Hilary and Theresa's Road to Nowhere: Dodging Bullets in Arizona

We arrived in Tucson the night before Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head. We actually drove by the Safeway where she would host “Congress on the Corner” the following morning. She regularly made herself available to her constituents and her willingness to set aside time on a Saturday morning to listen to people complain made the tragedy seem even more unfair. As you might expect, the people we spoke with were still reeling and in a state of collective shock.

Arizona is a very conservative state, but Tucson is a fairly liberal city. And the people we came in contact with really loved Giffords. She supported health care reform and gay marriage and adamantly opposed Arizona’s controversial immigration legislation. “It’s just so sad, and it’s always the right-wing nut cases who kill people, you know?” said a visibly upset nurse in the dog park. “Watch, they’ll blame it all on her immigration policies”, said a teacher who was eating lunch at Chaco’s. “No”, said another man, presciently, “it’ll be about the way we still get to carry guns; it’s always the guns that get blamed when something like this happens.”

But as shops closed for the day and memorials were set up all over the city, the news turned to Sarah Palin and her Facebook page with the cross hairs of a rifle scope targeting Gifford’s district. All the news stations were running her incendiary “Don’t retreat – RELOAD!” clip. When the Sheriff in charge of the Tucson investigation publicly speculated that “vitriolic rhetoric” helped lead to the tragedy, the public debate was on. Of course, no one knows if the shooter paid attention to any of the vitriol on Facebook or Fox News. And both the right and the left are using this incident to advance their own arguments, as they always do. It would be nice if this tragedy led to a toning down of the rhetoric, but the more likely outcome will be some sort of reactionary “Gabby’s Law” that does nothing to prevent something similar from happening again.

In light of everything that had happened in Tucson, it was embarrassing to have been riding around in a stagecoach and watching a simulated gunfight in Tombstone the day before. But we had been promised a “walk back in time” and we took the hook.

Tombstone is nothing more than a Hollywood stage set these days, but as I sat on the wooden boardwalk watching people dressed in period costumes and listening to the sounds of the stagecoaches moving up and down the main street, I did get a sense of what it must have been like in 1890. Tombstone was a booming mining town then with bustling saloons on every street and regular gunfights settled by the likes of Wyatt Earp. It was a little on the hokey side, but I had to admit that the “Town That Won’t Die” still had a bit of life to it.

We toured the Tombstone Heritage Museum and viewed a massive collection of antique weapons, some apparently used in the various gun battles that shaped Arizona’s history. Afterwards, I started to notice that it wasn’t just the actors dressed up as Wyatt and Doc who were walking around with guns on their belts. Ordinary people were carrying guns too. And apparently, it’s okay to have concealed weapons as well. Arizona’s gun laws are among the most lenient in the country, it’s one of only three states to allow concealed weapons to be carried without a permit and there is very little obstacle to purchasing a weapon. The guy in Chaco’s was right; in light of the incident in Tucson, gun control activists are having a field day with these laws.

It was pretty depressing time to be in Tucson. But it seemed sort of disrespectful to just leave. Like anyone in Tucson would have noticed, right? In any event, we stayed long enough to learn everything there is to know about Saguaro Cactus (pronounced sah-war-o), the iconic symbol of the desert itself. These cacti were so familiar that I was surprised to learn how limited their range is. They grow only in the Sonoran Desert; if transplanted, they will die within five years. But they were everywhere in and around Tucson - in front of houses and restaurants and all over the hills and mountains that surrounded the city. Some were close to 60 feet tall and 175 years old. But contrary to popular belief, it would be a bad idea to try to drink from them like John Wayne used to do in the movies; they are full of acids and other chemicals that would make you very sick. According to the docent who showed us around the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, if you are stuck it the desert without water, you are pretty much fucked: “This desert will take you out quickly; if I were out there without water, I’d use my remaining energy to look for help instead of whacking a cactus.” Good to know.

The museum was about 15 miles outside of the city and it bordered Saguaro National Park. As we drove into the parking lot we saw the sign informing us that any pet left unattended would be confiscated by the Pima County authorities. We considered, and quickly rejected, turning back. We were told by several different people that the “Raptors in Flight” show was a “must-see” for anyone visiting the Tucson area. Besides, it was cold the morning we were there. And after the mass murder, we figured the police might have better things to do than confiscate Layla. We put towels over the windows to shade the interior (and hide the evidence), left a bowl of water in the back seat, and took our chances. She was still alive and in the car when we returned. And we were able to learn all about the Sonoran Desert and watch a family of Harris Hawks hunt as a pack. Wow!

We also stopped at the Mission San Xavier del Bac while in Tucson. It was recently restored and its interior reminded me of a tribal gingerbread house. This mission is clearly influenced by the Tohone O’odham Indians, whose reservation houses the mission. The O’odham manage to practice their tribal customs along with Catholicism and their cultural festivals and art shows draw people from all over the country. This was definitely the grooviest mission I’ve ever seen and it would have fit in just as well on Fourth Avenue, Tucson’s equivalent of San Francisco’s Haight Street.

“I’m starting to think you guys are Forest Gump” said my friend Loren when she heard we were in Tucson. We have ended up in the center of a lot of action on this journey. Hopefully, the only remaining drama in Arizona will be provided by the landscapes of Sedona and the Grand Canyon.