Gannett News Service
PREVIEWING MONDAY’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT BUSH

By JOHN YAUKEY

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON – The good news for President Bush as he prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address Monday: U.S. casualties in Iraq are down significantly.

But so is the stock market, highlighting a raft of worrisome economic trends Bush will have to deal with in his speech, maybe more prominently than he was planning only weeks ago.

The urgency of the shaky economy was evident Thursday as House leaders and the White House agreed on a $150 billion economic stimulus package that includes rebates of between $300 and $1,200, and $50 billion in breaks for business.

“It was done in record time,” House Speak Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said of the deal.

Bush said the package “has the right set of policies and is the right size.”

The Senate is scheduled to begin work on the package next week with the goal of getting it to Bush by mid-February.

Recent polls show the economy now equals or surpasses Iraq as the top concern among voters, who watched their 401(k)s lose all their 2007 gains in just days.

The president and his top aides have been stressing that despite the turmoil, the nation’s economy is fundamentally sound, and he’s expected to hit that theme hard Monday night, mixing concern with confidence.

But his audience will be anxious – about more than just the stock market:

• Unemployment hit 5 percent in 2007, up from 4.4 percent in 2006, and the rate is higher in some states.

• Some 5.6 percent of mortgages were in danger of foreclosure in the third quarter of 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That was up from 4.7 percent in the third quarter of 2006.

• Inflation for 2007 hit an almost two-decade high of 4.1 percent.

All of this follows a significant loss in home values nationwide, stripping thousands of dollars of wealth from average families.

In addition to the stimulus package, it’s not clear yet what else Bush will propose to stabilize the economy or how much of that he will discuss Monday night.

Bush has repeatedly called for making his tax cuts permanent, and the Federal Reserve is expected to follow Tuesday’s huge interest rate cut with another reduction as early as next week. But economists say there are limits on what any president can do to shore up a shaky economy.

“The president has his bully pulpit, which he can use on Monday,” said Vincent Reinhart, former director of the Federal Reserve Board’s Division of Monetary Affairs. “But the bad news is that there are not that many fiscal policy tools available in a timely fashion.”

The economic downturn comes at an inauspicious time for the legacy-mind Bush, eager to draw attention to some of the best news out of Iraq since the start of the war, now in its fifth year.

Perhaps more than any other issue, Iraq will define the Bush presidency, and he is expected to discuss it in detail Monday night.

Last year’s controversial troop surge is showing signs of success – militarily at least. About 75 percent of Baghdad’s neighborhoods are secure, a dramatic increase from about 8 percent a year ago, according to the Pentagon.

American fatalities are roughly half, or less, of what they were a year ago.

By summer, troop levels are scheduled to drop from about 160,000 to 130,000, and American commanders are planning for possibly further reductions by year’s end.

Still, Bush’s critics argue that the troop surge he will declare a success Monday night is really a failure because it never produced the kind of political reconciliation in Iraq necessary for long-term stabilization.

“We’re still mired down in political dysfunction, ” said moderate Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who sits on the Armed Services Committee. “Unless Iraq steps up, the cycle of dependence will continue.”

Gannett News Service

THE SPEECH: BUSH’S PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

What President Bush has said in previous State of the Union addresses:

Clean air and climate change

What he said: In his 2003 and 2005 addresses, Bush called on Congress to pass his “Clear Skies Initiative,” which he said would cut air pollution from power plants by 70 percent over 15 years and improve Americans’ health.

What happened: Congress never passed Bush’s plan and he dropped it because of a lack of support. Critics said the legislation favored utility companies at the expense of public health and weakened existing law. They also said it did nothing to mandate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.

What’s next: Congress is working to pass legislation to limit global warming emissions. No major clean air legislation has been passed, but the Environmental Protection Agency is under a court order to decide by March whether to adopt tougher regulations to reduce smog.

Education

What he said: From the moment he took office, Bush championed public school accountability.

What happened: He worked with Congress to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, forcing states to test students in math and reading each year and requiring them to narrow the achievement gap between whites and minorities. He signed the law in January 2002.

What’s next: No Child was supposed to be renewed by January 2008, but Congress is debating changes. Many of the law’s basic principles – annual testing, publication of scores, free tutoring for poor children – are expected to survive.

Energy

What he said: In every address since taking office, Bush stressed the need for America to become more energy independent and called on Congress to pass comprehensive energy legislation to increase domestic oil supplies and invest in renewable energy.

What happened: At the end of 2007, the Democrat-controlled Congress passed an energy bill that sets higher fuel economy standards for motor vehicles for the first time in 22 years and requires annual production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022. The bill, which Bush signed into law, requires cars and light trucks sold in the United States to average 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

What’s next: Congress is not expected to take up major new energy legislation again until there is a new president. If Democrats remain in control, they would like to pass legislation requiring utility companies to produce a bigger share of electric power from renewable sources and raising taxes on oil companies to subsidize alternative energy development. Those provisions were removed from the 2007 bill because of Bush’s objections.

Immigration

What he said: Immigration has been a recurring State of the Union topic for Bush. He stressed the need for comprehensive immigration reform that would strengthen border security while giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

What happened: Bush addressed the issue numerous times during weekly radio addresses and lobbied Congress to support his plan. But lawmakers have failed to reach an agreement on reform. The most recent legislative push took place last year when a comprehensive immigration bill collapsed in the Senate after fractious debate.

What’s next: About 12 million illegal immigrants remain in the country and lawmakers are not expected to be able to pass a bill to address the problem this year. Immigration is a hot topic for the presidential candidates.

Medicare

What he said: In 2003, Bush described Medicare as a “binding commitment of a caring society.” He urged Congress to expand it “by giving seniors access to preventive medicine and new drugs that are transforming health care in America.”

What happened: Five months later, Congress approved a bill to create a new prescription drug benefit, Medicare Part D, the largest expansion of the program in its 40-year history. The benefit has been judged a success because it has substantially increased the number of seniors with prescription drug coverage, reduced out-of-pocket expenses and increased use of prescriptions.

What’s next: Patient advocates and others are pushing to make the drug benefits more generous.

Social Security

What he said: In his 2005 address, Bush asked Congress to join him in saving Social Security from bankruptcy. He urged creation of voluntary personal retirement accounts for younger workers to divert a portion of their Social Security tax into investments as part of the solution.

What happened: Many Democrats and seniors’ groups, including AARP, opposed Bush’s approach. Congress held hearings but passed no reform legislation. Bush submitted budget proposals in 2006 and 2007 that included private Social Security accounts, but Congress did not approve either proposal.

What’s next: A retirement tsunami of baby boomers combined with a dwindling work force will exhaust the Social Security Trust Fund reserves, currently projected to occur in 2041. Many experts agree it will take politically difficult compromises that include benefit cuts and revenue increases to solve the program’s long-term financial problems.

Tax cuts

What he said: In 2006, Bush asked Congress to extend 2001 and 2003 tax cuts set to expire in 2011. He said they spurred economic growth and he warned that the expiration of child tax credits and lower income tax rates and capital gains taxes would constitute a “massive tax increase.”

What happened: The Republican Congress was unable to permanently extend the tax cuts and the new Democrat majority that took power in 2007 opposes renewal of most of the tax breaks.

What’s next: Bush and congressional Republicans are expected to push hard for renewal of all temporary tax cuts approved since 2001. Democrats do like some of the tax breaks, such as the child tax credit, and may pick and choose other tax cuts to extend.

By CHUCK RAASCH

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON – Ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani may face a tough crowd here today at the largest annual gathering of conservative activists, where there is widely expressed dissatisfaction with the Republican presidential front-runner and the emerging GOP presidential field as a whole.

“There is no Ronald Reagan, nobody that has what I would call a genetic claim” to the conservative mantle, said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organized the Conservative Political Action Conference this week.

Veteran activist Richard Viguerie told several thousand activists “conservatives are not going to get to the promised land until we get new leaders,” and suggested conservatives stop thinking of themselves primarily as Republicans, instead calling themselves “Reagan conservatives.” Viguerie said the GOP was not likely to win the presidency in 2008 and that conservatives would be better off focusing on regaining power in six to 10 years.

Tracey Schmitt of the Republican National Committee said the party would have no comment.

Giuliani, whose support of abortion, gay rights and gun control runs contrary to the GOP’s conservative base, will be among several Republican hopefuls test-marketing their stump speeches before CPAC. Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., are also on Friday’s schedule.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is not. McCain already has a tenuous relationship with many veteran conservative activists for his support of immigration and campaign finance reforms, and for his tough criticism of religious conservatives during the 2000 presidential primaries.

Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, scheduled to speak Saturday, won a straw poll sponsored by the activist organization, Citizens United. Many activists here say they would not be surprised if Gingrich took advantage of dissatisfaction over the GOP field and decided to run later this summer or fall.

“Newt is expressing what conservatives believe better than anyone in the field,” said Human Events editor Terry Jeffrey, who moderated a panel on social issues.

In a Feb. 22-25 Washington Post-ABC News poll, Giuliani led McCain, 44 percent to 21 percent. Gingrich finished third, despite the fact that he has not formed an exploratory committee or said he intends to run. Romney came in a distant fourth with 4 percent. Many conservatives are wary of Romney’s recent conversion to an anti-abortion position, and Romney supporters said Friday he has a lot at stake in his CPAC speech.

But Giuliani may be in the brightest spotlight. Wariness about his candidacy popped up in CPAC sessions Thursday. In an apparent reference to Giuliani, Robert Knight of the Media Research Center declared that “it’s one thing to defeat squeegee men in New York, it’s another to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida.”

Keene, the ACU president, attributed Giuliani’s poll lead to “celebrity” and to McCain faltering.

“There is admiration for his strength” after 9/11, Keene said of Giuliani. “But social issues haven’t sunk in, and in that sense he is new on the track and he will have a tough time sustaining that. I am not saying it is impossible. . . . It also is a slow track.”

Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly blamed the media and some party activists for preordaining the GOP top tier, based more on money than ideas.

“The Republican nomination can’t be bought,” she said.

But it was Viguerie who leveled the harshest criticism at Republicans, saying the revolutionaries of the 1990s came to reform but after arriving decided “this is not a cesspool, this is a hot tub.”

Citizen Staff Writer

Bejarano improved Sunnyside

When Raúl Bejarano retires as superintendent of the Sunnyside Unified School District, he will leave behind a school system far better than the one he inherited.

Bejarano will retire in about 16 months. He announced his plans early to give the Sunnyside board plenty of time to find and hire a replacement.

During his six years as Sunnyside’s leader, Bejarano started a school improvement process. He also is a major supporter of community collaboration. And last year he was named the state’s best superintendent for large school districts.

Bejarano will be missed.

Amazing tale of survival

The story of Tiana Lopez is an inspirational tale of a resilient young girl, courageous parents and a talented surgeon.

Tiana is the 16-month-old girl who had an artificial heart implanted to help her own struggling heart. To everyone’s surprise, her heart recovered enough so the artificial device could be removed. Doctors were able to send her home.

Ryan and Pat Lopez, the girl’s parents, have been through an emotional roller coaster that few can imagine.

Dr. Jack Copeland, the University Medical Center heart surgeon who operated on Tiana, called his young patient “a pioneer.” Copeland is a pioneer himself, breaking new ground in the cardiac field.

It all was a potentially tragic story that appears headed for a happy ending.

A playground from the heart

Pupils at Reynolds Elementary School have a $60,000 dream playground thanks to the work of a corps of local volunteers.

About 400 volunteers showed up at the Southeast Side school last weekend to build a triple slide, climbing apparatus, teeter-totters and other items.

The project was a collaboration of the Tucson Orthopedic Institute, the Tucson Medical Center Foundation and KaBoom!, a national nonprofit that helps build playgrounds. Many local businesses donated materials and equipment.

Students say they love their new playground. This was a great gift from a generous community.

One new scam after another

There are an unending variety of tricks that scammers use to wheedle personal information from you.

One of the latest involves a telephone call from someone claiming to be a law- enforcement officer who says a warrant has been issued for a person’s failure to appear for jury duty.

To resolve what the caller says is a “misunderstanding,” he asks for a Social Security number and date of birth to “cancel the warrant.”

Don’t fall for it. And don’t give out personal information to unknown people on the telephone.

Major leaguers packing up

It seemed like spring training just started, but it’s already almost over.

The three teams that train here – the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies – will be leaving Tucson next week. So if you’re going to catch a spring training game, hurry.

There are games this afternoon at Hi Corbett Field and Tucson Electric Park and one game tomorrow at TEP. A few games next week wind up the spring.

It has been great having the major leaguers and their fans in town.

Citizen Editor and Publisher

Is the Tucson Citizen Republican or Democratic? Conservative, middle of the road or liberal?

The questions arise occasionally from people, usually newcomers, who want to know what the Citizen’s political leanings are.

People ask because by tradition, newspapers aligned themselves with political philosophies. For centuries, newspapers were started as vehicles for pushing political points of view.

This very newspaper was founded in 1870 for a political purpose: to push the re-election of Republican Richard Cunningham McCormick for territorial delegate to Congress.

McCormick started the Citizen by seizing a printing press he owned from a local newspaper that wouldn’t support him.

So is the Citizen Republican or Democratic, conservative, middle of the road or liberal?

None of the above, I say. And that suits me, because I believe this newspaper, especially its editorial pages, should be a forum for thoughts, ideas and views from a range of perspectives.

Put another way, I prefer a wide range of voices. That’s our aim now, and we will take it further in the new Citizen, starting Wednesday.

That means change on the editorial pages. First, they will be called “Citizen voices,” the double meaning of the word “citizen” being intentional.

You will find more space for local opinion, in our editorials and from our own staff, the cadre of “My Tucson” columnists we have been running twice a week since December and the weekly offerings by Tucson teenagers.

More space will be made for letters to the editor and guest opinions. We publish on average 150 letters and 20 guest opinions monthly and hope for more under our “citizen voices” philosophy.

Results of our daily online poll question, tied to a key news topic from the previous day, will run on the pages. In some instances, that will include readers’ comments sent to us via the online poll. More of your voices.

We have redesigned the pages and will move them starting Wednesday to the first section of the newspaper, just inside the back page.

The lineup of syndicated columnists will change, and their perspectives will run most days on what is traditionally called the “op-ed” page.

Look there for columns from holdovers Cal Thomas, Ruben Navarette, Robert Robb and James J. Kilpatrick and these new voices:

• Diane Glass and Shaunti Feldhahn, paired in “Woman to Woman,” billed by their syndicate as “liberal feminist meets conservative Christian. A weekly crossfire that sizzles.” They will run Tuesdays, starting April 4.

• Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online and known in her blog as “K-Lo.” Her syndicate labels her column “conservative commentary from a contemporary woman.” She will run Fridays, starting next week.

• Stand-up comedian Argus Hamilton, delivering political satire. Selected one-liners from him will start Wednesday and appear weekdays.

We will say goodbye to columnists William F. Buckley, Linda Chavez, Georgie Anne Geyer and Thomas Sowell. They have served you and us well, but it’s time for new voices.

As space and topic warrant, we will run columns occasionally from former Citizen editorial page editor Peter Bronson, Gannett News Service commentators Chuck Raasch and Richard Benedetto and First Amendment Center ombudsman Paul K. McMasters.

Editorial cartoons and the satire of Bruce Tinsley in Mallard Fillmore and Lalo Alcaraz in La Cucaracha will continue six days a week.

Familiar voices, new voices and, we hope, your voices whenever the spirit moves you, blended in a harmony that we call democracy.

Michael A. Chihak can be reached at 573-4646 or mchihak@tucsoncitizen.com.

Editor and publisher is blogging

Michael A. Chihak blogs daily about the new Tucson Citizen, newspapering and the media and the First Amendment. Join the conversation at tucsoncitizen.com/editor.

Readers

No more excuses about war

At President Bush’s press conference, Helen Thomas asked, “Why did this administration really attack Iraq, as all the explanations so far have proven false?”

Bush replied that he resented her implication that he likes war. “No president has ever liked war,” he said.

Excuse me, Mr. President, but that was not the question. This courageous, veteran correspondent finally asked what many of us have wanted to know for three years: Why did our government decide to attack Iraq?

We cannot turn back the clock, but perhaps if we get an answer to that question, we can move on and put together a real game plan instead of more excuses.

It goes to the heart of what is missing in our national policy and of the country’s general malaise. Trust us to handle the truth, no matter how sordid it may turn out to be.

Rod McLeod

Tell the truth just once, Bush

President Bush at his recent news conference was selling hope and optimism for progress in the war in Iraq.

I was reminded of a passage from Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty” speech:

“Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?

“For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.”

Just once, Mr. President, tell America the truth.

Roger A. White

How quickly some forget

Of all the letters recently published, I feel compelled to respond to two that appeared Wednesday.

Rosemary Capin states that English is the language of the United States. I wish to remind her that this has always been a country of immigrants and that her own ancestors, at one time, spoke a language other than English.

It was probably the help of interpreters that made it possible for her ancestors to get by until they competently learned the language.

And to Barbara Williams, who implies that illegal immigrant Juan Cruz-Torralva got what he deserved when his 2-year-old daughter was accidentally run over and killed by a Border Patrol vehicle, I say the next time she buys groceries, she had best avoid the produce aisle.

Most of those vegetables and fruits were picked by the many Juan Cruz-Torralvas of the world.

How quickly people forget that their family, at one time, walked in the very same shoes of those who are now the target of rage, hatred and vile retributions.

Marcia Rostad

Adjust molester penalties, oversight

Re: “Not enough done to prevent kids from predators,” Thursday Thomas Sowell column:

I strongly agree that our criminal justice system needs to adjust how it sentences and monitors sexual predators.

Sowell says the public is torn on protecting the offender’s rights. Some believe they have a right to privacy once released from prison. But the victim never stops being the victim; therefore, it is unjust for the perpetrator to be fully exonerated.

There is no way to predict if a sexual predator will reoffend. Society must assume the worst, that these proven menaces are apt to repeat their deviant behavior.

Continuous therapy, paid for by the perpetrator, should be mandated. Perpetual registering and monitoring of these felons should continue to be a requirement as well.

This information is crucial in helping community members protect their most vulnerable and valuable assets, their children.

Michele Fisher

Sahuarita

Freelance

Citizen Columnist

Ask me what a coyote looks like, and I’ll give you one of two answers, or both, depending on how much caffeine I’ve got in me:

It looks like my dog, Mona, minus about 20 pounds of cookies and cheeseburgers and given a henna rinse.

Or, a coyote looks like the one I saw last Friday on my way home from Nogales with a truckload of cookies and cheeseburgers.

I was slowing as I passed the air strip north of Nogales, about 12 miles south of Patagonia, and a mid-’90s Cadillac Sedan de Something, about a quarter-mile ahead of me, eased off the side of the road and stopped in a cloud of dust. Which hadn’t cleared – the dust I mean – before five or six guys came boiling out of the weeds and piled into the Caddy using every door but the driver’s.

I was closing fast, but the Cadillac was back on the gas and back on the blacktop before I was within license plate-reading distance.

I paced them at a law-abiding 55 until they ducked into a pullout near the Johnny Ward’s Ranch historic marker a couple of miles below Patagonia.

I passed and watched for them in my rear-view, and the Caddy reappeared by the time I turned off toward home, five miles south of Sonoita, by which time they were convinced of my disinterest.

That’s what the other kind of coyote looks like, at least one variation on that theme. Some of them drive big ol’ delivery trucks capacious enough to leave a couple of dozen Mexicans and Salvadorans in. To die of heat and thirst.

What that kind of coyote doesn’t look like is two young hippies in a hammered econo-mobile, with three sick-as-a-pig mojados in the back and signs announcing that they were hauling these illegals to get first aid.

Clearly Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss were making a point of offering legal aid to fellow humans in dire straits. That is the entire point that the group No More Deaths, which Sellz and Strauss were representing that day, is trying to make plain to the government of the United States.

And the government of Mexico and every country south of the border. Or east, west and even north.

I was in the emergency room in Nogales a couple of Christmastimes ago, when the Border Patrol brought in a girl with a broken leg from South Korea. The leg, the girl, both of them from South Korea. I suppose if she’d been ambulanced by Shanti and Daniel, she might never have gotten her broken leg set, but she’d have enjoyed a long sojourn and lesson in law, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Clearly U.S. prosecutors have a point to make, too, but beyond being stupid and mean-spirited, I am at a loss as to what it may be.

No More Deaths wants to stop border crossers from dying in the desert. That involves a direct, short-term approach: giving them water and taking them to the doc. The long-term approach is changing national and international immigration policies.

Regardless of how one feels about the latter, the life-saving mission of the former is legal and ought to be approved by us all.

Evidently the U.S. attorney for Arizona is not quite that enlightened and humane. The feds saw to it that Shanti and Daniel were arrested and jailed, and now they will go on trial in U.S. District Court. It’s been on TV and in all the papers, and recently the former Big Kahuna in Arizona jurisprudence, Stanley Feldman, chief justice of the state Supreme Court from 1992 to 1997, joined the defense team.

Evidently (I like to use that instead of apparently when I’m writing about lawyerly matters,) Feldman agrees with me on the essentials of the case.

As would the 19-year-old South Korean girl who occupied the bed just the other side of the white curtain from me in the emergency room of Mariposa Hospital the night of Dec. 23, 2003.

She and Feldman and I, and the three parched and puking illegal immigrants in the back of Daniel and Shanti’s car, all agree that spending the kind of time, money and political good will the U.S. Attorney’s office is blowing on the trial of two kind-hearted kids, when greedy corporate farmers and construction maggots/magnates ought to be arrested but aren’t, is . . .

. . . DAMNED WRONG.

It’s your tax money these idiots are wasting. Let them know how you feel about their approach to the law. The prosecutor’s number is in the phone book, in the blue pages under “United States Government, Attorney, U.S.” Give them a jingle.

And tell them Jeffie sent you.

Citizen columnist Jeff Smith has given water, food and a change of chonies to persons of dark complexion, without asking to see their birth certificates. So sue him. His column appears on Wednesdays. Contact him by phone at (520) 455-5667 or by e-mail: jsmith@tucsoncitizen.com

Freelance

We’ve come a long way since Pope Innocent the VIII condemned midwifery for “sacrificing children to the devil,” but we’re still in the Dark Ages when it comes to women’s reproductive health.

In the early 20th century, the ancient practice of women assisting women through labor and delivery gave way to the medicalization of childbearing, which deemed birth a pathological condition best treated with drugs and surgery.

We still deal with this legacy and challenges for women who want a “natural childbirth.”

Since turning 35, I have been bombarded with speeches about the dangers of giving birth at my “advanced” age.

I realize 20 is “mature” if you’re a supermodel, and that if you are over 30 in Hollywood, you can expect to play the role of grandmother, but we’re talking motherhood here.

Surely life experience counts for something. And at 35, was I really considered over the hill healthwise?

I know the actuarial tables that rule our market-based lives indicate an increased risk of certain genetic disorders for “older” moms, but the attitude I encountered in the medical profession was off-putting, to say the least.

Happily discovering I was pregnant last summer, I scheduled a prenatal visit with my insurer-appointed OB-GYN.

The office shares space with a plastic surgery clinic, and as I waited for my appointment, I was bombarded with large images of buffed, waxed, bleached, suctioned, Botoxed, peeled and spit-shined “women.”

Embarking on a nine-month vanity-challenging journey that would disallow most beauty products and instead involve hirsutism, gastric challenges, back pain, dermatological hyperpigmentation and, ahem, serious weight gain, the presence of these images was at turns intimidating and offensive.

During my visit, a well-meaning but dour aide proceeded to tell me about all the horrible things that could happen to my baby due to my age.

She advised me not to become short of breath, implying I should cease all physical activity and sequester myself, in shame, in a dark room for nine months.

Surely there was a better way.

Fortunately for us Tucsonans, there is – the Birth and Women’s Health Center.

The nonprofit center treats pregnancy as a natural and beautiful family – indeed community – event. Women have the choice of delivering at the hospital or in the center and a choice of individual visits or a group visit called Centering.

Centering is a partner and family welcome group organized by common due dates. This has allowed my husband, whose excitement is mitigated by bouts of primal fear toward the daunting task of parenthood, to feel more engaged in the transformation of our family.

I place a good deal of trust in technology and the medical community. But I also trust in the health care intelligence I possess as the recipient of millions of years of human evolution.

Women know how to give birth. And the center supports and cultivates women’s knowledge.

My hopes for a natural childbirth may be dashed, and I may end up at the hospital with an epidural and a C-section.

If so, I will be grateful for insurance, modern medicine and the excellent relationship the center’s certified nurse midwives maintain with the staff at Tucson Medical Center.

In any event, I am grateful for my prenatal care at the center, surrounded by supportive, happy people who know better than to pathologize life’s most sacred event.

Anne-Marie Russell (info@moca-tucson.org) is executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Readers

Mission accomplished nothing

On the third anniversary of the U.S. Iraqi invasion, President Bush said “a victory in Iraq will make this country more secure.”

Mr. President, Iraq was never a threat to this country and was never connected to al-Qaida.

The president and our “leadership” have opened the genie’s bottle to chaos and the spread of terrorism.

We’ve lost the ability to strengthen relationships with moderate Arab countries because of Iraq, Abu Ghraib and 100,000 innocent dead Iraqi civilians.

Speeches from the White House about Iraq are an insult, as they are given to carefully selected audiences.

The president and his staff made up their mind to invade Iraq and did not want to be confused with the facts.

What a difference three years has made since Bush’s aircraft carrier Rambo show saying “mission accomplished” or since his “bring ‘em on” speech to Iraqi insurgents killing our kids.

Kathy Krucker

Anti-war march deserved coverage

With several relevant articles in your Monday edition, including “One of the oppressed sees oppression” (C.T. Revere column), I was surprised by your complete lack of coverage of the large anti-war rally and demonstration in Tucson on Saturday.

Hundreds of anti-war activists from many local groups rallied in Catalina Park at 10 a.m. and then marched to the Army recruiting office on Speedway. More protesters joined the march en route, carrying American flags, placards and black coffins draped with banners to represent the thousands of American servicemen and Iraqi civilians killed during the conflict.

Police escorted the peaceful march but had to close off Speedway at one point, to avoid a confrontation with a small band of pro-war demonstrators who had gathered in front of the recruiting office.

Contrary to your headline “Anti-war rallies shrinking” (Associated Press report in Nation/World section Monday), Saturday’s event was the largest of numerous anti-war events I have attended in Tucson.

I believe opposition to the Iraq occupation is growing, not diminishing, and that a show of public opinion of this magnitude deserves local media coverage.

I am puzzled by the fact that you were able to allocate plenty of space for sports articles in the A section, yet make no mention of a significant political statement by hundreds of concerned Tucson citizens.

Geoffrey Notkin

Don’t pigeonhole people

Gerry Garrison’s Thursday letter against gay parents (“Importance of balanced relationships”) is really a lesson in sexism, assumptions and hypocrisy.

Garrison says boys need fathers to go “hunting” while daughters need their “skills” consisting of “shopping.” With those skills, it is no wonder parents fear for the safety of their daughters when they marry sons raised in Garrison’s method.

He also does the classic conservative move by stating that daughters will tell you the importance of fathers in their lives, as if it’s a fact he read somewhere rather than his anecdotal assumption.

He says science has shown that men and women have different brains. Is that the same “science” of evolution and ozone depletion, or is he free to pick and choose which science to believe?

Religious conservatives once stopped marriages between different races, and now they have their eyes set on gay relationships. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now. One day, this won’t even be news – and neither will they.

Andy Morales

A bridge too many

I am really concerned about the bridge to the island at Roy Drachman Agua Caliente Park. The bridge has been there since at least the 1930s.

Pima County has blocked the bridge with wrought-iron gates so no one has access to the island. They say the bridge is unsafe and does not meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

As far as not being safe, that is due to neglect by the county over the years. As the bridge was built nearly 75 years ago, it does not meet ADA standards.

The county proposes to build a modern bridge at another location to the island. They would leave the current bridge, which is becoming an eyesore, because it is “historic.”

The new bridge would cost $40,000 to $70,000. The county has asked that Friends of Agua Caliente raise the money.

Over the past four years, the Friends raised nearly $5,000, and the county has collected about $3,000. It will take many years to raise enough money to build the bridge at today’s cost. By then, the cost probably will have doubled.

I suggest the county take out the present bridge and replace it with one similar but wider, with ramps to make it ADA-compatible.

This would be much cheaper than what is now proposed. The lake will not look good with two bridges, one of which can’t be used. If you agree with me, write or e-mail Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll.

Peter Filiatrault

Fuming over smokers

The easiest way to spot somebody smoking is in their car. I travel nearly 100 miles a day for business, and I’ve been noticing how many people are out there smoking in this city.

I can’t imagine how ignorant some of these people are to not only smoke, but also to throw their ashes and cigarette butts out their car windows. Don’t they realize that while they’re complaining about the drought, they’re contributing to this city’s pollution?

I mean, don’t people use ashtrays anymore? Isn’t there a law against littering cigarette butts? Why don’t police enforce it?

This may sound petty, but unless you look at how much garbage is on the ground, you are missing a huge problem. And let’s not forget the fires started from burning cigarettes thrown out.

Please give nonsmokers some consideration.

Kelly Rodgers

English comes in handy here

Re: the Wednesday story, “Interpreters needed; UA expands studies”:

Have I missed something, or is this not the United States and our language English? The solution is that those who choose to live here and take advantage of our schools, medical facilities, etc., need to learn English.

Rosemary Capin

“London Calling” – in Tucson

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra with music director and conductor George Hanson pulled off a brilliant performance of “London Calling” Saturday and Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School.

With the “English Folk Song Suite” by Vaughan Williams, the orchestra conveyed a bright and cheerful feeling of spring. Guided by Hanson and first violinist Steven Moeckel, the orchestra played brilliantly. The performance of Folk Songs from Somerset let the heart dance in sync with the music.

Richard Strauss’ “Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 11″ was pure ear candy. Jacquelyn Sellers’ performance on horn captivated the audience. Her encore, written for Dante for his 25th wedding anniversary, communicated joy.

It was a phenomenal concert: The acoustics were great, and the performance was brilliant.

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, indeed, enjoys popularity. It performed for more than 7,500 people during the past week. Listening to last weekend’s concert made it obvious why the orchestra has one of the highest subscription rates in the United States.

Karoline Crawshaw

Migrant at fault

Re: the March 15 story, “Migrant won’t be prosecuted after daughter is run over, dies”:

Juan Cruz-Torralva doesn’t understand what is happening? Oh, yes, he does.

He brought his family into this country illegally and broke our laws, and now he is suffering the consequences.

It is not the Border Patrol agent’s fault, nor is it America’s fault.

Barbara Williams

Readers

Less controversial headline preferred

The Tucson Citizen’s anti-military slip is showing again. Otherwise, why would a perfectly reasonable Associated Press dispatch wind up with the Monday front page with the headline “Army barring millions from service” instead of the more accurate, less controversial “Millions fail to qualify for Army service”?

GLENN M. PERRY

Colonel, U.S. Air Force (ret)

Son punished for defending himself

Earlier this month, my son, a student at Tortolita Middle School, was attacked by another student who was mad that my son wouldn’t cheat and give him the answers to a worksheet.

The attacker jumped on my son and put him in a headlock. My son got out of the headlock, got on top of the attacker and held him down so he couldn’t keep fighting. Then the teacher entered the room and sent a referral to the principal’s office, for both the attacker and my son.

I later received a call from the associate principal. She told me that my son would be suspended for a day for fighting. She did not seem to be interested in the fact that my son was attacked and was defending himself.

Later when I visited the school, I asked her if the school had an official policy forbidding students from defending themselves. She said they did not and that what my son had done was not “self-defense.” It appears that “self-defense” is limited to things such as screaming for a teacher. Of course, by the time a teacher gets there, the student will already have suffered physical harm.

There is an appeal process, but the suspension would be over by the time the process is completed.

Are our children allowed to defend themselves when they are being attacked? Or do they have to suffer the abuse then cry to the teacher after the damage has already been done?

Welcome to the public school system.

REED PETERSON

RTA plan will destroy local businesses

The Regional Transportation Authority is like a box of chocolates with something for everyone – a trolley, a wildlife corridor, wider major city streets to serve drivers in outlying areas etc. But many of those chocolates for city dwellers are loaded with arsenic.

Widening major arterials like Grant and Broadway would destroy hundreds of tax-paying local businesses and homes and downgrade established neighborhoods.

More than 100 businesses along Grant attempted to present a petition to the City Council that said in summary: We were not represented in the planning process. A study by the city shows that intersection improvements would provide 70 percent of the traffic flow benefits at one-third the cost. Revise the RTA plan to include less destructive alternatives to widening Grant or postpone the election to allow more time to consider alternatives.

Instead, the City Council agreed not to reduce the scope of any RTA project and rejected the petition. Many businesses along Broadway said that they had not been consulted. Wards 3 and 6 were not represented.

Yet, RTA has the nerve to brag about the variety of interests represented – environmentalist, transit promoter, bikers, etc.

Shame on our elected Tucson and Pima officials for giving control to the RTA, a nonelective body, and for rushing a vote without first requiring a study of the impact of these destructive projects. It is much too late now to allow residents and business along these major streets to talk about the plans.

RUTH STOKES

Bashas’ healthcare policy questioned

In The March 11 Tucson Citizen, reporter Blake Morlock asked the question: What does Eddie Basha’s removal as honorary chair of Gabrielle Giffords’ campaign have to do with healthcare?

Here’s the simple answer: plenty.

Last year, records released by the state of Arizona revealed a disturbing truth about Eddie Basha. The company that bears his family’s name has the second-highest number of employees enrolled in KidsCare, taxpayer-funded health insurance for children under 19. Further, Basha has the third highest number of employees enrolled in Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

Our national healthcare crisis is exacerbated when companies skirt their obligations and force taxpayers to foot the bill. A company that records a estimated $2 billion in sales annually should not rely on the generosity of Arizona taxpayers to pay their employees’ healthcare costs. Bashas’ corporate policy on healthcare is damaging not only to the hard-working Arizonans that he employs in his stores, but to their families and to the taxpayers of Arizona.

After learning that Eddie Basha was picked to be Gifford’s honorary chair, I contacted the campaign and provided them with the same information I’ve shared with you today. I did ask the campaign to remove him from his position, and Giffords made an informed choice to do so. There was no quid pro quo. I made no promises to endorse her in exchange for removing Basha as the campaign’s honorary chair.

JIM McLAUGHLIN

President, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 99

Phoenix

Citizen Staff Writer

Compromise for pharmacists

The Legislature is moving forward with a bill that would give new rights to customers trying to have birth control and other prescriptions filled.

A pharmacist who refuses to dispense a prescription for moral reasons would have to ask someone else at the pharmacy to fill it or transfer the prescription to another local pharmacy.

That’s reasonable. Pharmacists should not be forced to do anything they find morally objectionable. But they should not be able to inject themselves into the doctor-patient relationship, either.

This bill is a good compromise.

Write laws, practice law?

Arizona legislators are careful to look out for themselves.

State Sen. Dean Martin has introduced a bill that would let some people become lawyers without going to law school – if they can pass the bar exam.

Included are people who have worked with a judge, worked in a law office and those who have studied law at a correspondence school.

Martin also says that anyone who has been in the Legislature should be granted the exemption.

They write laws, but does that make them qualified to be lawyers? No, thanks.

Helping out on spring break

The stereotypical view of college students on spring break is packs of young people drinking, carousing and interested in nothing more than having a good time.

Many students from around the nation – including some from Tucson – are changing that image by spending the break thinking about more than themselves.

Some University of Arizona students spent their break in New Orleans helping with recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Others did environmental work or worked with children in Mexico.

Students at Pima Community College raised money to help hurricane victims.

Our nation’s future is in good hands.

New missions for local bases

Military installations must constantly reinvent themselves if they are to survive in this age of base downsizing.

So it is good news, indeed, that Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Fort Huachuca will share a squadron of unmanned aerial drones.

The Arizona Air National Guard squadron will be based at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, with some operations taking place at D-M.

To survive and thrive, these two southern Arizona installations must constantly be looking to bring in new technology so they remain vital cogs in the American military.

Brown’s legacy lives at UA

Thomas R. Brown was a legendary Tucson entrepreneur who built a garage-based business into an international semiconductor success story.

Brown died in 2002. His legacy lives on. This month, a foundation established by Brown’s family funded a $1 million endowment at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management.

The endowment will provide scholarships to MBA students pursuing a career path in technology and management.

That’s a fitting way to remember and honor one of Tucson’s most respected and most successful innovators.

Citizen Editor and Publisher

What are those bright yellow, full-page advertisements in the Tucson Citizen today (Page 13A) and the last few days?

They herald change. Eleven days from now, we will begin publishing the new Tucson Citizen.

It will be a change, to be sure, fundamental, front-to-back change in what we cover, how we cover it and the way we present it to you.

And not a moment too soon.

It’s no secret that the Citizen’s readership, like that of many newspapers, has declined steadily for years. People have other information sources that meet their needs, are without time for newspaper reading or are turned off by the traditional newspaper in an ever-changing media world.

The new Citizen presumes to meet those challenges. In it, we will give you:

• Instant news and information on a newly designed Web site moving toward 24/7 operation.

• In-depth reports on important local news topics and key areas of interest for our community.

• Quick bursts of information so you can grab a handful of news when time won’t permit more.

• Greatly expanded opportunities to interact with us, raise your voice as a citizen and be heard.

One thing won’t change, except to get even better: the Citizen’s 135-year tradition of emphasizing local news and information.

We are reconfiguring the newspaper and the Web site to give you more local information, starting with the front page and the home page.

Much of what you are accustomed to – local news coverage, opinion columnists, comics and sports coverage – will remain in the new Citizen.

The front page will be modernized and offer major in-depth news and what we call “RealFast,” a quick look at the day’s top local news.

The first section will carry local news. Space will be devoted daily to news vital to you – law and order, education, local business, obituaries.

Our two editorial pages are being renamed “Citizen voices” and will appear in the first section.

The second section will carry national and world news, including space for news from Mexico, and weather.

Our award-winning sports section – recently named for the fifth time in six years as one of the top 10 in the country – will continue in-depth coverage of the University of Arizona and high school athletics and roundups of pro sports in season. A new feature, The Bounce, will offer news, commentary and chatter – your chance to interact.

Then, the coup de maître: the “Plus” sections, your bonus for reading the new Citizen. They will bring you vital information on a topic of importance each weekday. Here’s the lineup:

• Monday: Body Plus – a guide to exercise, nutrition and smart choices.

• Tuesday: Family Plus – a guide for Tucsonans of all ages.

• Wednesday: Taste Plus – food, drink and dining in Tucson.

• Thursday: Calendar Plus – our tried-and-true guide to a week’s worth of entertainment.

• Friday: Weekend Plus – weekend activities for you, the kids and everyone.

There’s much more, to be introduced in the next two weeks in this column, online, in a special Readers Guide to be inserted in the newspaper and in a TV and radio advertising campaign.

We spent the last two years researching and planning. Input from you and other Tucsonans was the basis for our changes. As always, we look forward to your continuing feedback as we launch the new Tucson Citizen, March 29.

Michael A. Chihak can be reached at 573-4646 or mchihak@tucsoncitizen.com.

Guest Writer

During my years as a police officer I always had one constant companion whenever I went to work.

They were the dispatchers and police service operators, or PSOs.

Dispatchers are the voices you hear on the radio talking to officers while PSOs are the people you talk to after the 911 operator transfers your call.

Most of the time, the PSO is the person you’ll later tell your friends about because you thought they were taking too long with questions. The truth is they are typing away and sending your information to the dispatcher or a patrol car.

I know that just about everyone knows a little something about them, but the work they do is completed mainly behind secure doors and from the other end of a phone. They remain faceless with the few exceptions of an award ceremony or the occasional TV interview, usually about something or someone else.

I wanted to write about them because no law enforcement agency, fire department or other city service can operate successfully without them

We are lucky to have some of the finest PSOs and dispatchers in the country and I don’t say that lightly. Over the years, I have attended training with officers from around the country and listened to the reasons that have allowed me to rate Tucson as having some of the best.

The fact that Tucson and Pima County do not have officers hurt or killed at the rate of some other cities can be attributed to our highly skilled team of communication personnel.

At some point, every officer has, or will be, bailed out of a tough spot by a dispatcher who is thinking one step ahead or a PSO who asked a few more questions of a victim because something sounded a little skewed. That extra question may reveal information that helps getting to a person sooner or a safety margin for the officers.

Communications centers will have their moments of seriousness and times of lightheartedness. But the unfortunate truth is that the bulk of the time, their jobs have a seriousness that can turn deadly for an officer or a civilian in a matter of seconds.

Outside of the communication centers, little is known about how devastating their jobs can be.

When Tucson police Officer Patrick Hardesty and Pima County sheriff’s Deputy Timothy Graham were killed, everyone in those dispatch centers was hit hard. They undoubtedly looked inside themselves and asked what, if anything, they could have done to prevent this. And then, within seconds, they queued up the next call. They kept working even though they wanted to hang a “Closed” sign on the door for a few minutes to wipe their eyes.

The dedication and sacrifice made by those unseen voices are there 24/7.

Your chances of having a police officer or deputy as a neighbor are higher than having someone from “Commo.”

If you do have one, give them a nod sometime.

Michael A. Cook (michaelcook@cox.net) retired from the Tucson Police Department after 27 years. He has watched our city go through changes, good and bad.

Readers

Cyclist thanks all who helped in crash

I was involved in a bicycle crash on March 7 near East Sunrise Drive and North Craycroft Road. My bike was destroyed and I took a little punishment as well, but I wanted to say, thank you to some amazing folks who came out of nowhere to help a distressed cyclist.

Within minutes of impacting the ground, several passing motorists stopped to help me, including a doctor who began an immediate triage on me. I never got his name, but he will always have my gratitude. Ms. Nancy stepped up to the police officer on scene and offered to recover the remains of my bike and keep them in her garage until I could get them. To her and her husband Ed, my thanks for your generosity.

The boys at Rural Metro Station 74 went out of their way to help make me as comfortable as possible, performing several engineering miracles with lots of duct tape and creativity to create the most comfortable position possible for a separated shoulder.

Drs. Waters and Ross, as well as Sergio, Eric, Bill, Craig and everyone else on hand at the University Medical Center emergency room, were remarkably friendly, thorough and helpful. As big and busy as this Level 1 trauma center is, I expected a much more impersonal, abrupt approach to noncritical patients such as me. But the opposite was true this day. My sincerest thanks to each of you for taking good care of me. Thanks also for saving my bike shorts – yes, they were expensive, but they are not nearly as valuable to me as your skill and kindness.

Tucson earned its status as a bike-friendly town that day and I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you for stepping up to help a fellow citizen in need. Here was a tremendous example of a true community in action. I am indebted to each of you and honored to be your neighbor!. Thank you all, and I hope we never have to meet like this again.

Regan Patrick

Radical thinking angers parent

Upon reading Randy Dinin’s March 8 letter (“Teachers have right to tell the truth”), I am very disturbed and angry to know that such a person is out there filling our children’s minds with such radical thoughts.

He claims the right to teach our children his version of the truth. The right of free speech as guaranteed by our Constitution does not constitute a right to inflict his radical thinking on our children.

I no longer have children in danger of being influenced by such radical teachings. My sons are grown and living good productive lives and fully aware of the good and bad things going on in the world around them. They are raising families of their own and instilling in them a good set of values.

Mr. Dinin sets up a scenario whereby, given the right circumstances, he would not hesitate to tell his twisted and radical version of the truth to his students, and he would resist any attempt to remove him. If I had learned of him spewing that kind of poison in a classroom where my kids were present, regardless of his resistance he would be gone.

Donald P. Early

AARP for dual-eligibles Rx coverage

Even though AARP supported passage of the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, we maintained that it wasn’t perfect, needed improvements and that we would work to make it better.

One area of the new law that does need changing involves the prescription drug coverage for more than 97,000 dual-eligible beneficiaries (Medicare-Medicaid) in the AHCCCS system – Arizona’s Medicaid program. Most of these seniors are disabled and have annual incomes of less than $10,000.

Before Jan, 1, these dual-eligibles received their medications without having to pay any co-pays or deductibles. But as part of the new Medicare law, they are now required to pay $1 to $5 co-pays on their medications. Some seniors take as many as 12 or more medications regularly. And because they live on limited incomes, they may try to stretch their drug supply or drop vital medications entirely, which can endanger their health. If this happens, many of them will end up needing emergency care or hospitalized.

The governor has recommended an increase of $4.5 million in the AHCCCS budget to remedy this situation. AARP Arizona supports this.

In addition, AARP supports the passage of HB2479, which proposes to reinstate coverage for dual-eligibles’ prescriptions to the same treatment they had before Jan. 1. We applaud the governor’s efforts and urge the Legislature to respond to the needs of our state’s poorest and frailest population by passing HB2479 with the right level of funding.

Lupe Solis

Associate state director for advocacy

AARP Arizona

All laws are not perfect

Re “The lawyers win,” Friday editorial:

We are a nation of laws that are designed to serve our society and to protect our citizens when they have suffered or not been served. These laws are subject to change when they no longer serve or protect our citizens. We do this with our votes – whether it is a vote for the law itself or a vote for the officials who will enact and enforce the law as it is written.

We are responsible for the laws we have in our society. And still it seems that every time something happens that someone doesn’t like, they shout “there oughta be a law” or “I want a law that makes me feel good now,” with no thought to the future, how that law will affect someone else, or even if it’s enforceable.

And there are those who, as soon as they feel they have been wronged, rush to sue someone else, often to make up for their own poor judgment.

And yet, no matter when or how a law is exploited, stops working or has to be fixed and the lawyers come in to do the clean-up, they are the ones who get blamed for the entire fiasco.

Let’s face it: if all laws were perfect and no citizen ever broke a law or behaved in such a way that new laws were necessary, all lawyers, police officers, judges and juries would be unnecessary.

So lay off the lawyers, OK? They aren’t the problem, but they will continue to be part of the solution until all citizens are law-abiding, as interested in the well-being of others as they are in their own interests, and vote accordingly.

Pat Trager

State gave Flores chance to succeed

Mark Kimble writes about the tribulations of Miriam Flores who couldn’t speak English as a child, thus begetting a lawsuit against the state of Arizona (“Miriam Flores has earned a legacy she didn’t seek,” Thursday. The suit contended, and the screwy courts agreed, that the state was guilty of failing to adequately teach English to Miriam, thus depriving her of something or the other.

Despite this alleged gross wrong perpetrated against Ms. Flores, Kimble reports that she still managed to learn English, made the honor roll in middle school, took college-level courses in high school and is now a second-year college student.

Her success makes it difficult for me to understand how the state failed her and why the taxpayers should be forced to throw more money at a non-existent problem. Clearly, the state offered adequate educational opportunities and when Ms. Flores seized them, she flourished. Because other students fail to do the same is their failure, not the state’s – and no amount of money is going to change this.

It’s a pity that Ms. Flores will likely be remembered for the lawsuit filed in her name rather than her considerable accomplishments. If the members of the legal establishment had any shame, they would offer her an apology for dragging her into this farce.

Wes Stewart

Catholic Church should rebuild respect

Special thanks to P.N. McKenzie for voicing what I have been thinking ever since I saw the headlines regarding the Catholic bishops’ stand regarding same-sex marriage “Bishops, judge not,” Friday letter).

My personal opinion is that the whole of the Catholic Church has no right to voice an opinion regarding sex of any kind. Period. For the next several hundred years, the main concern of the Catholic Church should be rebuilding respect, not to mention morality among the priesthood.

Sharon Wasson

Tucson visitor from Sterling, Ill.

Freelance

Citizen Columnist

This is the time of year when, customarily, I turn to the power of prayer.

Those of you who are driving without insurance – and have no agent to send you a new calendar and depend on meteorological clues to keep track of the time of year – are probably misled by the snow on the Catalinas into believing you ought to be at the malls shopping for Christmas gifts. Wrong.

Those of you who rely upon your friends for behavioral cues to seasonal rituals may think it’s a month later than a calendar would tell you. This sort of nervous twitching ordinarily is prelude to the April 15 tax-filing deadline.

Then again, it could be Easter. In 60 years of gorging on chocolate and then guiltily remembering it is supposed to be a religious holiday, I have yet to comprehend the arbitrary manner in which the date is set. I only know it falls on a Sunday.

Those of us who have school-age children keep track of the Earth’s orbit around the sun by the sort of trash the kiddies cart home from their classes – or at least they used to, before korrekt-think forbade anything that even breathed of religious connotation. Scratch X-mas (X-tianity), Hannukah (Jew-daism), Halloween (paganism) and April 15 (mammonism).

But even if our heirs were not herded into atheism, we still would lose their assistance in keeping track of dates, as they graduate and move on into their breeding years and grow their own little calendar-keepers.

All we’re left with is television, which is to say ESPN, which is to say SportsCenter, which this time of year is to say March Madness.

That’s basketball, to you culturally illiterate literati who eschew anything that smacks of popular tastes. And when you say basketball in these parts, you just naturally have to say the Arizona Wildcats and coach Lute Olson.

Which brings us back to prayer.

And brings me to hypocrisy. I’m not normally much of a prayer pray-er. But lordy, (he said, warming-up) how can you not resort to your deity of choice or chance or raw desperation, when you’re a fan of a team that historically has had so much promise and delivered so much bitter disappointment. Except 1997: ’97 was the year the Cats went into March with practically no hope and damned if they didn’t win it all. Not only win it all, but beat three No. 1 seeds on the way to taking everybody’s marbles.

Lute Olson has led his Arizona lads to the Big Dance, March Madness, the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament, for 22 years in a row. He first did that as coach of the Iowa team, but then he descended – like the Archangel Michael, fighting angel John Travolta played that time in that movie, on a shaft of heavenly light amid billowing clouds of glory – upon the University of Arizona’s lame and limping and losing basketball program.

And it was good. Way good. Very near great. Once actually great, as in the paragraph before last.

But more often than not, just shy of leaving ‘em smiling. So tantalizingly shy I can’t actually watch their games on the telly. Oh, I watch for their names in the program guide and I wait like a kid on Christmas Eve (or an IRS auditor on April 14) for their televised games to begin. And by the second half, I’ve gone off to clip my toenails and come back to watch their 20-point halftime lead shrink to three, and left again to do a load of laundry, and come back to watch the clock tick down to those final 15 seconds, and run off again to make a pot of coffee, and come back to watch the last half hour of those final five seconds, while Lute and his coaching adversaries call timeouts and milk the clock, and 19 high-dollar sponsors get their money’s worth out of television commercials, and Dick Vitale screams himself hoarse and 200 million adult American males go online to purchase hunting rifles and telescopic sights so they can buy a seat up in the rafters about three miles above Vitale next March and shoot him in the vocal cords, just enough to silence him, and leave again . . .

. . . only to return for that last Sam Peckinpah slow-mo sequence where the penultimate tenth-of-a-second sees the ultimate NBA-line 3-point Hail Mary wing-and-a-prayer (I’m not the only foxhole convert in the Mad Month of March) off-balance heave at the basket, and I clamp my hands over my face, peeking through a picket fence of fingers – it’s like watching a car wreck – and it rims out and we lose. Again.

Think this is long-winded hyperbole? Rent the tape of last year’s loss to Illinois.

But this year we’re a No. 8 seed: Maybe our best shot since ’97.

Pray with me, brothers and sisters.

Citizen columnist Jeff Smith is a local boy living through his own private hell. Contact him at (520) 455-5667 or jsmith@tucsoncitizen.com.

Citizen Staff Writer

Inaction is the best action

The Legislature did the right thing this week by not doing something.

State senators rejected a bill that would have required state universities and community colleges to let students opt out of reading certain books they find offensive.

The Legislature should not be in the businesses of telling universities and colleges how to run their classes. That should be left to school administrators.

The University of Arizona already has a policy requiring notification of students if a course includes content that may be deemed offensive. The policy allows students to request substitute material.

That makes more sense than a sweeping policy by the Legislature.

Leave sentencing to judges

We have never thought mandatory sentences are a good idea.

It makes more sense for a judge who knows the specifics of a particular case to set a sentence instead of having the Legislature impose one-size-fits-all punishment.

Thus we don’t like a three-strikes law that legislators may ask voters to approve in November.

The law would mandate life sentences for felons convicted twice before of violent crimes or certain other serious crimes.

Arizona law already requires longer prison sentences for repeat offenders. That requirement, with its flexibility, is preferable.

Downtown cooperation

It was refreshing this week to see the city work with residents and a developer to hash out differences with a couple of downtown projects.

First, the city met with Barrio Viejo Neighborhood Association members to discuss a new headquarters building for the Tucson Fire Department south of the Tucson Convention Center.

Residents endorsed the proposal. Pedro Gonzalez, chairman of the association, said, “I’m not used to this. Usually I’m over here fighting with the city.”

And developer Jim Campbell and the city agreed to rebuild the current South Fourth Avenue underpass so Campbell’s land can be developed into a pedestrian-friendly entertainment and commercial center.

That kind of cooperation is needed.

Dávila is Heart of Downtown

Café Poca Cosa is one of the true gems of downtown.

The innovative Mexican food restaurant recently moved into spanking new digs on the ground floor of the Pennington Street Garage, 110 E. Pennington St.

Owner and chef Suzana Dávila was determined to stay downtown after losing her spot in the Clarion Santa Rita Hotel, which is being converted to condos.

So it was fitting that she recently was awarded the Heart of Downtown Award from Mayor Bob Walkup.

Entrepreneurs such as Dávila are the key to the rebirth of downtown.

Take that, you Phoeinicians

Anyone who has lived in Tucson for any length of time is familiar with the infernal “Tuscon” version of our city’s name.

Now it’s time for residents of the state’s capital city to feel what that’s like.

A sign at Interstate 10 and Cortaro Road directs drivers to “Phoeinx.” The Arizona Department of Transportation says it will fix the sign, but not immediately.

Maybe this is payback from those of us in Tucson.