Can Walkup Make D-M, Raytheon Change Their Ways?

Tom Danehy is great fun even when I don’t like what he’s saying; I didn’t need his piece about Mayor Bob Walkup (May 19), though, when I’m seriously trying to persuade Walkup to toughen up.

Here’s our basic problem, as I see it, and what I want from our mayor: Tucson is a war town, and it’s way past time to stop bragging about it. Feeding illegal wars of aggression from Davis-Monthan and Raytheon is criminal.

We have learned, for example, that the best influence on a drunk who wants to stop drinking is a sober alcoholic in recovery. As a former employee of the war industry, Walkup is in a position to be the best possible influence on the people who close their eyes to the effects of their labor and continue to work for the best pay they can get.

Raytheon must change to be of benefit to our world. Workers need to be offered well-paying jobs to support their families, without having to blur their vision and compromise their self-respect.

I’m asking Mayor Walkup to summon the courage and humility to let recovery begin with him. We need a hero.

Gretchen Nielsen

Another Sabino Canyon Summer Option: Astronomy!

I just read your article about summer nighttime activities at Sabino Canyon (“Sabino Nights,” May 26). I wanted to let you know that the University of Arizona Astronomy Club (astroclub.as.arizona.edu) brings telescopes to the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center every first Saturday of the month for a regular, free star party from 5:30 p.m. to 9 or 10 p.m., weather permitting.

We look at the sun (safely!) through the telescopes with special filters until sunset, when we look at other astronomical phenomena in the night sky. We also typically bring out one or two of our scale models to help us explain sizes in the universe. The club has been out there almost every month for a little more than a year now. We love to spread our passion for astronomy in the Tucson community.

Kevin Hardegree-Ullman, UA Astronomy Club webmaster

This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2011.

2 replies on “Mailbag”

  1. Reply to Gretchen Nielsen in Mailbag, “Can Walkup Make D-M Change Their Ways?” Change to what? The businesss of D-M and Raytheon and the USA is war!
    A Raytheon employee explained to me Raytheon (and D-M) are the biggest welfare program in the world. Without it millions would be unemployeed and the economy would collapse. Now it seems to be collapsing from war spending, but in the past war kept USA going.
    The wars USA causes are criminal, so does it follow that we are a criminal nation and not apt to change? Looks that way!
    What would Raytheon do in peace time? Go broke!
    There is no where left to store all the death equipment they make, so they have to find countries to explode their bombs in to make way for more bombs. That is how the Raytheon employee explained it to me. And he added with a laugh, “Our missiles are so good, no one has ever returned one.” This is thought to be a funny saying at Raytheon.

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