Mailbag

Claim: It’s Offensive to Call Sensei a ‘Stubborn White
Guy’

In a recent story about Odaiko Sonora founder Karen Falkenstrom (“A
Different Beat,” Performing Arts, July 2), her partner referred to
their former teacher Stanley Morgan as a “stubborn white guy.”

I am very offended and upset that they would express such disrespect
and disdain for their former teacher. Stanley Morgan was also my
sensei, or teacher, for the martial art of kendo. Yes, Morgan Sensei
can be stubborn, but this is because he takes a traditional view of the
arts he teaches. He is Caucasian, but lived most of his life within the
Japanese community and in the Asian way. Sensei never charged for the
lessons he gave in kendo or taiko, because he loves these arts and felt
they should be taught freely. Not only did he give freely of his
knowledge to Karen and Rome Hamner, but he also taught them how to make
drums and gave them some of his when he could no longer use them.

While I appreciate the fact that Morgan Sensei was given credit for
his contribution to Odaiko Sonora, the way he was characterized in the
article shows an unacceptable level of disdain for someone who helped
Karen and Rome launch their taiko careers.

Paul Gattone

Terry Bressi Really, Really Needs a Hobby

Regarding Tim Vanderpool’s article “Running the Gauntlet” (Currents,
June 18): Should we empathize with Terry Bressi, alleged victim of
police and Border Patrol harassment? Even from Vanderpool’s apparently
sympathetic point of view, this guy begs for problems. He basically
made a hobby of harassing beat cops, and then he’s offended to catch
relatively mild retaliation.

In 2002, he decides at a Tohono O’odham Police Department sobriety
checkpoint to balk at the presence of Border Patrol officers and
question the legality of their presence. Stop right there. If a mixed
mission like that is illegal, then writing your congressman or
authorities in BP or TOPD is prudent. Giving the officers on the spot a
hard time is neither prudent nor productive. They can’t pack up and
leave. They have a job assignment.

He continues his childish feud by taking photos of BP officers
whenever he passes checkpoints. Did it occur to him that they may be
sensitive about names and photos, because they may have made dangerous
enemies while in our service? You know, drug cartels, human smugglers
and people who don’t file civil lawsuits, but might look your address
up in the phonebook if they have your name and a photo?

Mr. Bressi’s lawsuit should be dismissed as frivolous. Lock him up
when he pulls out a camera at a checkpoint or refuses to identify
himself to an officer of the law.

Get a new hobby, Mr. Bressi. Help the homeless. Do charity work in
Nogales. Make a positive difference with all that energy and
emotion.

Mike Walborn

A Public Defender Spending $800k Shows Incompetence, as Do Our Legislatures

The sorry story of the public defender spending $800,000 on an
incompetent criminal defense is an appalling, if not surprising,
reminder of the utter incompetence and neglect of our public officials
(“Orgy of Excess,” July 2). Obviously, nobody was paying attention as
attorney Andrew Diodati wasted almost a million dollars of our taxpayer
money.

But the absolute pinnacle of imbecility comes with: “The
disciplinary action summary lists physical and mental disabilities as
mitigating factors.” So, if you’re too confused and stupid to be a
lawyer, that’s a mitigating factor in a case of malfeasance and
incompetence? Is this what our legislators had in mind when they passed
laws protecting the employment rights of the mentally challenged? I
fear the answer is yes, since the performance of both the national and
state legislatures suggests that they are cut from the same cloth as
Mr. Diodati.

Robert A. Benzinger

Putting Water in the Desert Isn’t Criminal; Disrupting
Life-Saving Work Is

Thank you for Tim Vanderpool’s cover story “The Activist Question”
(July 9). Knowing almost all of the people he interviewed, I want to
commend him for the broad scope of his article, which gets to the heart
of the issue of putting out water along the migrant trails that
crisscross our desert.

Litter is not welcomed by anyone, but it is a consequence of
misguided federal policies that force desperate migrants into the most
dangerous parts of the desert. Humanitarian aid puts us more in touch
with our common humanity that no border and no nationality can
deny.

Federal, state or local law enforcement that discounts the
life-and-death reality that is being faced daily in our deserts
diminishes our social fabric that is undergirded by human dignity and
respect. For authorities to claim that water placed in the desert is
litter is dishonest. To discount the life-saving work of the
humanitarian groups, such as No More Deaths, is troubling. To disrupt
this humanitarian work, in the midst of the forecasted upcoming heat
wave, is the crime.

Brother David Buer

San Xavier Mission

This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.