Tucson Weekly: Mailbag (December 11

'Tis The Season For Tucson First

To the Editor,
Well, the election is over. We had our chance to choose a direction for Tucson's future and it's done, and They don't listen to us anyway, right?
Mailbag Wrong! For the next three weeks everyone in town gets to vote on what kind of city they want, and the vote will be counted in a form They always listen to: dollar bills. Because the holidays are upon us, and you can choose whether to buy all those gifts at the malls and mega-stores or at locally-owned, independent businesses. More than anything, that determines what Tucson will look like and feel like 20 years from now.
The mega-stores offer lower prices, one-stop convenience and 24-hour shopping--they also offer dead-end, minimum-wage jobs, and the racket of bulldozers bringing a new strip mall to your neighborhood. Stay out of them, and imagine living in a neighborhood where your Christmas spending (and everyone else's) goes to enrich your neighbors and friends, and to increase the local uniqueness and diversity. Stay out of them and imagine how wealthy we'd be as a city if the profit generated by all our spending stayed here instead of going off to pay for opening a Kmart in Bolivia.
If you're sick of CAP planning and mall sprawl, stop feeding it with your money. When you buy a book at Borders, a tie at Robinson Mays, or software at Office Max, or when you grab a bite to eat at Burger King, you're paying to make Tucson look the same as Phoenix, Riverside, Dallas--you name it. There are a lot of good people here trying to support themselves and serve you with their crafts and small businesses. Don't just think about what gifts you buy, but consider where to buy them: Your vote really counts.
--Hallaj Bowman

Child's Play

To the Editor,
Thanks for Vickie Hart's "Neighbor Hoods" (Tucson Weekly, November 20). It's good to see the names of all the juveniles and the names of the court staff in your paper. As a helpless victim it's good to know the truth gets printed. I hope your paper starts a crusade to reform the juvenile system.
--Nicholas Lalli

Bloody, Mushy Pulp

To the Editor,
Regarding Carl "Knucklehead" Noggle's letter to the editor (Tucson Weekly, November 20): Boy does he have a stiffy, or what? You know he's loving it, "Oh, boy, something to bitch about." He's so hung up on this good word/bad word thing. He should find a nice, warm, cozy church full of proper-speaking sheep to hole up in. I for one am much more comfortable with his type off the streets and in some box somewhere, exercising his pompous, self-righteous heartless muscle away from our prying eyes.
Perhaps he'd be happy if he could organize a community effort to whip stones at you guys until nothing was left but bloody, mushy pulp.
Oh, screw it. Someone like Carl deserves to be offended by language. Perk up, Carl, at least you have a reason for living. Thank everyone at Tucson Weekly for giving your life purpose and meaning!
--Carmela Marshall

Firing Range

To the Editor,
Thanks to Emil Franzi for clearing some things up ("The Devil's Disciple," Tucson Weekly, December 4). I had recently developed a taste for Puccini, Chianti and Cohibas and wondered what the hell was going on. Now I know. I'm turning into Franzi. There are worse things. I can adjust.
But if Franzi wants to turn into the old me, he's going to have to grow some facial hair and find a cause more liberal than preserving the desert estates of Tortolita from the unwashed masses.
Gotta go now. I'm taking my new Colt down to the firing range.
--Tom Beal

Remembering Rainer

To the Editor,
I want to thank The Weekly for sharing all the outpouring of love dedicated to Rainer ("Within Him, Without Him," Tucson Weekly, November 27). It reminds me what a great community we share here in the Old Pueblo. Rainer's life, as it has now been shared with me, seems to be a tale of a man who was wise enough to learn young what really counts in life. I am impressed by the recognition given by our community to such a simple man.
--Jim Hannley
To the Editor,
"With Him, Without Him" (Tucson Weekly, November 26) struck a chord within me. I never knew Rainer, but his name kind of reminds me of Seattle, of a mountain and a certain magical brew.
It is interesting to me that Rainer chose love instead of fame and money. Seems like he could have had both. Here we kinda start messing with the self image of an artist (always a topic to be bounced around gently).
Why does it seem to take tragedy to spur people into what appears to me as the way humans should live in the first place? It's ironic that it takes death to get people who have talent noticed. However, I think what matters most is the happiness of the individual. If a person's success can be measured by happiness, his or her own as well as that which he gave others, then he or she may or may not necessarily be rich, poor, famous or a "no one" (as I have often and somewhat cruelly heard unnoticed artists referred to).
--Kevin D. Bennett
To the Editor,
Kudos to Jeff Smith for a heartfelt and moving eulogy for Rainer Ptácek (Tucson Weekly, November 27). He was a true treasure for Tucson music lovers.
One small, niggling comment: I don't know if Leo Durocher ever proposed to the lovely and talented Irene Dunne, but he did marry the lovely (and not-so-talented) Laraine Day.
Nice work, Jeff.
--Jerry Helm

You Betcha

To the Editor,
Mike Lacey's "Babbitt's Department Of Ulterior" (Tucson Weekly, December 4), detailing the Hudson casino fiasco, prompts this long overdue thanks and congratulations on the best of alternative weeklies online (and right up there with your printed version, too).
As a former state senate staffer, I followed the machinations--at least on the state level--described so excellently by Lacey. Your story rivals or surpasses anything written here in "bucolic" Wisconsin.
As a former journalist, political hack and desert nut in love with most things Tucson (Rainer is missed here), I was pleased to find your site in prep for a visit last winter, and doubly pleased as I dug through the stories and columns. I've been here ever since. Your paper is the first-read and consistently the most thoroughly read of many the alternatives I enjoy on lunch breaks at my desk.
--Michael Boerger
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