Mailbag

A Cordial, Reasoned Letter From a Fan

Dear Idiots: In response to your “Get Out of Town!” (Dec. 16), I’d suggest you change the name of your paper to the Why Weekly, because your get out of town feature sucked.

Jimmy Boegle: Ever see a building demolished? Up close and personal, with hardhats? (Editor’s note: Yep, I have. —J.B.) No—didn’t think so. Or maybe I should approach this from a different take, like, Jimmy: Do you know the difference between bear scat and moose poop? No—didn’t think so, cuz you don’t know shit.

Those of us who work in the industry know what it takes to bring down a high-rise, and the World Trade Center did not come down through a paper-and-jet-fuel fire. If you want to believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or even the tooth fairy, and that gives you a sense of self-esteem, great. But as for your career as an investigative journalist, you should have stayed at McDonald’s.

Anna (Mirocha): Get a mountain bike. Pavement is for sissies.

Emily (Bowen): I hear your confession. Sounds like you either need to start eating Twinkies again to go with that nicotine habit, or confess that marijuana is really the cause of apathy, but you’re too stoned to care.

Arek Fressadi

In Defense of Hipsters

As I sat sipping my lukewarm cup of coffee with a copy of the Tucson Weekly to flutter through, I was surprised to find some interesting opinions in one Tucson-blasting piece.

Your “Get Out of Town!” article is one tradition I have celebrated. In past years, I’ve found myself poking fun at those who’ve fallen prey. This year, however, I was rubbed wrong by one of the entries. As a 23-year-old with an ever-growing coffee addiction who plays music in this town and rides a bicycle, I was surprised by those opinions in Emily Bowen’s entry on “Coffee-Swilling Apathetic Hipsters.”

The assertion that those young fixed-gear-riding, flannel-shirt-wearing, co-op customers have an insensitivity and apathy toward the world around them was a bit off-base. In this city, there are a large number of young people, many of whom fall under this “hipster” category, though I’ve seldom heard any refer to themselves as that. Many of these hipsters have grown up here and immersed themselves in the local music culture, but more importantly, have become an integral part of Tucson’s downtown economy. Who are the regular customers at downtown’s thriving local businesses? Who works for these small-business owners? Hipsters. Yes, it would be wonderful if we all had trust funds that allowed us to enroll in the UA business program full-time and shop at La Encantada on the weekends, but the majority of youngsters evolving into hipsters were not born into that prize.

The mentality of a hipster is not one which involves trotting down Congress Street with the intention to ignore others as a means to make witness to their intellectual superiority. No, hipsters don’t talk to you, because they have never met you. As a general social rule, it is safe to assume that people do not acknowledge strangers.

Compounding my annoyance was the ignorance about what a large majority of hipsters are involved in concerning community and international voluntary aid. A large number of those young people buying $3 shirts somehow manage to save enough money to travel. Many hipsters are involved in civil and social outreach, working in nonprofit sectors and volunteering for community coalitions. There is an awareness of the world within this subculture that is not necessarily common among 20-somethings.

No, apathy is not the word you’re looking for; it’s disappointment felt by people who are given the brush-off by authors like you and the “big man” who thinks they’re just a bunch of degenerates. They’re young; they’re searching for something; and they’re not hurting anyone—so why do they bother you?

Kaia Chesney

A Few Additions to the Naughty List

I enjoyed your “Get Out of Town!” list. In that spirit, here are a few more segments of society we might be better off without:

1) Bicyclists who ride at night (on main roads, no less) without any lights. How bright is that? 2) Jacked-up trucks capable of driving over most cars without realizing it. If you need to sit higher, can’t you just get yourself a booster seat? 3) People at music concerts who can’t shut up. Why are you there? 4) Delivery trucks hauling loads of sugary soft drinks or vapid big-name beer. Instead of wasting fuel and clogging our roads, can’t they just sell that junk in tablet form?

Doug Koppinger

Why Is Wikileaks Only Targeting the U.S.?

In his call for a national apology, Randy Serraglio (Dec. 23) refers to the Wikileaks people as “anonymous hackers boldly trying to preserve free speech and democracy on a global scale.”

Global? I have not followed the story super-closely, but I’ve only heard of him targeting the U.S. Surely we are not the only villains on an otherwise big and happy globe. How about Putin’s Russia? Why hasn’t Julian Assange and his bunch hacked into their secrets?

Garth Gould

Correction

In Irene Messina’s Dec. 30 column, we incorrectly listed the start time of Victor Shamas’ talk as 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 7. The correct time is 6:30 p.m.

We apologize for the error.

This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2011.