Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 38, Issue 9


Volume 38 Issue 9. Today is .

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Volume 38 Issue 9
February 13, 2001

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Hey arsonist! Need a lighter?

Justin Lambright
GUEST COLUMNIST
MESA LEGEND
Submitted Feb. 13, 2001

The Phoenix mountains preserve arsonist is getting a lot of stuff from the media lately.

In a column featured in the ultra-conservative Arizona Republic, the writer went so far as to attack the arsonist as a ‘loser with matches.’

Editorials and feature columns about the blazes suggest envy as the arsonist’s true motivation.

The New Times, a more liberal "alternative" newspaper, is supplying the only true objective point-of-view on the story.

I say burn it all: I’ve got a Zippo lighter … (an item with) a little more class than the ‘loser with matches’ if it’s prestige the media wants.

I agree with the arsonist. Urban sprawl in the Valley is completely ridiculous.

The city’s founding fathers saw a sprawling, lush desert Valley and decided to pave it, and true to America’s Manifest Destiny, go west, young man, and kill everything that gets in your way.

But why stop at McDowell and Phoenix Mountain preserves? Burn it all. Torch Ahwatukee while you’re at it.

Burn the developments in Surprise and El Mirage.

Take Sun City out. No one seems to care about the Ground Squirrels, Gila Monsters, lizards and snakes that have made these new developments their homes for centuries before we got here.

The zoo can only hold so many animals.

I’ve read articles about this arsonist/s and I respect the person or persons responsible.

I don’t care if some yuppie doctor or computer geek gets to look at the base of a mountain every morning while stumbling through his ridiculously over-priced dwelling, as he gets ready for work in the morning.

If they love the mountains that much, why do they want to pave it?

These hypocrites that are moving to the mountains on the weekends are pockmarks on the teenage face of the mountains, so what’s wrong with a little Oxy-10?

The police are stumped as to who is responsible for the blazes. Good.

If they ever do catch the party or parties involved, I hope they are acquitted.

We should have a holiday.

Let the kids out of school for the day.

I praise the Coalition to Save the Preserves and anyone else who is willing to make a noticeable statement for whatever it is they believe in.

Let me have my mountains. To the CSP and the firebugs…need a light?

Justin Lambright is a guest columnist for the Mesa Legend and a communications major at MCC.

What do you think about this column? Do you feel the arsonist’s motives are justified or criminal?

Do you feel The New Times was irresponsible for anonymously interviewing the arsonist?

Do you respect an individual who makes a statement for a cause they believe in, no matter how violent that statement may be?

We want to hear from you – send your comments to the Chief Editor, or bring letters to EP-2N, or mail letters to 1833 W. Southern Ave. Mesa, AZ. 85202.