THE FINAL EDITION

CORKY SIMPSON

The parade’s gone by. No more trumpets. No more drums. No hoofbeats, no streamers.

And the hush of the street is overwhelming.

The death of a newspaper is very much the end of a living, breathing soul. And there’s never been one quite as unique as the Tucson Citizen.

Years from now when you tell young people what the Citizen was like, remember this: It had a heartbeat.

It was the harvest, the milling and the preparation of ideas by people of character, most of whom were characters. They gave the paper its heart, its spirit and its blemishes.

Some had swagger, and over the years many had stagger.

We’ve been peopled by saints and sinners, wise men and flim-flammers and in the old days, a few fall-down drunks who always got up in time to put the old gal to bed.

We’ve had Daniel Boone characters who talked like Jed Clampett and wrote like Stephen Vincent Benet.

We’ve had stutterers who sounded like Mortimer Snerd but had a mind like Carl Sagan.

And there were the legends.

Ted Craig was a gifted editor and writer, but his real talent was the telling of tall tales. Well, that and sizing down human monuments to arrogance.

Ted was a fine athlete, though he didn’t exactly look the part. He was an outstanding golfer because he hit the ball so straight, no matter what club he used.

He also played a good game of tennis and was known to pack the most potent “grapefruit juice” ever tasted in his Thermos bottle.

Phil Hamilton was an Okie. I mean, he dripped Okie. He lived in my part of town and gave me a ride one day after I’d left my old Ford with Bill the mechanic at Palo Verde Automotive out on East 22nd Street.

“Cain’t have a body out in this heat, footback a’ walkin,’ ” Hamilton drawled.

Phil did everything. Reported, edited, wrote a column, covered politics, read copy, wrote headlines. And he was superb.

Bob Campbell was one of the funniest men who ever lived. Our liaison with the back shop when we actually had a back shop, Bob occasionally came to work late – and always had a story to tell to start off the day.

Such as the time, around Halloween, when Campbell announced he knew exactly how many people had come to his house to trick or treat – even though Bob wasn’t at home.

“I went to the bank and got 20 shiny new silver dollars,” he said, “and I spread them out on a card table in my front yard. When I got home, every one of them was gone, so I know conclusively, that there were 20 trick-or-treaters.”

Stu Robertson was a copy editor who occasionally nodded off late in the day. One afternoon he had a cigarette between two fingers and he had that hand on his forehead as he drifted into dreamland – and set his hair on fire.

Micheline Keating wrote the most beautiful movie reviews you’ve ever read. Somebody told me “Mike” had been a friend of the famous writer-poet Dorothy Parker, known for her wit and wisecracks.

John Jennings may not have been the best storyteller on the old Citizen staff, but he could imitate storytellers in such a way that he outdid their talent. Just recently we laid our beloved “J.J.” to rest.

There were so many characters. Such as the guy on the copy desk way back when, who came to the Citizen out of rehab and who thought he was Humphrey Bogart. Had the lisp, the voice and the mannerisms. Unfortunately, he didn’t have Lauren Bacall.

For nearly 140 years the Citizen brought you news from around the community, the state, nation and world. Through war and peace, famine and times of plenty. From the frontier of territorial days through statehood.

Not just anyone can do this job and do it right. Not even trained journalists. Especially trained journalists!

It takes newspaper people, some of whose personal flaws over the years somehow enabled them to create professional refinement.

The awards, the prizes, the hardware from corporate honchos were just trinkets. The Citizen’s real honor was a decoration of the heart – hardworking professionals doing their best to give Tucson its best news coverage and presentation.

Now the little paper at Park and Irvington has been given its summons to join the innumerable once-upon-a-time caravan.

When you remember the time this city had two newspapers competing – and making each other better – don’t think of this one as the loser.

The loser is the community. Tucson has lost an essential voice, living, breathing, ink-stained history recorded by the finest, most competent and dedicated ding-a-lings on Earth.

Things happened, news broke and time passed away. So, now, has the Tucson Citizen.

The parade’s gone by.

Corky Simpson is a retired sportswriter who graced our pages regularly from Labor Day 1974 to Dec. 22, 2006.

THE FINAL EDITION

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS

Arizona’s oldest continuously published newspaper will hit Tucson newsstands and doorsteps for the last time on May 16.

As a longtime reader of the Tucson Citizen, I think I speak for many when I say the paper’s closure will be like saying goodbye to an old, trusted friend.

What a friend it has been. The Citizen already was 11 years old when it told us about Wyatt Earp’s shootout at the OK Corral in 1881. It had been around 42 years when Arizona became a state in 1912. And when the city of Tucson celebrated its bicentennial in 1975, the Citizen had a 105-year record of reporting behind it.

Tucson will be very different without the Citizen. Our community will have one fewer voice, one fewer watchdog, one fewer place to go for the news we need to understand our increasingly complex world.

Many believe that, as an afternoon newspaper, the Citizen’s days have long been numbered. Perhaps, but the loss of the Citizen is emblematic of a far more troubling trend. The entire newspaper industry is struggling as never before, thanks in part to a seismic shift in how we get our news.

Today the Internet, not the daily newspaper, serves as our window to the world.

For news junkies and avid newspaper readers, this is a truly sad turn of events. I count myself among this shrinking community.

Sure, going online is fast and handy. But old school types love newspapers – we love holding them, with a cup of coffee at hand, and learning about what has happened in our neighborhood, city, state and country.

Some of us – the real die-hards – even like comparing competing articles and editorials on the same subject among rival newspapers. Tucson was one of the few cities where this was possible; ours was one of the last two-newspaper towns left in America.

With the demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver over the past month, Tucson is by no means alone in having to rely on one newspaper. That, however, is little comfort. Competition is a good thing for newspapers, as it is for any business.

Having two newspapers fostered a competitive spirit that allowed the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star to bring out the best in each another. Reporters, editors and photographers at each of our papers wanted to scoop the other guy. In that race, readers were the winners.

Since 1870, the Citizen has kept southern Arizonans informed. We didn’t always agree with an editorial position or like the angle of a news story, yet we kept reading.

We needed the Citizen. Sometimes we needed it to figure out a City Council decision. Sometimes we needed it to tell us how the Wildcats did. And sometimes we just needed it to tell us when movies began at The Loft.

The point is, the Citizen was there for us.

From the era of the Butterfield Overland Stage to the Phoenix Mars Mission, the Citizen helped chronicle Arizona’s amazing journey from a rough and tumble territory to the second-fastest growing state in the country.

It was an indispensable part of our community. It educated us, entertained us and inspired us. It will be missed.

Goodbye, dear friend.

Gabrielle Giffords is a member of the U.S. House representing Tucson and southern Arizona.

Readers
THE FINAL EDITION

Paper gave ‘plain old people’ a voice

I am very sad because I am losing a good friend, the Citizen. I have enjoyed your excellent paper since we came to Tucson in 1951.

Special thanks to my journalism hero Tony Tselentis, editorial page editor, who shared his valuable insights about community issues, printed our letters and sent our questions and concerns to the news side to cover.

Thanks also to the wonderful investigative reporters (Jon Kaman, etc.), who dug out the facts about many critical issues like the fraudulent Butterfield freeway public opinion survey and the GAC plan to convert Empire Ranch to a huge bedroom community.

The Citizen gave us plain old people a voice so we could be effective.

Time has moved on. Thanks to the new crew who continue quality news and editorial coverage – Mark (Kimble), Billie (Stanton) and the other good folk who carry on.

Soon we citizens will lose an important voice. I will miss you greatly.

Ruth Holzinger Stokes

Kudos to former Citizen journalists

The only way I have to express how much I’ll miss the paper is to tell my story. Most of all I’ll miss Billie Stanton. She is irreplaceable.

The summer of 1967 was the happiest time of my life. The Tucson Citizen gave me the chance to continue my newspaper career in a new town, in a new job.

The job was as city desk assistant, working with Tom Duddleston and Keith Carew.

The staff was great – so warm and friendly, like a big family, pre-computer with more time for each other.

I was able to continue my journalism career, which began in Columbus, Ohio, in 1942 as one of five war-time staff photographers on the Columbus Citizen newspaper.

In 1956, I had gone to New York and married Bruce Hopkins, a New York Mirror photographer. The paper folded.

John Hemmer, a former staffer there, offered Bruce a job here. So here we were.

I retired when I was 62.

At the Tucson Citizen, we made longtime personal friends, such as my 30-year-friend Allison Hock-Rose, who started as a teen intern.

She recently was in town, and we discussed old times.

From the old building, these staffers deserve to be remembered – and bosses, too:

William Small Jr., Paul McKalip, George Rosenberg, Clyde Lowery, Tony Tselentis, Mary Brown, Mary Moody, Micheline “Mike” Keating, Nicki Donahue, Ellen Crosby, Anne Ross, Corky Simpson, Bill Hopkins, John Winters, Dan Pavillard, Sue Giles, Mary Gerdan Hunt, Judy Terlizzi, Regis McAuly, Paul Allen and Jeannie Jett.

WILMA S. HOPKINS

Fine work of staff won’t be forgotten

How do you say “thank you” to so many people who have made a difference in your life, professionally and personally?

After being in the military more than 21 years, you would think I would know how to say goodbye to friends and comrades on the newspaper side of the house.

News that the Tucson Citizen will close came as a surprise to me, and soon it will be a reality.

I want to thank all those reporters, photographers, editors and the weekly Calendar magazine for working with me for the past seven years.

Working together to get the news to and about our nation’s heroes, veterans and their families has truly been the fruit of our combined labor.

What a joy it has been to have worked personally with Anne Denogean, Heidi Rowley, Sheryl Kornman, Billie Stanton, Val Cañez, Norman Jean Gargasz, Larry Copenhaver and so many others who made our news a focus of interest and personal reflection.

As the book is slowly closed on this historical newspaper, let us wish all those who shared our cheers and sometimes our tears the best of future hopes and dreams, as they will not be forgotten in my heart.

Let us remember not how the newspaper died, but how it lived! Thanks for the memories, Tucson Citizen!

PEPE MENDOZA

fellow journalist

Gaslight indebted to Chuck Graham

We at The Gaslight Theatre will be forever indebted to Mr. Chuck Graham.

Over the years, Chuck has faithfully reviewed all of our shows. A large part of our growth and success can be credited to the dedication and professionalism of Chuck Graham. He has been fair, honest and always helpful with his reviews.

As a small business, we rely on every type of public relations opportunity available. Losing the Tucson Citizen and Chuck’s reviews will leave a gap that will be hard to fill.

All of us in The Gaslight Family would like to thank you, Chuck, for all of your hard work and support of The Gaslight Theatre over the years. We wish you all the best and lots of continued success as you set out on the next phase of your career.

Tony Terry & The Gaslight Family

owner, The Gaslight Theatre

Bryan Lee was advocate for athletes

It is a shame that the Citizen is closing; good people will lose their jobs, and the community will lose your expertise.

A free press is the cornerstone of a healthy citizenry, and we will miss your varied voices.

Thanks to the entire staff for working so diligently to provide our community with news of the city.

I want to acknowledge one writer in particular: Bryan Lee. Bryan has written countless articles about the health and fitness community over the years, whether in the Sports pages, Outdoors, Body Plus or elsewhere.

He has been an advocate for local competitive athletes and a champion of healthy living.

Thank you, Bryan, for all that you’ve done for Tucson.

Randy Accetta

Southern Arizona Roadrunners

Stay in Tucson, employees; we need you

My family and I will miss the Tucson Citizen. We’ve especially appreciated the thoughtful editorial page in recent years.

Arizona media will be poorer with the Citizen gone.

Hopefully, Citizen journalists and employees will stay in Tucson and be involved in the community in other positive ways.

Daniel Patterson

state representative, LD 29

Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION

I’ve been amazingly fortunate that for the past 32 years I’ve been paid to read and write for a living while working at the Tucson Citizen.

For many years, on the Citizen’s dime, I was able to travel across America, and once to Japan, to cover sporting events. It was a pretty good gig.

But the coolest time was from 1991 to 1994 when I did my first stint on the copy desk. I had the power, as the late man on my shift, to stop the presses for breaking news stories – with the approval of the managing editor, of course.

With a touch of a button on my phone, I had a direct connection to the pressroom, and the thundering machines would come to a halt while we remade the paper.

I was always tempted to do a Humphrey Bogart impression (he played an editor in “Deadline U.S.A.”) when I shouted out “Stop the presses,” but it would have been lost over the roar.

DAVE PETRUSKA

Copy editor

One of the more amazing moments I experienced at the Citizen was being with the Tucson-based science team for the Phoenix Mars Lander mission when the spacecraft safely settled on the planet’s surface May 25.

The craft faced a danger-filled “seven minutes of terror” as it used the Martian atmosphere, a parachute and 12 descent thrusters to slow from 12,500 mph to a soft landing to end its 10-month, 422-million-mile journey.

The 400 people packing the Tucson Science Operations Center waiting for confirmation of safe landing erupted in joy as the Lander’s first images from the Martian surface were shown on large screen monitors. The “live” images took 15 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth.

ALAN FISCHER

Reporter

I was about 5 when my oldest brother started delivering papers for the Citizen. Every afternoon, I helped him fold them and wrap a rubber band around them. I felt proud, as though I was part of something very important.

Many years later, I got my first newspaper job at the Citizen.

I remember the night Old Tucson burned down. I went to the newsroom about 7 p.m., thinking a few old-timers would be there – in those days, the newsroom starting lighting up about 3 a.m. to put out the afternoon paper. At 7 at night, everyone should be home and exhausted, gearing up for the next day.

But the newsroom was hopping, keyboards going at a rapid pace, phones pressed to reporters’ ears. The sense of loss was palpable as we all worked to get the story about the blaze.

But we also wanted a story – stories, really – that talked about what the old movie set meant to Tucson’s economy, Tucson’s tourism, Tucson’s residents.

We all worked late into the night and got those stories. We wrote with compassion, knowledge and precision.

We all were part of something very important.

KATHLEEN ALLEN

Former staff member

Citizen Staff Writer

Napolitano, get in line with Obama on border

Thank you for your May 10 editorial celebrating President Obama’s decision to pull funding from the budget for future border wall construction (“Obama move halts pointless, devastating border fence”).

The Sierra Club agrees this is great news for animals, plants and all borderland habitat.

But Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said she will finish all 670 miles of Bush’s border wall, 624 of which have been built so far.

That means 46 more miles of environmentally devastating wall – bad news for wildlife.

In California’s Otay Mountain Wilderness, extensive erosion damage is resulting from haphazard new roads plowed through this formerly roadless wilderness area.

In Texas, significant portions of the Sabal Palms and Southmost Preserve refuges will be walled off if construction continues.

The Sierra Club asks Napolitano to suspend border wall construction to allow on-the-ground consultation and compliance with federal laws. It is time to make a clean break from past border policy.

Dan Millis

Borderlands Campaign

Sierra Club

For better circulation, end the paper chase

Maybe the circulation of both newspapers would be higher if the carriers would throw the papers where the subscribers ask them to.

Maybe other people get tired of having to complain over and over and just quit taking one or both of the papers.

All we ask is that the carriers throw the paper on our brick walkway, not on the driveway for cars to drive over and not in the neighbor’s driveway.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Not for the carriers. One wonders how many subscribers have been lost over the years because of such a simple issue.

Barbara Young

Green Valley

Government dole isn’t limited to just the poor

Fifteen years ago, I worked for the Department of Economic Security as a computer programmer, and about 10 percent of Arizonans were receiving food stamps.

That number has not changed much. Today, about 10 percent of the population of Arizona still receives food stamps.

I don’t have the number for people involved in other government welfare programs, but I suspect it is just as high.

Poor people are not the only ones on welfare programs. A lot of rich people are on the dole and get what we call “corporate welfare programs.”

A good example is the current bailout of millionare Wall Street brokers and bankers.

Mike Ross

Tempe

Raúl with the punches: It’s always about race

It figures that bigmouth (U.S. Rep.) Raúl Grijalva demands an apology from Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, for having made supposedly insensitive remarks toward Hispanics.

It’s always about “race” with Raúl, isn’t it?

He constantly tries to throw his considerable weight around.

If only he were concerned with the lousy performance of his congressional staff, which is predominantly Hispanic.

Who’s racist?

ALAN NEFF

Chorus of arts lovers, speak with one voice

If you appreciate arts of all kinds in Arizona, this is the time to speak up!

If you haven’t done so already, please take the time to write to all Arizona legislators, not just your local representatives.

This (current state budget plan) is just incredible.

This would mean we will lose our federal matching funds for arts programs.

The U.S. government gives $2 for every $1 provided by Arizona.

But what legislators are proposing currently is way below the threshold that is necessary to receive Obama’s arts money infusion.

Add your voice!

Catherine Nash

Rob Renfrow

Reader single-minded on health care demand

We, the American people, want health care.

We don’t want more insurance. We’ve had it.

I’m sick of paying an organization to tell me I can’t have procedures or medicines recommended by my physician.

I want single-payer health care! NOW!

Bob Williams

Sahuarita

Kill vulturous insurers so rest can carry on

Gaining control of runaway health care expenditures is to be accomplished by merely excluding the greedy health insurance companies from the system.

Health insurance companies consume 1 out of every 3 health care dollars and provide no health care value added.

They rake in the premiums, pay out on some claims, deny the rest and pay themselves handsomely for their pitiful contribution.

Physicians, hospitals and pharmacy companies are not the problem with our system, as they do provide health care value added.

Health insurance companies are nothing more than greedy Wall Street buzzards.

America needs to excise them from the system, and the sooner, the better.

William Hatalsky

Guest Writer
Guest Opinion

In these hard times, there are some new and exciting ways to do good for a cause, for yourself and for the community.

Some call it the new face of philanthropy, and it expands the notion of giving from just writing a check to giving of your own talents and becoming part of something bigger than yourself.

Gifts from billionaires such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates may make the headlines, but those gifts remain less than 1 percent of all giving to nonprofits. In fact the biggest gifts are falling off sharply while people such as you and I are stepping up.

Along the way, our gifts can pay off for us in important ways, such as strengthening community bonds and letting us learn something new.

As someone who has given substantially for four decades, I can offer my own road map for helping in the “Help Wanted” era. Here goes:

First off, where might you give? Consider joining a “giving circle,” an idea that is the newest thing in national philanthropy.

Tucson offers many options, from the University of Arizona Galileo Circle in the sciences to the Rebounders at the athletics program. You might choose a circle that helps a cause you believe in, where you have personal contacts.

Giving circles promote smart, systematic giving and also let you be appreciated where it counts. In my case, I began to help out the UA in small ways as soon as I could afford to. I joined the President’s Club when I was just a $30,000-a-year employee. Now my spark is finding opportunities to promote research to keep the United States competitive.

With a target in mind, consider these three categories of philanthropy:

• Giving your talents.

• Giving your wealth.

• Giving your time and ideas.

By talents, I mean the areas in which you have real expertise. You may be an accountant, an attorney, a designer or in real estate. Imagine doing something “pro bono,” which means for the public good.

As a commercial real estate expert, I’ve helped UA by doing real estate studies, negotiating, collecting market data, setting the value of property or building.

Giving your wealth has an extra benefit. It lets you do more as you offset each gift with a tax deduction, so a gift of $10,000 is actually an out-of-pocket cost of $7,200 or even less, depending on your tax bracket.

Again, check out those giving circles, such as the UA sport interest groups with delightful names such as the Dugout Club and the Lungbusters. They make it fun to contribute.

The third kind of gift – your time – sometimes is overlooked. You can volunteer to be on a committee and help improve an organization. In my case, I started volunteering to help UA athletics but became hooked on research after I met Joaquin Ruiz, the superdean of the Faculty of Science.

These days, I donate my skills in real estate to find facilities for biotech research and have learned to understand biochemistry and lunar and space sciences.

Not so long ago, a woman in Seattle named Patsy Bullitt Collins followed a multifaceted formula for philanthropy. At first, she gave of her time and ideas to civic causes, and then, living very plainly, she quietly gave away more than $100 million in a family fortune she had inherited.

She was asked if she was trying to give back to society. She replied, “I don’t give back. I give forward.”

That’s it exactly. Find something in Tucson that energizes you enough to give, either on your own or in concert with others, to its future.

Bob Davis is senior vice president of Grubb & Ellis Co.

Guest opinion: New ways of giving

The biggest gifts are falling off sharply while people such as you and I are stepping up.

MORE ONLINE

For information on University of Arizona sport interest groups, go to: www.arizonaathletics.com/ot/sport-interest-groups.html

Citizen Staff Writer

How could Obama smile at Sykes’ jokes?

Re the White House Correspondents Dinner:

What was Wanda Sykes thinking? Perhaps more to the point, what was President Obama thinking when he laughed and smiled as the comedienne wished Rush Limbaugh dead?

Although the left is reporting her speech as “taking shots” at Limbaugh and mocking everyone, that’s a gross misrepresentation of what turned into a hateful and disgusting diatribe.

But the speech took a very ugly turn when she laid into Limbaugh. This is what she said:

“Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you’re saying, ‘I hope America fails.’ You’re, like, ‘I don’t care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.’ He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason.

“He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight.”

She then concluded, “Rush Limbaugh I hope the country fails: I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that’s what he needs.”

Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the “joke” with the person sitting on his right.

There’s not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead.

What was his crime? Hoping that Obama’s policies – which he views as socialist – will fail.

And Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead?

Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington.

William Hurt

Green Valley

Single-most-feasible health care approach

Single-payer is the only way to fix this nation’s health care system, or at the very least, as a public option available to all citizens.

The insurance companies will not play fair until they are forced to. And even then, they’ll cheat and steal at every possible opportunity.

Get with it.

Richard Grossman

Vail

Needling for debate on accessible medicine

It is negligent to ignore the will of the majority of the people as far as single-pay health care is concerned.

The people of our country are in dire need of a health care plan that will ensure all our citizens receive the care our medical profession is capable of giving. A fair debate on this subject is a necessity.

Please see that this debate takes place.

N. Jean Rogers

Tubac

Spurring Giffords to rein in horse slaughter

I gave U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords my total support because I was under the impression she would help protect our wild horses.

I guess I was wrong. Since the election, she has given no support to the horse.

I do not believe in horse slaughter. I believe in euthanasia for unwanted or injured horses.

It may cost more for the owner, but it is the only way we can ensure they don’t suffer at a slaughterhouse, at home or in other countries like Mexico or Canada.

Horses deserve better than this. Are we a society that simply sends the unwanted to be tortured at the hands of humans so they can end up on plates in Europe and other countries? I hope not. I hope we can be better people than this.

I was hoping Gabrielle Giffords felt the same way.

René Iotti

Use fertilized eggs

for stem cell research

America is known for incessantly moving forward and unraveling mysteries attached to life.

When it comes to stem cell research, America seems stagnant. We watch millions of people die of diabetes, and millions more from cancer.

If people keep dying of these same diseases, then it is time we realize that current treatments that suppress symptoms are not enough. It is time to move on.

Now that America can further treatments for terminally ill people, there are still questions on the ethics of stem cell research, especially with embryonic, which kills the embryo after extraction.

But consider in vitro fertilization. Fertilized eggs are left frozen and eventually terminated; however, that doesn’t raise as much controversy as stem cells.

When leftover eggs are used to further stem cell research, they can only lead to finding cures. There is nothing to lose since the fertilized eggs are destroyed in the end.

With the health rate of Americans decreasing, and new diseases emerging constantly, citizens need to keep up.

As many as 24 million Americans now suffer from diabetes. We are all somehow affected, either through friends or family.

It is about time people stop discouraging efforts made with stem cell research.

Researchers do not want to tackle this the controversial way, but if that is the only way now, it is worth pursuing.

Akua Minta

Citizen Staff Writer

Has Giffords taken equestrians for a ride?

I am very concerned and upset that the passing of important equine legislation isn’t happening quickly.

Horses are transported in horrible, deplorable conditions across the border to Mexico and Canada for slaughter, and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is not co-sponsoring these bills even though we people and our horses campaigned for her re-election. Why?

Ms. Giffords is a sponsor or co-sponsor to HR322 to declare July 25 as National Day of the Cowboy.

How can she honor the cowboy and sell the horse he rode in on down the road to the slaughter plant?

E.J. Jones

Phoenix

Trial & error: Mockery needs work on attitude

Poor Corey Wlodarczyk (May 7 letter “Mock Trial member judges UA to be unfit”).

His letter reveals an attitude that spells future disaster for this poor, disillusioned graduate.

Have you noticed what happens to lousy neighbors as they move from area to area? They’re still lousy neighbors.

Corey needs to move on, but an attitude adjustment would be beneficial. Could poor grades produce such hatred? I wonder.

Don’t let the door hit your fanny, as you slink away into the night, Corey!

Jerry Pulliam

Sahuarita

Sorry, but Dupnik does not owe any apologies

I am a lifelong Republican, but I have voted for Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for as long as I can remember because he does the job he was elected to do.

He does not owe anyone an apology!

While I disagree with his policy of enforcement in the illegal immigrant problem, I understand the constraints of budgets and personnel.

Still, I believe every law enforcement officer has the duty to enforce every law of our country, be it federal, state, county or city.

After all, he surely would not hesitate to apprehend a suspected terrorist planning to blow up the state Capitol.

Nevertheless, he does a fine job, and I applaud him! I repeat: Sheriff Dupnik does not owe anyone an apology!

D. Versluis

retired

Food tax will hit all, not just folks already down

The state, county and city seem to be determined to balance budgets by raising taxes: the state with higher income taxes, the county with higher property taxes, the city of Tucson with property taxes (renters tax), taxes on cable, trash pickup, water, electric and more.

Two to three years ago, renters began renting houses and now they are buying houses because it’s cheaper than renting an apartment.

Apartment complexes were feeling the pinch before the economy went south. Now the city wants to hit the working poor, disabled and people on Section 8 with more taxes.

If the city would begin saving enough money to last six to nine months with no income from the federal government or the state, we would be in much better shape today.

Perhaps this policy as well as a half-cent tax on food (excluding the disabled, elderly and Section 8 residents) would help balance the budget.

We may even be able to eliminate most of the other taxes under consideration.

Dwayne Giorsetti

laborer

Pass the buck . . . or simply print more

Simply priceless! Why should I be in insufferable debt when my children and grandchildren can suffer for me?

The right economic track of repressing investment and trade can easily be made up for by printing more money!

Why hasn’t someone thought of this before?

shorty griswold

May designated month for ALS awareness

ALS. Those three letters never held much significance for me until three years ago, when I learned I have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – Lou Gehrig’s disease.

For those who don’t know, ALS is a ruthless killer. It gradually paralyzes all voluntary muscles, including those used for walking, talking, swallowing and breathing.

There’s no cure, and most people survive only about three to five years.

One thing about receiving such a terrible diagnosis: You learn who you can count on. My family and friends are absolutely amazing.

In addition, the Muscular Dystrophy Association provides invaluable help.

Besides sponsoring a worldwide program of ALS research, MDA provides me with medical care at the MDA ALS Clinic at University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at Kino Campus in Tucson.

MDA has helped me obtain expensive assistive equipment and its support groups and online communities offer advice and hope.

May is National ALS Awareness Month, and in this area, MDA will sponsor an ALS seminar May 14 at the Viscount Suite Hotel.

ALS attacks healthy adults in the prime of life – people such as me. This May, please help conquer this disease by supporting MDA.

Call (800) 572-1717 or visit www.als-mda.org to learn more.

Thank you, southern Arizona, for all your support.

George Borboa

Readers

Article wrong about mortgage brokers

A May 8 article (“Homebuyers sue KB Home, Countrywide, allege rigging to inflate prices”) contained two glaring misrepresentations.

“Homebuilders sold their homes for higher prices, the banks profited from making and selling loans and the mortgage brokers benefited from earning more commissions.” This is mostly accurate, but the phrase about mortgage brokers is not.

Countrywide and KB’s agreement precluded outside lenders. Mortgage brokers work with a variety of lenders to keep the market competitive.

KB and Countrywide prevented mortgage brokers from participating in the loan process and practically required borrowers to use Countrywide as the exclusive lender.

Also misleading is the revelation that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted new standards for appraisals. This article illustrates the danger of the relationship between a lender such as Countrywide and its appraisal management company (AMC), such as Landsafe.

The standards adopted in the Home Valuation Code of Conduct between New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac doesn’t just allow this type of lender/AMC relationship. It virtually mandates it.

As of May 1, Bank of America, which acquired Countrywide and Landsafe, will only use appraisals by Landsafe. They are not alone. Most major banks only accept appraisals from their selected AMC.

Cuomo’s investigation results have never been released, but the impact of HVCC is to encourage the type of relationship that has led to the lawsuit.

TOM HEATH

Government affairs chairman

Arizona Mortgage Lenders Association

board member

Arizona Association of Mortgage Brokers

Democrats responsible for current problems

Obama is just cleaning up what the last administration did when they deregulated the financial firms? Of such statements are fairy tales made.

The previous administration tried to regulate financial institutions. It was the members of the current majority who blocked any attempts to do so.

Obama and company are responsible for this mess, no matter how much they try to shift the blame. I am surprised people think the Bush administration caused the recession.

I lay the blame squarely on Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of their ilk. You want me to support Obama? To do what?

Raise taxes? His party members are experts at squeezing more money out of us.

Tell the rest of the world we are evil? He has done that.

Bow to people who want us dead? He’s done that.

Build a smart, cost-lowering universal health system? His own party says that won’t work.

Homeland Security? Doesn’t his administration want to bring the terrorists here?

And of course this high-tech electronic fence will be going up, so we can count the illegal immigrants and drug smugglers instead of catching them.

Come to think of it, our ex-governor, by her own words, doesn’t even know which direction to look for terrorists.

Obama was an expert at tearing down this country before, and it’s all better now? It’s not.

Expecting me to support him is about as likely as my believing that a rabbit paints eggs and delivers them in a basket every Easter.

JOHN F. SUKEY

retired military

UA student missed point about firearms

In a May 4 letter (“Student shoots down letting guns on campus”), University of Arizona student MariaElena Williams slightly oversimplified the controversy over allowing firearms on college campuses.

She assumes that if firearms were allowed, all students would have the legal right to carry a concealed firearm. This is incorrect.

The bill would allow only those people with concealed weapons permits to carry a firearm on college campuses.

This is a huge difference.

A concealed weapon permit can be obtained only by a person with no criminal history who is at least 21 and who attends a training class and passes a marksmanship accuracy test.

Only a small percentage of college students would be legally allowed to carry a concealed weapon on campus, and they would have formal training.

Every single one of them would be a deterrent to the person who comes to the campus with the intent of harming students. Why do you think so many schools are targeted by maniacs? It’s because students are defenseless.

The arguments against allowing legally concealed weapons on college campuses sound exactly like the hysteria that arose when Florida lawmakers first addressed whether to allow concealed weapons permits.

“There’ll be blood running in the streets. There’ll be gunfights on every corner. There’ll be shootouts over parking spaces.” There was none of that.

Less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all concealed weapon permit holders have had their permits revoked for criminal behavior. And the majority of those had nothing to do with firearms.

The vast majority of individuals who go to the trouble of obtaining the permit to carry a concealed weapon are more law-abiding than the average citizen. The people who go to schools to kill students don’t bother with minor details like laws. Have more faith in your fellow students.

PAT McGRAW

Freelance
Teen columnist

ASHLEE MAEZ

letters@tucsoncitizen.com

Sometime in April, a big uproar over swine flu or H1N1, as it has now become known, spread through the media like wildfire.

The media’s way of informing the public of this flu’s second appearance, however, has been by way of overly sensationalized reports.

Since then, a letter has been sent home from my high school principal, debates of this perceived pandemic have circulated through my classes and on a national scale, schools have been shut down temporarily and many are nervous about the situation.

I am beginning to think the hyped up stories of this flu are getting everyone sick from stress more than the actual flu.

The letter sent home from my school stated precautionary measures to be taken to prevent getting the flu: Wash your hands, cover your nose and mouth and avoid close contact that can spread the virus.

But with so few cases in the United States – and that death has come only to those whose immune systems are weak – it seems unlikely this flu will make it very far.

I also know many friends who, when not feeling well, have decided not to take a trip to the nurse’s office due to the fear of being thought to have swine flu.

My only coherent thought after learning this was “wow.”

And this has not been the first time the media have overplayed a sickness.

Take the mad cow disease, for example. The uproar about this ailment was particularly big.

About 4.4 million cows were slaughtered during the eradication program, yet mad cow proved fatal to fewer than 50 people in the United States.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the time in each of our lives when we were told the story of Chicken Little.

This was the fable of a chicken that vehemently believed the sky was falling because an acorn had landed on its head.

Through this story, Chicken Little is on an adventure to find the king and tell him about his discovery and fear.

On this adventure, he meets many gullible animals who also begin to believe the sky is falling. The moral presented by this story is: Do not believe everything you are told.

So should we believe everything the media feed us when they have proved on more than one occasion that they have the tendency to create the news rather than just report it?

Or should we take it upon ourselves to gather the facts? The choice is up to you.

Ashlee Maez is a junior at Tucson High Magnet School. E-mail: kailachi@yahoo.com

Readers

Congress members do what’s right – for selves

In a moment of truth-telling, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin from Illinois said the banking industry owns the Senate.

He should have acknowledged the influence of the rest of corporate America as well.

The banks’ lobbyists are as powerful as ever, but now, since most received federal bailout money, their lobbyists are being paid by We the People to work against our interests.

Like all Republicans and 12 Democrats, our Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain voted for the banks and against giving bankruptcy judges the ability to renegotiate loans of homeowners facing repossession.

Arizona has been particularly hard hit by foreclosures, but that hasn’t caused our senators to stand with their constituents over the banks.

Obama has said he wants to close the tax loopholes on offshore accounts that allow almost all large American companies to avoid paying billions in taxes.

This would add $200 billion to the nation’s coffers and allow tax breaks for companies that create American jobs.

Will Republicans and even some Democrats side with the companies that fill their campaign war chests, or will they do what is right?

What argument will Kyl and McCain use to vote against closing the loopholes?

Oh wait, I’ve got it: Closing tax loopholes is really raising taxes.

Likewise, get ready for Republicans and some Democrats to protect the health insurance industry over the need for universal care and real reform.

Conservative Democrat Ben Nelson, who has taken more than $2 million from the private health care industry, said he will fight a government option similar to Medicare, because it would be so superior to the private care option it would harm the health care insurance industry.

We need to fight this corporate stranglehold on our political process.

We need to write our members of Congress and remind them that we elected them.

They work for us, not the corporations that are trying to sabotage the change we need.

Joan Safier

retired teacher

2 senators try to mend health care system

I was really proud to watch Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Chuck Grassley, R-Idaho, working together on the health care bill we need to take for-profit health care off Wall Street and put it on Main Street as nonprofit organizations.

My dad bought health insurance from Blue Cross nonprofit in the 1950s for $1 per kid. My sons were born preemies, and I was in debt more than $100,000 overnight.

John Crouse

Find respectable work . . . as a local volunteer

I am part of President Obama’s Neighbor to Neighbor program, and was relieved that the budget passed.

I know that it is not a perfect budget. Not much is perfect in these times. But I am continually amazed by the “get out, get up and move” initiative of many Arizonans.

I see senior reading volunteers work lovingly with kids from the Pascua Yaqui Reservation. I hear unemployed individuals talk about “showing their motivation to get a new job” by volunteering at the Community Food Bank.

It is easy to sit back and complain about how hard things are and what bad jobs CEOs and Congress are doing. But it is a wonderful and inspiring thing to see neighbors getting up in the morning to go out and help others in whatever way they can.

Being involved in community efforts will get the country back on track. Sitting back will not.

No, we are not “The Greatest Generation,” but I would be proud to be mistaken for any of them in my most unselfish moments.

Nora Cunneely

Paper’s support helped put arts on the charts

I want to thank the Tucson Citizen for its support of arts groups through the years.

Without the media bringing attention to concerts, drama and art shows, many of us would be unemployed. Many of us are still unemployed, but not because you didn’t try.

Special thanks to Calendar Editor Rogelio Olivas and the Calendar staff for producing previews and listings and being so lovely to work with.

I also want to thank Dan Buckley. In one of his columns, he urged groups to perform during the summer so that Tucson audiences could have access to the arts year-round and not just during the regular season.

His suggestion is the reason that the St. Andrew’s Bach Society Summer Concert Series exists in its present form. He gave us a big preview before the first concert and the series has gone from strength to strength, now under the artistic direction of Dr. Lindabeth Binkley.

Dan Buckley also gave my early music group, Musica Sonora, a great review and put a video clip up on the Web, which meant a heck of a lot to me.

I hope the Citizen will carry on, but in case you end up at the Great Printing Press in the Sky, I couldn’t have lived with myself if I hadn’t thanked you. I can’t thank you enough.

May you survive and thrive.

Christina Jarvis

former artistic director,

St. Andrew’s Bach Society;

artistic director,

Musica Sonora;

music director,

Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

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

Chuck Raasch: The future of newspapers

These are depressing days in news, and those still in the profession don’t talk nearly enough about how that affects Americans and their way of life.

Maybe it’s because we’re sensitive to being seen as defending dinosaurs, or too timid after endless ideological attacks on “the mainstream media.”

Newspapers in big cities like Denver and Seattle have folded. The Tucson Citizen’s future is uncertain.

Experienced journalists are being forced out of the business, often leaving to write speeches or press releases for politicians or corporations. State capital press corps have been decimated.

If not there already, we could soon be living in a world where government and politicians spend more on public relations and propaganda than an independent media spends to watch them.

Whether you’re a fan of the news media or not, this is anathema to honest self-government.

Imagine Richard Nixon with a 10 million-member e-mail army behind him, with legions of bloggers attacking his political foes, with a much larger phalanx of taxpayer-paid public relations people defending him, and with no independent investigative reporters raising questions others dare not ask.

If Nixon had survived the “third-rate burglary” at the Watergate, how long would his enemies list have grown, and how emboldened would he have become in spying on political rivals?

At a time when government is growing at an unprecedented pace, veteran Associated Press reporter Bob Lewis says it best: “There has never been a greater need for honest, truthful reporting than now. Sadly, there has never been less support for it than there is now. Invest in freedom. Buy a newspaper.”

In this season of scapegoating, Americans more than ever need watchdogs whose mission transcends self- interest. But it’s open season on the one industry that has tried to fill that role.

When comedian and cable political-show host Jon Stewart beat up on cable business-show host Jim Cramer, some cheered it as a righteous upbraiding of the news media for sleeping – or cheerleading – while Wall Street ran off with the nation’s piggybank.

There are fundamental problems with this claim.

First, as Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen pointed out, the dons of Wall Street were assuring shareholders and business journalists, including Cramer, of the genius behind the complicated financial “products” that later unraveled at investment houses and insurance giant AIG.

As Cohen noted, Wall Street big shots were putting their own money into their own businesses. No red flags there.

Former President George W. Bush assured Americans that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, even as crisis loomed.

Those with government regulatory subpoena and enforcement powers were slow to act or did not act at all. Members of Congress proclaimed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in good shape while the home-loan giants were apparently rotting from within.

Someone needs to be blamed, and what better target than the cartoonish Cramer? Ironically, cable news, where Cramer works, is the news medium that has weathered the financial crisis the best.

Why? Because people watch it, shouting and all. Perhaps because of the shouting.

But the picture is bleak for independent news gathering at a lower decibel. People are migrating to the Internet, where news and advertising have diverged, and where consumers have come to expect news for free.

Coupled with a crippling recession, these trends have cut advertising revenues by nearly a quarter in two years, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Massive layoffs have followed, while independent media race to invent a new business model.

“The problem facing American journalism is not fundamentally an audience problem or a credibility problem,” the Project for Excellence in Journalism said in its annual report. “It is a revenue problem – the decoupling . . . of advertising from news.”

Americans, the group concluded, “hunt and gather what they want when they want it, use search to comb among destinations and share what they find through a growing network of social media.”

The question is not whether platforms for public debate will be available.

Indeed, information overload is a bigger challenge to consumers today. In a world where niche news providers are growing at an explosive rate, consumers are forced to triage their choices. Under such conditions, it’s tempting to create a comfort zone of self-affirming opinion in which compromise and common ground are vilified as weakness.

The media universe may become warring information camps funded by rigidly ideological tribes or multimillionaires who see the public interest as an obstacle to personal success. If that happens, Americans will have a lot more to worry about than a few loudmouths in prime time.

Chuck Raasch is political editor for Gannett News Service. E-mail: craasch@gns.gannett.com

‘There has never been a greater need for honest, truthful reporting than now. Sadly, there has never been less support for it than there is now. Invest in freedom. Buy a newspaper.’

Readers

Mean streets dead-end downtown junctions

Streets are an important part of the urban fabric of any city.

Ideally, streets serve a variety of functions – transportation, gathering spaces, public outdoor rooms and more.

In recent years (since mass industrialization), streets have started to serve singular functions of transportation for vehicular traffic, often forsaking pedestrian and bicycle use.

This single-track attitude toward streets is filtering out the vibrant life we need to revitalize the ghost town that was Tucson downtown.

Saving downtown will require that we not only get people downtown, but also keep them there. This is impossible as long as streets are designed only to move cars, and as long as there are no spaces to foster interaction between people from all walks of Tucson life.

It’s this sense of community that is so desperately lacking in suburbia, and the density of the urban center is the only chance to really bring our local culture to life.

European cities – which have existed far longer than any American city – all feature pre-industrial design and planning.

Before cities were designed for the automobile, streets were made for walking. Small squares dotted cityscapes and allowed members of neighborhoods to gather in these multipurpose outdoor rooms.

As a result, communities were stronger.

The redesign of downtown roads can and must include not only large-scale open space for events, but also smaller-scale spaces for community interaction.

Evan Shallcross

Mock Trial member judges UA to be unfit

I am ecstatic to graduate May 15 – not because I am proud to be a University of Arizona alumnus, but rather because it means I no longer will be affiliated with UA.

When I pack my room, get in my car and leave for law school this summer, I will never look back – ever.

I came to UA as a freshman in the fall of 2005. I watched tuition costs rise incrementally without apology. I accepted these increases by not transferring to another school, believing the extra money improved my educational opportunities.

I watched incredibly underfunded clubs struggle to exist, including my own (Mock Trial). I watched excessive spending, I saw two consecutive big-name concerts net two consecutive six-digit losses.

This university is a disgrace to advanced education. I have been cheated of four years I could have spent at an institution devoted to spending my tuition toward my education.

Concerts netting nearly a $1 million loss do not aid my education.

ASUA funding to Mock Trial alone never surpassed $1,000 this year. Mock Trial has more than 20 students, and the cost for one student to attend one tournament is more than $400.

This year, we represented UA competitively and professionally at the Regional Tournament, the Opening Round Championship Tournament and the National Championship Tournament.

It is one of the best extracurricular educational activities offered at UA.

Yet we watch UA lose more than $900,000 on an extraneous entertainment event as our program suffered because students simply could not afford to compensate for the massive lack of funding.

Concerts do not play any vital role at an institution of higher learning. They should only be run if they can break event.

ASUA should represent the students, but for two years it has only represented the individuals planning the events, hoping to leave a legacy.

The Kanye West concert and the Jay-Z concert lost more than $1.3 million.

Tommy Bruce called the Jay-Z concert a success and blamed the loss on the economy, but those statements are irresponsible, immature and wrong. The concert contract was signed March 24, well after the initial crash.

There is no excuse for this refusal to accept responsibility. There is no excuse for the increase in tuition costs. There is no excuse for this misappropriation of funds.

I will never contribute to any activity or fundraising event put on with UA alumni. I will never give anything to aid this institution in any way.

I will make sure every family member, colleague and friend knows that UA is not devoted to higher learning.

I am ashamed to be a member of this establishment, and I hope the Board of Regents realizes the UA administration’s failure to work toward the goals of higher education and spend its funds on better causes.

Corey Wlodarczyk

UA class of 2009

philosophy, political science

It does compute: Tech belongs in classrooms

Technology can be an enormous help to teachers; it helps prepare students for work and gives them a better grasp of concepts the teacher is trying to explain.

When all schools use technology, we will have a more computer literate populace.

Teachers must be given classes on how to use technology in the classroom, integrating it into lesson plans. Such education will help teachers to overcome their fear of change.

A technology team should provide technical support.

I believe more and better use of technology in education will spur higher test scores.

I cannot imagine trying to do a research project without computers, for example.

If a school has up-to-date technology, students will be better able to grasp the concepts.

Guillermo Vance

math education major

University of Arizona

Guest Writer
Guest Opinion

After the public forum held lst week regarding the Tucson budget, I concur – as do many – that the city needs to prioritize outlays, cut the budget where necessary and defer raising taxes given the state of our economy.

What I suggest, in the form of a pilot program, is the deployment of the field of economic research to assist the mayor and council members to better allocate scarce resources.

This is probably as foreign to you as it would be to the elected city officials. And you may think it unlikely that an intellectual pursuit such as economics would intersect with the political agenda of balancing the city budget. You would be wrong.

Many of the highly specialized fields within economics can answer such vexing questions as: What is the optimum level of service for police and fire?

(The correct answer – surprisingly – is not how Tucson compares with other cities of similar size, or what the police and fire unions demand of certain staffing and support levels, or even what the mayor, council members and public think it should otherwise be.)

Others would include: What are the contributing factors to the supply and demand for crime? How can the economic theory of “deadweight loss” be avoided in the form of excess burden of taxation?

These and many other questions can be answered under the umbrella of economics.

Please be clear, I am not necessarily advocating for the direct employment of an economist by the city, but rather a partnership with the department of economics at the University of Arizona.

Apparently such an alliance already exists mainly for the purpose of economic forecasting. This could be expanded to include the efficient allocation of city resources based on economic science.

In the end, the city budget is a political document. I understand that.

Yet it seems rather unreasonable we would expect the mayor and council members to determine service levels, and then efficiently and fairly allocate city resources without complete information.

David Dutra, a Linux enterprise solutions software developer, has a bachelor’s degree in economics and advocates use of economic research to provide for more effective public policy at all levels of government.