb,