Carolyn Classen

Carolyn Sugiyama Classen, a life long Democrat, was born & raised in the State of Hawaii, was a Legislative Aide for U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye on Capitol Hill, and practiced law for a while. In Tucson she worked as a tribal staff attorney for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and later was the Interim Executive Director of the now defunct Domestic Violence Commission. In 2008 she became a “My Tucson” guest columnist for the Tucson Citizen newspaper, then continued blogging for Tucsoncitizen.com for over four and a half years. Her blogsite was entitled “Carolyn’s Community” about community events and some political news, until Gannett Publishing shut down the site on January 31, 2014. She started with Blog for Arizona on Feb. 11, 2014. Part time she sat as a Hearing Officer in Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts Small Claims Division since April, 2005 for 15 years. She is married to University of Arizona Distinguished Professor Albrecht Classen, a native of Germany. They have one son, who lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and daughter. She is also the Editor of the Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition website, www.southernazjapan.org (since Jan. 2013).

Buy Local Month for the holidays

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‘Tis the season to shop local! This holiday season, make an impact with your holiday shopping by supporting local businesses! You’ll find unique gifts for your loved ones and keep money in the local economy to build vibrant communities we’re proud to call home. Visit http://localfirstaz.com/buy-local/ to find local deals, events, and more. Join us … Read more

Unofficial 2014 El Tour de Tucson results

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Congratulations to all of those who rode in today’s various rides (104, 75, 55 or 40 miles) of El Tour de Tucson 2014.  Hope you all had a great time riding and celebrating afterwards. Here’s the link to the unofficial results from the website of Perimeter Bicycling at www.perimeterbicycling.com. http://www.perimeterbicycling.com/el-tour-de-tucson/results/

Supervisor Ray Carroll announced re-election bid at Eastside Republican Club

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District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll spoke at the Eastside Republican Club (at Miller-Golf Links branch library), on Wednesday night,  and announced his re-election bid for his seat in 2016. He mostly spoke about issues affecting his district — road improvements to the Colossal Cave road,  his support of an increase in a gasoline user tax, the discretionary funds that his fellow Pima County Supervisors have been using on non-profits and the need to set up a firm policy about such spending, a proposed bike ranch in the “buffer zone” outside Saguaro East National Park, and the need to seek alternative ideas for Colossal Cave use (i.e. eco tourism camping) following a recent audit.

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Carroll was a strong supporter of the Proposition 415 to improve the Pima Animal Care Center, which passed by 145,153 (59.02%) to 100,777 (40.98%) votes on November 4, 2014.  He also congratulated recent Republican winners  CD 2 House Martha McSally (facing an automatic recount as she has prevailed by 161 votes over Congressman Barber) and LD 2 House rep. Chris Ackerley, who upset incumbent Rep. Demion Clinco in that race.

Then Carroll answered a question about the Sunday newspaper article about District 1 Supervisor Ally Miller’s former aide retracting his bullying allegations against Carroll, which allegedly occurred about 6 months ago.  The Star article about this was on page C1 of the 11/16/14 paper: http://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/alleged-bullying-victim-withdraws-complaint-against-carroll/article_0078c29c-33f2-5e49-bffd-026acdf0f8bd.html

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It’s time for El Tour de Tucson 2014

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THE RIDE Participants cycle main event distances of 104, 75, 55 or 40 miles, or choose the Fun Ride 12 or 5 miles or a fun 1/4 mile activity course too! Main event routes show off Tucson’s beautiful vistas of its local mountain ranges – three rising over 9,000 feet- complete with the backdrop of … Read more

Dear white people: we Asians don’t all look alike

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I don’t know how many times people here in Arizona say to me “you look like someone I know”, or “Are you such and such person?” and of course it is usually not me, so I politely reply “no”.  Sometimes just to be a bit contrary, I reply “Yes, we Asians all look alike”  meaning “I forgive you for not being able to differentiate me from another Asian you have met”.   It’s sad that many white people can’t seem to tell us Asians apart. A doctor at UAMC recently came up to me and called me “Catherine” by mistake.  And it’s impolite to single out a so-called “minority person” by their facial features.

Ok, so honestly I must look like every other Asian woman around Tucson:  slim, long black hair (though mine is getting SP – salt/pepper) and wire rim glasses.  Plus an oriental face, yellowish skin tone, the usual “perpetual immigrant/foreigner” Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese/Laotian look.  I could be anyone of those ethnicities, or mixtures thereof.

Recently though, a Hispanic woman mistook me for a Navajo woman friend of hers up north on the reservation. That was more flattering, as I know people have sometimes asked me what tribe I belong to, and I usually just smile and say that I’m not Native American, but I would like to be.

Then there’s the rude folks, who ask me “what country are you from?” so I usually reply “America” since Hawaii is really part of the U.S. (the last time I checked).  Hawaii became the 50th state back in August, 1959, and was an American trust territory since 1898. I was born there on one of the islands. I even have an authentic long-form birth certificate to prove it.  But then they keep asking, as they need to know what racial group to put me in, and usually I give up and reply truthfully that both sets of grandparents left Japan for the Kingdom of Hawaii/Trust Territory of Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations (in 1892 and 1910).

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