Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 35

The Arizona Republic SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2003 B9 ANOTHER VIEW LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (Iff ill 1 CWT SEE kREKOHTOGOTO WR competition will add their voice to Poston's and my own in a concerted effort to keep the FCC from sliding backward from its commitment of fostering competition for local telephone service. William A. Mundell Phoenix The writer is a commissioner on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Resentful of 'peacenik' label Regarding deputy Editorial page editor Phil Boas' Quick Hit on Wednesday, "Plea to Peaceniks." Nice try, Phil! The U.S. military reaction to Afghanistan was based on that nation's Taliban-constituted government support of Osama bin Laden.

I strongly resent your attempt to link my belief against a declaration of war without approval of Congress with the "peaceniks" of the 1960s. The U.S. has never started a war (even though Vietnam was certainly a war), and doing so in this case may well establish a precedent that, long-term, will have detrimental consequences. Pakistan and India come to mind. Oh, yes: Any of your children going over to Iraq to fight? R.

Roger Beck Scottsdale Imperial Valley not buying it Indeed, if "water were gold," then the proposed Colorado River water transfer between California's Imperial Valley and the metro areas of San Diego and Los Angeles would be worth much more Ji fK filial III lllllll I. fcn.lilliill I i tJ I LJ i than the Dec. 31 deal that was turned down by Imperial Irrigation District directors. But as the West will surely find out in coming decades, water is worth much more. They who have the water will rule.

The "complex Protest or not, respect troops The intensity of "saber rattling" has caused many demonstrations and much rhetoric countering the seeming push for war. Many of us donned a uniform representing our country and all it stands for, including protection of the right to publicly dissent and demonstrate. But the counterprotest tactics being used by many today are disturbingly remindful of what occurred during the Vietnam conflict. Military personnel returned to the United States to such a hostile environment that many of them are still very much alienated from society, the society they represented only because their country beckoned and said, "We need you." Those in uniform today who may be put in harm's way are our young people, our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives, our neighbors. We may not favor any kind of conflict over the issues, but we wish them, each of them, to come home unscathed to a society that will welcome them with open arms.

No feeling of guilt will be wished upon them, as occurred after the Vietnam conflict. Those of you speaking out and demonstrating, please think before you express yourself by actions or deeds. Let these fine young Americans know they do represent us with honor and that we will welcome them back with open arms. Jack Nemerov Sun City Hispanic 'paradise' a sellout Regarding the Jan. 23 editorial, "The new majority," about the coming Hispanic Will it be the same as all the other Hispanic Maybe if your paper stood up for Americans once in a while, America might last a little longer than 2007.

Maybe you should watch the news from Bogota, Caracas, La Paz, Quito, Lima, Guatamala City, San Salvador and all the rest to see how great it is going to be! I'm sickened by what kind of country my kids and grandkids will have to live in, now that our country has been sold out. Allen Nagengast Payson Montini's values questioned E. Montini's Tuesday column, "Imagine if average citizens were holding peace talks," seems to be saying there is no real difference between an American and an Iraqi in the way we feel about a whole host of subjects. I'm willing to accept that premise. However, Montini doesn't just step over the line, he does a running, naked, belly-flop on the other side when he insinuates that the American and Iraqi governments in general, and President Bush and Saddam Hussein in particular, are two sides of the same coin.

He apparently believes the question "Why would you believe such a man?" is equally valid concerning both leaders. I don't question Montini's sincerity. I do question his values. Dan Grout Glendale Pushing the phone debate In Monday's Letters to the Editor, Jon Poston correctly warned of the FCC's potential action that could threaten Arizona's efforts to enjoy the benefits of local telephone service competition. Qwest and other incumbent residential phone service providers are pressuring the FCC and Congress to make drastic changes to the competitive provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

War protesters must stay loose One of the more humorous signs at a recent anti-war protest was: "How did OUR OIL get under THEIR SAND?" Those of us who protest the Bush administration's reckless designs on Iraq's riches would be well-advised to keep our sense of humor. It is particularly useful as we witness unfair and ill-tempered attacks on ourselves, as we have seen in recent editions of The Republic and other media. Take, for example, editorial writer Doug MacEachern's Jan. 24 Quick Hit characterization of protest organizers: "Saddam? Osama? Hey, we love 'em." Let us not forget that the real Saddam and Osama lovers were Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, whose administrations provided them with billions of dollars worth of weapons and, in the case of Saddam, organisms such as anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism.

The Republic's Jan. 22 editorial, "Empty Protest," puts the responsibility for cleaning up the Iraq mess on the protesters. One would think that the largest news organization in Arizona might provide some guidance in this regard, but attacking protesters seems to be their greater priority. Nevertheless, in the spirit of your editorial, I direct readers to the January 2003 edition of the Progressive Magazine (www.progressive.org), which contains articles on the need for the anti-war movement to clearly articulate opposition to the present government in Baghdad and a plan to remove Saddam Hussein and rebuild Iraq. As we prepare for possibly the biggest protest since Vietnam on Feb.

15, it is important to recall that there is a great deal of fun in the anti-war movement. This is not to minimize the grave consequences of Bush's threatened pre-emptive wars, which I view as deeply immoral and profoundly destabilizing. But, as in any democratic movement, the rewards of democratic struggle for a cause greater than ourselves are immediate and profound. I urge citizens who share these concerns to affiliate with organizations such as Local to Global Justice (www.localtoglobaljustice.org) and the Arizona Alliance for Peaceful Justice (www.azpeace.org). Kyrsten Sinema Phoenix The writer serves on the board of directors of the Arizona Advocacy The Arizona Republic Nellie Shover poses with family members and a picture of her son, Howard Shover who was killed by Phoenix police.

'Big picture' is very clear As a police officer, I read with interest the comments of Nellie Shover, the mother of slain ex-convict Howard Shover in Sunday's special report on police shootings. She is quoted as saying police officers don't see the "big picture" and we are "like assassins." Unfortunately, we police officers constantly see the big picture of dysfunctional families, drug and alcohol abuse, unloved children and a pattern of poor decision-making during our workdays. Those individuals who go to the extreme of resisting an officer's reasonable efforts to peacefully resolve a conflict, and put the officer in a position of using lethal force, are often products of the "big picture." As for being called an "assassin" that comment is as irresponsible and dysfunctional as Howard Shover's short, crime-filled life. Blake Carlson Phoenix Police standards often compromised I read the article on police shootings and I can't disagree with most of what was written. It is time to place more responsibility on police departments to do more training at the academy level before they are put on the streets.

Even after you graduate from the academy and find out you aren't ready for the streets, you are surprised by the fact that the you may get field training officers that are only collecting the extra pay involved instead of caring about the new recruit being ready. It is just really a good old boys club and, if you are willing to compromise your' own high morals in place of their standards, they will protect you even if you are being criticized in public. This probably isn't fair to the 20 percent of police officers who are truly there for the right reasons, but it does explain what is happening internally. Just telling it like it is. Jack Frampton Phoenix Too many sociopaths roaming the streets The large number of police shootings in Arizona is most likely not the fault of the police, the laws or the guns.

This situation results from a large number of criminally sociopathic people walking Arizona's streets. I retired here from Vermont, which has one of the lowest crime rates of any state in the nation. Like Arizona, it is a border state. Its municipal and state police forces, however, are relatively small. Its gun laws are the most permissive in the nation: No permits are required for a resident to buy or own guns in any quantity, or to carry them concealed and loaded.

It is often said that one reason for Vermont's low crime rate is that "almost every home has a dog and a gun." Rather than automatically blame the police for Arizona's problem, why not look at the judiciary? How many of these criminals who are attacking the police are prior offenders, put back on the streets by a liberal activist judge? Geoffrey Lawrence Cottonwood deal" at $258 per acre foot for 75 years was without suitable environmental and overall economic protections to benefit the entire Imperial Valley. Oh, the deal was good for some, but there were and are real concerns that the offer would and will benefit the entire region. Believe me, a deal will be struck. As the Imperial Valley farmer increasingly finds his water worth more than his dirt, IID directors and the water wizards from the coast will no doubt come to an agreement. It has been 100 years since Los Angeles's William Mulholland, J.B.

Lip-pencott and Fred Eaton snookered the Owens Valley folks to relinquish their water and land. Smart Imperial Valley leadership won't let that happen to them. Rick Ludwig Payson Better goals than light rail Don Berlyn in his letter printed Jan. 17 regarding light rail "fantasy" states correctly that "trolley cars" on busy streets "will only add to the problems." There are many readers of The Republic who, unhappily, visualize a beautiful central boulevard degraded to an ordinary, reduced-auto-capacity street with dirty, trash-littered railroad tracks and stations jammed in the center. Phoenix wishes to become a thriving and inviting modern city.

If so, it must place the trolley tracks under the streets of the inner city. The Valley-Metro staff future efforts should be directed to a non-auto-traffic intermodal system for the whole Valley. Construction should start by 2008. Your editorial policy has favored the "political fantasy" in the past. Please give equal space to the positive readers who see a better solution.

John B. Shaw Phoenix Affirmative action for hoops? I wonder how far affirmative action would be accepted in, say, the sport of basketball? What's this? Well, most of the players are Black athletes and rightly so because their athletic "grade scores" are higher than those of most White athletes who want to be "enrolled" as first stringers. So what can be done about this? Well, there could be some kind of point system established to give White athletes just enough clout that they would achieve some kind of equality with Black athletes and have more playing time. Wouldn't this go over really big? -Bill Hyam Cottonwood Put real life in schoolrooms William Svoboda's "My Turn" column on Jan. 21, "Schools must teach to relevance, not tests," goes to the heart of what's wrong with educational "reform" in this country.

"Reform" has too often meant reshuffling the same tired, largely irrelevant curriculum. Recently I have Their objective is to curb or eliminate the statute and rule that LfC-C 1 provide leased ac- I cess t0 elements of '-Jk I its infrastructure to i- 'A ttt H-' I I joined a national ettort spear neaaeu by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commission William A. Mundell operating inefficiencies in state agen- cies and for fashioning organizational changes that will save tax dollars and improve governmental services. With her recently-formed Citizen's Finance Review Commission, Napolitano will be tapping a group of respected business and community leaders to critically examine the state's tax laws and expenditure pat-; terns. We can expect recommendations from this commission that will enable Arizona to avert in the future the dire financial troubles it is experiencing today.

The budget dialogue between the governor and the Legislature is just beginning, and there likely will be many diverse opinions on the best ways to resolve the immediate problems. With her proposals, Napolitano has offered a very resourceful blueprint for getting state government back on track. Gary Stuart Phoenix been a substitute teacher in both grade school and high school, and I have witnessed the boredom that results from the lack of relevant education. Young children are eager to learn; by the time they reach high school their eagerness has changed to apathy. Their schools are not challenging them to think seriously about their lives or deal with the significant problems they will all face in the workplace and their private lives.

I work with domestic violence offenders. For the most part, these are not bad people; they just don't have the skills to cope with the complexity of human relationships. Why aren't these skills taught in school, before it's too late to avoid some real human tragedies? Everyone I know in the law enforcement system police officers, counselors, judges thinks that domestic issues should be introduced in grade school, yet schools refuse to make them part of the curriculum. It turns out that parents are threatened by real-life education, even while most of them are struggling with the issues that would be addressed in such courses. When will character development, self-understanding, self-control, responsibility, friendship and love of family and friends become essential parts of every school's offerings? Roger Burbridge Sedona Napolitano off to good start By employing a multi-faceted strategy, Gov.

Janet Napolitano is pursuing the proper course of action to remedy the state's serious financial difficulties. She not only has presented the Legislature with a wide array of viable budget-balancing proposals but also has established mechanisms to explore long-term ways to recast state government and recalibrate the state's revenue structure. One of these mechanisms, the Governor's Efficiency Review process, offers much promise for pinpointing ers (NARUC) to emphatically voice state regulators' concerns regarding these threats to stifle competition in the providing of local service while it is at its most vulnerable stage. I am proud of the work done by the Arizona Corporation Commission in significantly lowering wholesale rates for unbundled network elements which the commission determined were too high to encourage new competition. The Arizona Corporation Commission is now being sued by Qwest over these wholesale rates and we are vigorously defending them.

Poston is right to warn of this effort to undo the work of the Corporation Commission and of other state public utility commissions. I hope that the persons who regularly appear before our commission to speak in favor of.