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Get us out of the Dark Ages: When will our Arizona legislators start worrying about what's best for their constituents and stop kowtowing to religious extremists?
The conservative Christian organization Center for Arizona Policy shouldn't be dictating what goes on with egg donation as a fertility treatment in this state. The views of this group are barbaric.
Sarah Fenske is absolutely right: While the Legislature should be worrying about budget woes, it instead "fiddles to CAP's tune."
God, I wish moderates and liberals had the electoral majority in this state. Instead, we live in the Dark Ages with all [these] right-wing GOPers in charge.
Sara Williamson, Phoenix
Successes are actually losses: It's about time some real-life truths to this story come to light. Thank you, Sarah Fenske!
Now can you get the Arizona Republic to publish this story? What is labeled CAP "successes" are actually losses to our rights as citizens of Arizona.
Tina Nelson, Phoenix
Under the extremists' heel: Heaven help us?! There is no way that God supports what these religious extremists are espousing. Their narrow views are cruel, inhumane, and vulgar.
But as long as we have the kind of Republican-dominated Legislature we do, we're doomed to living under the extremists' boot heel.
Elizabeth Morris, Tempe
Through the looking glass: How long are we going to allow nuts, morons, and religious fanatics to dominate policy in this state? We cannot regulate guns, this bunch says, but we can regulate the heck out of every private reproduction decision.
This Legislature is through the looking glass. For better or worse, [this extremism] is a function of the right-wing Republican majority in the Legislature the past 30 years.
Name withheld
Legislature's bills aren't helping AZ: Our state was more progressive and less divisive when Evan Mecham was governor!
None of these bills will make Arizona a better place to live or work, and they are not even protecting a marginalized group or righting a wrong.
So why is our Legislature wasting our time with this? We have much bigger problems.
Name withheld
Lobbyists before constituents: When will these legislators start thinking of their constituents instead of bowing to the religious lobbyists? They clearly don't even know what they are legislating. Scary.
Name withheld
SHRUNKEN ECONOMY
A boycott is a terrible idea: Your column really lit a fire in me. And not in the way the Puente Movement would have hoped.
While I absolutely detest Sheriff Joe and abhor what is going on with the state's politicians, a boycott is the most nonsensical solution to the problem!
As someone who works in a hotel, whose paycheck depends on tourism, business, travel, and conventions — and who is lower-middle-class — activist Sal Reza's merry band of troublemakers aims to push me further into poverty. Me and every person working in the tourist industry [no matter what their race or ethnicity].
I would have happily rallied with these activists to bring corruption to a stop, for immigration reform, to make it legal for a man to marry a banana. But a boycott that would paralyze an already crippled industry? Fuck no!
Reza admitted, upon your sage query, that this would accelerate Arizona's decay. He states that the people feeling the pain are the lower and lower-middle classes. What he fails to realize is that the politicians have been anesthetized against this pain because, dry coffers or not, they will get paid. That's their bottom line.
Though they won't feel the pain Reza wants them to suffer, they will be forced to take further detrimental action. Maybe that food tax will jump from 2 percent to 5 percent? Maybe it won't just be the state parks closing down but libraries or even schools? Maybe every illegal will be rounded up, have all his or her possessions taken to feed the state budget, and then be dropped off at the border?
The Puente Movement could have done better by — instead of discouraging travel to Arizona — trying to put one of its own in office. After all, with his policy of damaging the state's economy to further his political agenda, Sal Reza is an extremist politician in an ornery activist's clothing.
That is not a price the service and tourism industry is willing, or even capable, of paying.
Whitney Manas, Peoria
A lesson in unintended consequences: The Wall Street Journal wrote a prescient editorial in December 2007, on the eve of the implementation of the Employer Sanctions Law.
The Journal, quoting a University of Arizona study, stated, "Never have we seen a state make a conscious decision to shrink its economy," and predicted dire economic consequences for Arizona.
Well, now the chickens have come home to roost, and we are all getting a lesson in unintended consequences.
Of course, it doesn't matter to state Senator Russell Pearce, state Representative John Kavanagh, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio if the economy sucks. All three have never worked a day in the private sector and are guaranteed their government checks regardless of tax revenue.
Chad Snow, Peoria
Smaller economy? Bring it on!: Arizona would be better off without the Messcans. Less crime. Less blight. No more roach coaches selling tacos on the street. People speaking English for a change. Fewer cop killings.
