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Rants from a renegade naturalist

Defaming Ajo

b2ap3_thumbnail_saguaro-cabeza.JPGIn Ajo, Ariz., Deputies Outnumbered by Drugs and Bodies

"In a remote Arizona town about 40 miles from the Mexican border, the local sheriff’s deputies act as the tip of the sword as national drug and immigration policies meet desperation in a brutal desert."

This is perhaps the worst NYT article I have ever read, in terms of journalistic accuracy and ambient fairness. The non-governmental residents of Ajo are richly diverse in heritage and surprising astute about the astounding beauty and natural history of this unique stretch of Sonoran Desert; these people didn't come to this remote place for the golf. Except for the speeding Border Patrol vehicles and trigger-happy Pima County Sheriff trainee deputies, it is one of the safest places I have ever lived. Those sheriff deputies (most of whom will be gone in six months) the journalist interviewed are not Ajo's brightest bulbs. The NYT should not worry about getting their "Ajo" facts correct. They shouldn't even try. Maybe NYT's journalists should not even cross the Mississippi River; it's too strange out there in the quaint West.

Doug Peacock, Bunghole, MT

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