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First they came for …

Mahmoud Khalil is married to an American citizen and has legal permanent status, a green card, but was grabbed in the middle of the night and whisked away to prison for engaging in constitutionally protected speech that the dictator-wannabe does not like.

Khalil did nothing illegal and has not been charged with a crime. About Khalil Trump said: “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.�

I believe Trump is testing the waters by going after low hanging fruit with foreign sounding names. And then if that flies he will come after anyone he deems as the enemy of America; those of us who may engage in civil protests and speech. We must not allow his assault on our Constitution to stand.

Karen Allison

Three Points

Annexation and armageddon

So-called Christians are calling for Trump to allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Hopefully Israeli and Jewish leaders will recognize that the goal is to bring on armageddon. Their goal is surely not because they care for Israel or Jews, for such an action will result in the loss of what little support Israel has from her Arab neighbors and more Israeli bloodshed.

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

The root problem

Our heads are spinning over all the chaos Trump is throwing at us. Tariffs, immigration, mass government firings, tax cuts for the rich, abandoning Ukraine and our NATO allies, attacking DEI and LGBQT people, sycophant cabinet appointees, are just some of the chaos he has created. The root problem with Trump is that he needs to feed his pathology. As a rich kid narcissist he must behave in a way that produces the most attention. His massive ego must be fed. To feed his massive ego he resorts to being a pathological liar. He never tells the truth. He makes up his own version of the truth. He will say anything to support his need for attention and worship from the Magites. He will continue to insult opponents, threaten retribution to the disloyal, and lie to support his pathology. We have a seriously mentally ill person in the White House.

Richard Bechtold

West side

USA is a flyover

Canada and Mexico have the opportunity to establish mutual economic and social relations given the current messages from the President. Canadians will begin to fly over the USA and winter in Mexico or Costa Rica or places not the USA. Then the returning flights would carry Mexican cargo to Canada. Both countries have plenty of fuel and Mexican resorts would welcome tens of thousands of Canadians.

Oh, the unintended consequences of saying that Canada should be the 51st state. The USA has changed our two largest trading countries into a flyover. Canada might welcome Mexican labor.

Then China decides to expand container ship ports for both Canada and Mexico.

Imagine no border traffic: Planes fly over and ships around our shores.

Alvin Rains

East side

The Snake

I’m sympathetic to the government employees who voted for our 47th President and are now complaining because they lost their jobs in the heavy-handed DOGE cuts. But I’m reminded of the lyrics of a popular Al Wilson song from 1968 entitled The Snake. “Shut up silly woman said the reptile with a grin … you knew darn well I was a snake before you brought me in.�

Randy Emerson

Midtown

Impeach or remove

The time is past due for President Trump to be impeached or removed from office by using the 25th amendment. The man has gone stark raving mad, and he is destroying our country and its allies in the process. Ordinary citizens, as well as the bloated billionaires who support him, will soon feel the damage, if they haven’t already. Many will never recover.

Of course, it’s just wishful thinking that this spineless Congress would ever vote for impeachment and actually convict him, or that his partners in crime in the Cabinet would vote to remove him. And if they actually did? Then JD, his chief partner in crime, would succeed him anyway.

So everyone, write your letters, call your Congressmen, protest in the streets, and hang in there until the midterms so we can make the people’s voices heard in Congress — if it and the country we love still exist.

Karen Schickedanz

Oro Valley

The achievements of Trump and Musk

In less than two months since his inauguration, convicted felon Donald Trump and his unelected bureaucrat friend, Elon Musk, have trashed the U.S. Constitution by firing employees without authorization from Congress and arresting a lawful resident without charge because of his activism (Michelle Goldberg, New York Times, 10 March, 2025), trashed the U.S. economy (ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, 11 March, 2025), trashed America’s web of international alliances by initiating a trade war against our closest trading partners and by throwing Ukraine to the Russian wolves (as we did to Hungary in 1956). And the unelected bureaucrat, who has never served in America’s armed forces, had the nerve to call Senator Mark Kelly, a U.S. Navy captain (= Army/Marine colonel) and astronaut, a traitor!

What are they going to do for an encore? And why are we tolerating this?

Sterling Vinson

Midtown

Zelenskyy: No! to Trump

I pray President Zelenskyy’s next visit in Saudi Arabia will be a flat NO to the US desire to mine in Ukraine. Once they have a toe in, forget about it everyone. Game’s over.

The entire world knows Russia attacked Ukraine. Only the demented see it the other way. It’s a mental illness.

Nancy Reid

North side

The deficit

As several writers have pointed out the deficit is a real problem and the interest payment is soon going to devour the budget. Some say the elimination of vital services for the middle class is the price we must pay to get the budget in order. The obvious problem with that logic is none of this is being done to balance the budget. The first budget under Trump will balloon the deficit. The middle class is being destroyed so billionaires can pay even less. New tax cuts will vastly out favor the rich. Their taxes will go down. Your taxes won’t go down, the deficit will go up, and vital services will be gone.

William Garrity

Foothills

Ready for this?

Republican government downsizing is a confidence game.

During Reagan’s presidency, Civil Service positions were eliminated and then contractors were hired to accomplish tasks that the Federal workers once did. The contractors then often hired the person whose civil service job was eliminated to do that same job. Then the contractors charged the government double, or more, what the expense was for the task when it was a civil service job. The voters were placated because they were told that big government had been reduced. They were never informed about the outrageous cost of that reduction and the financial windfall enjoyed by wealthy government contractors.

It took 200 years for the national debt to become 1 trillion dollars when Reagan was elected in 1980. Before he left office in 1988, the national debt was 2 trillion dollars.

DJT has proposed eliminating the USPS. Are you ready for Elon Musk postal service?

Rick Cohn

West side

Trump’s bluster

Gerald Farrington’s Saddlebrook Opinion piece about what Trump as dictator would do to expand US territory was hilarious. How many column inches of space were required to fit that copy into the printed edition of the newspaper? It was hysterical speculation about what might happen, peppered with historical references to make it seem believable. Giving credence to Trump’s bluster is amusing theatre. That was all tongue-in-cheek, right Jerry?

Dewey Bidwell

Northeast side

USAID & shredding

Cynthia Sheisel should get her facts straight before spreading misinformation! She said employees of USAID were asked by DOGE to shred or burn documents. Fact is, it was the USAID acting executive director Erica Carr who called for an “all day� effort to help destroy sensitive agency documents. I believe that USAID is trying to hide something!!!

Linda Schaub

Southeast side

The luck of the draw

There is a saying “There but for the grace of God go I.� You can substitute your own word for God — fate, karma, chance, or luck if you prefer. The point remains the same. Some of us are born into a better life and fate than others. For most it is simply a matter of chance. Or genes? Or a reward from a past life?

Nonetheless, let’s try for a little compassion. We only have to watch the news to see desperate people: The poor, the starving, the disaster victims, the refugees. Next time you watch human misery unfolding before your eyes, try to imagine yourself, your children and grandchildren in their place. In the next year or the next life, it could be. That’s the luck of the draw.

Help those who need it now. There are plenty of opportunities here and around the world.

Margaret Scott

Midtown