Mailbag

Trying to Find Meaning in AP Style, Capitalization

The only minority group that is listed in your publication in lowercase letters, in fact as a color, are African Americans ("Growing Up Black in Tucson, Oct. 19).

All other minorities your publication prints are listed with proper (capitalized) names--i.e., Asian American, French American, Latino, Hispanic and Native American.

As I understand, this question has been posed in the past to both the Weekly and to the Arizona Daily Star. It is being asked again.

C. Purdie

Amy Goodman Could Have Been More Democratic During Her Visit

The Rialto Theatre had a full house last month to hear journalist Amy Goodman, hostess of the Democracy Now! TV/radio show, speak about her new book Static ("You, Me and Media," City Week, Oct. 12). She is as dynamic a speaker on the radio as she is in person. I don't question the force for good she has created. However, I have an observation.

I attended her address hoping to find a democratic forum of questions and answers after she spoke. No such forum opened up. Instead, she closed her speech asking us to buy two books instead of one so that her book would have a better chance of climbing to The New York Times best-seller list. If there had been an opportunity to ask her a question, I would have asked her how a utopian vision of a global democratic structure can be born.

My partner had contacted her organization before she came to Tucson in hopes of scheduling a time to record her thoughts on our question for our independent documentary video on Lovolution, a documentary of influential thinkers and doers who have visions of a better world. We never received a response.

After experiencing the Goodman lecture, I realized the structure of the lecture was autocratic. Maybe the organizers would say that there was not enough time for the people to ask a leader of independent media questions. What more can I say but Democracy Now!

Libby Hubbard

Our Newest Regular Columnist Makes Some Fans

Thank goodness it's not too often we are exposed to Catherine O'Sullivan's bitchy op-eds. And someone should tell her about her potty mouth. I wonder if she thinks being foul-mouthed is cute, or cool, or keeps readers' attention.

Her comparing the barbaric invading Visigoths of the fifth century to our welcomed and beloved snowbirds is more than implausible (O'Sullivan, Oct. 19). Snowbirds, as every Tucsonan knows, provide a great deal of our economic boosting. Among other things, these retired old folks are welcomed with open arms by our theatrical community as the ones who in great part make up the winter audiences for our cultural events. Oh, excuse me. I just remembered from a previous op-ed of hers that she doesn't think we have any cultural events apart from Mexican ones. I guess she has never attended the Tucson Meet Yourself gatherings of all Tucson ethnic groups. But those very snowbirds are substantially responsible for Tucson's amazing cultural depth and diversity.

I doubt very much if a Green Valley resident deliberately tried to hit her with his walker, but with her hateful attitude, she probably had it coming. She claims he fell down in the process, but did it ever occur to her to help the poor old soul up?

She talks of slaughtering the stock and heading for the hills as soon as our winter visitors start arriving. Cute as journalism, but what a ghastly idea. The Humane Society would be outraged, and rightly so.

Richard Holden

Why Do O'Sullivan and Others Keep Dropping the F-Bomb?

Catherine O'Sullivan's opinion published in your Oct. 19 issue is extremely unkind and does not reflect the character nor the attitude of most Tucsonans. It is also vulgar and crude, and I am tired of picking up this paper and having the "f-word" jump in my face.

I am surprised that you printed this distasteful opinion. If you don't start editing out the vulgarities from this paper, I am going to start sending copies of offensive articles to the stores I frequent and ask them to stop distributing the Tucson Weekly.

Barbara Vaughn

A Mature, Well-Reasoned Treatise on the UA's Suckiness in Football

Pete Delgado can say what he wants about Arizona State fans (Guest Commentary, Oct. 19). I don't know when UA fans earned this reputation for class. Anywhere outside of Tucson, the UA is known for one thing: basketball. Their football program sucks. I don't know how many more times I have to hear about any number of reasons that the kitty cats have trouble competing. They have access to the same recruits as anyone else, but every year is another round of beating up a couple of softies in the nonconference schedule (or getting smoked by really talented programs) and then hearing all of you whiny journalists and apologists dust off the old familiar sports discussion that always starts with, "Well, our basketball team is going all the way this year."

Every year, UA fans do nothing to improve the state of their perpetually horrendous football program by jumping on and off the bandwagon. They are not good, have never been good and will never be good.

Stop looking for something else to complain about, because every institution has a handful of fans they would probably not like to count among their faithful. Get off your high horse about how classy UA fans are and how bad they are upstate. You can shut up all the fans of ASU and every other school by winning. Until the UA wins, they deserve whatever ridicule other fans want to dish out. Don't make it worse by crying about it.

Ben Morales

Thanks for the Info on 'Dirty Secrets'

I attended the showing of Dirty Secrets with two of my really good friends on Oct. 14 at Art Fare, and I just wanted to let you know how moved I was. Not many shows can make me cry, but this one did. It was so lifelike. I thought that the story was very well written, and the actors were great! Joe Marshall and The Alternative Theatre Company have really done a great job. I would love to see all the shows that he has written, and I will be attending more.

The write up that you did in the Tucson Weekly on him was great ("Learn a 'Secret,'" Performing Arts, Oct. 12). I took extra copies for some friends of mine in Phoenix.

Neal Webb