After reading the article about Caterpillar machinery being put in the Menlo Park neighborhood, I realized that the mayor and Councilwoman Romero exhibit not just disdain but contempt along with a threat to Menlo Park and all the neighborhoods around the UA. These neighborhoods have been devalued. They can be bulldozed into oblivion. The city council’s vision of Tucson is everyone. They have eminent domain.
The bulldozer is a symbol of destruction. Caterpillar bulldozers are involved in the destruction of Palestinian homes. Noam Chomsky talked about this. Others have called for a boycott of Caterpillar because of this.
The voters did not support the bonds or pay raises so this is what they get.
P.S. I wish other people would write about this and not just me. It’s a living nightmare for neighborhoods.
—Michael Cajero
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2016.
Thank God a lot of this country was built before you were born, or it might not have ever happened. Is there any progress that you don’t hate?
I think Michael’s real fear are the educated, well paid employees of Caterpillar that might move into his socialist Utopian world and become his neighbors. They might bring good tax dollars to the area so that the local elementary school can stop relying on handouts and grants from the University. Maybe their tax dollars will help improve the river park and increase opportunities and access to green space. They might build on some of the more than 100 acres of undeveloped land that has been used for crime and as a dumping site for decades. They are a huge part of the reason why the Mercado will be expanded, why other businesses will move into the area, why his long time neighbors are also going to be getting better jobs….
What is Michael’s real fear? Change, because it means that he and his close-minded world view (and most likely his antisemitism) is going to be left behind. Good riddance!
Two more prescient points:
1. The Menlo Park Neighborhood Association voted to approve Caterpillar coming to empty dirt land adjacent to their neighborhood. (Michael is not representative of his neighbors)
2. Caterpillar sells construction equipment to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas as well as Israel. They do not discriminate against their customers.
Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut, and be thought an idiot, than to open it and remove all doubt.
This is the face of paranoid schizophrenia.
OMG, the comments, Readers can make comments about drug companies, chemical companies, the coal mining industries. All do evil activity against this earth and the people. Should they be barred to? But these are the companies controlling American and the world, they control the politicians. We citizens actually do not have a real voice for change. Politicians just use us to get elected.
It’s not like the days of before, when, communities would attend council meetings. Gather at folks homes for community discussions. IN other words, “meet in masses” as “masses” have the power.
We rely upon our elected officials to manage, based upon ethics and “sworn oaths”, however, those are not promises to represent the people. Merely a “process” none of them take to “heart” and or “soul”. Even if they state at the end of their oaths; “So help me God”, as, that phrase has probably been removed. Even if it doesnt, this city has proven to me, an ethical oath, is nothing to these deadbeat managers/administrators.
So, bottom line is, “people need to become more involved”. It’s that simple. However, it’s easier to comment here, face book, realtime, twitter, whatever. But, no time to attend meetings. Why? It’s not important enough to get involved, but, so very convenient to sit at home and “vent” on our favorite social sites. Our governments know this as well and, social sites like this are merely an open grievance forum that produces anger only among each other. Too bad most of the folks were not as passionate and speak to each other in person, at the city council meetings, and direct such anger at the deadbeat managers and administrators this city’s officials are, versus at each other for purposes of “lateral violence. Social media is only as good as the people whom represent an adult profile. Other than that, it is informative about issues that I have not heard about.