Offer thanks, not judgment, this Thanksgiving

(PNI) On this Thanksgiving Day, I hope all Arizonans and Americans will take time to truly reflect and pray and ask themselves these questions: Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have food on your table? Do you have a loved one who is in the hospital and receiving medical care whether or not they have insurance?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you are richly blessed. Please don't complain if our government has helped others in need achieve these three basic needs. Be thankful that you live in such a great nation that helps its own.

Please don't judge those who may not have reacted to negative experiences the same way you did. Count every blessing, deeply reflect and pray for all those less fortunate than you. In every way, we are the same.

Happy Thanksgiving.

-- Diana Hurst Wyllie,

Phoenix

Redistricting was a farce

So now, Arizona, which has a large majority of conservative Republican citizens overall, is being represented in the House by five Democrats and only four Republicans. This is a direct result of the underhanded gerrymandering pushed through earlier by the so-called Independent Redistricting Commission.

The commission was headed by a longtime Democratic Party activist who falsely filed as an independent when she was certainly not nonpartisan. She then banded together with the two Democrat members to ram through all the redistricting maps and decisions by a party-line 3-2 majority in all cases.

The redrawn maps, which greatly favored the Democrats in the election process, ended up with the desired result of having a Democratic Arizona majority in the House, even though this does not represent the desires of the majority of Arizona citizens.

The worst part is that this farce cannot be remedied for another 10 years. I guess crime does pay, as long as you're a crooked politician.

-- Brian Callahan, Sun City

Obama's gift: Respect

To those who think we voted for Barack Obama because we've received or expect to receive "gifts" from him:

Many of us voted for the president because he offers us the gift of respect.

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and many other Republicans have shown contempt for women, minorities, LGBT people, immigrants, the poor, recipients of food stamps, Social Security and Medicare and -- above all -- contempt for honesty.

When you treat people with respect, we'll respect you in return. If you're contemptuous, we'll return your contempt with interest.

-- Tony Chambers, Tempe

Tax hike won't hurt rich

Do the voters really believe their taxes will not rise? Only the wealthy will see an increase?

Are the people so naive that they don't realize the wealthy have plenty of tax shelters and ways to hide their money? The middle class will bear the burden of these tax increases, not the wealthy.

A realistic voter.

-- J. A. Younger, Scottsdale

Not the captain we need

Having Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett do an "overhaul" of the voting process is like giving the captain of the Titanic the keys to a newer, bigger ship.

-- Tom Dunning, Payson

Embassy safety is crucial

The partisan wrangling over Benghazi is a sideshow to the real problem of addressing the purposes of our U.S. diplomatic objectives in the Islamic world.

Our embassies, consulates and missions are hiding behind fortresses with blast-resistant barriers, iron fences with razor wire and armed security guards. Embassy personnel have restricted access to the public and travel in body armor and reinforced vehicles. Increased security perimeters in vulnerable locations will not resolve how we communicate in Islamic countries.

If local governments cannot protect our missions, we should leave. The real issue for Congress is to rethink our global diplomatic mission in light of the overall terrorist threats and not score political points on a setback that exposed our vulnerabilities everywhere.

-- Don Sharpes, Scottsdale

GOP must change views

Since losing the presidential election, there has been a lot of talk among the pundits about changing the Republican Party. I contend there is no Republican Party, just as there is no color purple.

The Republican Party is a combination of people with many different viewpoints. To change the shading of the party, there must be change to the viewpoints of its membership.

For example, adopting a Dream Act for the sake of wooing voters is not a change in viewpoint, it is superficial. Allowing abortion and contraception for votes is not a change in viewpoint.

I therefore also contend that this change is more difficult because the views held by many, particularly in Arizona, are deeply ingrained.

Change can happen only when we change our views, and that comes from learning tolerance for other human beings.

-- Mike Ullery, Glendale

Hamas' deadly strategy

Question: What's the real reason Hamas fires rockets into Israel?

We would be wrong to believe they think they can significantly hurt Israel's citizens or military by doing this. The larger strategic purpose is simple: to provoke an Israeli air war on Gaza.

Look behind this cynical action and you'll find their strategic success: worldwide TV coverage of children killed and mass demonstrations in other countries supporting Hamas.

It is, clearly, the hate-filled, brainwashed Hamas leadership that brings the human tragedy of war on themselves.

-- Steve Berliner, Buckeye

The elephant in the room

OK, I'm going to say it. I'm going to say what no one seems willing or able to say:

Ken Whisenhunt must go.

-- Mary Ann Bashaw, Phoenix

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Obama Heads West for Dollars and Thanks From Gay Supporters

Only weeks ago, a gay rights gala in Los Angeles on Wednesday night loomed on President Obama’s calendar as a reminder of his awkward “evolving” but still-unsupportive stance on same-sex marriage. But then he came out in favor of the change, and now Mr. Obama heads west to collect the kudos — and dollars — of a galvanized gay community.

Chad Griffin, the incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign and a co-chairman of the gala, said that “even prior to Obama coming out for gay marriage, there was this grand contrast” between him and his Republican rival, the former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, who favors amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

“But once the president came out in favor of marriage equality, I mean the passion and excitement was really unleashed,” Mr. Griffin said. “Now there’s no cloud over that support. An already enthusiastic base has been further motivated, further excited and further mobilized.”

The annual fund-raising dinner of the LGBT Leadership Council, which Mr. Obama formed in 2007 for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender supporters as his first presidential campaign got under way, had to be moved from the site initially chosen for the gala to the larger Beverly Wilshire hotel, to accommodate the increased demand. Tickets for the gala sold out, as did far more expensive ones for a private dinner that follows the event.

According to the Obama campaign, about 600 people paid at least $1,250 each to attend the gala, which will feature television star Ellen DeGeneres and a performance by Darren Criss, who plays an openly gay high school student in the TV show “Glee.” Mr. Criss is a last-minute replacement for the rock singer Pink, who had to cancel due to illness, organizers said.

For $2,500, an attendee receives preferred seating; for $10,000 a photo with Mr. Obama; and for $25,000 a couple, inclusion in a reception. After the gala, about 70 people — individuals who paid $25,000 and couples who paid $40,000 — are expected to join Mr. Obama for dinner at the Los Angeles home of “Glee” creator and gay rights activist Ryan Murphy and his fiancé, David Miller.

The Los Angeles events occur less than a month after Mr. Obama was in the city for a fund-raising dinner at the home of actor George Clooney that raised an estimated $15 million — the day after the president had announced his personal support for a same-sex marriage in a television interview.

The timing was coincidental. While aides say Mr. Obama decided in January to declare his support for marriage equality before the election, his timetable was hastened when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in a television interview, offered his fulsome endorsement for people of the same sex to marry and enjoy the same rights and privileges accorded to married heterosexual couples.

Before Mr. Obama flew to Los Angeles on Wednesday, he first went to San Francisco for two fund-raisers. First he attended a private discussion with 25 donors from the technology field who paid $35,800, and then spoke to a fund-raising luncheon crowd of about 250 people who paid $5,000 each.

There, in a dark wood-paneled ballroom, Mr. Obama was introduced by former professional baseball star Willie Mays, now elderly enough to require assistance mounting the stairs but energetic in recalling his disbelief that an African-American was elected president.

With a few protesters out of sight and earshot on the street below — including environmentalists, two dressed as polar bears protesting against Shell Oil’s drilling in the Arctic, and several people holding Romney signs — the president delivered his standard campaign stump speech extolling more than two years of jobs growth but acknowledging “a lot of people are still hurting out there.”

While Republicans regularly mock Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, the president told his supporters of the 2012 election, “It’s still about hope and change.”

Change, he said, has included the Lilly Ledbetter law making it easier for women to challenge unfair pay scales; a revival of the manufacturing sector, especially in automaking and clean energy; expanded health insurance coverage, including provisions for young adults to remain longer on their parents’ policies and guaranteeing insurance for people once rejected for having pre-existing medical conditions, and the killing of Osama bin Laden and weakening of Al Qaeda.

But Mr. Obama drew the most cheers and applause when he referred to expanded coverage of women’s reproductive health services and repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law against openly gay people in the military.

As is usual for Mr. Obama’s fund-raisers, the proceeds of the California events benefit his campaign, the Democratic National Committee and some state Democratic Party organizations. The president has been a frequent flier to California and New York, which he will visit yet again next week, not to campaign for votes (both states are reliably Democratic) but to raise money. Indeed, Mr. Obama’s financial support from liberal Hollywood and Silicon Valley figures has helped to make up for diminished contributions from Wall Street since 2008.

On Thursday, before he leaves California, Mr. Obama will go to a breakfast fund-raiser at a private residence near Los Angeles. According to his campaign, about 300 people paid at least $2,500 each to join him. Then the president is off to Nevada, a crucial swing state in the election, for the only “official” event of his latest Western jaunt.

In Las Vegas, Mr. Obama once again will address the rising costs of college education, an issue that he and Democrats in Congress have emphasized lately in part to appeal to younger voters, whose support is considered essential to Democrats’ victories in November.

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