Mailbag

Chomsky Commentary Was Nice, but More Is Needed

I appreciate your posting "Chomsky Occupies Centennial Hall," the commentary by Britain Eakin (The Range, Feb. 11).

It features incredible recall and is brilliant at connecting many of the major dots of the talk, and the title hints at Chomsky's awareness of the importance of the Occupy movement!

I'd only add that more of his statements connecting Occupy with current (and past) socio-political/corporate-financial events are needed for better understanding of the situation—most especially the response by We the People. Leaving out anything resembling solution-oriented ideas and actualities only serves to perpetuate the system that Chomsky exposes and warns us about.

Otherwise, Ms. Eakin's reportage is impressively on target, and the headline, at least, begins to fill in a glaring gap.

Joyce Smith


Stegeman: Baker's Speculation, Concerns About New Board Member Are Off-Base

The Guest Commentary of Feb. 23 by Frieda Baker could leave inaccurate impressions surrounding Dr. Alexandre Sugiyama, the new member of the Tucson Unified School District board.

First, he has an obvious motive for serving on the board: His child is about to enter first-grade in the district. Second, while he works in my unit at the Eller College of Management, I have never played any role in his work assignments or evaluations and am never likely to.

Third, he and I have already cast opposing board votes on several important issues. Finally, as far as I know, the process which the county superintendent of schools (Dr. Linda Arzoumanian) used to select Dr. Sugiyama was clean and consistent with her past practice. She made the selection after personally interviewing candidates from a short list, and she was surely aware of their jobs, potential conflicts of interest and other relevant data from their résumés.

Mark Stegeman

President of the TUSD board