‘The SEAL teams are the best stealth fighters on the planet. These scum pirates need to remember one thing, DON’T TREAD ON ME! GO NAVY!’ – radcock

The story: On a rolling warship in choppy seas, Navy snipers fired three flawless shots to kill a trio of Somali pirates and free an American sea captain, prompting vows of revenge from other pirates.

Your take: Despite the usual internecine sniping, most of the Citizen’s online commentators can agree, at least, that piracy is bad and the rescue of American Capt. Richard Phillips was good:

• “Hallelujah and thank you, Lord Jesus. Great work by our Navy SEALs! God bless them.” – saladfork

• “First good decision our new president made. . . . One also has to wonder, if the captain was killed, would Obama have claimed he never authorized force and distanced himself from this?” – Scotty F

• “He didn’t do anything. Was strangely silent on the matter according to the media. He said shoot only if the captain’s life was in danger. Now what kind of idiot statement or leadership was that.” – mustberight

• “Pissants like these (pirates) are found in every slum in the U.S. (gangbangers), and they all react the same when they get their butts kicked: ‘You just wait, I’ll get you,’ ya-ya-ya.” – mikebsmart

• “GO NAVY SEALS!” – 2277

• And radcock again, “What a happy Easter for the Phillips family! He is truly an American hero.”

MOST-VIEWED LOCAL NEWS STORIES

For Monday, April 13, 2009

1 USC’s Floyd may lose recruit after rejecting UA.

2 UA’s Miller snags recruit from ASU.

3 Toddler drowns in hot tub.

‘I’m sure this will be very hurtful to the president. Not having an honorary degree from ASU is just horrible. How hilarious. He probably wouldn’t want it anyway.” – rubysky

The story: President Obama will speak at Arizona State University’s graduation but, breaking with its own tradition, ASU won’t give him an honorary degree because he doesn’t yet have a “body of work” as president.

Your take: Online commentators use this news as a springboard to laud or criticize the president and ASU:

• “The Scum Devils bestowed an honorary degree on the vice minister of edjumication of Red China, but won’t bestow one on the president of the United Freaking States? Has ASU suddenly turned into Antioch College?” – WhatRocks

• “The only degree O’bummer could qualify for is a hemp weaving degree from Berkeley.” – 5845

• “Obama has a degree from Harvard Law School. Why would he want an honorary degree from ASU or Berkeley? Also, he received his undergrad from Columbia, which has the highest SAT score averages of all the Ivy League schools.” – demospolis

• “Don’t fret, Obama will still get his honorary degree from No Clue U.” – Scotty F

• “Maybe he can be on the bowling team.” – shmileydana

• “I am in full agreement with ASU. What has he done? So far, nothing. Well that’s not true; if you count bad-mouthing our country to everyone in the world.” – SpdwSwanGuy

MOST-VIEWED LOCAL STORIES

For Thursday, April 9

1 Anthony Gimino: Miller like Lute – not afraid of tough schedule.

2 Wise could be 3rd Wildcat to announce for NBA.

3 Man killed in gang shooting on South Side.

‘Now let’s fire the City Council. That’s the kind of housecleaning we really need.’ – 1435

The story: Tucson government looks to be up the creek without a paddle after the City Council fired City Manager Mike Hein.

Your take: Only a bunch of idiots would fire Hein – and that describes the City Council exactly, the Citizen’s online community overwhelmingly agrees, although three council members wanted Hein to stay.

Your views:

• “Can you believe the only person who can run anything gets fired by people who can’t do ANYTHING right? Hein is lucky to escape this rathole.” – Holland

• “I’m sorry to see Mike go. He had the city of Tucson at heart for decisions he made and he never had the support from the inept council to move those decisions forward.” – 4018

• “The council once again proves what idiots they are.” – az native

• “The incompetence of the four who voted to send Mike packing will only be magnified as they try to find some recent business school graduate dumb enough to want to work for the ‘gang that can’t shoot straight.’ I hope the city has access to a good bankruptcy lawyer.” – blee 1958

And from the minority view:

• “Hein may be able to run a corporation, but he ran the city badly. Ask most any employee, or for that matter, all those who have left under his watch.” – ricerice

• “YEAH!!! Finally. I am THRILLED to see that Hein is fired! He had it coming. Now we just need to clean out the council and Mayor’s Office come election time, and this city might have a chance.” – just thefacts

MOST-VIEWED LOCAL NEWS STORIES

For Wednesday, April 8

1 City appears rudderless after council fires city manager.

2 Sean Miller’s priorities: meeting players, recruiting more of them.

3 Gimino column: Miller makes right move by embracing Olson’s legacy.

Cecelia and Joedd Miller were married April 2, 1970, in Central Presbyterian Church in Phoenix. ABOVE: They lounge on the beach at Rocky Point, Mexico. RIGHT: They relax while posing for an informal snapshot in their Phoenix home.

Sunday, children on decorated bicycles and folks waving palm fronds paraded along Indian School Road in Phoenix.

That Central Presbyterian Church tradition was started by the Rev. Joedd Miller.

Joedd loved Palm Sunday. He used to lead the procession with Paco, a rented donkey.

On Palm Sunday this week, though, Joedd Miller died. He was 74, but you’d never have known it.

My cousin Joedd was the finest, funniest, coolest member of our family, hands down. He was a nut.

He was born in Clarinda, Iowa, on March 25, 1935, to Clara and Floyd “Fiddle” Miller.

Fiddle used to be a wing-walker at county fairs. But Joedd found his own wings at Trinity Presbyterian, where he was drawn to the ministry.

His ordination was a big deal in Clarinda, and it was an even bigger deal when the church sent Joedd to Nairobi, Kenya.

He loved Kenya – and he loved Kenyans. For the rest of his life, Joedd would fret and worry whenever troubles erupted in that African nation.

But it was at his next stop, in Sacaton, that Joedd (pronounced Joe-Ed) found and married his true love, Cecelia, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Joyfully, Joedd adopted her five sons, who gave his life a deeper meaning than he ever had known. He and Cecelia later had two daughters, too.

Tragedy struck in 1975, when a driver ran a stop sign and crashed into the Volkswagen van carrying Dennis, their oldest son. It toppled, killing him.

After that, Joedd made all his children drive Volvos.

They are Richard, 49; Roger, 48; Nathan, 46; Michael, 44; Sandra, 38; and Jennifer, 37.

As teenagers, Sandra and Jennifer used to have Joedd drop them a block or two from school, lest they look like dorks being dropped off by their dad.

One day as they approached the school door, Joedd pulled up and leaned out the car window, waving and yelling: “Goodbye, Sandra! Goodbye, Jennifer! Have a nice day, girls!” And he roared away, cackling.

That was Joedd.

He was driving along Central Avenue in the pouring rain once when he saw a labor union bumper sticker he liked.

A red light stopped traffic, so Joedd jumped out to compliment the driver on his sticker.

Before he reached that car, the light turned green, the oblivious driver took off, and a soaked Joedd walked back to discover his car was locked.

He had to leave it – engine running, windshield wipers whapping – and walk home through the rain to get the spare keys. Laughing no doubt.

That was Joedd.

“He just lived in the moment,” Jennifer says. “He saw that bumper sticker, and he had to go tell the guy he liked it!”

Joedd loved life and family, Indians, Iowans, Kenyans – just about everybody except Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

He’d never pass up an opportunity to dance, a chance to swim or an invitation to eat.

He and Cecelia opened the renowned Fry Bread House to provide Native American food in Phoenix. Of course, it was also Joedd’s way to make sure he never missed a meal.

Joedd was a tireless advocate of the poor and downtrodden and a relentless champion of progressive, Democratic causes.

And he was the person who kept track of the whole family. Sure, he did our weddings and funerals. But he also knew if you got sick, had a baby, graduated college or lost your job.

He cared. And we counted on him.

When a Phoenix bookstore still was selling the Tucson Citizen, he’d drive across town every week just to buy my column.

He’d call late at night to discuss life and politics, ending almost every call with a prayer.

Joedd was ecstatic when Barack Obama won the presidency; the victory filled him with hope for our world.

We’re glad he lived to see that – and to get to know his newest grandchild, Isabella Martinez, now almost 2 (Sandra’s daughter).

He doted on her and Feather, 12, (Richard’s daughter) and Zeke, 17 (Roger’s son).

Joedd lived large – in love, laughter and in his faith.

Incredibly, news of his death prompted the same response from many of us: “I can’t imagine a world without Joedd.”

My family has lost its center, its heart. For us, at least, the world really never will be the same.

Reach Billie Stanton by e-mail at bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com or billiestanton@gmail.com.

Cecelia and Joedd Miller were married April 2, 1970, in Central Presbyterian Church in Phoenix. They lounge on the beach at Rocky Point, Mexico.

———

Services for Joedd Miller

A wake will be from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday at Central Presbyterian Church, 37 E. Indian School Road in Phoenix. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Orangewood Presbyterian Church, 7321 N. 10th St. in Phoenix. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org) at 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104.

Abortion opponents Winston Lemoine (left) and Hugh Hammond hold signs warning motorists driving on East Grant Road near a Planned Parenthood clinic about fellow protesters with graphic signs.

Gov. Jan Brewer is as anti-choice as any conservative, but she’s also too smart to let HB 2564 become law this year.

The bill is jam-packed with vicious, patronizing edicts only a Neanderthal could love (no offense to Neanderthals).

For example, it would force any woman seeking an abortion to first get a lecture from a doctor, then wait 24 hours before obtaining the procedure.

The doctor would be legally required to discuss alternatives to abortion, the father’s responsibility to help support the child, and more.

“I, as a doctor, would have to provide a script regarding the social services available – that there will be assistance for child care and for food,” notes Democratic state Rep. Matt Heinz, a doctor at Tucson Medical Center.

“What a crock. It’s forcing the doctor to lie to the patient because we just cut the hell out of CPS,” Heinz said, referring to Child Protective Services. (He doesn’t perform abortions because he hasn’t had the training.)

Under the law, a doctor also would have to detail the gestational development and other characteristics of the fetus, providing an opportunity to guilt-trip the woman into instead having the baby.

Yet the bill also prohibits any person, including a parent, from “coercing a minor to obtain an abortion” – a mandate that desperately begs definition.

So under this bill, it’s OK to coerce a woman not to get an abortion, against her better judgment, but it’s illegal to encourage her to get one despite any health concerns.

For minors, Arizona already requires parental consent for abortion, with rare exceptions made in cases of incest and other extreme circumstances.

HB 2564 would require the parents to also have their consent notarized – making it a tad more difficult for families already suffering an emotional ordeal.

But these elements of the bill are innocuous compared with two other provisions:

• One clause would let doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals refuse to provide abortions or even medication or emergency contraception.

So a rape victim living in a rural area with one fundamentalist, anti-abortion pharmacist could be refused emergency contraception.

If she then heads to the city for a surgical abortion, a likely reaction, do the anti-choice forces believe that’s better?

Besides, if a medical professional isn’t willing to provide legal, prescribed services or products, that person shouldn’t have entered the profession.

A pregnant woman whose life is at risk doesn’t have time to waste with a dithering doctor.

• Perhaps the most detrimental component of HB 2564, though, is the ban on nonphysicians performing abortion – a procedure routinely provided by nurse practitioners.

The Catch-22? Arizona doesn’t allow its medical school to train students to perform abortions.

That’s because the University of Arizona, where our state’s doctors train, wanted to expand its football stadium in 1974.

UA wanted that $5.5 million expansion so badly, it agreed to then-Rep. James Skelly’s condition that abortion and its clinical training be prohibited at University Medical Center.

So for 35 years, UA medical students have either gone to great trouble to get training off-site from Planned Parenthood – or have forgone instruction.

That’s a serious problem for any pregnant woman whose life is at stake.

Arizona, lacking sufficient doctors with adequate training, relies heavily on trained nurse practitioners to perform the typically simple surgery.

By barring them from that practice, HB 2564 would practically ban abortion from our state – and some women, most assuredly, would die for lack of access to the procedure.

Abortion is one of the most divisive issues of our time, and Brewer won’t let such controversy cloud her chances of being elected governor in 2010.

Besides, she’s focused on state finances these days, as she should be.

A dire recession such as ours probably isn’t the appropriate time to debate abortion. But it’s a discussion Arizona desperately needs to have someday.

We need UA medical students to get complete training, and we need strong support of Planned Parenthood, which does more to prevent abortions than any other entity.

We must provide medically accurate sex education and free or low-cost birth control wherever needed – both services that also would prevent abortion.

Arizona girls and women need to understand that abortion should not be regarded as a form of birth control; it should be a last resort.

But we also need legislators to understand that this highly personal, emotional decision is none of their business.

It is a decision a woman makes with the advice of her doctor; lawmakers – male or female – should butt out.

2004 Tucson Citizen photo

Reach Billie Stanton at 573-4664, bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com or billiestanton@gmail.com.

Medical Students for Choice members (from left) Heather Spellman, Christina Hayhurst, Gabe Sarah, Kimberly Insel, Mariposa Wolford, Lindy Valichnac, Maria Di Leo, Kate Bradley, Todd C. Daniello and Beth Clark want abortion taught at the UA College of Medicine.

Newspapers provide the antidote to the lawless, fact-free cyberworld

Workers dismantle the sign at Denver's Rocky Mountain News. one of many victims of the quake rocking the newspaper industry.

Newspapers are being felled across the land – victims of overextended media chains, corporate greedheads, a searing recession and a singular lack of foresight and imagination amid the dawn of the Internet, craigslist, blogs and Twitter (which I believe is an incurable genetic condition).

Surviving dailies are ordering layoffs, pay cuts and unpaid furloughs for staff members, while hunkering down to continue business as usual.

(They’re even slicing into the salaries of newspapers’ top dogs – who, a la AIG, wisely now rely more heavily on bonuses.)

Clearly, change must come. But I’ll believe the newspaper industry is dead when they drive a spike through the heart of that last little Kingman Daily Miner or Summit Daily News.

Until then, reports of our profession’s death will continue to be widely exaggerated.

Tech-happy gurus Clay Shirky and Dave Winer already are dancing on a nonexistent grave, giddy that hordes of Internetters will take our place.

Shirky’s new book title – “Here Comes Everyone!” – underscores his glee.

And yes, it is wonderful when common folk band together to foment change, whether via the Internet or any other means.

It’s what Americans have been doing in this democratic society all along.

Those mini-revolutions usually relied on information circulated by newspapers. They still do, except now it’s newspaper information that’s been recycled onto the Internet.

Shirky doesn’t express much concern about the flip side of the fiber optic, but the Internet is where the miasma of terrorism, from radical Muslims to American Nazis, can coagulate, too.

And it’s the favorite playground of petty thugs without a clue. Their uncensored slander and libel via online comments would have prompted lawsuits in an earlier age. But now they’re anonymous, and they can do anything – no matter how vicious, how stupid, how wrong.

That’s the Internet – a cacophony of idiocy and brilliance where everyone can join in, whether helpful or harmful.

Winer insists, “The sources will fill in where we used to need journalists,” with judges, jurors, witnesses and others telling you the outcome of court cases, for example.

But Internet anarchy can’t fill the void newspapers would leave. Someone still must do the often mind-numbing reporting, and someone must separate the wheat from the chaff.

Cyberspace drenches you in misinformation, some sophisticated and subtle, some not.

Mark Morford nails it on sfgate.com: “Whom do you trust? How do you know? How the hell do you actually find anything resembling balance and context and through-line, when no one has an editor and anyone can say anything and the concept of ‘journalistic professionalism’ is nowhere to be found, because no one wants to pay for it?”

Indeed. The newspaper you’re reading right now has a gun to its head, but it’s filled with information that’s been gathered and vetted by professionals.

No one welcomes its death, not even its harshest critics.

Because just as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News helped to keep the Seattle Times and The Denver Post on their toes, so has the Citizen provided a counterpoint to the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Weekly.

The venerable newspaper war is an honorable battle fought by professionals who follow a strict code of conduct.

The Internet sans newspapers would be a soulless, lawless place that few if any could navigate.

So yes. Some terrific newspapers are biting the dust in this recession, and our companies are being forced to reorganize and even reinvent themselves.

But newspapers dead? Not on my life.

Reach Billie Stanton at billiestanton@gmail.com.

———

VARIED VIEWS

Views of newspapers’ fate via – where else? – the Internet

www.newspaperproject.org brings you:

• “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” by Clay Shirky

• “Behind the Newspaper Negativists” by Randy Siegel

• “Die, newspaper, die? The geek gurus all weigh in on the end of dead-tree media. Are they wrong?” by Mark Morford

The Tucson Citizen is staffed by a hardworking yet motley crew of professionals, the likes of whom I may never work with again

Members of the Winelord rock trio are (clockwise from lower left) Jessica McVey, Tucson Citizen reporter Polly Higgins and Amy Shapiro. For more information, upcoming performances and song clips, go to <a href="http://www.myspace.com/winelord">www.myspace.com/winelord</a>.

Like a fistful of diamonds flung across the desert floor, the gems of the Tucson Citizen were all set to scatter.

Then Tuesday, two prospective buyers for our newspaper materialized unexpectedly, prompting Citizen owner Gannett Co. Inc. to put a stop to our expected Saturday closure – for now.

Instead of certain death, we’re poised to twist in the wind until sales negotiations and other high-level business decisions can be settled.

And while none of us wanted our beloved Citizen to die, the sudden switch is unsettling at best.

Those who already had other jobs lined up had hoped to collect their severance pay in addition to new salaries, putting them ahead of the game.

They were good to go – to install elevators or restore faded photographs, to process Social Security applications or publicize missile designs, to plot political strategies, to teach, to blog or to travel with camera in hand.

Now, who knows? The sudden shift is a surprise of shocking dimensions.

No last-minute buyers materialized for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which published its last edition Tuesday. Nor did a savior materialize for my friends at the Rocky Mountain News, which stopped publishing Feb. 26.

Yet our little Citizen has drawn the notice of two wannabe publishers – even though Gannett has said it plans to keep its half of the lucrative joint operating agreement with the Arizona Daily Star.

It would be as good as a Jimmy Stewart movie if a real buyer with deep pockets swept in and saved us all. None of us expects that, though.

Instead, the fates have simply pushed the pause button. Should someone decide to buy us and proceed with a skeleton crew, though, they’d have some hot hires on their hands, with extra talents to spare.

Dan Buckley is our videographer and Teya Vitu covers downtown. In real life, Dan writes operas for kicks and Teya travels the world to attend operas – and to see every Shakespeare play performed. Which he has.

Polly Higgins has worn many hats in features; in life she wears cool shoes, spoils beagles and stars in a rock band.

Eric Sagara covered plenty of beats, then took the initiative to become an expert on computer-assisted reporting – building complex databases, Web sites and more.

Sheryl Kornman has been shuffled from one duty to the next time and again. But with her Los Angeles Times experience and language acumen, she’s the one we turn to for Spanish translations, source names and numbers and more.

Behind the scenes, Rose-Mary Grzasko fixes our glitches and crafts clever headlines. Whether grinning or glowering, she never lets our standards slip.

Then there’s Mark Kimble, the distinguished panelist on “Arizona Illustrated” and the voice of reason on this paper.

Unbeknownst to most, Mark’s also a selfless soul, administering compassion throughout this community in volunteer work that very few people would take on willingly.

Plus he’s stood up for me for five years. He’s earned a nomination to sainthood.

Returning to Tucson from Denver after a quarter-century, I didn’t know I was coming to work for “The Little Engine That Could.” But the Citizen’s citizens could – and have. And throngs of loyal, cheering readers have been making it all worthwhile.

I suspect we at the Citizen “can’t” much longer, though. So thanks for the memories, kids. You’re the best. And what a shame that the best paper didn’t win.

After 30 years of true love, newspapers and Billie Stanton have filed for divorce. Reach Stanton in her next life at billiestanton@gmail.com.

Dan Buckley is the Citizen videographer who likes to write operas.

Teya Vitu is the Citizen reporter who covers downtown and travels the world to attend operas.

‘Obama blasts AIG’s bonuses . . . as he gives them a big bailout stimulus package.’ – saladfork

An AIG office building in New York City.

The story: President Obama expresses outrage that insurance giant AIG, after taking more than $180 billion in a government bailout, now is doling out $165 million in bonuses to the executives who drove it into the ground. Obama wants “every legal avenue” used to stop the bonuses.

Your take: Oh sure, now Obama questions AIG’s actions, after already giving it billions in tax dollars. Let’s wage a Washington tea party revolt!

Citing a WorldNetDaily headline on Americans mobilizing with more than 150 “tea parties,” mustberight urges, “Opportunity to protest: e-mail asking send one tea bag to White House – 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C. Let’s do it!”

Agrees 1967, “He and other elected representatives are entirely responsible for this. Why must he blame working Americans that had a contract, fulfilled their obligations and met their goals? Because he is weak, self-centered and totally incompetent.”

leftfield counters: “I think it’s a bit of a stretch to characterize the AIG executives as having ‘met their goals,’ unless their goal was to throw a monkey wrench into the world economy.”

But rattwo brings a whole new view. “Obama wants you to hate the guys he bailed out,” rattwo says. “(Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner wrote the bailout and never expected Rubin and pals to make them look bad. Looks like it’s back to business as usual, class warfare.”

Adds Towken1, “Obama is NOT Jesus. Jesus was a carpenter, and knew how to build a CABINET!!”

But CWthe1st questions such critics: “Obama seems irate at the bonuses for those that have bled the system dry. . . . What do you want?”

MOST-VIEWED LOCAL NEWS STORIES

For Tuesday, March 17

1 Remains found in Santa Cruz could be man lost in flood.

2 Tournament is Arizona’s big shot ‘to go out strong.’

3 Jury: Payne guilty of first-degree murder.

Tucson long has been blessed with powerful, unique personalities

Jack Vaughn, who was 81 when this photo was shot, stands in front of Guatemalan textiles while reminiscing.

Sure it’s tempting in this, my penultimate column, to let loose on Sheriff Joe, laud Raúl Grijalva and empathize with illegal immigrants.

But our reactionary readers are too easy a target, and time’s running out.

Let’s turn instead to Tucson’s treasures – the amazing array of people who somehow decided, God knows why, to grace us with their presence.

As evidenced by a few of our late greats – iconoclastic author Edward Abbey, comedian congressman Mo Udall and unorthodox artist Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia – the Old Pueblo long has been blessed with powerful, unique personalities.

Tucson grows its own talents, such as native songstress Linda Ronstadt and the late Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero, the father of Chicano music.

And like a magnet, our town draws others, such as Lute Olson and Drs. Andrew Weil and Richard Carmona.

But Tucson also has been home to the coolest of the cool.

Sir Paul McCartney, Beatle extraordinaire, has a spread outside of town, and iconic actor Lee Marvin lived here, too, till the day he died. If you’re too young to know that name, go rent “Cat Ballou.”

Our star-studded military retirees could fill a galaxy: Air Force Brigadier General Tom Browning, Marine Lt. Gen. Bob Johnston and Four Star General John A. Wickham, who was Army chief of staff under President Reagan.

The newest addition is retired Army Brigadier General John Adams, who also headed Arizona Veterans for Obama. My kind of guy.

Back in 2004, soon after I returned to Tucson and started working for the Citizen, I began getting news tips from Sheila Tobias.

She’s an “original” feminist (i.e. friends with Gloria Steinem), a Harvard-educated intellectual, a lecturer, author of at least 11 books – on topics from math anxiety to the new feminism – and a Democratic Party activist.

But Tobias isn’t a feminist in name or political activism only.

I’ve seen her go to great lengths to help promising young women become established in their careers and to introduce a certain columnist to some of the brightest people in town.

She also is married to the charming Carl Tomizuka, a physicist who taught at the University of Arizona.

About a mile north of their home lives Jack Hood Vaughn, right in the heart of our city.

Name doesn’t ring a bell?

Vaughn’s first success was as boxing champion Johnny Hood, sparring with Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta.

He served as a Marine combat intelligence officer in World War II, later worked in the U.S. Information Agency, was in the State Department and then became director of the Peace Corps.

That would be enough for most. But not our man.

Vaughn also has been ambassador to Panama, assistant secretary of state under President Johnson and later ambassador to Colombia under President Nixon.

He headed the National Urban Coalition and was president of Planned Parenthood.

The Montana native did lots of little stuff in between, too – running Pierce Energy Corp., heading overseas staff for Children’s Television Workshop of National Educational Television (think Sesame Street), and working as dean of International Studies at Florida International University in Miami.

Now 88, he’s finally a proud grandpa of baby Eve Constantineau.

He and wife Leftie moved here in 1992, mostly because Tucson reminds them of Guatemala, where he also did foreign service.

You can find him shadow boxing in the mornings, lunching at the Arizona Inn or putting final touches on his riveting and hilarious memoirs.

Vaughn and Tobias are neighbors, feminists, athletes and authors with lively intellects. Yet they’ve never met. I hope to change that.

Of course I don’t have room to include the dozens of brilliant minds at the UA, such as Peter Smith of the Phoenix Mars Lander mission.

Also too long a list are our humanitarians, including the Rev. Robin Hoover of Humane Borders, Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos and the Rev. John Fife, felonious co-founder of the Sanctuary movement.

Tucson is chock-full of such treasures, unsung heroes masquerading as common folk, truly the life force of our community.

I’m mystified as to why so many stars all showed up here. But here they are – and you, too.

Reach Billie Stanton at bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4664. After March 20, e-mail her at billiestanton@gmail.com.

Edward Abbey – The iconoclastic author’s passion for the environment was well represented in “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” while his last novel, “The Fool’s Progress,” tracks life in Tucson, where he died in 1989.

Sir Paul McCartney, Tucson's Beatle – Paul and Linda McCartney bought a ranch near Redington Pass northeast of Tucson in 1979, and Linda died there of breast cancer in 1998. She was 56. He was devastated.

Despite Obama win, spread of hate groups last year shows racism isn’t fading in the U.S.

With the election of President Obama and the slowed trickle of illegal immigration, you’d think racism would be fading away.

You’d think wrong, though. Hate never sleeps. And it spread like a cancer in 2008, with 926 hate groups active in the United States, up from 888 in 2007, reports the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project.

Arizona has 19 hate groups, including 10 organizations of neo-Nazis, such as the National Socialist Movement in Cochise County, the SPLC found.

These groups hate Jews, gays, other minorities and sometimes Christians.

Three Arizona groups, such as the Western Hammerskins, qualify as racist skinheads, a particularly violent kind of white supremacists.

Not too surprisingly, the SPLC also has identified 19 “nativist extremist” groups in Arizona – those that target immigrants – in addition to the 19 hate groups.

Tucson has three such groups: the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the Truth In Action/US Constitution Enforcement and Warden Burns Mexican Flags, the ragtag group that follows Roy Warden.

Still, Arizona doesn’t rank among the nation’s 20 worst states for hate. California, for example, has 84 hate groups.

New Mexico has only one, the National Socialist Movement.

Arizona also is home to that white-skinned group, whose National Socialist magazine cover in September depicted Obama in the cross hairs with the headline, “Kill This N—–?”

Even black supremacists in the Hebrew Israelite movement despise Obama, calling him a puppet of Israel. But the president is almost an afterthought for these anti-Semites, who preach that “evil Jews” are solely responsible for the recession.

The economy’s crash is a large part of the reason for the surge in hate groups, says Mark Potok of the Intelligence Project.

It has spurred deeper animosity toward illegal immigrants, whom many wrongly blame for the mortgage crisis and the recession.

Obama’s election and the election failures of anti-immigrant candidates also have wrought more rage, Potok says.

Yet the new SPLC report still seems counterintuitive.

After all, if American voters can elect an African-American president for the first time in history, how racist and hate-riddled can we be?

Very hateful, actually. The enmity and hostility identified by the SPLC don’t surprise those of us in the media, whose trash cans and Web comment sections overflow with racist hate comments every week.

Alas, ignorant and insecure Americans still turn to xenophobia, nativism and racism as some bizarre source of comfort for what ails them.

But they’re a dangerous and sometimes deadly lot. And that’s no comfort to the rest of us.

Reach Billie Stanton at 573-4664 and bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com.

Some Ph.D.s are veritable idiots, and some geniuses aren’t well-educated. But that truth isn’t opening doors for her now.

Billie skipped her high school graduation ceremony in Clarinda, Iowa, but she did get to don this cap after successfully completing kindergarten in Rothwesten, Germany, in 1958.

After 30 years of award-winning writing and editing, from The Denver Post to The Miami Herald, I don’t meet the “minimum requirements” to be a Denver secretary or a Colorado Springs office writer.

Closer to home, the résumé I submitted to Raytheon Missile Systems fell straight to the bottom of its pile.

Only newspapers, it seems, will hire a proven commodity despite the lack of initials behind her name.

And with newspapers imploding across the land, this college dropout now faces a terrifying future.

It’s a bitter pill indeed after 40 years of industriousness. But let it serve as a cautionary tale, for the rules have changed.

My favorite editor ever, F. Gilman “Gil” Spencer, didn’t even finish high school. But he won a Pulitzer Prize in Philadelphia and steered the New York Daily News and The Denver Post to new heights.

It’s a good thing Gil is retired. Nowadays he wouldn’t get past the computer programs that filter out anyone lacking a bachelor’s degree.

Neither can I. After a year of majoring in vocal music at the University of Arizona at age 17, I had to go work for a living.

Through a succession of grunt office jobs, I came to “thank the Lord for my fingers,” as Paul Simon sings.

But when the boredom became unbearable, I sneaked back to UA to study journalism on the side.

A class here, a class there, and finally a gig at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, where my passion spurred me to quit a high-paying job running Hogan School of Real Estate in exchange for $50 a week in Wildcat chump change.

I don’t regret it for a nanosecond.

I had six weeks with charismatic editor Hans Laetz, followed by 30 years of high stress, mediocre pay and pure joy, with all boredom banished.

Yet while I brag about my Ph.D. from the School of Hard Knocks or compare my self-taught approach to that of Abraham Lincoln, I’ve always regretted my lack of formal education.

That’s likely why I became something of an expert on education in Denver, scoring fellowships in Seattle and New York City to further my knowledge in that arena.

It’s why my favorite Colorado news photograph always was of the “cap toss” by gleeful graduates of the Air Force Academy.

It’s why I fantasized about someday working at UA, where I could finish a degree in my spare time.

And it’s why my daughter’s junior high disdain for learning is driving me berserk.

Granted, I’ve known Ph.D.s who were veritable idiots, and I’ve known brilliant but uneducated folks.

But that reality isn’t opening doors for me now.

We used to warn newspaper interns in Denver, “It’s not too late to change your major!”

Alas, it’s too late to change mine. Research, writing and editing skills always will be in demand. But you have to get past that filter first.

So finish that degree and decoupage that diploma, young friends. It’s worth far more than you know.

As for me, I’m still that tenacious newswoman looking for someone smart enough to hire a proven commodity – even without initials behind her name.

Hire Billie Stanton; reach her at 573-4664 and bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com or billiestanton@gmail.com.

‘What are you smoking down there, and is it the same stuff the city council uses?’ – Spirit of Zenger

The story: A Tucson Citizen editorial catalogs the progress being made on Rio Nuevo downtown.

Your take: Progress? What progress? Our online commenters ask the Citizen to do a reality check.

“The ineptitude in planning, funding and carrying out a gentrified downtown goes WAY back further than the global recession,” notes Rytter.

“You can’t blame the failures of Rio Nuevo on the global recession that started just a few months ago,” agrees Sultan of Swat. “If the city of Tucson is lucky enough to save its project funding, the last thing it needs is more pollyanna cheerleading from the newspapers.”

“Focus on what can be attained NOW and complete it before we go on to another project,” suggests saberknight.

Quips Carl123: ” ‘Our Opinion: Downtown is Happening’ – Very ironic statement from a newspaper that is going down the tubes because it didn’t know what was happening.”

MOST-VIEWED LOCAL NEWS STORIES

For Monday, Feb. 23

1 Speed-enforcement cameras facing opposition.

2 Our Opinion: Downtown is happening.

3 Anthony Gimino column: Cats still in hunt for NCAAs.

Army Msgt. David L. Hurt

Even newspaper people hate some news. The worst reports are the ones about abused children or about soldiers or law officers killed.

Now the war in Afghanistan has claimed another Tucsonan: Army Msgt. David L. Hurt was killed by an improvised explosive device Friday.

Hurt, 36, was a graduate of Santa Rita High School. More important, he was a husband and the father of 11-year-old daughter Avery and 5-year-old son Wyatt.

Incredibly, Hurt was on his fifth deployment when the IED fatally wounded him and Staff Sgt. Jeremy E. Bessa, 26.

Like Hurt, my nephew served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C. And my nephew now is serving in Afghanistan as well, as are thousands and thousands of our young men and women – and some not so young.

Recalling President Obama’s vow to end these wars, I’m praying for that end to come quickly rather than slowly.

Let us bring our troops home to safety as soon as we prudently can.

And certainly until then, we should do everything in our power to ensure that no more soldiers ever have to endure a fifth deployment.

Hurt had enlisted in 1992 and in 2000 became a Green Beret. He was serving in 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), so we know he had extraordinarily advanced military skills.

God bless Msgt. Hurt, his widow and young children.

His name now will be added to the long list of Tucson’s fallen soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, a list that started with the Aug. 30, 2003, death of Army Sgt. Sean Kelly Cataudella in Iraq.

May the list end here and now: May all of our troops be kept safe.

For more blogs: www.tucsoncitizen.com/blog

Desperate legislators try to overturn voters’ wishes

Funding for the early childhood development program First Things First could be endangered.

Gov. Jan Brewer and state Sen. Russell Pearce have whacked open a hornet’s nest and don’t even know it yet.

Their proposal to run roughshod over Arizona’s citizen initiative process will spur protest from free-market Republicans and progressive Democrats alike.

As the conservative Goldwater Institute noted in 2008, “Arizona’s Constitutional framers intended the initiative process to be used as a check on government . . . ”

When legislators fail to accomplish something that citizens deem necessary – a common occurrence in Arizona – we turn to the initiative process, as we have since statehood in 1912.

Indeed, Arizona gave women the right to vote through the initiative process that year, long before the Aug. 26, 1920, ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This vibrant process has been serving Arizonans ever since, resulting in an incredible array of successful initiatives.

Voters have approved proposals that do everything from banning gay marriage to ensuring that pregnant sows and veal calves can turn around and stretch in their cages.

Now Brewer and Pearce, a Mesa Republican, want to strip Arizona voters of this constitutional power.

In Senate Concurrent Resolution 1009, Pearce proposes to amend our constitution in a most heinous way.

When voters enact an initiative that raises tax dollars, the Legislature could sweep those funds away for its own uses whenever there’s a state deficit of 1 percent or more.

Further, the state couldn’t even propose a tax increase until all initiatives’ funds have been stripped bare.

So citizens’ ideas and programs would be eradicated whenever lawmakers face a little budget shortfall.

Brewer wants Pearce’s proposal to be placed on a special election ballot this spring.

But before these state officials move to demolish the power vested in us citizens, surely wiser Arizonans will prevail.

“Our (Arizona) Constitution gave powers to the people even before it gave powers to the Legislature,” notes Nadine Mathis Basha, board chairwoman for First Things First, an early childhood development program created by voter initiative in 2006.

“The founders of our constitution felt very strongly about having citizens empowered,” Basha adds. “It is absolutely wrong to still the voices of voters in this state.”

But that’s what Brewer and Pearce would do, as they’re lusting after more than $300 million in tobacco tax revenues collected for First Things First,

The money is still in the bank because First Things First has undertaken the time-consuming, tedious work of doing exactly what it promised voters:

• Citizens were nominated by their communities to serve as volunteers on 31 regional councils, 10 of them representing tribal nations.

• The councils have assessed the specific needs of young children in their geographic areas. Such needs vary depending on whether an area is rural, urban, tribal, economically sound or weak, served by nonprofits or not, and many other factors.

• Once needs were determined, the councils tapped their communities to determine the priorities and preferred ways to meet the youngsters’ needs.

• Meanwhile, less than 10 percent of the tobacco tax money has been spent to establish the program’s infrastructure and administration, and every penny is accounted for.

Now, at last, First Things First is prepared to begin awarding the long-awaited grants to councils to help young children in their communities.

This program is the purest of grass-roots efforts. Citizens came up with this initiative, citizens passed it and citizens are carrying it out in their communities under the direction of their neighbors.

Should lawmakers “sweep” the program’s funds, Arizonans will never know where the money went.

And for the initiative process, it would be the beginning of the end.

When an initiative is passed to improve transportation in Arizona, lawmakers facing a deficit will take its money, too.

Any initiatives – for health care, teachers’ raises, whatever cause – will see their cupboards stripped bare by greedy lawmakers.

And then the initiative process would end. Why bother, if nothing the voters want ever comes to fruition?

But Arizonans won’t let that happen. We won’t tolerate state officials who work to destroy our constitution rather than to protect it.

Like hornets streaming from the hive, citizens will swarm the Statehouse to ensure that our rights and powers are preserved.

Our Arizona Constitution will be upheld – even if we have to see to it ourselves.

Reach Billie Stanton at bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4664.

‘Another superior article by a Tucson teen columnist. Great job! We need to fire the Citizen staff and replace them with these great teens.’ – Scotty F

The story: Affirmative action is a racist policy disguised as a cure for racism, and it ought to be eliminated, says teen columnist Ravi Ram.

Your take: Amen, Ravi! This young man will be going places, most of our online community declares.

“A high school student can see this, why can’t all the whiners who have positions of power not see this?” asks AgentRLL.

“Very good article, Ravi,” echoes F L Burdorf. “I commend you for seeing the truth behind affirmative action.”

“Whites should NEVER deny or renounce their abilities and talents to favor some other group – until all the others extend the same courtesies,” writes Nemesys. “I’m not holding my breath, waiting for that to happen.”

Counters leftfield, “I’m certainly glad I was never the recipient of ‘all the same courtesies’ that whites have extended . . . the disparities in income, education, political power, etc.”

MOST-VIEWED LOCAL NEWS STORIES

For Tuesday, Feb. 17

1 Arizona could receive $803 million in stimulus cash.

2 Smugglers using ultralights to bring in drugs.

3 Steve Rivera: No surprise – Wise wins Pac-10 weekly honor.