Arizona highways are so full of trash, I'm embarrassed to travel them
I grew up in Wisconsin, Iowa and New Jersey, longing to live in Arizona as I paged through our family’s “Arizona Highways” magazine each month.
Now I live here, 60-plus years later. The highways — in all parts of the state — provide beautiful views as long as you keep your eyes on the horizon and don’t look too closely.
In all my travels around America, I have never quite seen the amount of litter that Arizona highways present. I am embarrassed to pick up family and friends at the Phoenix airport and drive them home along Interstate 17.
The road south to Tucson is the absolute worst in the state. Many, many, many people obviously don’t care that they are marring the natural beauty of our state.
It makes me so, so sad.
Ellen Smith, Flagstaff
Don't nix story comments
I am very dismayed to see that you are discontinuing the comments portion of news articles. I find that it is very informative to see the opinions of fellow readers, whether I agree with them or not. It has provided for me a chance to see other points of view and to evaluate my thoughts on various subjects.
More than once my opinion has been challenged by a cogent discussion of a particular topic. Also, the opinions are one of the things that keep me subscribing to the paper. If nothing else, it is cheap entertainment.
John Soli, Phoenix
UA president must resign
Regarding Helen Rummel’s piece entitled, “‘Years in the making’: UA faces budget cuts, layoffs to fix financial crisis.”
As a third generation Arizona alum, I am appalled and shocked at the mismanagement of the University of Arizona’s budget.
This financial mismanagment — to the tune of a $177 million operating deficit — just didn’t happen yesterday. And now, the university feels compelled to spend more taxpayer money by hiring two outside consulting firms to fix the mess.
Accountability of this fine Research I institution must start at the top. UA President Robert Robbins must resign immediately.
Eric J. Halvorson, Phoenix
How is Kari Lake 'ethical'?
Kari Lake has just struck a blow for women’s equality. She has shown that women can be just as venal and mendacious as men! How her campaign can claim she is “an extremely ethical person” is beyond me.
As a retired military officer and a moderate republican, her “ethical” behavior has forced me to vote for anyone else but her, regardless of party. Somehow she has managed to out-Trump even Donald Trump.
God help us this next election cycle!
Stevie Henderson, Goodyear
Spend public money on public schools
Public school money paying for private schooling really irks me. Public money is for public schools.
What irks me even more is Tom Horne’s claims that the ESA voucher program is not part of the state deficit but saving money instead.
Yet 67% of students enrolled in the ESA voucher program never attended public schools. It appears that public money is paying students in private schools to stay there. Those students weren’t costing the state anything because they weren’t using public school facilities.
Now they are getting public school money and still aren’t attending public schools or being held accountable to public school standards.
Originally, the ESA voucher program was used to help students with special needs. Now it’s being used like a rebate for services not rendered, creating a debt that wasn’t there before and contributing to the state’s deficit in a big way.
Susan Nagle, Mesa
What’s on your mind? Send us a letter to the editor online or via email at opinions@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona highways are so dirty they are embarrassing
