On the occasion of the, 15th Annual Peace Fair (the fourth for me), and having just married a lifelong Tucsonan and become a homeowner here, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this community and this paper's place in it. When I started the Comic News in 1993, as a recovering Californian, I said that I wouldn't be commenting on local issues until I got the lay of the land. Well, I think I'm getting oriented by now.In the last three years, I've concentrated on global and national issues, and written two books: one about how the CIA makes the world safe for our multinational corporations, and the other on how Uncle Sam hands out welfare to wealthy businesses and individuals. The link between the two is the globalization of the economy, or rather the artificially accelerated globalization of the economy, which is kicking the butts of local economies all over the planet. And Tucson is no exception.
I've seen a lot of small businesses come and go in this town over the past few years, but lately it seems like a lot more of them are going. And specifically, an alarming number of worthwhile and quite valuable merchants have bit the dust in the past few months. They've told me that they can't compete with the big chain stores anymore, or that their rents have grown beyond their ability to absorb. And more of these huge chains keep moving in; doubtless our first Starbuck's is just a matter of time (in case you hadn't heard, that chain is in the habit of offering landlords double or triple rent in order to take over prime locations from local merchants)
Since we all know that what goes up must come down, the next recession is also just a matter of time. When Alan Greenspan drops the other shoe, these trends are bound to accelerate: more local merchants going belly-up, more faceless conglomerates sucking money out of Tucson and sending it back to headquarters.
I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but supporting our local merchants wherever possible pays strong dividends in the local quality of life. And withdrawing support from the most odious multinationalsÑtake your pickÑcan have major effects if done collectively. Those corporations buy and sell our politicians, so voting with our wallets can be much more effective than with our ballots.
I'm not saying that all multinationals or chain stores are evil, or that all local merchants are saints. But there has to be some kind of balance. And I don't think a thriving global economy and a healthy local economy are mutually exclusive. But with welfare for the rich being expanded to global proportions, we're going to have to work hard to keep Tucson from being further degraded by the power-addicted greedheads who are destroying the planet.
In the three-and-a-half years I've been here, I've seen the air quality noticably deteriorate, and the city become increasingly choked with traffic. And believe me, where I come from, I know bad air and choking traffic. Just around the corner from my new home is the almost-completed Aviation Bikeway, which, when finished, will allow me to commute all the way downtown without sharing the road with cars. The city is to be commend-ed for this project, but it's not nearly enough. With our favorable climate and relatively flat terrain, this basin should be a haven for human-powered vehicles. The bike paths are great, but they don't connect with each other. In the Netherlands, the entire country is served by a system of bicycle freeways.
The other thing that disturbs me about my adopted hometown is the state of the ecosystem, specifically the poor dead Santa Cruz River. I read an article last month in which it was asserted that restoring this habitat would be “impossible.” I also understand that there are no protected wetlands anywhere in Arizona. And it seems that our growing annual mosquito problem is the result of having nearly depleted our bat population.
Now, I know that a lot of dedicated local activists are working on these and other problems. I expect to see many of them at the Peace Fair on the 22nd. I don't want to duplicate existing efforts, but I do want to put all the resources of this paper in pursuit of three local issues: First, there needs to be an advocacy group to lobby on behalf of bicyclists and other human-powered vehicles. Second, we need to find like-minded people who can help preserve a vibrant local economy. As I've mentioned before, for many communities, some form of local currency has been instrumental in this process.. And third, we need to make it a municipal goal that we will restore the Santa Cruz River to health, even if it takes a hundred years. Some form of advocacy group, if it doesn't already exist, should be formed to help goose this process along. I'm willing to work with whatever local politicians, activists and business owners who can contribute to these goals.
I'm going to continue thinking globally in this column, But I also want to act locally by bringing other voices from the community into these pages to discuss these and other issues. In coming months, we'll see columns on a variety of topics. There will be pieces on the issues facing bicyclists and how other cities have dealt with them. We will discuss how the economy and the ecology interact with each other and how they might both be nurtured to optimum health. We'll discuss organic farming, including the “weed that can save the planet” (see page 7, third cartoon)Ñwhich might specifically help save our River from the cotton farms that add to its woes. There will also be pieces on local cultureÑon local musicians, artists and writers, and on worthy national and global artists who face the issue of censorship by powerful chain stores like Blockbuster and Wal-Mart. And we'll also need to discuss the Internet, and how to use it as a tool for local empowerment, and the need for maintaining democratic access to this vital resource.
And I'll try to do all of that in the coming months without cutting back on the cartoons you know and love, or in the case of Zippy, that you know and are completely baffled by. Stay tuned!