Owl Lang Syne To the Editor, I was born and raised in Tucson. I love the desert and its many inhabitants and am continually amazed by the great diversity of life we are blessed with in the Tucson basin and surrounding areas. I live in Portland, Oregon, today, but regularly return to the desert to visit home and family. It breaks my heart to see how the city is eating up what is left of what I consider the most beautiful natural system on the planet. I was glad to read about the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan in Jeff Smith's "Death By Committee" (March 11). While the first two-thirds of his essay were interesting and entertaining, the final section on the pygmy owl was a ridiculous rant greatly lacking in what Smith calls "common sense." The pygmy owl is not being threatened by natural selective forces as Smith apparently believes. It is being threatened by an out-of-control socio-economic system that commodifies the land and takes as its gospel the notion that "any-and-all-growth-is-good." The economic elite and their political lackeys who hold what is essentially the ideology of the cancer cell would turn the entire country into one giant checkerboard of strip malls if they could. It is up to those of us who are concerned with the integrity of our natural systems to stop this immoral and socially and environmentally unsustainable quest for unlimited growth. Calling those who believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with this system "trust fund ecofascists" is a great disservice to all of us who are working for positive change in our society, both in the desert Southwest and in the forests of the Northwest, where I live now. Greed and the unchecked power of the capitalist elite have radically simplified most of the natural systems of the Northwest. Activists here have used any and all tactics, including the Endangered Species Act, to prevent the destruction of the last remaining portions of the biologically diverse old-growth forests. If the legal system requires that we focus on just one species in order to save what is left of the old-growth forests, that is what we will do. The same applies to the Southwest--the ESA is one of the tools that must be used if we are to prevent land speculators from Los Angelesizing the entire desert in order to satiate their boundless greed. The economic forces that these land speculators symbolize, not the forces of natural selection, are responsible for the radical simplification of ecosystems that we see going on around the globe. By protecting the habitat which the pygmy owl and many other species depend upon, we are not "screwing around with Darwinism"--we are trying to put an end to the great catastrophe which some have called the "Great Barbecue," a barbecue fed by the fuel of greed and the unequal distribution of wealth and power. Our descendants will thank us for our efforts, however much people like Smith rant and rave today. Considering the incredible power of modern industrial society, if we follow Smith's rationalization out to its logical conclusion, the only species that will be left will be humans, a few species humans find useful (cattle, wheat, etc.), and of course, the cockroach. We owe the earth and our own descendants more than that. --Cain Allen On Ice To the Editor, I am writing to express my disappointment regarding The Weekly's support (The Skinny, March 18) of the city's denial of the Western Professional Hockey League's (WPHL) plan to establish a team here. I'm not the kind of fan who believes pro sports clubs should be lavishly subsidized. Nevertheless, I find fault with the ostensible reason for denying the WPHL initiative: Tucson doesn't believe in subsidizing pro sports teams. Tucson does subsidize a pro sports team. The Rockies, an extremely wealthy and successful franchise, have been the beneficiaries of numerous multi-million dollar improvements over the years. There's no possible way for the city to have recouped all the funds expended, even using the most creative accounting methods, since the Rockies play only 12-15 home games per spring. As for the initiative itself, the WPHL was only asking for what most other cities grant their pro hockey clubs. As Dan Ryan of KVOA-TV pointed out several months ago, it's generally the rule now for sports teams to get a share of the parking and concessions revenue from their host cities. Even if the city subsidized the team initially, it would still derive other benefits. As the WPHL knows how to market hockey successfully in the Southwest, unlike the West Coast Hockey League and the Gila Monsters, thousands of fans would be visiting downtown and spending money there. New businesses may open, and existing ones would be revitalized. The TCC's arena wouldn't be dark the 25 nights a month it is now. With the current physical plant and the management team that's in place, the TCC isn't going to be hosting very many arena events anyway. Finally, having a pro sports team brings a city a certain cachet. Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; and El Paso, Texas, are the 16th, 18th and 19th largest cities respectively in population in the U.S. But no one would know that unless they looked in a reference book. Since they all lack a major league franchise, they're not ranked with their contemporaries in the public's mind. What does it say about Tucson's standing when smaller Southwestern cities such as San Angelo, Albuquerque, Odessa and Amarillo sport successful pro hockey franchises? --Brian Churchill We Want Letters! Thrilled by our brilliant insights? Sick of our mean-spirited attacks? Need to make something perfectly clear? Write: tucsonweekly@tucsonweekly.com

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