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In response to the Feb. 9 article "Evolution leads off first series of UA science-based talks."

The University of Arizona science department should be commended for opening to our community the lecture series on evolution. I would challenge all those who have any doubts about the scientific truth of evolution to attend these lectures. I especially recommend these lectures to local pastors and other religious fundamentalists who, I have heard firsthand, advise their congregations to consider evolution as a fraud and tell their school-age audience not to believe their science teachers.

Now is a wonderful opportunity to let the light of knowledge dispel the unacceptably delusional mythology that is still so pervasive in this 21st century.

Gil Shapiro

It must be excruciating for ordinary Muslims, especially those living in America, to watch the images on TV of mobs of their screaming, spitting co-religionists burning embassies and, in general, behaving like lunatics.

Is this mindless rage over a cartoon really the face of Islam they want the world to see? I can't believe it. Why have there been no massive rallies on the part of moderate Muslims to protest such a terrible distortion of what they insist is essentially a benign religion? Why is it so impossible for American Muslims to speak with one voice to condemn this madness?

Ann Shoben

The slippery slopes are not just in Italy. We, as a nation, are on the slippery slopes of becoming a nation divided — the very rich and the struggling middle class. As this administration careens down the slope, never looking, heeding or weighing the consequences, the outcome will be crystal clear: "a nation divided against itself cannot stand."

This year's budget radically increases this division by extending huge tax cuts for the wealthy and with total indifference, cuts Medicare benefits and education spending.

If you work and drive to work, you will pay much more for gas. If you have a family, you may not be able to get healthcare. If you are elderly and on a tight budget, you will receive no help if your spouse dies. If you have children planning on college, you will find it very difficult to find loans. What you won't get is a tax break. What you will get is a blizzard of national debt to pass on to your children.

Judith B. Wales

As a young man growing up in Iowa, my parents and grandparents constantly drilled into my head that I never tell a lie and told me never to trust or have anything to do with those who were known to tell lies.

It is totally beyond my comprehension why anyone can ever believe anything that George W. Bush says. He is a known and proven liar — look at Iraq's WMD, Saddam Hussein's connection to al-Qaida, compassionate conservatism and much more.

Now Bush expects us to believe his constant fear-mongering in an attempt to keep us buying his continuous stream of lies. I, for one, will not buy it.

Donald F. Hubbard

Retired, Tucson

In response to the Feb. 13 article "Men, it's time to step up and help reduce nurse shortage."

I'm an educator of adults, and I find the recently announced emphasis on "fast track" training for nurses troublesome.

In the "old" days, hospitals ran their own training programs for nurses, and their graduates were called diploma nurses. Now we have graduates of two-year programs such as community colleges and four-year college graduates with a bachelor of science in nursing degree. Regardless of the length of the program and degree, if any, all three can be licensed as a registered nurse.

The issue is, considering the different lengths of training times, can all RNs deliver the same level of care? Either high-speed training gives enough knowledge to the nurse and the four-year program is a waste of time, or we are staffing our hospitals with less than fully trained nurses.

Thomas L. Nolan, Jr., EdD.

Tucson

In response to the Feb. 12 column "An enormous dilemma."

I agree and disagree with your opinion. Elephants shouldn't even be caught in the first place. They are being neglected in zoos and in the circus, but most people don't even know half of what is happening behind the scenes to these gentle giants.

When Toni, the elephant at Washington's National Zoo, died, she did not die a happy elephant. Her arthritis was caused from being held in a small enclosure and from not getting as much exercise as she would have gotten in the wild. If you think about it, Toni was caught to just be euthanized.

Would you like to be held captive staring at the same wall and only allowed to roam around in a very small enclosure? Elephants will never have a normal free life because once they are caught for a long period of time, they can never be released back into the wild due to our human contact.

Rick Ortiz

Many Americans, like myself, concede the importance of wiretap surveillance for the nation's security in this strange new world.

Congress provided a law allowing for this important procedure. The president, by stretching the law, broke it. By causing that break, he himself has caused the disclosure of the surveillance program. He is, therefore, the one who has endangered the national security.

Sheila Silverberg

Anyone who wants to see more highways in Tucson should listen to the Phoenix radio traffic reports.

Twice a day, the highways slow to a crawl for miles and miles and, in many cases, stop and close. I'd rather wait for a few traffic-light cycles and know I can pull off onto a sidestreet and find an alternative route. Or stop into a store for a cold drink and use the bathroom. Anything but be stuck on a clogged highway with no escape.

It's important we find traffic solutions as we grow toward a million citizens, but highways are not the easy solution they are purported to be. Where are the visionaries who can see a future with efficient, popular and affordable mass transit?

Dean Steeves