Smoked Out To the Editor, Regarding The Skinny item "Teeth-Staining, Tumor-Causing, Smelly, Puking Pandering" (Tucson Weekly, June 27): We're surprised that state Democratic Party Chair Sam Coppersmith stopped short of proposing Congressman Ed Pastor return his contributions from the tobacco industry? --Vern Shafer All-Stars To the Editor, I agree with William Washington's letter praising columnist Tom Danehy. Besides his "Hoop Dreams" (Tucson Weekly, June 6), I enjoyed his article last year on girls' softball ("Girls Of Summer," Tucson Weekly, August 17, 1995) and was fortunate enough this year to have a granddaughter on Las Diables, a team he coached that became league champions. She had never played softball before and her experienced teammates were very good players, but they and he and coach Chris Lugo always made her feel welcome, even if she missed the ball. There was an ongoing sense of acceptance and humor about the team that was really wonderful, with a player laughing when caught by a sly play at third base, for instance, or Danehy commenting from the sidelines. Some of the other coaches and parents were not of the same mind and felt disgruntled with Tom's attitude, especially when we won. Yet he never laughed at or made negative comments about umpires, players or other teams. Often, as first-base coach, he would be having a conversation and a few laughs with the opposing team's first-base player. Some of our players made major errors and he might "discuss" it with the team, but never make anyone intentionally feel bad. In short, he coaches with the spirit of the game--it is a game and let's enjoy our time together doing it. He represents what kids (or adult) sports should be: a human interaction instead of a war. Bravo! Of course, all human success has a downside, like his daughter Darlene not being elected to an all-star team again this year after being on one last year and doing excellent work this season, both as shortstop and batter. Paybacks from other coaches? Who can say. All I know is that I would rather enjoy being on a team with either of them, any day. --Tom Baringer Plain Talk To the Editor, Regarding your capsule review of The Truth About Cats and Dogs: I would like to take issue with the "smart-but-unattractive" description of Janeane Garofalo. Almost certainly, everyone is capable of being attractive (as in drawing attention). Perhaps "smart-but-plain" would work. Except that, given a choice I would go out with Ms. Garofalo over Ms. Thurman any day--a point that would give Ms. Garofalo the shudders if she saw me. But I digress. My point is that the concept of "attractiveness" is highly subjective and based on more than the physical. Listen to the song "Plain Jane" by Sammy Hagar, or maybe the song "Someone to Watch Over Me," by any number of people. It may seem like petty semantics, but language is a beautiful and powerful tool, and I like to see it used to best advantage. --Robert Reynolds Mine Your Own Business To the Editor, Jeff Smith's "Killer Copper" (Tucson Weekly, June 27), while fairly accurately describing plans for a copper mine development in the Santa Ritas, falls into a deep abyss of illogic about what to do about copper mining in general. He says, "If we could get homeowners off the grid and into solar power, our homes could get along just fine with aluminum wire and we wouldn't need anymore copper...." Technically, Smith is right, of course. By definition, if we totally replaced copper with aluminum, we wouldn't need any more copper. But just think for a moment: Where the hell does aluminum come from, Jeff? It comes from mines, just like copper! Huge, open pit mines, just like the ones you rant against. And because aluminum doesn't conduct electricity as well as copper, you need more of it if you use it for electrical wiring. Great! All we are doing is replacing a copper mine with an aluminum mine! And where are these mines that produce the aluminum ore? They are in such places as Jamaica and Guinea. You know, countries that pay their workers pennies on the dollar compared to what Arizona copper miners earn. Countries which have no environmental regulations. Countries which have no labor laws to protect their workers' rights the way the U.S. does. No OSHA. No MSHA. Supplying the increased demand for aluminum we would face if aluminum completely replaced copper would be easy and cheap, thanks to those nasty trade treaties like GATT and NAFTA. You know, the ones Jeff Smith spits venom at because they take good-paying American jobs (say, Arizona copper miners' jobs) and send them overseas (say, to Jamaica or Guinea), where the workers (say, aluminum miners) are oppressed, and wages are low, and yadda, yadda. And what about everyone using solar? In my utopian world, I'd like to see everyone using as much solar power as possible, too, but right now solar power is prohibitively expensive. And, of course, there's that little problem of how you make electricity out of sunlight. You have to use solar panels that are made out of high-tech, state-of-the-art, exotic materials containing things like gallium and silicon. And wouldn't you know it--these materials have to be mined, too!! Smith also claims copper is no longer needed because "Fiber optics are replacing copper conductors in the communications industry." But transmission lines are not the only component of the communications industry. There is also the much larger part that includes the ever-increasing number of new big-screen TVs, fax machines, cell-phones, computers and so forth. All of these devices contain some kind of wiring, or small motors, or speaker coils. Those all require a metal of some kind, be it copper or aluminum. Which one do you want to mine? --Ray Harris 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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