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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Editor:

This is my response to Joellyn Schawl’s Feb. 16, 2022, snarky slam of West Valley View columnist J.D. Hayworth and the AZ GOP state Senate, Donald Trump and others who support his America First policies as “Trumpists” or Trump sycophants.

She went on to identify other individuals with name-calling and denigration, such as “Barney Fife impersonators,” swamp dwellers, coup planners, and parroters of “the big lie” — whatever you think that is.

You said early in your letter to the editor, “… columnist J.D. Hayworth can’t help but give his one-sided, insulting, anti-Democratic opinions every time he grabs his pen.” In today’s world, Joellyn, it is more likely not a pen but a computer that writers grab. But I digress. After reading your letter and all of the vitriol you slung, but accused J.D. of slinging, I thought, “Who couldn’t help but give her one-sided, insulting, anti-conservative opinions?”

I must quote Sen. John Kennedy (RLA), who recently said, “If you’re going to be a smart-ass, the first thing you have to be is smart, otherwise you’re just an ass.”

Susan Hewitt Goodyear

Annoying noise

Editor:

The noise from the constant stream of cement trucks traveling back and forth 24/7 along Camelback Road really needs to stop. It was bad enough during the day, but now the cement dump trucks run all through the middle of the night — even at 3 a.m. How are families living in the surrounding communities close to Camelback Road supposed to sleep with the constant loud, annoying noise from the diesel trucks all night?

When stationed at Luke AFB, there were “quiet hours,” when no engine runs nor F-16s were permitted to fly past 10 p.m. Luke AFB respects the surrounding community, and clearly the cement truck company does not. The cement trucks and dump trucks should be traveling along Northern Parkway. Not in a residential zone in the middle of the night.

Jim Bradford Litchfield Park

Saving our way of life

Editor:

The fight over Ukraine isn’t about Ukraine.

As World War II ended, the United States invited victorious allies to the Bretton Woods Conference to decide what to do after Germany and Japan were defeated.

As leaders of the conference and free world, we proposed rebuilding defeated nations, worldwide democracy and U.S. Navy policed freedom of the seas and free trade.

Nations that adopted our program prospered; nations that reverted to preWorld War II autocracy stagnated.

England and France bankrupted themselves trying to maintain control of recalcitrant colonies that eventually freed themselves from colonization. Extreme repression kept citizens in China under control until 1949 and in the Soviet Union until the Berlin Wall collapsed. College students and middle-class citizens led Arab Spring revolts a few decades later.

Television, movies and the internet make it possible for members of a suppressed nation to see how prosperous free nation citizens have become, and this eventually incites unrest and revolt. Unfortunately, almost all such revolutions fail because repressive regimes don’t create a public service culture nor the quality of leaders it takes to govern a modern democracy.

Autocrats are trying to take us back to the bad old days. Anyone with common sense sees that makes no sense given the economically poor and repressed lives citizens of autocratically led nations live.

Putin invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine and now wants it all. On the Asian side of the world, Xi Jinping now controls Hong Kong and wants Taiwan, where most of the computer chips we depend on are made.

Neither autocrat will stop if they can pick off smaller nations one at a time. They don’t like organized resistance. Putin hates us for supporting NATO, and Xi hates us for resurrecting an opposing alliance with England, Australia, Japan, India and other threatened nations.

Democratically led public health and scientific progress has made it possible for the population of the world to double since 1950, and fewer people live in extreme poverty than before.

In reality, we Americans have it pretty darned good. Our world isn’t perfect, but unlike 80 years ago, most of us are now able to pursue our personal, spiritual and vocational dreams, and most Americans now have a place to live with efficient heating and cooling systems, more than

SMITH’S OPINION — Las Vegas sun

enough to eat, and safe to drink hot and cold water.

The good old days autocrats are striving to revive weren’t that good. The current fight is about saving the way of life our version of post-World War II democracy created.

That’s why what Putin and Xi are trying to do does concern us here.

John Bradley Avondale

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17 Legislature outdoes its usual nonsensical self with sex ed

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ

West Valley View Columnist

When I was a kid, the fastest way to get me to read a book was to tell me it was too mature for my young eyes. I passed many nights sneaking peeks at my mom’s Harold Robbins novels to find the sexy parts. And there wasn’t a kid in my middle school who couldn’t recite by heart from Page 85 of Judy Blume’s teen lit classic “Forever.”

You know, the page where Michael introduces Katharine to his manhood, which he has inexplicably named … Ralph.

Speaking of members, this brings us to the Arizona Legislature, which may have done more to encourage teen reading than any governmental body in America.

Last year, it passed House Bill 2035, a racy little number that made Arizona the fifth state in America to mandate parents opt in to sex education for their kids. Had the measure stopped there, I would have been OK with it, but this being our Legislature — where common sense is not so common — they had to go just a bit further.

HB 2035 also requires school governing boards to “adopt procedures to notify parents in advance and provide them the opportunity to withdraw their children from any instruction or presentations regarding sexuality” — even outside sex ed class.

Which brings us to one local school district’s strenuous efforts to warn parents — about, among other things, kids cooking chicken breasts.

Times Media reporter Ken Sain detailed The Great Poultry Alert last week. To comply with the state edict, the Chandler Unified School District Governing Board in December passed a new opt-in policy concerning materials that might be deemed sexual. Sain quoted Chandler High teacher Caroline Sheridan, who last week told the governing board:

“I teach English, and I teach criminal justice,” she explained. “Somehow I found out I need permission slips before I can teach ‘Of Mice and Men,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Othello,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ I can’t teach about Emmett Till without a permission slip. Of course, this makes no sense.”

In January, the Permission Slip Police also sent home an opt-in form to parents of cooking students learning to prepare chicken breasts. District spokesman Terry Locke told Sain this was “a misinterpretation of the legislative statute” which “was corrected and did not apply to the context or content.”

Thank goodness the curriculum didn’t include a recipe for sticky buns.

Of course, the Legislature is hardly done with the issue. This new session has seen a number of sex education bills, including a measure to change the opt-in requirement back to an opt-out requirement.

There’s a bill that will require a parent’s written permission before a student can participate in “any school student group or club involving sexuality, gender or gender identity.” And there’s a bill — no doubt dead on arrival — that not only would make sex ed an opt-out class but would also allow teachers to “discuss populations that historically have been more vulnerable to sexual abuse and assault, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community and the disability community.”

Finally, there’s a bill that would forbid educators, restaurant workers and grocery store employees from “referring to certain foodstuffs and edible materials using language that may be construed to convey a sexual connotation.” Among the terms set to be joining “chicken breasts” as no longer be permissible, as spelled out in statute?

Chicken “breasts.” Pork “butt.” Hot dog “buns.” The phrase “finger foods.” And Denny’s has been put on notice that diners will no longer be allowed to order the “Moons Over My Hammy.”

OK, I made that last bill up. But with this group of elected geniuses, it absolutely could have been real. They’re just that … nuts.

David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com

John Nix 602-234-3426 602-234-3426 9515 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix 9515 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix geico.com/phoenix-nix geico.com/phoenix-nix ¡Hablamos Español! ¡Hablamos Español!

WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | FEBRUARY 23, 2022

Long after studying Orwell’s novel, 1984 has arrived

BY J.D. HAYWORTH

West Valley View Columnist

“What you’re about to read is a vision of the future,” the teacher told her class.

“If you expect to read a tale of space travel … or a story focused on happy, prosperous people living in a bright, sparkling city of tomorrow, you need to prepare yourself for something completely different.

“Jimmy Jones, if you could develop an appreciation for books that rivals your love of the Beatles, you could get into an Ivy League School.”

The teacher combined her admonition with an appeal: “JJ, I assure you that you’ll find no ‘Flying Circus’ within the pages of this novel, but the author is British, and given your world view, that ought to count for something.”

The large young man grabbed a box of 40 books and put one on the desk of each of his 35 classmates.

Then she said, “Class, there are three goals to which we all should aspire. We need to think clearly, speak clearly and write clearly. “We all know that words have meaning, and that some words have many different meanings. But what would happen if a government sought to control its citizens by the deliberate distortion of language?

“Prepare to encounter ‘newspeak’ and discover the consequences of calculated, confusing communication, designed to discourage independent thought and action.

“George Orwell’s book is titled ‘1984,’ and that’s only 10 years from now. You’ll read of a future that’s quite distressing. A future based on language control, thought control and collective control through a surveillance state.

“Could something like that happen here? Read this book and decide for yourself.”

For the next two weeks, the class immersed itself in Orwell’s dystopian tale, discussing the distressing, foreboding future presented in the text. And then, the future arrived.

JJ did in fact become a lawyer, and Big Guy eventually became a federal lawmaker.

Both marveled that the USA in 1984 was nothing like Orwell’s “1984.” Ronald Reagan carried every state except Minnesota en route to his second term.

The same was true 10 years later. Big Guy became part of a big class of conservative congressmen — over 70, who won a Republican House Majority for the first time in 40 years.

Almost 30 years have passed.

What happened?

A terror attack on our soil and a decision that collective security should be emphasized over personal liberty.

A computer revolution that encouraged surveillance and enriched tech firms, which in turn offered allegiance to the business and the bottom line rather than the county that made their success possible.

The election of a president, heralded as “post racial,” who instead became our “most racial,” inserting race and other wedge issues into virtually every public debate.

A public education system transmogrified into a political indoctrination system, populated with leftist grievance mongers who promote “wokeism” — a political movement designed to intimidate by shutting down debate and insisting on uniformity.

And “pandemic panic,” where sound science took a backseat to political science and government curtailed our freedom of movement as well as our right to work.

Through it all, echoes of “Newspeak…”

Ignorance is strength…

Uniformity is diversity…

War is peace…

Equity — not equality!

Two weeks to flatten the curve.

Sadly, it’s become clear… 1984 is finally here.

J.D. Hayworth represented Arizona in the U.S. House from 1995-2007. He authored and sponsored the Enforcement First Act, legislation that would have mandated enforcement of Federal Immigration Law in the 109th Congress.

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