Valle: Reconsider Your LD 30 Senate Endorsement
I was surprised and disappointed to learn that the Tucson Weekly chose not to endorse me for the Legislative District 30 state Senate seat, but chose to endorse my opponent instead ("Our 2008 Endorsements," Oct. 2). First and foremost, given your editorial policy, you've chosen the wrong person. Jonathan Paton is a solid citizen; however, his positions reflect a conservative posture concerning the right to choose, stem-cell research, Proposition 102 (the marriage proposal), environmental issues and the role of government in the well-being of our residents.Your readers should be aware that, first, you never contacted me for information (specifically) informing this endorsement; second, your research was incomplete and did not reflect my reputation or my results during my 24 years in the Washington State Legislature; (3) the only "media" that consistently criticized me was one reporter from the Seattle Times. In fact, the Post Intelligencer endorsed me in nearly every race I ran!
I ask you to reconsider your endorsement and urge your readers to go to valleforazsenate.com. Look at my legislative record on education, environmental issues, indoor air quality, anti-smoking (long before it was the "thing to do") and health care. I care about pay equity for women. And in these tough financial times, I can use my knowledge of legislative processes to balance the budget without losing our important priorities.
Gov. Janet Napolitano endorsed me by saying: "Georgette Valle will be a strong advocate for Southern Arizona. As a legislator for 24 years, she worked across party lines with elected officials and stakeholders to get things done." I would hope that the Weekly would endorse me as well.
Georgette W. Valle, Democratic candidate state Senate in LD 30
Who Are We to Question God's Creations, Including LGBT People?
While waiting for my blood-drawing, I was talking with another woman about her beautiful hair. She asked me about the rainbow pin I wear that says "Celebrating Diversity." I explained that diversity meant everybody, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons."You mean you approve of their right to marry?" I said yes.
She said that God, when he made the world, made one man and one woman, and that was what marriage should be. I said, "Well, that was only for starters. He has made many other creatures since then, including LGBTs. Did he make mistakes? Are they not all of His creation and worthy? Who are we to judge God's creations? Why should they not have all the same rights anyone else has in our country?" I also mentioned that more than 50 species of animals are known to have same-sex relations. Why not in the human species?
I did not convince her, and did not expect to. But who are any of us to question the worthiness of God's creations? He made us all, supposedly in His image, Christians believe. Of course, that raises uncomfortable questions about what the "image of God" really is. Could he/she also be a lesbian, or a gay person, or a person born with both sets of sexual organs?
Proposition 102, which aims to change the state Constitution to ban anything but male/female marriage, does open up a Pandora's box, if you really start to think about it. For you thinking people, vote against Prop 102.
June Wortman
Face the Facts: Pro Baseball in Tucson Does Not Work
Baseball is controversial in Tucson since the demise of the Sidewinders and the threat of spring training teams leaving (Best of Tucson™ Editor's Note, Sept. 25).We should not forget that professional baseball is an enterprise subject to the constraints of the marketplace. Tucson has not supported its baseball teams well in the past few years. Consider the many 2,000-or-fewer crowds the Sidewinders encountered at Tucson Electric Park this past season. The Arizona Republic recently reported that the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies were the two worst draws in the Cactus League. This article also estimated that the Diamondbacks could draw 3,000 more fans per game if they moved to Phoenix.
Furthermore, regional economic benefits from spring training teams may not be large. When Tucson Electric Park was built, the hotel industry said that vacancy rates were already low. The above observations call into question any economic package offered to the baseball industry by Pima County or Tucson officials.
Donald Agthe
Many of Our Economic Leaders Are Acting a Bit Alien
Every time I turn on the news, I feel like I'm in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featuring the Ferengi (an anagram of freeing), and the Ferengis' economic system has collapsed. According to Wikipedia, "The Ferengi were originally meant to replace the Klingons on Star Trek: The Next Generation as the Federation's arch-rival, but viewers could not see the ridiculous creatures as posing any kind of consistent threat."Not a threat, huh? Let's look at who and what the Ferengi actually represent: The Ferengi are a species with a simple, extreme and fundamentalist view of the free-market system. In the real world, this view has a name: It's called the Washington Consensus and couldn't have been better illustrated by President George W. Bush than when he told us after Sept. 11 to go shopping ("Point Spread," Currents, Oct. 9).
Free trade with no restraints is the gospel sung by both the Ferengi characters and the Washington Consensus. Both have simple minds and even simpler beliefs concerning free-market principles. The Ferengi and the Washington Consensus both believe in extreme forms of deregulation, privatization, unrestricted movement of capital, lower taxes and complete openness to foreign investment and capital.
The American Ferengi have shoved their views down numerous developing countries in the form of structural-adjustment policies dished out by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Now their house of cards has fallen on their own heads. Just remember the first rule of acquisition of the Ferengi is: "Once you have their money, never give it back." If we truly want to live long and prosper, I suggest we vote out the American Ferengi politicians.
How can you recognize a Ferengi? The top of his head looks like where the gluteus maximus of humans meet.
Deborah Bird
And Now We End With Something Completely Different
You made several political endorsements in your Oct. 2 Tucson Weekly that, to say the least, are terribly alarming. Your obvious disingenuous comments leave intelligent readers with a clear view of how far left you are.The other alarming statement you made, in the Editor's Note, ended with "and not too full of shit." Such language does nothing to brighten your dimming editorial star! Jimmy Boegle is obviously a young elitist snob (I enjoy trashing pinheads with accurate oxymorons and pleonasms) who requires additional education.
Your "paper" is so far left that you and your staff are probably walking around with the Communist Manifesto in your pockets instead of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.
I have nothing but contempt for radical left-wing, communist-leaning editors like you who are in a position to influence the uninformed.
Finally, how about printing the conservative and opposing point of view?
I'm an international consultant and not signing this letter for fear of retribution.
Note: While we have a policy of running only signed letters to the editor, we made an exception here, because this letter was so ... fascinating.
