Readers
Reader corresponds on news, its delivery
Many times in the last few weeks, I started a letter to the editor but didn’t finish any of them in a timely manner.
One was about the deplorable situation of the arts in Tucson Unified schools. The new superintendent apparently doesn’t appreciate the fine arts as a vehicle for stimulating students’ minds. She must believe they are an unnecessary expense because they don’t appear on the AIMS test.
Another letter to the editor was about the mismanagement of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and its convoluted pricing system for season tickets that no one in their office can explain.
And the musicians, without whom there would be no TSO, played for more than a year without a contract and when they finally received one, the amount was below what they had received in previous years.
Now TSO management is asking the public to donate $1 million before the end of 2009 for the Emergency Bridge Campaign. I am more inclined to make a donation directly to the musicians.
The topic of a third letter was the Regional Transportation Authority vote recount and County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s “all’s right with the world – what’s the fuss about – my elections department is the best and has done no wrong” blathering. Thanks to the Tucson Citizen for including Attorney Bill Risner’s statement for balance.
A fourth letter would aim squarely at the powers-that-be managing the Citizen. Why don’t they ask the readers what we want in the newspaper? Did they ask if readers valued the daily bridge column or did they just drop it? It can’t cost any more than Mallard Filmore but the duck keeps flapping along ad nauseam.
What about the powers-that-be requiring local columnists to do blogs? When do I have time to read a blog? Did they ask if I wanted to read a blog?
The Citizen goes to the heart of issues. It’s an honest newspaper and doesn’t deserve to die. On National Public Radio, I recently listened to a discussion about the demise of print newspapers throughout the country. I hope that Tucson can pull off a class act and keep both our daily papers alive and in print form.
I want to get the news dropped on my doorstep. I don’t want to click a mouse to read the news. I want to turn a page.
Lee Oler
No contest between a rock & a green place
Re: the Tuesday My Tucson column by Melissa Lamberton (“Go green, UA, and let the grass die”):
There is more to being “green” than living in a world of dirt and rocks.
I totally disagree with Melissa Lamberton’s My Tucson view that UA should let the grass die.
Being green is an attitude that reflects concern for the planet and our future, but it does not mean we have to give up the beauty that is already there.
We have to make it more special and protect it. That is what UA does with its landscaping and plant life.
Anyone who knows Tucson knows that the UA campus is a veritable oasis in a desert. It is more than just a college campus. It is a place of solitude. It is a place of contemplation. It is a place for gathering and sharing.
The trees and grass and vegetation provide a source of comfort on a hot day, a source of learning about our plant life and a place to escape.
How exciting for us when the professor would say, “Let’s hold class outside today on the grass under the trees that line the Mall.”
Every time I drive by on Campbell Avenue and look down at the green grass Mall of UA, I feel good. It’s my Central Park, in the midst of an urban center.
Author Leo Buscaglia writes that the time to celebrate one’s life is when they are alive and when families struggle the most. Not when they are gone or when things are going great.
To get rid of the grass at UA because of tight economic times is shortsighted and senseless. It’s not like UA is wasting its resources. I see no water running down the streets.
The plants are well maintained and protected. It is a living museum we can experience each and every day if we want.
Is it a selling point for UA? Sure it is! It’s a beautiful campus and if it makes someone from New York want to go here, great.
The Mall is UA, so much so that when they wanted to take away part of it years ago for a new building, they decided instead to put the building underground and preserve the Mall.
I suggest Melissa take her family down to the campus someday, pack a picnic lunch, walk among the olive trees and find a shady spot and enjoy our little “green” area. Save the grass and all the plants!
Matt Welch
UA alumnus
Focus should be on fix, not more tearing down
I’ve been surprised to hear that “ordinary” citizens who are being interviewed on radio news appear to be concerned that President Obama’s budget plan is spending too much.
They might be referring to the money spent on bailing out financial goofs. But that is just cleaning up what members of the last administration did when they deregulated the financial firms or didn’t upregulate the right sectors.
What we should be watching for is how we can help Obama compete with lobbyists to encourage Congress to bring jobs back home, build a smart, cost-lowering universal health insurance program and a preventive homeland security department that recognizes quality K-12 education as a peacemaker and crime reducer.
Philip Torrance