Land Of The Lost

Regarding Dan Huff's "Land Mine Victim" (November 18): Do you actually think that the citizens of this state will do anything about its Californication? Damn, the ignorant people in this town not only turn down a referendum that would have ensured good drinking water for years, but they elected a man who is no more than a puppet for all the greedy speculators and developers. Pima County is about to be raped worse than it ever has in the past. So what can be done about it? The citizens of this state are going to have to pass a referendum that halts the Californication, just as the Oregon legislature did 20 years ago.

What did it do? It forced cities and towns to set the boundaries of their city limits, boundaries that would last forever. It forbid them to include in those boundaries prime farm land, elevations above a certain height or above a certain slope to the ground, and ludicrous grabs of a lot of territory. In short, the size of your municipality isn't going to be allowed to get much bigger, so live with it.

Another thing: recall Jane Hull. Everyone thought having a woman governor would be great, but I know for a fact (since I used to work for a company that sent me around to everyone involved in any aspect of new development to collect funds for her election) that she is deeply involved in any and all matters concerning the rape of this great state.

And why am I complaining? I am a native and grew up in this area when there were vast areas of beautiful land, with nothing on it but ranch houses. About the only good thing about Grijalva is that he did bring that up in regard to the area around Green Valley. Do you think I want the area from Green Valley to Wickenburg looking like that from San Diego to Santa Barbara? No. Jim Click owns dealerships in that area. Get over there. Leave the state of Arizona alone. Take Hull with you. I mean, between Glendale and Bakersfield, it is undeveloped. You oughta be happier than shit pulling the crap you're pulling here in that area.

Well, I've vented. I know that none of what I've mentioned above will happen, so I suppose the time has come for me to abandon my native state and do what I hate other people doing: leaving their native state and going to another, but, at my age, I hate what is happening to my native state and all the immigrants helping rape it, out of ignorance or indifference, so adios, unless the activists begin doing what I've suggested. Then I might just stick around, to enjoy the screaming, crying and moaning from the greedy land rapists.

-- Jim Hodges

Great Litterature

Congratulations! With Dan Huff's "Scum of the Earth" (November 4), your exposé journalism has finally risen to the level of your back page's advertising.

The Weekly has moved from whining about the Arizona Daily Star to smug parodies of informative investigative reporting.

I remain in search of a progressive, socially responsible, counterview news source in Tucson. Anyone out there?

I will continue to reach for your free weekly issues -- but only because they fit my litter box so nicely. Apparently, where The Weekly is right at home.

-- Wayne Ewing

Home Bound

Tom Danehy's "Poor Sports" (November 11) on home schoolers playing high-school sports is at best uninformed, and at worst irresponsible and inflammatory journalism. Danehy's statement that all people who choose to home school their children are racist and stupid is not only inaccurate, but offensive and hurtful as well. Home schooling is not a cop-out or an attempt to escape from the world; it is a valid alternative to a specific system.

My parents home schooled me for the first few years of grade school. I spent my days practicing the violin, reading and playing with other kids. When I decided to try public school at the age of nine, I assimilated just fine. After several years of being in the public school system, getting straight A's and being bored out of my mind, I chose to leave it and go to the progressive school I now attend. My story is not an unusual one; I know many others who have had similar experiences. I home schooled because my parents and I did not like the mainstream option you so worshipfully describe. I have read 1984, and I am friends with people of many different ethnic backgrounds and beliefs.

The decision to home school is not the easy one Danehy makes it out to be. Anyone who chooses to do so has to deal with hateful, misinformed attacks like the one Danehy made.

-- Janet Rabin