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Passionate experience trumps political ambition

BY J.D. HAYWORTH Peoria Times Columnist

Gideon J. Tucker was writing about his home state of New York when he penned this famous observation: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session!”

But what applies in Albany also fits the situation in Phoenix, and probably every other state capitol.

In fact, the homogenization of our politics has state legislators sounding very similar to their Capitol Hill counterparts. Or maybe it’s just an old-fashioned dose of “Potomac Fever.”

That’s certainly the case with Rep. Daniel Hernandez (D-Tucson). Having represented LD 2 since winning the election in 2016, Hernandez announced in May that he would run for the U.S. House from Arizona’s second congressional district in 2022.

Perhaps that’s why Hernandez appeared to parrot Nancy Pelosi during debate on the state House floor June 25.

“We keep hearing about the threat of communism,” Hernandez harrumphed. “You know what’s a bigger threat? White nationalism!”

With that, the representative from Tucson broke into full-throated fury, conflating any and all conservatives with white nationalists’ intent on “teaching our kids that it’s OK to overthrow a democratically elected government.”

Some of his fellow Democrats were so enthused that they pounded their desks, apparently unaware or unconcerned that desk-pounding was often the public reaction of Soviet Communist Party boss Nikita Khrushchev during his premiership in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

Back in the here and now, Hernandez was no doubt dreaming of his future as a member of Congress. But his daydream was about to be interrupted by a state house colleague who did not bring talking points to the floor.

Instead, Rep. Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott Valley) carried with him the memories of brutal communist oppression that cost the lives of loved ones in his native Vietnam.

In politics and life, genuine passion surpasses contrived outrage, as Hernandez was about to learn. Meantime, the first-term member from LD 1 first sought to temper his righteous indignation with humor.

“I’m not a big talker. … I stood back there and listened to everybody and I just got irritated, so I came over here and pressed the white button. Is it OK if I say ‘white button’?”

His quip-as-a-question brought much-needed laughter to the House chamber, but Rep. Nguyen soon turned serious.

“White nationalism didn’t drown 250,000 Vietnamese in the South China Sea. The communists did. White nationalism didn’t execute 86,000 South Vietnamese at the fall of Saigon. The communists did. White nationalists didn’t put me here (in the United States). Communism did.

“So don’t take it lightly. … I lost most of my cousins and family members due to communism. If we don’t stand up to teaching communism to

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Then Nguyen turned directly to Hernandez.

“So, sir, don’t mock me.”

It isn’t only Daniel Hernandez. Leftists nationwide have long mocked “godless communism,” insisting that those who are concerned are intent on reviving a “Red Scare.”

Quang Nguyen knows better.

Will we learn from his experience?

If not, Gideon J. Tucker’s pronouncement from the past will have to be amended.

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the communists are in control!”

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.

KIRK’s OPINION — King Features

There are no bad dogs, just bad owners

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Peoria Times Columnist

Her name was Maria Eliza Sebastian Ruiz, 77 years old. She was married for 60 years, a mother of five and a grandmother. She died early July 6 on her front porch in Phoenix, mauled by a pack of four hulking Staffordshire terrier mixes.

Pit bulls, to use the common parlance.

The dogs’ owner, Alejandro Hernandez, 33, is in jail charged with negligent homicide. It’s a Class 4 felony that carries a minimum one year behind bars and three years, nine months max. Personally, I hope Hernandez serves every last day, because the police report details negligence in the extreme.

“(Hernandez) stated the dogs belong to him and are known to escape from his backyard,” the investigator wrote. “Def. admitted to multiple occasions where his dogs escaped from his backyard and would wander around the neighborhood.

“Def. admitted to prior incidents of the dogs biting other people at least two times. Def. knew the gate from which the dogs escaped from was faulty and needed to be repaired or reinforced in order to prevent the dogs from escaping. Def. stated he did not make any changes to the gate because he did not have time.”

He’ll have plenty of time now.

Hernandez’s pit bulls immediately were put down by Maricopa County Animal Control. Their euthanizing was a no-brainer.

But the story of Maria Eliza’s killing raises a larger question: Should Arizona cities and towns allow people to own pit bulls at all?

In 2016, the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 1248, which forbids breed-specific legislation like the pit bull bans passed by more than 900 cities nationwide.

This could easily be reconsidered, in light of Maria Eliza’s death and the fact that in 2019 pit bulls accounted for 33 killings — 69% of the 48 dog bite fatalities reported nationwide.

No other dog bites or kills so frequently. No other dog fills Maricopa County’s animal shelters to overflowing. No other dog makes headlines so often.

In February, a loose pit bull attacked three Gilbert residents, including a 16-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man.

On Christmas Day 2020, a pit bull turned on its 39-year-old owner in Phoenix, tearing up her face and hands and leaving her in critical condition.

Last summer in Casa Grande, Lorenzo Hidalgo, 42, went to check on his grandmother but was met instead by three loose pit bulls. The dogs reportedly lunged at his neck. Hidalgo was airlifted to a Valley hospital, where he was filled with stitches and staples.

I could go on, but you get the idea: There’s a long roll call of the maimed and the dead. Yet, on the other side of the argument stands canine experts like the ASPCA, who argue for nurture ahead of nature.

“All dogs, including pit bulls, are individuals,” reads the official ASPCA position. “Treating them as such, providing them with the care, training and supervision they require and judging them by their actions and not by their DNA or their physical appearance is the best way to ensure that dogs and people can continue to share safe and happy lives together.”

Late into their 60s, my parents adopted a pit bull from the pound: Jake, a brindle behemoth who followed my mother everywhere. She was the dog’s big love in life, up there with dropped food and lying on “his couch.”

Jake outlived my mom and my dad, and now resides with my brother. He’s a sweet boy, raised in a house full of love, and is treated with respect and care.

It’s been 10 years, and I’ve never heard Jake so much as growl. I view him as proof that Alejandro Hernandez deserves prison time. Because there are no inherently bad dogs, only bad owners.

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

A crash course in athletes’ short careers

BY JUDY BLUHM Peoria Times Columnist

Endless training. Dashed dreams. Heartbreak. Crashes. Disqualifications. Injuries. Just reading about sports lately will either leave you scratching your head, enthusiastically cheering (Go Suns!) or discouraged.

The crash at Tour de France caused by a spectator who was holding a big sign caused German cyclist Tony Martin to be knocked over, setting over a domino effect that left most of the pack on the ground.

Twenty-one cyclists were injured. Pileups are not new to the Tour de France, but can’t they make the route conditions safer? You spend your life training for this event to be knocked out by a sign saying, “Go! Grandad-Granny” (Allez Opi-Omi).

Track and field had its own pileup for the elite women athletes who might have brought home gold medals in Tokyo. Now their Olympic dreams are gone. The champions of the track didn’t get there in a few years.

At one time, they were just kids who started running. And then they realized that they were faster than most. School years were spent running in local and national meets, with families and coaches helping them as they rose to the top of a crowded field. And one day, the Olympic Games came within their reach as they made “the team” to compete in the most important contest of their lives.

A pork burrito from a food truck, a marijuana joint and a “falsified” date on a physician’s report sent three athletes reeling, as they are banned from competition. When U.S Olympic distance runner Shelby Houlihan was banned for four years after testing for trace amounts of the performance enhancer nandrolone, she claimed the substance entered her body by eating a pork burrito. Numerous experts have weighed in, and while it is unlikely, there is a possible link between pork and nandrolene. Houlihan appealed, yet the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and Court of Arbitration upheld the ban.

She said she feels “broken” and has loved running since she started at age 5. At age 28, with a four-year ban, her Olympic dreams are over. She claims she is innocent, and there seems to be no path forward for her case.

Sha’Carri Richardson, why smoke a joint before the most critical competition of your life? Well, she has answered that and accepted responsibility for her mistake and “being human.” She has a 30-day ban, which means her chance of bringing home gold for being the fastest woman alive in the 100-meter race is finished.

Then there is the case of Brianna McNeal, who won gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2016 Olympics, who missed a mandatory drug test and then “tampered” with the results management process. OK, there is a ban for five years because she had changed the date of a medical procedure by one day.

Why is this happening? Maybe it is the culmination of poor decision-making, human shortcomings, bad luck and terrible consequences that can make or break careers.

Athletes spend their time and life working to be the best. They do not train to just stay in shape (like we mere mortals). The motto of “higher, faster, stronger” is the drumbeat that they live by, but for some athletes, that path is filled with tears.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local Realtor. Have a comment or a story? Email Judy at judy@judybluhm.com.