The late Senator Barry Goldwater, from Tucson Citizen archive

Published in today’s Arizona Republic is an opinion piece with the late Senator Barry Goldwater’s 2/14/62 predictions in the Tucson Daily Citizen (predecessor to our Tucson Citizen newspaper) as to Arizona at age 100.

Here’s the online article
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/03/06/20120306goldwaters-crystal-ball.html

but the newsprint article has photos (on pages B12 and B13) of the actual 1962 article itself. Good to see our Tucson Citizen newspaper still being remembered, since its demise on May 16, 2009.

Senator Goldwater had 10 predictions, but the most interesting one for us in Southern Arizona is when he stated in prediction #8 (prediction # 7 online version which is lacking one prediction of the 10 printed in the newspaper):

Our ties with Mexico will be much more firmly established in 2012 because, sometime within the next 50 years, the Mexican border will become as the Canadian border, a free one, with the formalities and red tape of ingress and egress cut to a minimum so that the residents of both countries can travel back and forth across the line as if it were not there.

Under Senator Goldwater’s predictions are comments by legal scholar Jack August Jr. who is also the Executive Director of the Barry Goldwater Center for the Southwest.

But the Senator was mostly correct in prediction # 2 since Phoenix is now the 6th largest U.S. city:

The forests will still be protected, as well as our parks and monuments. But even they will have as neighbors the people who today enjoy hardships to visit them.

But it will be the deserts that will support the majority of the new homes. Phoenix will have a population of about 3 million, and Tucson will grow to about 1.5 million.

Phoenix and Tucson will remain the two largest cities in the state, with Phoenix being either the fourth- or sixth-largest city in the United States.

At least Tucson is not at the 1.5 million mark yet…

More information on Senator Goldwater (click here), who represented Arizona in U.S. Senate from 1953 to 1965, 1969 to 1987, and was the Republican Presidential nominee for U.S. President in 1964. He died at age 89 in 1998.

Michael Chihak’s weekly TV Show “Arizona Week” is in its 14th Week since its debut on January 14, 2011. Tonight’s show (every Friday at 8:30 p.m. on KUAT Channel 6) focused on U.S. Senator Jon Kyl’s announcement not to seek re-election, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ recovery, redistricting, and political campaigns.

Host Chihak’s guests tonight were Assistant Professor Kate Kenski of the UA Dept. of Communication, and Carol Zimmerman, of Zimmerman Public Affairs (and apparently no relation to CD 8 aide Gabe Zimmerman who was killed on 1/8/11). Kenski talks about current trends and the growing number of Independents in Arizona. Zimmerman talks about the upcoming federal races in 2012.

Political comments were also provided by Amy Wang, reporter for the Arizona Republic and Ted Robbins, SW correspondent for National Public Radio. Both discuss Congresswoman Giffords’ current condition/treatment and her uncertain future. Amy also reports that only Republican Congressman Jeff Flake (CD 6) has currently announced for U.S. Senator Kyl’s seat. (Board of Regent Fred DuVal, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, and former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Pederson– all Democrats– have declined to run).

View this TV segment online here.

Note: I also heard Jessica Schultz, Congresswoman Giffords’s poltiical director speak this week Monday at Democrats of Greater Tucson, who said that the Congresswoman’s condition was still a “long road to recovery”, as a brain injury survivor.

“Arizona Week” hosted by former Tucson Citizen newspaper publisher/editor Michael Chihak premieres on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 8:30 p.m. Chihak will be interviewing newsworthy politicians and community leaders on a weekly basis for KUAT Channel 6, Arizona Public Media. Website is www.azpm.org.

From their press release:

With all that has transpired in Tucson over the last week, host Michael Chihak and a panel of Journalists will discuss how the tragedy is having an impact on the Arizona State Legislature. Friday’s program will include an interview with Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams, who Monday called on his colleagues for a more civil tone.

“Arizona Week is a review of that week’s top news in Arizona: the big topics and stories that need in-depth analysis,” said host Michael Chihak. “We plan to get the newsmakers on the air, interview them and then a panel of journalists from news outlets such as the Arizona Republic, The Arizona Capitol Times, and others will be able to ask the follow-up questions and lead discussions that our citizen viewers need to know. The mission of the program is to provide depth and understanding of the key issues that affect the state.”

Arizona Week will maintain its own unique website AZweek.com featuring Chihak’s Channel blog. Arizona Week will be streamed online and you can stay current anytime with the AZweek twitter feed. It will also repeat on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. together with Washington Week (10:00 a.m.) on PBS World – broadcast channel 27-3, Comcast 203, and Cox 83.

I reported on his hiring on December 11 (click here.) Chihak left the Tucson Citizen newspaper in 2008 and moved to California to work as an executive director of the San Francisco nonprofit Communications Leadership Institute. He stepped down from that post in 2009 and studied culinary arts at the California Culinary Academy (graduated in June), and moved back to Tucson in July, 2010.

The Tucson Citizen newspaper ceased print publication on May 16, 2009 after 139 years of continuous news reporting, and has evolved into this online “news source”, the Tucsoncitizen.com.