Dear police supporter,

We love this great state and our profession. We feel supported by the citizens we serve.
But, Arizona is the next victim of a nationwide movement. Out-of-state and foreign entities are dictating what type of police services local residents should receive. Law enforcement is in disbelief that wealthy corporations are manipulating their hometowns. The Arizona Highway Patrol Association is asking you to help protect the integrity of law enforcement.
Across the nation, political nonprofits are attempting to reorganize government in Arizona. Large corporations behind these efforts claim their business successes can work for all industries.
However, law enforcement cannot be generalized with other occupations.
When police use lethal force or handle sensitive information, it is impossible to compare our profession to the private sector. Integrity is measurable in law enforcement and it is demanded by our justice system and Arizona taxpayers. It is an honorable testament that all Department of Public Safety employees want to be accountable to a higher standard than anything available in the private sector. Police have a “business model” that works through current Arizona state laws.
From the crime lab scientists to the highway patrolmen, DPS employees face criminals together. However, introduced legislation impedes the ability for our organization to protect the livelihoods police staff and their families. AHPA’s primary duty is to provide legal representation after critical incidents. When police can be the subjects of criminal, civil and administrative investigations for doing their jobs, AHPA is there to provide assistance.
AHPA members want to maintain law enforcement’s elite standards. We ask that you stand with us and oppose police reform legislation brought forth by wealthy political organizations. Big businesses should not dictate how police services should be rendered to Arizonans.

— Jimmy Chavez,
president of the Arizona Highway Patrol Association

What a gun-crying shame
By vetoing the well-written no-guns-in-buildings law (what the news media and rights deniers labeled the guns-in-buildings bill), we’re all less safe.
Now, instead of guaranteeing that sensitive places are truly gun-free — using metal detectors, controlled access and guards — we can merrily believe wide-open buildings with no-gun signs (and absolutely no controls) are gun-free. It’s Pollyanna on steroids.
Truly sensitive buildings that should be protected needed that law and the safeguards it provided. Now all you get are feckless paper signs. Thanks, governor.
Make no mistake. Your libraries, public schools and public buildings are stark naked targets. No guards, no scanners, you won’t even have law-abiding armed adults present to respond, which the vetoed bill authorized. Gun bigots did this by falsely screaming, again, it would magically turn good people into psychotic killers. Complicit media concurred.
Remember — police are second responders. People assaulted are always the first responders, despite deceptive news reports. When seconds count, police are just minutes away.
Now you have gaping open public places, without even your own Auntie Annie there to offer defense. Shame on those who would deny our civil rights in the false name of safety.

— Alan Korwin,
author of “The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide”

In response to the April 18 article titled “Group decries UA affiliations”:
“A wise man once said: “It’s not important to be consistent, it’s important to be right.” The Daily Wildcat has been consistent year in and year out by covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but rarely has the newspaper been right.
Savannah Martin’s article “Group decries UA’s affiliations” does not provide a proper context to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When the State of Israel gives up land for peace, she is greeted with missiles and suicide bombings. While Hamas terrorists target any Israeli in sight, the Israeli army risks its own soldiers’ lives to make sure innocent Palestinians are not killed in battle.
On the issue of civil rights, the Israeli Knesset has three different Arab political parties, and all Arabs receive the same rights as Jews. And if you can find me another country in the Middle East besides Israel that offers equal rights to women and homosexuals, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Now is the time to hang up on the misguided divestment campaign against Israel. If you want to divest from a country, I find the tyrannical regime of Iran to far more qualified.”

— Eitan Cramer,
journalism junior

In response to the April 20 column titled “Climate change can’t be beat without alternative energy”:
Recent research by Henrik Svensmark and his group at the Danish National Space Center points to the real cause of the recent warming trend.
In a series of experiments on the formation of clouds, these scientists have shown that fluctuations in the Sun’s output cause the observed changes in the Earth’s temperature.
In the past, scientists believed the fluctuations in the Sun’s output were too small to cause the observed amount of temperature change, hence the need to look for other causes like carbon dioxide. However, these new experiments show that fluctuations in the Sun’s output are in fact large enough, so there is no longer a need to resort to carbon dioxide as the cause of the recent warming trend.
The discovery of the real cause of the recent increase in the Earth’s temperature is indeed a convenient truth. It means humans are not to blame for the increase. It also means there is absolutely nothing we can, much less do, to correct the situation.

— Thomas Laprade,
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

In response to the April 19 article titled “Kony campaign dwindles”:
It was heartening to read about the students impassioned by the “Kony 2012” movie. There are many ways to make a difference in the world, and many excellent organizations that would be thrilled to receive the support of those students.
Dr. Dixon is right when he says foreign intervention can exacerbate violence. The question is how can those of us who want to help, and be a part of something larger than ourselves, act without doing harm? Even providing aid like food and water can increase violence if not done carefully. Who receives it? Who gets the most? Is it sold to the black market first? Real and perceived inequities can quickly light a fuse.
A positive way to help people at risk is to support organizations that empower local people who live in conflict areas. One example is Nonviolent Peaceforce, which offers teams of nonpartisan, unarmed civilians to communities in conflict areas. The teams live and work alongside local people, providing protection to those at risk, removing civilians from cross fire, providing opposing factions a safe place to negotiate, negotiating the return of kidnapped family members, and more. Instead of swooping in with an outsider’s view of the right way to “fix” a situation, Nonviolent Peaceforce empowers and protects local stake-holders so they can safely work on resolving conflict nonviolently.
Nonviolent Peaceforce has several teams in South Sudan. A team member from Sri Lanka, where he trained communities how to protect their children from abduction to child soldiering during the long civil war there, now teaches communities in South Sudan how to protect themselves and prevent abductions by Kony and the LRA. Other unarmed peacekeepers retrieve child soldiers. Five teams made up of local women monitor incidents of conflict-related gender-based violence and help create safe spaces for women to address these in their local communities.
Best wishes to the students who are learning to organize and act to make the world a better place.

— Faith Edman,
member of International Governance Council,
Nonviolent Peaceforce
and assistant director of Arizona Student Media