Welcome to the War on Tucson

by David Safier

Forget about the War on Christmas (Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings, y'all!). In Arizona, the War on Tucson is raging. And it looks like the general leading the charge is Tom Horne.

As one of his last acts as Ed Supe, Horne is just itching to cut TUSD's funding 10%. From the subscription-only Yellow Sheet (so this is all I've got).

Horne told a Tucson radio show this week his last official act as superintendent of public instruction will be to withhold 10 percent of Tucson Unified School District’s state funding because it has failed to comply with a state law requiring it end its ethnic studies program.

A Tucson radio show? Jon Justice maybe? If anyone knows more, let me know.

Horne is saying, without question, Ethnic Studies is promoting the overthrow of the U.S. Government, promoting resentment toward a race or class of people and, worst of all, advocating ethnic solidarity. Since all of those are vague terms without precise legal meanings, and since Horne has never set foot in an ethnic studies class, for him to say Ethnic Studies is in violation of the law is a stretch, especially for a Harvard educated lawyer. (I think Russell Pearce hits people like Horne over the head with a sledge hammer until they register no higher than "normal" on an IQ test.)

And one of Horne's first acts as A.G. will be to perform an in depth audit of Rio Nuevo because I guess that's the best way to spend his office's limited budget. I just hope the auditors go back to the days when Republicans Fred Ronstadt and Kathleen Dunbar were on the City Council along with Republican Mayor Bob Walkup. There was lots of money for nothing back then.

I can't entirely blame Maricopa for this, though. Our local Republican legislators can't wait to put "The People's Republic of Tucson" on the dustheap of history. Maybe Pearce will name them all Honorary Maricopans.