Tom Horne and his Republican pals only want to protect the will of some voters

Tom Horne, with the approval of, I assume, Republican state legislators, says he is protecting a voter-approved initiative when it comes to dual-language programs.

These Republicans are the same people who ignored the will of the people when it came to our rejection of universal school vouchers.

Ann Adams, Payson

Kids don't study Lincoln? Not true

Goldwater Institute’s Matt Beienburg predicates his guest column decrying Arizona’s education standards on a falsehood (“Standards gone awry: Arizona third graders must learn about Latinx but not Lincoln,” Opinions, July 14).

He writes that while standards mandate teaching the term “Latinx,” “they treat learning about Lincoln as an optional luxury.”

Not quite.

In fact, if you read the actual standard he references, you find that the “option” concerns the differences between Lincoln and Douglas on slavery.

There is no mention of the study of Lincoln in the Civil War, as what Beienburg wants readers to believe as an option. How, you might ask him, can the Civil War not be studied without covering its most important figure?

The impetus behind his column, then, seems more focused on furthering the culture wars than providing readers any clarity.

Mike McClellan, Gilbert

Blame lawmakers, not the Saudis

Phil Boas’ opinion piece appropriately notes that our governor and attorney general are off base in their criticism of the Arizona State Land Department land lease to a Saudi company farming alfalfa in La Paz County.

The real problem in rural Arizona is a lack of water management tools to 1) quantify available water resources and uses and 2) manage those uses in an economically productive manner.

The Arizona Legislature bears much of the blame. For many years legislators have opposed groundwater metering in rural Arizona even when it is the only available supply.

But the answer to this problem is not to have the current administration select individual winners and losers when it comes to the use of Arizona water supplies.

Another view: Why a Saudi company is still using water

Instead, the administration and our Legislature should be developing commonsense policies, laws and rules to protect rural Arizona from depleting its water supplies.

These rules should also support the economic value associated with the sustainable, beneficial use of those supplies.

Perri Benemelis, Mesa

Don't waste water on low-value crops

I did not know that Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes discovered Saudi Arabia.

Or that they are trying to destroy international commerce.

I’m pretty sure we knew about the sweet deal given to the Saudis to pump unlimited Arizona groundwater to grow alfalfa (which is illegal in the oil kingdom) long before our current state leaders were in place.

A lot of information on the subject was dug up by The Arizona Republic’s own reporters over years of investigation.

Roughly 70% of Arizona's water goes to agriculture. And more than half of that goes to low-value crops to feed animals, and inedible cotton.

Cut that out for the Saudis and American agribusiness, and there will be plenty of water left to grow lettuce and microchips while easily quenching the thirst of the 99% of Arizonans who are not farmers or ranchers.

Besides the Phoenix and Tucson metropolises, most Arizonans, even in rural counties, live in cities like Kingman, Prescott or Bisbee.

It may be especially galling that we sell our irreplaceable water for a song to the home of most of the 9/11 terrorists, but we shouldn’t squander it on American businesses either.

Andrew March, Phoenix

Saudis should build us a desal plant

Where is Monty Hall when we need him?

Let’s Make a Deal!

If the Saudis wish to use our water, how about they build us a desalination plant? After all, the Saudis have more money than they know what to do with.

Allan LeTourneau, Mesa

Charlie Kirk is a scared, jealous bully

E.J. Montini did a masterful job exposing the ugliness of Charlie Kirk and the inappropriate acceptance of him and his message by Trump and MAGA Trumpeteers.

When he exposed Kirk’s blatantly racist attacks on four highly accomplished Black women, I gagged.

Montini rightly pointed out Kirk’s intellectual inferiority, but it’s deeper than that. Kirk is your typical scared and jealous bully who projects those feelings on anyone who intimidates him.

Black women are the perfect target for Kirk, because he truly believes that he, as a white male, should have all the power and privilege.

All four of the women he attacked graduated from either Harvard or Yale. Little Charlie, from a wealthy, mostly white, suburb west of Chicago, attended Harper College.

It is a two-year affordable school that many students I knew used to grab less expensive credits before going off to a state university. Charlie couldn’t even finish the two-year college and dropped out.

So when young Charlie dropped out, these women (Michelle Obama, Joy Reid, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson) were well into building careers and families. Charlie can’t hold a dim candle to them.

Dan Peel, Scottsdale

Investigate Biden, not just Trump

The pathology of our two-tiered justice system is graphically displayed in real time in separate yet related events.

While the FBI and other Justice Deptartment agencies obstruct the investigation and prosecution of Hunter and Joe Biden in the face of mountains of evidence, both local and federal Democrat-leaning agencies vigorously pursue and attack Trump on the flimsiest grounds.

The public has been largely oblivious to this, thanks to the combined efforts of the Democrats and biased media, but the tide is beginning to turn as more is revealed.

Dennis Santillo, Cornville

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tom Horne only wants to protect some voter initiatives