A visit to Arizona evokes thoughts on that state and our own

To make a brief escape from New Hampshire’s winter and early spring, my wife and I took a trip to Arizona for eight days in late March. Observing life from that place leads to a few observations about matters when looking east.

Arizona television stations are running ads for politicians already, just like ours. Mark Kelly, the incumbent Democratic senator, astronaut and husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, regularly appears touting his ability to work across the aisle to get things done, while admitting it is hard to do anything in a bipartisan way in Washington.

Arizona has a Republican governor who has refused to run for the Senate (sound familiar?) but is not running for reelection, so there are a group of candidates running ads, one of whom promises to “complete the wall” and otherwise emulate former President Trump.

Walking in historic Tucson, reminders of its history are everywhere, but it was sobering to encounter a memorial fountain and garden dedicated to the victims of the relatively recent mass shooting at a suburban mall that left Congresswoman Giffords disabled and several others dead. Coming across the reminder of where it happened was sobering and a reminder that it could happen anywhere.

Newscasts reported debates about abortion restriction legislation that had passed the Legislature and was being considered by the governor, proposals for education reform and state-imposed restrictions on what could be considered in the classroom, and other familiar topics. One could almost think there is a national movement to introduce the same bills in legislatures nationwide.

Universally, people in Arizona were friendly and welcoming, and those behind counters or waiting on customers in restaurants were helpful. In one restaurant, an interesting note on the menu reported a “1.3 percent surcharge will be added to your bill, so we can provide our staff with health insurance.” The waitperson indicated that it was a tremendous help in keeping staff and keeping them happy. Close inspection showed that feature in many ads seeking workers, so maybe it is a trend worth watching and certainly worth emulating.

Our travels took us from Phoenix, in the desert center of the state, to Tucson in the south, to Sedona in the north. A remarkable town about which everyone spoke in awe, Sedona cannot be described adequately in print and has to be experienced. The day we got there, it was 84 degrees, and two days later it was in the high 40s in the morning, and there were several inches of snow just north of it, near the Grand Canyon. Phoenix had been in the 80s, and Tucson experienced its first dose of 90-degree weather when we were there. What a varied state!

A couple of other comments. Our public radio station is better than theirs.

Phoenix, the largest city, now is the sixthlargest city in the country, and Maricopa County, in which it is located, is one of the most populous in the nation, with almost 4.5 million people, which makes the fact that it was the site where one of the longest drawn-out recounts of the 2020 election more meaningful, given that even a partisan final audit company hired to conduct the count not only failed to find fraud, it in fact found a few more votes for Biden than the original count recorded.

Travel reading is often relaxing, although “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson, a detailed look at Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz, was not only not relaxing, it was eerily familiar, given news reports about what was being inflicted by the Russians on Ukraine. The Nazis used the same kind of blanket bombing, shelling and targeting of civilian targets to lower morale and force surrender. Hopefully, the same result will occur.

Another book, William Barr’s “One Damn Thing After Another,” gives the two-time attorney general a chance to tell his side of the story, not only of being Donald Trump’s last AG, but also his experiences in the CIA, in the Justice Department as a young attorney under George H.W. Bush and then Bush’s attorney general. Barr gives vivid descriptions of how erratic Trump could be and how warm George H.W. Bush was.

He describes his two years guiding the Justice Department in the time of Trump, ending with the final break, when he could not support Trump’s claims of a stolen election. Barr states the conservative position on American society and values well. It is worth the read.

Brad Cook is a Manchester attorney. The views expressed in this column are his own. He can be reached at bradfordcook01@gmail.com.