Baseball-field gunman had a vendetta against the rich

Attempted mass-murderer James Hodgkinson had a particular loathing for the rich, demanding that they be heavily taxed, as though that would be the proper punishment for their “crime” of being successful.

One of his letters to the Belleville News-Democrat in 2012 worried over contributions made by 17 wealthy donors to the Republican Party: “These men are trying to buy our country. You know they expect something for all this money.”

The hypocrisy is that it is people like him who are expecting something from the money that they demand be taken from the wealthy. I suggest that what the rich really want when they contribute money is simply to not have their wealth seized for the benefit of people like Hodgkinson, to be left alone to enjoy the fruits of their productivity and not to be taxed at exorbitant rates so much higher than everyone else.

One of the popular sayings among liberals is that “taxation is the price of civilization.” But even if one buys into that philosophy it is not a valid argument for why the most successful should be taxed at higher rates than everyone else.

— John Kannarr, Glendale

In changing street names, Mayor Stanton has lots of work ahead

A future governor or senator, Mayor Greg Stanton has hit a political grand slam with his proposal to rename streets with “racially insensitive titles.” Could not agree more. I think he needs a grander vision however to really make this a real success. I think he should eliminate any street named after a president. Come on, Washington owned slaves. What could be more offensive?

Do you hear me nation’s capital? I’m certain we can find some dirt on Lincoln, Van Buren, Jackson, and the rest of those ne’er-do-wells.

Perhaps, we should tweak that a little and eliminate all streets named after a person’s first or last name. Certainly any name has a negative connotation for someone (bullies, people with bad hair, felons, politicians).

Next, we should probably eliminate all monuments that commemorate a war.

It is a shame that the Diamondbacks have to have giveaways like the beach towel last Saturday and the bat and ball for the kids on Sunday to draw crowds.

The way they are playing ball this year, the crowds should be that big every game they play at home.

Saturday’s crowd was the biggest since Opening Day and should be near that size every day. They have one of the best records in baseball in a lot of categories