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.
So what if the economy is smaller? If the tradeoff is social harmony, I'd take it. So if they boycott us, go right ahead. It'll make a better day for all of us.
John Connor, Phoenix
Please indict!: Where, oh, where is U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder? It's Joe's Law! It's Pearce's law! Please indict! Please indict!
Roger Morris, Phoenix
Worse than expected: In 2007, Russell Pearce proudly proclaimed we would, in fact, shrink our economy with the employer-sanctions bill. He estimated it at around 7 percent. It's cost much more.
Dennis Gilman, Scottsdale
Thanks, Sal: Thank you, Sal Reza, for not giving up or giving in. You are making a difference.
Name withheld
AZ getting hit in the pocketbook: Once again, Stephen Lemons is ahead of the pack. When one man, Senator Russell Pearce, can introduce bills that defy logic and constitutional rights, it's high time to boycott the state.
Not only so others don't get their lives shredded in Arizona but to show Arizona citizens that they're getting hit in the pocketbook.
Neanderthals like Pearce, Joe Arpaio, MCSO Chief Deputy David Hendershott, and county attorneys Andrew Thomas and Rick Romley and their enablers have ruined Arizona.
Name withheld
DESERTED
Your math's shaky, dude: Thousands, or actually hundreds, die in the desert because they voluntarily choose to come across the border illegally. The U.S. Border Patrol is not obligated to open up the border and allow anyone to cross over without interdiction.
Which appears to be what you and border activists are asking for.
Immigration researchers agree that open borders would result in 20 to 30 million Mexicans coming to the United States. This does not include the millions of illegals from Central and South America.
You should walk the talk. Put your money where your mouth is. Relinquish your job and turn it over to an unemployed illegal from south of the border who has journalistic credentials.
You may be comfortable with the idea of all those Mexicans coming over the border, but the overwhelming majority of Mexican-Americans are not.
Niels Koepke, Tempe
Christian values: Leaving water in the desert is a humanitarian act, no matter what the rednecks say. These are human beings coming across, and the federal government has no way to stop them from coming. Decent Americans applaud No More Deaths and the other volunteer organizations for their Christian values.
Donna Williams, Phoenix
Give them water, then call ICE: It is still aiding and abetting in the commission of a crime to help these illegal immigrants. Give them water. Then call Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Name withheld
Damn Tucson commies: What do you expect from a bunch of commies in Tucson? Traitors every one of them. Helping illegals invade our country. Crossing the border to aid and abet the enemy. Where are the Minutemen when we need them?
Name withheld
Why the open-border crusade?: While I'm 100 percent against the [mistreatment] of detainees, legal and illegal, in Sheriff Arpaio's gulags, I can't seem to grasp why New Times is on an open-border crusade.
The folks who cross the desert are well aware of the dangers. To enable them should be as criminal as them crossing into this country illegally. What happened to getting work visas, then waiting in line for a green card?
New Times writers complain about fences or any other type of deterrent, but they have offered no solution to the problems.
The Right can't come up with solutions for anything either, but boy, oh, boy, can they bitch. Has New Times taken on that persona?
Name withheld
Complicit in slavery: Illegal is illegal. These people are not immigrants; they are illegal immigrants. The very act of paying a coyote and then working in the United States [enables] a form of slavery, and the groups that you mention are complicit.
Name withheld
