Opinion

Letters

Environmentalists threaten cabins, squirrels

My heart goes out to the cabin owners whose family vacation homes are threatened by the wildfire near Mount Graham ("Tense families wait as fire advances on Mt. Graham," July 5). It is a sorrow magnified by the fact that they could not protect their cabins from the threat of fire because environmentalists blocked them from thinning or clearing dead vegetation from the land around the cabins. I am an environmental compliance consultant working on behalf of family-owned industries struggling to survive in the same regulatory quagmire. I remember when the observatories were being built back in the '80's, and these same environmentalists chained themselves to trees and equipment to protect the squirrels. I also recall that they killed one squirrel while installing a tracking device on the little animal. If they had left it alone it would not have died. From my own experience with squirrels in the country, they really like buildings and dig under the foundations a lot, so, to me, the observatories were never a threat to squirrel survival. Seems to me that the biggest threat to squirrels and humans alike is from the environmentalists. Now the squirrels will roast and the cabins will burn, all because the environmentalists forced those who actually lived out there to stop maintaining their cabin areas. I wonder how they would feel if a similar group put some restrictions on their property, causing it to burn down? Julie Rogers

Mt. Graham firefighters deserve our credit

In the July 9 article "Trees near telescopes thinned despite enviros," Robin Silver implied that the cutting of trees around the observatory and other structures on Mount Graham would sterilize the forest. Apparently Silver didn't notice the flames from the crown fires dancing through the spruce trees on the mountaintop, 80 percent of which are dead from insect infestation, and all of which are stricken with drought. So perhaps the heroic work of the firefighters might actually have reduced the fire intensity there and benefitted the remaining forest and the squirrels. Can we get real about this? All our "sky island" forests are drought- and insect-stricken, and we've lost an awful lot of conifer acreage to huge crown fires in the last decade. I applaud the efforts of the firefighters on Mount Graham in the hard work they've done to save what they can of the structures and forest. Jonathan I. Lunine

Impact fees are far from a reality

This letter is in response to Councilwoman Carol W. West's June 30 letter "Misconception about impact fees." West is correct in stating that impact fees must be used only in the designated benefit areas to cover capital expenditures. Until the impact fees are initiated, however, these capital expenditures continue to drain other pots in an already overtaxed budget, and from the general fund. West goes on to say that development impact fees must be studied, developed, and implemented correctly. Just how long are these studies going to take, and how many studies are needed? In February 2003 the City Council approved $68,000 for a Texas firm to complete just such a study. That study was estimated to take 10 months. It should be noted that all other major municipalities in Arizona have implemented impact fees, some for several years. Must we admit that our leaders lacked foresight? Just last year alone more than 8,500 new home building permits were granted in Tucson. That equates to a lot of lost revenue. Tucson citizens can feel rest assured that, under the current regime, substantial impact fees will not become a reality until developers have building permits on all available land left in Tucson. Henry J. Selfridge

Tucson taxpayer

God bless Cpl. Jeff Lawrence

Thank you for putting a human face on this war. My eye teared up at lunch as I read the July 8 article "Tucson Marine dies in Iraq; wife set to have baby," on Cpl. Jeff Lawrence. As a U.S. Navy retiree, I've known many everyday heroes in the military and the sacrifice they and their families go through. This is, however, a true tragedy. A young Marine with a young wife about to give birth to their first child. This isn't a Hollywood movie. This is true life right here in the Old Pueblo. I felt as though I knew him. May God bless him and his family and all heroes like him. Louie Armendariz

Lawrence is in my prayers

I would like to say how sorry I am to the family of Cpl. Jeff Lawrence and that my prayers are with them ("Tucson Marine dies in Iraq; wife set to have baby," July 8). My husband, also from Camp Lejeune, N.C. and a native of Tucson, is serving in Iraq, and I just had our daughter in May. So I know how difficult it must be for their family, because our family goes through the same thing everyday. The worry and then the relief when he calls and then the worry again when he hasn't called in a few days. This war has become such a reality to me ever since we lost the first Marine from Tucson, Lance Cpl. Robert Zurheide Jr. Now it's just a reminder on how the world has become an ugly place for our children, where their fathers are taken away with a blink of an eye. I do believe that this war is our generation's Vietnam. Some still don't know why they are in Iraq, but they are there, serving their country as well as they can. I urge Tucson to continue supporting our troops, no matter what your political standing may be. Ysabel Lopez

Bush didn't lie about WMDs

Anybody who claims that President Bush lied about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction doesn't know what a lie is. A lie is a statement that a speaker knows to be false. In fact, most utterances that turn out to be wrong are not lies. Every judge admonishes his juries that two witnesses of an incident will often see or hear it differently. The evidence that Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons was compelling. 1) He used such weapons against Iran and his own Kurds in the '80s. 2) In 1991, the United Nations formally accused him of possessing them. 3) In 1998, President Clinton said the same thing. 4) Given Hussein's megalomania, is it likely that he would voluntarily dismantle devices that made him a player on the world scene? But if he decided for some reason to destroy them, wouldn't he summon unimpeachable witnesses? And if they were no longer in existence, why expel the U.N. inspectors? 5) Lastly, before the invasion was ordered, the director of the CIA, a Clinton hold-over, assured Bush that Hussein had such weapons. Mistake? Probably. But a lie, definitely not. Harry F. Brauer

Iraq war parallels Vietnam War

Having been a Vietnam veteran who lost numerous comrades in vain, the latest news out of Iraq has caused some painful memories to return. Having "won the war," the United States turned over Iraq to the government President Bush said would make the world a safer place. Now the prime minister says that guerrillas who killed American soldiers during acts of resistance to an occupation force will be pardoned. Since Bush changed the course of action from fighting and destroying al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to attacking Iraq, maybe the president should visit each and every family and explain that the death of their son or daughter was "justified" and not "in vain." Let him explain that the ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida and the weapons of mass destruction really exist. Kurt Ohlrich

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