
Over a thousand people protest outside the Tucson Tesla dealership, 5081 North Oracle Road, Tucson, Ariz., March 29, 2025.
Boomers: This is our moment
After several protests, rallies, and town halls, it is clear to me that this fight was made for baby boomers. We are closer to WW2 and Hitler’s quick and horrific takeover of Germany, and we know civics — the separation of powers and why the founding fathers set up this system. We watched the civil rights and war protests of the 60s and 70s either in person or on television. We witnessed a president resign in disgrace. Every single thing that is happening now should be ringing loud alarm bells. Our best weapon? We are peaceful, gray-haired grandparents that police aren’t likely to arrest. Just make a cardboard sign — the funnier the better — and show up. The goal is 11 million nationwide and we can do it if more and more boomers rise to the occasion. Next major rally is May 1 at 5:30 pm. Get details from Take Action Tucson. This is a fight for democracy and it is our duty.
Kris Kilian
Northwest side
Hotline cuts are a death sentence
A leaked HHS budget shows the Trump administration plans to eliminate crisis services for LGBTQ youth on the 988 hotline. Since 2022, that subnetwork has responded to over 1.3 million calls, texts, and chats. More than two thousand a day. These are kids in crisis reaching out for help. RFK Jr does not believe they deserve life-saving help.
The Trevor Project, which handles about half of 988’s LGBTQ youth contacts, is one of the main groups impacted. Their trained counselors understand what these kids go through. Harassment. Political attacks. Family rejection. They know how to respond in ways that save lives. Cutting this support means more suffering and more losses.
Under RFK Jr, HHS has already gutted substance abuse and mental health services, the CDC and NIH, and Head Start. Now they are targeting the most vulnerable. This is not policy. This is cruelty.
We must not remain silent. We must speak up and prevent this from happening.
Dustin Black
Midtown
A few bad apples ...
The Legislature’s bill allowing volunteer “chaplains” to serve as school counselors is misguided and fraught with unacknowledged danger. Parents who want religious counseling for their child can seek that at their church. Public schools do not provide religious services.
More importantly, allowing unvetted volunteers to have private sessions with with young children ignores the potential for child abuse. While most religious leaders are safe, we only need to look at the abuse scandals in the Catholic, Seventh-Day Adventists and LDS and other churches to know that abuse can be rampant and/or covered up by church authorities.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation publishes a monthly “Black Collar Crime” report of ministers, pastors, priests and church employees arrested for various crimes. As is typical, of 20 crimes reported this month, 16 were for child abuse. Placing potential “groomers” in schools should be a crime.
Bruce Hilpert
North side
Leader
A younger person than I asked me recently “Who is the leader of the free world?” For six decades and more I never paused before I answered that question. Now ...?
Duane Barbour
Midtown
(Un) due process revisited
My April 22 letter was not about low-life Abrego Garcia, the new Democrat hero in the process of achieving the George Floyd level of deity, but rather the 4-6 million uninvited that flooded in under Joe Biden.
I see the Democrats employing their highly successful anti-death-penalty playbook again. There are 2,000 inmates on death row and after decades and millions spent only a few are ever executed.
Multiply that 2000 by 2000 and we have the Democratic immigration strategy. Appeal after appeal after appeal. Their children’s children will have children and trillions of taxpayer dollars will be spent before their final reckoning.
LTEs lecture me that due process is a constitutional right granted even to those who illegally touch our sovereign soil. Are they also granted this undue “over” process?
Jeffrey McConnell
West side
Look and act
Two Opinion pieces in the 4/22 Star represent conflicting approaches toward societal improvement. One by William Mordka, who I believe does care for our city, seems to be saying — see people with problems and remove them from view any way possible. The second piece by Kevin Daily describes how a community coming together can begin to attack and resolve problems through various interventions. I’m hoping we are willing to follow what Mr. Daily outlines. The challenge is that it requires us to see and do. So often people say, “I don’t watch news anymore; it is too painful.” Then I think about the old adage about how a person did not stand up because he/she wasn’t in the category that was being “taken away” and then when they came for him/her no one was left to stand up. My hope is that we are willing to observe, be counted, speak up, and act. Tucson and our country depend on that.
Gypsy Lyle
Northwest side
A gonga deal
In the 4/24/25 edition, Classified section, Business Opportunities: There is an ad touting an 83% gain in 1 year on a $35,000 investment. At the end of 1 year, the ad claims a return of $210,000.
A gain of $175,000 over $35,000 is a 500% yield! Clear example of ‘too good to be true’ at 83% or 500%. But it wouldn’t be the first time I missed an opportunity, investment or otherwise! So, what do I know?
James Abels
Midtown
Joke’s on us
Tucson families already feel squeezed out of downtown Tucson — and now it’s getting worse. Two local businesses, including a beloved kids’ activity center, are being displaced to make way for a Ticketmaster-backed comedy club owned by Live Nation. The out-of-town corporation behind it is getting $2.1 million in public funds to renovate a historic warehouse owned by Peach Properties. Are the current locally owned businesses being offered any relocation support?
Places like Playformance aren’t disposable afterthoughts — they’re lifelines for parents trying to keep their kids active and off screens, especially during Tucson’s brutal summers. Families count on them, because options downtown are already limited.
Did anyone ask the owners of Playformance or Borderlands what they could do with a $2.1 million investment? These are people who’ve already built something that works and makes Tucson, Tucson.
When downtowns stop making space for kids, it’s no wonder young people think twice about having them.
Kylie Walzak
West side
Pay one way or the other
On April 21st, I had a section of my liver removed by Dr. Khreiss, who is a gifted and talented surgeon for Banner Cancer Center. Dr. Khreiss and his team really impressed me.
Had no idea I had liver cancer, but 3 years after my prostate was removed, I was still making PSA. My urologist ordered a P.E.T. which found no prostate cancer. There was a mass in my liver, though, so an MRI followed and confirmed the mass. This was followed up with a liver biopsy, confirming that the mass was cancerous.
I’m not writing this to air my personal medical history, but traditional Medicare does not have a “Pre-Authorization” on testing. I wonder if I would have had the same outcome with a Medicare Advantage Plan. I know getting free teeth cleaning and other gifts and gadgets seems like a deal. But what if you were to end up in my shoes? Would you discover your cancer before it consumed you? Just a thought.
Larry Robinson
Northwest side
American patriots awaken
Fellow veterans, my family has had veterans in both world wars, and I served during the Vietnam era in a noncombatant role. I am concerned about President Trump showing more allegiance to Russia’s Putin than our own intelligence (Helsinki), and siding with Russia against Ukraine. It is generally the opinion of those that have dealt with Putin that he will not stop as far as he has gone with Ukraine but eventually will take it all (Former Ambassador Michael McFaul). If he gets away with that, the Baltic States, Poland, Moldova, or Romania may be next The former KGB agent is playing Trump. Would he go as far as taking Alaska? Trump has started to dismantle our military with an incompetent Secretary of Defense and is destroying our commitments with our allies in NATO so that are thinking they cannot depend on the USA after 80 years. Congress is abandoning our Constitution by not reining in the authoritarian impulses of Trump.
Efren Peyron
East side
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