Suburban Angst

Regarding "Shell-City Game" (March 8): According to my friend Chris Limberis, I am one of those fortunate residents of midtown Tucson who will benefit should Casas Adobes incorporate. The primary basis for this assertion is that, after incorporation, the Pima County Board of Supervisors will reduce the amount of taxes I pay.

Chris, how stupid do you think I am? (Please don't answer.) We all know that it will be a cold day in hell before the Pima County Board of Supervisors ever reduces my tax "burden." Additionally, the state-shared revenues upon which Casas Adobes will rely are not "free money" but rather, will come from already existing municipalities (i.e., Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana and South Tucson). Should the Casas Adobes incorporation be successful, the end result will be: no reduction of my Pima County taxes, less services from the City of Tucson, and an all-white, affluent suburb to the northwest.

--Tom Berning

Elder Abuse

Regarding "Get Off Our Backs" (March 8): The Skinny, noting that Green Valley had previously rejected incorporation and might do so again, told the "greedy geezers" to "get off our backs." This nasty, bigoted reference to older people should not be countenanced. In the last presidential election, 90 percent of black Americans voted Democratic--would your paper call them by some racial epithet while reporting this demographic fact?

Moreover, the people of Green Valley are not all old, but nearly all of them are white--why not add an anti-white racial epithet to the anti-age one?

As for getting off your backs, would the Tucson Weekly publish a diatribe against those people, many of them Latino, who have lots of kids and ask them to get off the backs of taxpayers, like us, who have no children in the public schools?

In fact, retirees are not a public burden. We bring money to this area which we earned elsewhere and we demand and use less in the way of public services than any other group; and we're happy to see our tax money going into the education of the next generation.

In any event, the people of Green Valley, like the people of Casas Adobes, voted resoundingly against the Balkanization of Pima County. They said they are mostly satisfied with the services they receive and do not believe that the game of incorporation would be worth the candle of taxation it would cost. Maybe they're wrong, maybe they're right, but they are entitled to respect as voters who exercised their franchise as they thought best. It's easy, but unworthy of a decent publication, to take cheap shots at people for their age, gender, or ethnic background, matters over which they have no control.

--George Goldberg

Grazing Hell

To the Editor,

I was gratified to read Susan Zakin's attack on the ranching industry ("Historic Mistake," March 15). After years of putting up with Jeff Smith's (literal) B.S., it's a refreshing change.

Sufficiently informed people realize that the meat industry pollutes at about the same level as the auto industry and while many people recognize the evil of the petroleum industry, many are slow to realize that smart food choices are equally imperative for the survival of life as we know it. There's something deep and fossilized in the outlook of some people that will deny any and all evidence that animal products are harmful to their health and the health of those around them. In response to such illogical stubbornness, just give in--say, "Go ahead, have a hotdog, what the heck, have two, why not half a dozen? With chili and cheese and some bacon and some pork rinds as well. And be sure to have a refreshing glass of milk ... or two or three ... And then some ice cream for dessert."

All evidence points toward their early demise, so cheer them on! I found it ironic that in your February 22 issue, the Hightower column was about antibiotics in the groundwater due to animal farming while the restaurant review was a piece of glowing praise for one of those proudly dinosaur-type places. "Beef tenderloin ... Unpretentious salute to meat and potatoes ... tempt the most stalwart vegan...." Surely it's a typo, she must have meant nauseate the most stalwart vegan. Oh, an attempt at humor? Ha, ha, I almost spilled my carrot juice--not.

--Duane Larson

To the Editor,

Thanks for the article about cattle ranching by Susan Zakin ("Historic Mistake," March 15). Ranchers' long-standing treasonous activities against America's wild country, plants and animals is comparable to their chronic leeching of the public till for their own welfare. It's time for these sleazeballs to stand on their own hind legs and get a real job. Further, it's time for the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to realize that 280 million U.S. citizens are more interested in preserving our land than in propping up a handful of cowaholics.

--Tim Lengerich