Welcome to the Takes From State 48 Newsletter and thanks for making it part of your media mix.
What’s this all about? We’ll post weekly on topics in and out of “State 48.” That’s a nickname for Arizona. In 1912, it was the last territory in the Lower 48 to be granted statehood. 119 years later, we still haven’t grown up and tend to act out, often in stunning ways. Remember the “show me your papers” law? Yep, that happened here. Remember you can’t spell CRAZY without AZ.
Takes From State 48 will deliver a distinctly Arizona perspective on happenings here and everywhere.
Our filter is Arizona, not viewpoints dictated by coastal media, or the Beltway bunkers, or the “patriots” at FOX News. We’re unique, because as State 48 gains population, its influence over America’s political and cultural trends grows larger. Here’s how that’s happening:
· Arizona’s core politics were Trump before Trump and still carry 45’s overt racism, disrespect for the natural world, and bare knuckle business practices threatening to privatize and profit from every human activity. Our politicians and their often insane ideas - the most recent being election audits, voter suppression, anti-mask mandates, the end to all taxes, and open support of gun-toting “patriot” groups - are mainstream and available for export. As State 48 goes, so may your hometown.
· Arizona’s world class landscapes survive, for now at least, despite unchecked population growth, real estate development, and a “we got this” approach toward the absolute life necessity: water. With each record-breaking 110+-degree day, water is increasingly scarce. Yet we’re building water parks, recruiting water-intensive manufacturing, and keeping golf courses green. Looking for future climate refugees? You can find them here. Now. Today. Arizona is the living lab for a hot, drier, deadlier climate.
· The world is moving in, and it ain’t White mid-20th Century suburbia. Arizona is home to a growing immigrant and refugee population who, as my Italian ancestors did when they arrived in the early 1900’s, are bringing new languages, new energy, and new ways of thinking. Many here, including those with political power, would rather they stay home. So the inclusion wars play out daily in every aspect of Arizona life.
· We have not one, but two major law enforcement agencies dealing with Department of Justice oversight because it’s in their DNA to ignore human rights, target racial and ethnic minorities, and shoot and kill more frequently than any department anywhere else. The City of Phoenix just joined the DOJ club, where the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has been living since 2016. Suburban Mesa may complete the trifecta. Police reform is going to happen here by court order, and it’s going to be ugly.
And you thought Arizona was all about Spring Training, wintering at a Scottsdale resort, and hiking the Grand Canyon.
Briefly, a bit about me. I grew up in Pittsburgh when steel and mining ruled, and then went on the journalism journey throughout the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast. For the last couple of decades, home has been the American West. HT to Don Henley, I made my living off the evening news….
I’ve covered Presidents and Popes, city hall and school boards, farms and factories, and worked, briefly, for a county sheriff who promised reform and then withered when things got tough. I’m a registered Independent who’s voted Republican, Democrat, Green, and Communist (Yeah, I was 18 and neither Nixon nor McGovern gave me much hope). My home bases have been flyover country, and I wouldn’t trade it for a seat at the New York Times. My promise for these posts: we’ll cut through the noise and get to the facts, and you’ll see it all through the unique lens of Arizona.