Mailbag
Tumacacori Wilderness Deserves Protection Despite the Presence of Illegal Traffic
After reading the piece in the Tucson Weekly regarding the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness legislation ("Nature Vs. Security," May 1), my reaction was surprise at the one-sided presentation and the paucity of information actually given in the article. The author was apparently happy to just sit down with opponents of the plan and put all his faith in their remarks. The worthiness of the area as wilderness was not examined.I have lived in the Tumacacori/Tubac area for the past 33 years and had a real estate business in Tubac for a number of those years. I am a gray-haired old lady who still feels comfortable riding my horse or hiking in the Tumacacoris today. Yes, there is drug activity there, but there is drug activity everywhere in this area. A friend who lives over near the railroad tracks in Tubac watched a bunch of drug carriers hiking through the mesquites next to the railroad tracks just a few days ago. I have seen them while horseback-riding north of there, although mostly what I see are small groups of migrants heading north.
Illegal traffic is no reason to fail to protect this spectacular and fragile area. The Border Patrol might try actually putting people on the border, lots of them (on foot and horseback), to stop the illegal traffic before it gets into our country. Trying to stop the traffic once the people have entered this country is not even logical, and the current traffic north demonstrates this failure on the part of our attempts to capture migrants and smugglers.
Roberta Stabel
There's Nothing to Fear in Tumacacori Wilderness Area
I have very recently hiked with several others in the area in question in Leo W. Banks' article without fear of the illegal activity he dwells on in his alarmist story.It is beautiful country, and we are grateful we can hike it. We support the wilderness designation, and see it as an issue of land use rather than about criminal activity.
At the end of Banks' article, Edith Lowell sums it up best when she says we need border security. Instead of fighting against the designation, my opinion is that all of us should focus on demanding secure borders now.
Don Gfroerer
Banks' Description of Tumacacoris Doesn't Jibe With My 36 Years of Residence
The recent article by Leo W. Banks about the proposed Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness is most interesting, but it fails to describe the area on the border in which I have been living for the last 36 years. I don't know where this place is that he described.Even if it were an accurate description of the Tumacacoris, does anyone seriously believe that the Department of Homeland Security--the only federal agency not required to submit a budget to Congress, one with unlimited funding and freedom to ignore any and all laws--will not do anything it wants to stop the flow of illegal people and drugs anywhere it wishes? No little wilderness-area designation or concern for any environmental or private-property issue has deterred them so far.
If Mr. Banks had bothered to do some on-the-ground research, he would have realized that the majority of the illegal activity takes place along the edges of the proposed wilderness, where the terrain is less formidable, and there is access to roads. This is also where the people in the article live; as far as I can tell, nobody who ventures into the heart of the wilderness was interviewed.
One final note: No matter what the product, as long as there's a demand, there will be a supply. We need to spend less on the interdiction of illegal substances and more on education, rehabilitation and legalization. If people quit using that crap, our problems will be greatly lessened.
Nicholas J. Bleser
Border Patrol Officers Don't Need Any Additional Restrictions
I just wanted to thank you on your excellent article concerning the potential wilderness designation. I was extremely pleased to see another perspective on roadless areas on the border.I have worked and recreated extensively on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and have witnessed first-hand border impacts on wilderness areas, and the fact that designating an area as roadless and prohibiting mechanized vehicles really is not of much concern for those transporting people and drugs into the United States.
I cannot understand why we would overlay additional restrictions on an agency which is already unable to secure our borders or implement laws which we all know will not be enforced.
John Hays Jr.
Want to Stop Marijuana Traffic? Legalize Pot!
I write in response to the front-page article by Leo W. Banks in a recent issue of the Tucson Weekly that expresses concern that declaring the Tumacacori Highlands as a national wilderness area will lead to more marijuana traffic.Stopping marijuana traffic is not done by targeting the environment. Remove the criminal penalties on its sale and use, and the traffic will stop. It is not right in a democratic society to make it a crime if adults use marijuana by their own free choice.
The 1964 Wilderness Act recognizes "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area ... retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation." In the past few months, I have been out twice with a photographer friend hiking in the remote areas of the Tumacacori Highlands and taking pictures until the sun disappeared behind the hills. It is a very peaceful and privileged experience.
I suspect the concerns expressed in this article have some other purpose. Your readers should celebrate the strong support for this wilderness designation. The Tumacacori Highlands is one of the last unspoiled regions of Southern Arizona, and we ought to keep it that way.
Richard A. Calabro
Libertarianism Would Make Everyone Better Off
Regarding "Nature Vs. Security": What a dilemma for readers of the Weekly! Who do we sympathize with more? The article supports the ranchers; the editors support the environmentalists; past articles have supported the Border Patrol agents and nonviolent marijuana users; meanwhile, Rep. Raúl Grijalva seems to support both the environmentalists and immigrants. Phew! What a tangled web we weave! Stories like these make me want to be a Libertarian--at least Libertarians are consistent.The Libertarian solution to this problem would be to: 1) Decriminalize marijuana. What's the point of lugging marijuana into the United States if you can just buy it at Circle K instead? 2) Let laborers enter our country on Interstate 19 like everyone else. They don't take jobs natives want, and there's an obvious need for their services in this country; they find jobs easier than native job-seekers. Keeping the legal border crossings closed to them only forces them to pay coyotes, take risks and stay in the U.S. longer than they would otherwise.
The current policy fails to keep immigrants out but succeeds in creating a massive network of money, guns, trash and deaths in our desert. Ranchers, immigrant workers, ganja smokers, border patrol agents and our environment would all would all be safer and better off.
Tiernan Erickson
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