To the editor:

After 33 years of service to the Corona de Tucson Fire Department my husband retired five years ago. We met this mile marker in our history with a mix of melancholy and joy. Many friendships had been forged over his years of service and our 40 years of residency here, along with a deep sense of appreciation for the area and an abiding respect for the folks who call Corona and the surrounding community home. Retirement presented us with the prospect for travel and adventure to be a larger part of our lives and we have made the best of it. Our wandering presents us the best possible opportunity to broaden our knowledge of the larger world and of all with whom we share it.

However, all excursions come to an end, our calendars play out and we return home. It is of great comfort to know that the home to which we return lies here in the shadow of the Santa Rita Range. Yes, our travels have led us to experience many wonderful places and cultures, but we find contentment in returning to this part of the Sonoran Desert we have come to love. It would be impossible to list the many attributes that for us set this region on equal footing with many of the special places we have experienced. In the words of an old friend who has come to appreciate this region as well, “Whilst I have not traveled everywhere, I have traveled to a lot of where’s and this where is as good as or better than just about anywhere.”

With little exception, we have discovered a single point of unity among those we meet in our excursions to far flung places. That is a well-grounded realization that it is the culture, the history, and the natural beauty of their region which sustains them. There is an irrefutable reverence for the past that provides contentment in the present and anticipation of the future. It is welcoming and healing to the human spirit.

Sadly, there has been, for far too long, a failure to recognize such truth in our own community as well as many others across this land. We are failing to connect the dots of past, present and future. In short, if we are to honor all that has been preserved for our enjoyment from the past and gift it to our children, it will not be done with an enormous gaping hole in the ground where the future once was. No Rosemont Mine! Leave the Santa Rita Mountains as they are and the people who live in their shadow in peace.

Sandy Whitehouse, Corona de Tucson

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