TEEN COLUMNISTS WANTED
The Tucson Citizen is accepting applications for teen columnists and bloggers for the 2007-08 school year.

Tucson-area high school students should submit a typed, double-spaced sample opinion column, about 500 words long. Include a separate paragraph or two telling why you want to be a teen columnist.

Provide your home address and telephone number, e-mail address if applicable, and tell us where you will attend school and what grade you will be in this fall.

Students who are selected will be paid. The deadline to apply is July 16. Submit materials to Billie Stanton in one of these ways:

Mail: Tucson Citizen, P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767

E-mail: bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com (bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com)

Fax: 573-4569

For more information, call 573-4664.

The environment has been in the news a lot lately. Al Gore made a movie about it. And I just ate my lunch with biodegradable utensils known as Spudware.

Some people may be wondering what they can do. My answer: Get those who aren’t wondering to care.

Driving, using electricity and throwing trash away lead to carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases that trap heat.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fears the average temperature will increase by 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

Many smart people are doing research and policy analysis on emissions and climate change. But we also need smart voters.

Incorporating environmental education into high schools and providing more salient recycling bins in classrooms are easy ways to foster “greener” citizens.

Recycled material doesn’t reach the landfills, where it would decompose into potent greenhouse gases, says Wilson Hughes, waste reduction planner for the city of Tucson Environmental Services Department.

And manufacturing using recycled material requires less energy, Hughes says.

Some schools in Tucson, such as Reynolds Elementary School and Miles Exploratory Learning Center, have achieved an amazing 50 percent recycling rate.

But the rate is only 25 percent for Tucson Unified School District, meaning there is lots of room for improvement.

Recycling bins at my alma mater, Salpointe Catholic High, usually consisted of green, plastic tubs or cardboard boxes.

At no cost, schools could put cardboard recycling receptacles in every classroom. Simply reuse boxes from the cafeteria or bookstore.

But the recycle bin does no good hidden in the corner.

Studies by social psychologist Dorwin Cartwright demonstrate the need for “channel factors” to facilitate behavior change. So don’t put the recycling bin where it’s hard to find; rather, put it next to the trash can.

The best way to ingrain these habits is to start with young kids, and this is under way in Tucson.

Two education programs in the area together serve more than 10,000 young students a year, Hughes said.

But they overlook high school students, who are great targets: old enough to understand the dangers our planet faces, on the verge of becoming voters and living in a paper-filled world.

How to convert nonbelievers? Hughes suggests a paradigm shift: Think of trash as a commodity.

“Trash” is money. Recycled newspapers are sold to Abitibi Consolidated Inc., which produces blank newsprint in Snowflake.

In 2005-06, the city of Tucson made $1.4 million by selling recyclables and saved $1.1 million worth of landfill space and labor, says the Tucson Recycles annual report.

Education has dramatic, long-lasting effects on recycling behaviors, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Behavior.

Information and education in high schools, therefore, could increase recycling and environmental awareness.

This is what I imagine:

A student gets up from her desk to throw away some paper and spots the recycling bin next to the trash can.

Remembering what she’s learned in environmental education classes, and conscious of the negative impact of global warming, she recycles to save energy, votes in favor of conservation and enlightens others as to what all the fuss is about.

Mariana Gonzalez Araiza graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School in 2005 and is majoring in human biology at Stanford University.

Waiting for inevitable from I-10 work fiasco
Re: the front page story Friday “TIGHT SQUEEZE”:

I have often thought it a little unusual that there has not been an uproar over this incredibly ridiculous interstate widening plan.

I think people are just hoping on hope that it won’t be as bad as they think it might be.

But let the truth set us all free! This project is going to be a disaster – not only for all the businesses along the affected stretch of I-10, including hotels, gas stations and convenience stores, but also for people desperately trying to get to work.

I find it amusing to hear state Department of Transportation officials explaining how this is all going to work so smoothly.

Where will they be when I-10 and the frontage roads become a parking lot, when road rage is at an all-time high, when many businesses are forced to close their doors?

If this project were in Phoenix, would it take three years?

I only hope the politicians and ADOT officials involved in this no-bid fiasco will be held responsible for their actions when the inevitable happens!

MICHAEL ROURKE

Legals adapt on own; not ‘border crashers’
Re: your Saturday editorial (“Legislature ignores order to fairly fund ELL students”):

Why should we spend all this money to educate Mexicans and teach them our language?

At least half of them are here illegally. Some may be citizens whose parents came here illegally and now want us to help their kids. We probably paid for the kids’ births.

They could register them at Calabas schools, where a large number of Mexican kids are driven from Sonora daily to learn English on Arizona taxpayers.

A friend from Mexico came into the States (legally, how about that?) years ago. No one was there to hand out big bucks to teach him English.

He registered in a Nogales motel, bought American newspapers, listened to English-speaking radio and watched American TV.

He speaks the language of his chosen country as well or better than most – and has no accent. He did it all on his own.

He knew he’d have to speak English to get a good job.

My last trip to Target had me asking two clerks where the men’s department was. Neither of the ladies spoke any English.

Another friend who cooks in a Green Valley restaurant waited several years to get his green card. He learned English in the meantime on his own.

Now he’s here legally, earning a good living and living the good life with no help from the Arizona Legislature.

Sorry to be so tax-conscious and nonsupportive of the border crashers who seem to get your hearty support.

JERRY PULLIAM

Our rich nation should take care of its people
It is high time we start taking care of our own people.

It is a terrible indictment of our government that we have so many people dying in the streets without the chance of getting decent medical care.

It is even worse when you think about the fact that we are one of the richest countries on the planet.

Shame, shame. And we talk about compassion.

STEPHEN HARDY

Truth be known, history being distorted
When George Orwell wrote “1984″ in the late ’40s, he predicted history would be totally distorted to where black is called white.

The letter from Deborah Kaye on June 11 shows how accurate he was.

She seems to have fallen into the trap of listening to only the history as seen by the revisionists among us.

My thanks to Bill Fley for his June 20 letter setting the record on Pope Pius XII straight.

There are many more things he could have cited, but if anybody really wants to see the truth, other examples of the same praise for the late pope can be found. Most are by Jewish leaders of that time.

It is too bad we have to write letters such as this, but truth must be brought out when it is being distorted.

To see such information being generated over the past few years makes me wonder about the writers. Are they totally naive? Are they ignorant of the facts? Or are they just religious bigots? I hope that is not true.

CHUCK ZAEPFEL SR.

retired

Corona de Tucson

More letters to the editor

This issue has nothing to do with how evil you think Wal-Mart is, although, hey, who doesn’t like to blame them for all the ills of the world?

Environmentalists are notorious for skating around the economic realities, and this case is no exception.

This issue is not about heartless developers but crazy regulatory policies. Diane failed to mention that it costs anywhere from $100 to $4,000 per tortoise for “official” removal.

Also, before landowners in Florida could move any tortoises, they had to pay for a turtle blood test and then wait 30 to 60 days for the results, to ensure that the tortoise was infection-free.

When one adds up the crazy amount of time, money and hoops a landowner had to jump through, choosing the old permit option wasn’t heartless: It was the only way to get things done.

As a conservative who is concerned for the environment, I agree that gopher tortoises should be moved rather than plowed under. And I agree that we ignore the “circle of life” at our own peril.

But we also ignore economic realities at our peril. Like so many well-intentioned environmental proposals, the new Florida directive simply doesn’t account for its economic burden – or its perverse disincentives.

According to a Heritage Foundation paper on this problem, 8 out of 10 endangered or threatened species have habitats on private lands.

So it’s a terrible idea to make landowners resent the cost of reporting and protecting them – such as the risk of actually losing their property.

As Carol Saviak, executive director of the Coalition of Property Rights in Orlando explained in an interview, she’s now worried that: “Landowners will be discouraged to report or remove the gopher tortoises, and they just won’t be ‘found’ on the property.”

Florida has 1.3 million acres of public land, and $57 million collected from landowners for preserving nonendangered species such as the gopher tortoise.

Why shouldn’t it simply use some of that budget for relocation or, better yet, open some of that land to the species and accept gopher tortoises from landowners at no charge?

We can still do the right thing – but without stymieing the economic engine that makes the state a good habitat for homo sapiens as well.

Florida gopher turtles will be buried alive to accommodate a Palm Beach Super Wal-Mart.

The ultimate American source for cheap consumer goods had to pay only a little more than $10,000 for the state’s permission to carry out its senseless torture.

The number of gopher turtles has dwindled as quickly as the overpriced condos have risen. They call that progress.

The good news is that Florida decided this needless 16-year torture has gone on too long and has passed a law requiring all developers to relocate or accommodate the turtles rather than burying them under their rubble, beginning in July.

This has developers running for permits before the deadline becomes effective, and their greedy desires are delayed by more thoughtful consideration that a backhoe can’t provide.

While deep thought hasn’t often been attributable to developers, I’d like to try to convince them otherwise.

This issue isn’t about whether animals have souls. That is a question we can’t even prove about ourselves. This issue isn’t about whether animals are capable of moral reason because we don’t really know this either.

Evidence mounts every day that proves how very little we do know about what the rest of the animal world does and doesn’t know.

This issue is about respecting the life of other living and breathing animals who share this Earth.

It is about respecting and recognizing that all animals, even insects and reptiles, have their place in the ecosystem, and the depletion of one species increases another, threatens another and results in a shift in the environment, which is so intricately designed.

A lack of thought about our actions can have adverse effects for centuries. We can’t just plow mindlessly through Terra Mater and expect to come out unscathed just because we’re bigger and stronger.

Lately, even conservatives recognize the damage we’re doing to the environment and how mindful living, although not convenient in the short-term, can increase our likelihood of survival in the long haul.

We should recognize the intricacy of our environment and the place of every living creature if we value our own survival.

Today’s debate: Should development trump the rights of tortoises?

From the right: Don’t hinder Fla.’s economic engine

From the left: All animals have place in ecosystem

Shaunti Feldhahn is a Christian author and speaker and married mother of two children. E-mail: scfeldhahn@yahoo.com. Diane Glass is a writer and freethinker with a B.A. and M.A. in comparative religion. E-mail: dglass@ajc.com. Both women have degrees from Harvard.

The state budget enacted last week was modest. After some accounting adjustments to compare apples to apples, the budget would increase spending next year by a little more than 4 percent – below anticipated population growth and inflation.

This is welcome relief. The state had been on a spending spree. This follows three years of double-digit growth in the state’s general fund budget.

In fact, this spending spurt is unprecedented. State spending, compared with population growth and inflation, increased more in Gov. Janet Napolitano’s first term than in any gubernatorial term going back to Bruce Babbitt.

During Napolitano’s first term, state spending increased 29 percentage points more than population and inflation. The average for the previous six gubernatorial terms was 11 percentage points.

Paradoxically, the relative spending constraint shown for next year’s budget makes changing the state spending limit even more valuable and important for fiscal conservatives.

That’s because the budget deliberations this time illustrated that, even for many Republicans, tax cuts are seen more as a spending item, to be considered if “affordable” and in competition with other spending proposals, rather than as a central economic growth strategy to be given priority.

Arizona has a relatively high corporate income tax rate, particularly compared with its personal income tax rate. Yet the Senate Republican leadership showed utterly no interest in shaving it a bit, as House Republicans proposed.

The excuse was that Napolitano opposed it. However, Napolitano has a very consistent record on tax cuts. She opposes them until they are passed. Then she signs them and takes credit for them.

The Senate Republican leadership, particularly Tim Bee, clearly didn’t have the stomach to fight for meaningful tax cuts in the context of tight revenues.

It would be nice to have gubernatorial leadership that gives priority to tax cuts, as under Fife Symington. Absent that, however, tax cuts will obviously be easier if they are seen as affordable.

The state has a spending limit expressed as a percentage of state personal income. The current limit is 7.41 percent.

When Napolitano took office, there was approximately $3 billion in unused spending capacity under the limit. After the spending spree, there is just $1.2 billion left. Capacity should be added with next year’s budget.

For a variety of reasons, government revenues at all levels are likely, as a general proposition, to grow faster than the general economy. The income tax is now largely paid by the upper middle class and the affluent, whose incomes have been growing faster than average.

At all levels, spending on the basics – food, shelter, clothing – takes less of overall income, leaving more disposable income to be spent on taxable goods.

If the excess spending capacity were eliminated by lowering the state spending limit, state government could continue to grow just as fast as the people’s ability to pay for it. If this excess capacity is not eliminated, chances are there will be more spending sprees.

If the capacity is eliminated, the odds are that state government will be collecting revenue it cannot spend, making tax cuts far more “affordable” and likely, irrespective of the resolution of the political leadership.

Arizona is not a high-tax state. However, it is a myth that Arizona is a low-tax one.

According to the Tax Foundation, Arizona ranks 31st in the state and local tax burden as a percentage of personal income.

It’s worth noting that, before the tax-cutting of the 1990s, Arizona was a high-tax state. In fact, in 1990, Arizona had the fifth-highest state and local tax burden in the country.

Tax cuts still are worth fighting for directly. Some pretty solid ones were enacted in the past few years. However, that was because they were seen as “affordable,” given the huge increases in state revenues that were being experienced.

The state could both go on a spending spree and cut taxes. Those days don’t come along very often.

Eliminating the excess spending capacity under the state limit is the surest path to future tax cuts. The state would fairly routinely have revenue it couldn’t spend.

Eliminating the excess capacity will require an initiative. There simply isn’t a sufficient commitment among Republican legislators to tax cuts as a central growth strategy to get a referendum worth having out of the Legislature.

Such an initiative should be the top priority of state fiscal conservatives.

More Robert Robb: No peace in Palestine until election of leaders with mandate

• Employer sanctions: A bill passed on the session’s last day would prohibit employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and yank their businesses if they do. Also, employers would be required to use a federal database to check the employment eligibility of workers.

• Budget: The Legislature approved a $10.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, with new funding or authorization for building new schools, highways and prisons. Backed by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, the budget also includes money for teacher pay raises and bioscience research.

• DUI device: A drunken driving sentencing bill signed into law in May by Napolitano requires first-time DUI offenders to install breath-testing ignition interlocks on their vehicles for at least a year after resuming driving. Some lawmakers later tried unsuccessfully to repeal the requirement.

• Dirty air: The Legislature approved a bill intended to reduce particulate air pollution in the Phoenix area to avert federal sanctions. Provisions include new requirements on local governments to pave roads and alleys and new restrictions on use of leaf blowers.

• Payday loans: A proposal to place new restrictions on lenders to protect borrowers died when legislative negotiators deadlocked on whether to extend the state’s authorization for payday loans.

• No bail: The Legislature approved and sent to Napolitano a bill aimed at prodding courts to enforce a voter-approved law that denies bail to illegal immigrants who are charged with serious crimes. The bill spelled out procedures and ground rules that courts must use in deciding whether criminal defendants are illegal immigrants who should be denied bail.

• Workers’ compensation: Lawmakers passed and sent to Napolitano a bill that carries out a business-labor compromise to increase Arizona’s caps on benefits received by employees who are hurt on the job.

• Rural water: A bill signed by Napolitano gives rural communities authority to restrict development in areas without adequate water supplies.

• Gun storage: The Legislature approved a bill that would let a person take a gun into a public event or building if the operator bans weapons but doesn’t provide sufficient individually locked storage spaces. Current state law allows operators of public buildings and events to ban weapons if they provide storage places for them.

• Campaign finance: An overhaul of the state’s public campaign system cleared the Legislature and landed on Napolitano’s desk. Changes include providing more funding for candidates who participate in the system and loosening reporting requirements and raising contribution limits for nonparticipating candidates.

For votes, liberals back migrants, not soldiers
We need to show more sympathy for these border crossers.

They travel miles in the heat. They risk their lives crossing a border. They don’t get paid enough wages. They do jobs that most people won’t do or are afraid to do. They live in crowded conditions among people who speak a different language. They rarely see their families. And they face adversity all day, every day.

No, I’m not talking about Mexican illegal immigrants.

I’m talking about our troops!

Doesn’t it seem strange that the liberals are willing to lavish all kinds of social benefits on illegal immigrants but won’t support our troops and are continually trying to stop funding the war?

They are, however, willing to lavish billions of dollars trying to buy more Hispanic votes.

D.J. SOBEY

Oro Valley

3 changes to resolve immigration problem
After receiving a resounding hero’s welcome in Albania, an energized President Bush is back in Washington trying to fulfill his promise to the people of Albania and his many friends in Mexico – to shove the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill down the throats of the American people.

Let’s get this straight. Bush, the self-proclaimed homeland security president, is promising the Albanians and Mexicans that he will open our border even wider than it is today.

Albania, heroin capital of the world, and Mexico, the largest supplier of illegal drugs to the U.S., are Bush’s allies in the war on sovereignty.

Ask law enforcement authorities in Greece and Turkey about Albania. Ask Interpol. Ask the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Despite nearly 90 percent of the American people saying “no,” Bush and several dozen co-conspirators in the Senate are determined to pass this legislation.

We need only three changes to resolve our immigration problem (besides outsourcing Bush to Mexico).

Put up that double fence that was voted on two years ago. Start arresting the employers who are hiring the invaders (and watch the traffic jam going south). Modify the law to outlaw “anchor babies,” and do what every other country on Earth does – make a baby born here a citizen of the country of which his or her father is a citizen.

That’s so simple even “W” could understand it! By the way, American people welcome all law-abiding, legal immigrants who are willing to give up their citizenship and become hard-working Americans.

RICHARD D. MANUEL

Immigration ‘deal’ is threat to belief in state
Re: the June 16 article “Border deal looking likely”:

None of this has worked yet! Look at Pima County. This has to stop; now is the time.

Illegal means illegal. This is America, and American citizens want no more “deals” behind closed doors and in our government.

The focus on Mexican growth should be in Mexico. American politicians of both parties are on the edge of destroying any and all faith average Americans have in our own government.

What will come next, when all trust and good will are dashed by political lies, propaganda and misuse of power under the law?

This is all about greed, not helping poor folks. It is certainly not about the will and wishes of the American citizen.

Who started this crime? Illegal immigration must end now, or America is finished as the nation we love.

ROBERT BENNETT

Blend of care, profit like mix of oil, water
Re: the Monday article “Young grads worst off among the uninsured”:

The health insurance situation has gotten critical.

I had to fight United HealthCare for five months to get the shoulder operation I needed.

There is no room for the words “care” and “profit” in the same sentence.

ANNE FAVOR

Green Valley

Letters section deletion against church’s motto
For several months now, more than 300,000 Tucson Catholics have been isolated from each other – ever since the “letters to the editor” section of their monthly publication was deleted.

For whatever reason, no longer is it possible for them to express their opinions in their own publication.

Letters sent to their newspaper, I’m told, will be read but not printed. I don’t think that’s what letter writers intended.

You have to wonder: What is the meaning of the church’s oft-stated phrase, “openness, transparency and accountability.”

DOM TOMASSO

retired

Pima Attorney’s Office doing inadequate job
Re: the June 15 article “Charges against alleged puppynapper dismissed”:

We need to get rid of the Pima County attorney and everyone in her office!

Store owners no longer have any rights! People can walk in and steal something, and they know not a darn thing is going to happen to them.

The merchant is the one spending money for lawyers, and the crooks get set free.

It’s time to get someone in the Pima County Attorney’s Office who will be tougher on these criminals.

By the way, we’re still waiting for our money on the bad checks too!

MELODY FOSTER

More letters to the editor

Group seeks doubling mpg standard by 2017
The first step to overcoming addiction is admitting the problem. America’s dependence on oil is a dangerous addiction, and Congress seriously needs an intervention.

Every year, smog sends hundreds of thousands of Americans to emergency rooms and triggers millions of asthma attacks.

Meanwhile, consumers are getting soaked at the pump. Our cars get such lousy gas mileage that many must choose between gas and other necessities.

An average family fills up two or three times a week just to get to work and school, spending up to $50 each time.

In response to the Arab oil embargo, Congress implemented the first such standards in 1975, requiring nearly double miles per gallon averages to 27.5 for cars and 20.7 miles for light trucks.

It worked. But we have fallen off the wagon, and gas mileage has steadily worsened.

The good news is, the technology exists to meet a 40-mpg standard within a decade.

More efficient transmissions and hybrid technology would allow us to improve fuel efficiency without sacrificing vehicle size, power or variety.

Doubling mileage from 20 to 40 mpg would be like cutting the price of gas in half. The 40-mpg standard would also boost the economy by saving the average car owner $3,500 to $5,500 a year in gas bills.

A recent Union of Concerned Scientists study finds at least 161,000 jobs would be created by a 40-mpg standard.

Arizona PIRG urges the state’s congressional delegation to support raising standards to 40 mpg within the next decade.

DIANE E. BROWN

executive director

Arizona Public Interest Research Group

It’s a miracle: Crashes few at ‘Crazy Corners’
That was a nice column by Mark Kimble about the intersection at Miracle Mile and West Drachman, but you fouled up the story, Kimble!

He left out the name all of Tucson knew that intersection by for most of the years it was there.

It was affectionally known as “Crazy Corners,” and Tucson citizens were proud of it.

There was rarely an accident there as all drivers somehow slowed down when making those turns.

When there was a fender-bender, the police dispatchter would just say “Crazy Corners.”

Police knew exactly where to go, and so did the press, though there was rarely anything to write about.

Maybe Kimble didn’t wish to mention that name to avoid public dissent.

I will miss that intersection. It was a good reminder to slow down.

M. SIVILLI

Evidence exists Latinos want special treatment
Re: Ruben “chip on his shoulder” Navarrette’s column Wednesday (“Closed mind worse than open border”):

Surely Mr. Navarrette jests when he states that Hispanics are not demanding special accommodations.

Why do we have bilingual interpreters in our courtrooms, public services, schools and hospitals, and bilingual education in our schools?

Surely we ebony and ivory folks haven’t demanded these services.

Who do you think might be filing lawsuits claiming discrimination? Not us.

When I was growing up in Chicago, my grandparents brought their own interpreters (me and my brothers) when they had to discuss official business.

They did not demand that others speak their language to accommodate them.

They were poor, uneducated but legal immigrants driven from their homeland by social and economic injustices.

Somehow, they and their children survived with no government programs to assimilate them into their new society.

Mr. Navarrette breeds contempt for all Hispanics, suggesting they cannot make a life in America without special treatment.

All honest, hardworking people, be they native born or naturalized citizens, have a special place in my heart and can live the American dream without Ruben’s help.

I believe Ruben is the pot calling the kettle black when it comes to being open minded.

BILL MALETICH

CPS should be held accountable in deaths
Re: the Friday article “Legislative hearing into CPS and three Tucson children’s deaths set for Aug. 28″:

I agree with a person who left an online comment: This gives Child Protective Services time to cover its tracks.

I hope results of the inquiry will not be covered up. I am so hoping the government would not let that happen.

For our community to lose children to death as a direct result of sloppy work by the agency that is supposed to protect them is inexcusable.

CPS should be held accountable.

SUSAN ZANG

Online dialogue to story entertaining

Re: the Friday article “350 fowl seized from alleged cockfighting operation”:

I do not completely understand what is going on in the comments part of this story online, but it is the funniest thing I have every read in your newspaper.

Thank you for making my day. I hope you can do more of this kind of good writing. It is making me laugh.

G. LEON SANDIVAL

More letters to the editor

PARIS HILTON’S neighbors signed a petition asking her to move away. They’ve heard she’s been reading the Bible and straightening out her life. Some things will not be tolerated in west Hollywood.

SCOOTER LIBBY made a last-ditch attempt to stay out of jail as he appeals his sentence. He may be locked up within six weeks unless President Bush pardons him or unless he talks. He should just tell what he knows. Dick Cheney isn’t that good a shot.

Argus Hamilton is host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. E-mail: argus@argushamilton.com

When a fifth-grader who had never been in any trouble was sent to my office for pushing another child, I was concerned.

Mario, a top student with an angelic face, had pushed a girl, causing her to fall and hit her head.

When I met with Mario to learn more, he told me the girl had been teasing one of his friends.

He knew it was wrong to push, but he wanted to do something to support his friend and said he didn’t have time to think of a better way to resolve the problem.

Mario admitted all this freely and quickly volunteered to apologize to the girl. He even came up with his own consequence for misbehavior: missing two days of recess.

As we often do when a child hurts another child, we called both sets of parents. Typically the incident ends there, but not in this case.

Within 20 minutes of receiving my call, Mario’s parents, Berna and Mario Dorame, showed up at the school.

They weren’t asked to come. They said they needed to come.

Teachers in many inner-city schools such as mine will tell you this is unusual. Most of the time, it is a struggle just to reach a parent by phone.

But here they were, in the flesh. They asked me to count what had happened in Spanish, their native language.

After they were sure they understood and that the other child was doing well, they asked to see Mario.

Only by seeing his face, they explained, could they understand if he was truly OK. They also wanted to show Mario that while they didn’t approve of what he had done, they were there for him.

I was impressed with these parents for their active role in this incident.

They invest a lot of time with Mario, 11, and his sister, Vivian, 14.

Daily chores, cooking, grocery shopping, homework and praying are all done together as a family.

What are the lessons we can learn from this family?

● Create relationships with your child’s teacher. The Dorames knew Mario’s teacher and, through conferences and notes, had learned to trust him. And because they trusted him, they trusted other school personnel.

● Visit your child’s school. The Dorames felt comfortable coming to school because they had participated in assemblies and donated their time and energy to our barbeques and fundraisers. They showed their children that supporting their school is high on their list of values.

● Create and maintain strong relationships with your children, even if you disapprove of their actions.

The Dorames had a strong enough relationship with their son to weather his misbehavior at school.

“If adolescents feel that they belong to their families, they have no psychological reason to engage in aberrant behavior,” says Dr. Kevin Leman, an internationally known Tucson psychologist and author who writes a column for the Tucson Citizen’s Family Plus section.

Sure enough, Mario’s sterling behavior returned.

We ended the school year with a class trip to see an Arizona Diamondbacks game. And, yes, Mario and Berna Dorame were there, too – as parent volunteers.

Saúl J. Ostroff is married, with four children, and is a counselor and teacher with Tucson Unified School District. E-mail: elsol711@cox.net

Payday lending a societal failing
Sometimes I let my news- papers pile up, and then I read them all at once.

So it was just yesterday that I read Billie Stanton’s June 12 column (“Utilities send poor into the lion’s den”).

Thank you for keeping the payday lender topic in the news.

I grew up in Tucson and moved back here seven years ago after more than 20 years away. It’s disturbing to see how payday loan joints have spawned in the past few years.

To me, this shows that our lawmakers have a weak sense of how important it is to protect the social contract.

The fact that utilities are involved now is especially depressing.

The poorest, the most desperate, the mentally ill, the people least likely to think with a clear head are those most likely to visit a payday lender.

Some people believe terrorists may destroy this country, but I think America is its own worst enemy. It seems to me we keep inventing new ways to torture our poor.

I think some people believe poor people deserve to suffer, because they remind us that America is imperfect. They feel that if you’re dumb enough to go to a payday lender, you deserve what you get.

But some people do not have the life tools to make good choices. It is our responsibility as a society to not dig deliberate pits that can entrap them.

We can easily eliminate some misery by eliminating payday lenders, but we choose not to. Our choices show who we really are as a society.

Thanks for everything, Billie.

LISA TURNER

Being solicited elicits annoying feeling
Am I the only one who finds being solicited for charitable donations by grocery and convenience store clerks to be extremely annoying?

It’s bad enough that I often have to make my way past a phalanx of bums “Hey bro”ing to even get into the store.

Then, after finding the meager items I can afford, I get to wait in line behind somebody buying a quarter ton of food with my tax money.

Then, to top it off, I have to let them make me look like a piker when I have to answer “no” to the clerk’s solicitation for a donation to the company’s favorite tax deduction.

I, for one, greatly resent it.

HARRY PLETCHER

Melting pot in danger of being chamber pot
If we don’t act now on illegal immigration, demonstrating our resolve to restore and reinforce the values on which this country is based, we’re doomed.

I am fed up with all the blame being loaded onto our president. He’s not perfect, but who is?

At least he has the guts to stand up for what he believes.

And while I may not always agree with him, I oppose all the Marxist theorists methodically working to destroy President Bush and make the United States of America a Third World country.

Beyond all doubt, some good people have sneaked into the country, worked hard, raised families and generally lived within the law. So give them a chance to become citizens.

But if they refuse that opportunity, they should go elsewhere. There are six other continents to choose from.

If we do not enforce our laws, we are no longer a melting pot; we are a chamber pot.

M.O. SEYMOUR

Procrastinators to blame for passport backlog
Re: the Thursday article “New passport rule on hold”:

I understand a person’s dismay over not receiving his passport in a timely manner, but it is your own darn fault.

You knew more than a year ago about the new passport requirement, but you waited until the last moment.

I know what some of you are going to say: “I applied two or three months ago.”

But so did everyone else who was planning a summer trip. Didn’t you think there would be a major backlog?

Why didn’t you get your passport last fall or just after the Christmas rush at the post office when it was quick and easy?

Now, because of an unfunded mandate and your procrastination, the much-needed passport requirement will be delayed.

KATHY AUDELO

Protect Internet as free market venue
Americans need to speak up to save the Internet.

Every time big business gets special treatment, the rest of society loses.

What happened to the free market? Are we going back to the days of monopolies?

JUAN NEGRETE

After further review, new call on baseball

Re: my Wednesday letter “Run ‘traitors’ Zucker, Parr out of Tucson”:

I wrote this after hearing about the move; I felt betrayed because I love baseball.

The problem that has plagued Tucson for more than 30 years is the heat and open stadium.

Many residents prefer an evening in 78 degrees instead of 105-plus degrees.

My wife’s medications preclude her from being in direct sunlight, as she turns beet red in less than 10 minutes and can pass out from the heat.

The answer is Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark).

Enclose either Hi Corbett or Tucson Electric Park.

Or bulldoze them both and build what we need most: hospitals.

MARK WALTON

Read more letters to the Editor

Fred Thompson

NYC MAYOR Mike Bloomberg hinted he may run for president. He’s a self-made billionaire and a former defendant in a sexual harassment suit. For the first time in 15 years, comedians aren’t forced to support the Clintons out of self-interest.

SAN ANTONIO Spurs drew low ratings while winning the NBA title because people think they’re boring. Its players don’t go to clubs, drive drunk or get arrested. If they want better TV ratings, they will have to teach Paris Hilton to shoot jumpers.

PRESIDENT BUSH said his watch wasn’t stolen in Albania. He said he pocketed it before shaking hands on the street. Now Albanians are outraged that he didn’t trust them not to steal his watch. There goes his last chance to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

U.S. TRACK and Field Championships start Friday in Indianapolis. It could be quite a show. Ever since the border fences went up south of San Diego, America is enjoying an embarrassment of riches in pole vaulters, hurdlers and high jumpers.

BILL AND HILLARY Clinton shot a commercial in a diner spoofing the last scene of “The Sopranos.” It’s not the first time they’ve acted like mobsters. They spent so much time in front of grand juries, the Sons of Italy granted them honorary membership.

FRED THOMPSONflew to Great Britain to have his picture taken with Lady Margaret Thatcher. Everyone can see what he’s doing. The next day, he flew to Los Angeles, where he walked into a talk radio station and formally adopted Michael Reagan.

Argus Hamilton is host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. E-mail: argus@argushamilton.com

FRED THOMPSON, in a speech in London, threatened to attack Iran. America is crying out for a president who will just sit quietly in the chair and not cause any trouble. Who would have believed that Bob Dole’s time would come again?

AL PACINO got a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. For 35 years he’s played Mafia bosses, cocaine dealers and Las Vegas casino owners. Al Pacino’s birthday is a national holiday in the Cayman Islands.

L.A. LAKERS owner Jerry Buss was charged with drunken driving . The 74-year-old bachelor was pulled over with his 23-year-old date. He was so grateful to be stopped by police and not by that guy from “Dateline” who catches predators.

THE U.S. SENATE grilled the State Department over the backlog in passport applications. Travel rules vary widely from country to country. You need a passport to travel from the United States to Mexico, but to come back you just need a bottle of water and a compass.

HARLYN Geronimo asked President Bush for help getting Yale University’s Skull and Bones Society to return the bones of Geronimo. The bones were believed stolen by President Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush as a senior class prank 90 years ago and placed on display in the fraternity club room. It’s no wonder Pakistan won’t give up Osama bin Laden.

Argus Hamilton is host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. E-mail: argus@argushamilton.com