Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 11

Arizuna Bailu Slur Section A Page Eleven VIEWPOINTS Delta blues, csackand the devil ACTUALIDADES Desafiante es ser mujer-madre The Arizona Dally Star Tucson, Wednesday, May 10, 1989 Hoy en Mexico, Chile otros pai'ses de America Latina se celebra el dia de la madre. Mientras que en Mexico esta celebration es una fecha fija, en Estados Unidos, desde 1914, se celebra el segundo domingo de mayo. Cada dia es mas desafiante complicada la mision de ser madre. Nunca ha sido facil desem-penar esa funcirin Leyla Cattan By Sarah Chayes 1989 The New York Times eAMBRIDGE, Mass. They say Robert Johnson spent his last hours on all fours, crawling back and forth and barking like a dog.

Among the creatorsvof Delta blues the hard, compelling music that grew out of the cotton plantations lining the river between Jackson, and Memphis, Tenn. Johnson was one of the more famous. He died Aug. 16, 1938, a day or two after someone put poison in his whiskey glass at a house party. He was 27 years old.

''He was a dangerous man," the blues giant Muddy Waters recalled years later. Talk had always swirled in his wake. They say he struck a deal with the devil, who taught him how to pick his guitar like no man on Earth. He did not make much effort to discourage the legend. "Early this morning, he knocked upon my do'," moans one of his haunted, and sometimes brutal verses.

"I said hello, Satan, I believe it's time to go." Young toughs in the Delta today still sell their souls to the devil. The devil is crack, and the rewards are about the same as they were then. Robert Johnson could have made 60 cents a day chopping cotton. Instead, he'd set up next to the courthouse or general store and gather a crowd. He'd play all night in someone's barn and then hop a freight wherever it was going.

Half the time, he'd be a jump ahead of the law or an angry husband, but he'd always have $15 or $20 in his pocket. He'd have power, too power derived from his music, his strange mystique and his money. Crack offers equally fabulous amounts of money for an equally small capital outlay. These rewards do not go very far, however. What is the use of being cool of being a dangerous man if your wad of cash is so hot you can use it only to buy a big car or a gold watch? In Robert Johnson's day, no money of any kind would buy a black man standing or freedom from random oppression.

No wonder he sold his soul to the devil and learned to play the blues. They still play blues down in the Delta, and it is still made from raw power. If you doubt me, visit Nelson Street in Greenville, on a Saturday night, or one of the pool halls clustered around the train station in Helena, Ark. Half the chairs don't have backs, and half the men up dancing can't see straight, but the band will still grab your heart and mash it around in your chest. The money has declined considerably, though, since Robert Johnson's day.

Even in the Delta, blues competes with rap, funk and rock 'n' roll. Bars rarely charge a cover, and people can bring in their own pints of Thunderbird or Jack Daniels. Geoffrey Moss, The Washington Post Selling your soul to the devil of your day is a way of cursing a society that has discarded you, imprisoned you or offered you an intolerable choice. Johnson but doesn't bring anymore. Selling your soul to the devil of your day is a way of cursing a society that has discarded you, imprisoned you or offered you an intolerable choice.

It may be a hollow curse if you end up with a poisoned glass of whiskey or a dozen bullet holes through your chest. Dealing drugs is vicious, criminal and self-destructive, but so long as buying cars, getting high and cursing are the closest that kids can get to power, so long as there are no other roads to anything resembling status, wealth or the ability to determine their futures, they will go on selling crack. What they want is not so different from what most of us want, and what America sets so much store by. To tell them "Just say no," and to put them in jail when they can't, is just not enough. Sarah Chayes is a graduate student in history at Harvard University.

So young dudes are faced with a choice. They can go for the music, mill around eying the women, dance when they feel like it, bring in some barbecue from the truck at the curb. If they're good, they might be on stage, playing their guts out from 9 p.m. till 3 a.m. for applause and the rush of speaking their own language and speaking the truth.

Or they can join their friends outside, lounging under the dilapidated plywood overhang, hoping to "move some stuff." Neither route offers an escape. Of course there is a difference. Blues does not destroy people, it builds them. If this difference means anything to us, then we had better be prepared to pay for it. If comfortable white Americans value creative and demanding contributions to society as much as they claim, we had better begin to reward them.

For crack offers not just a quick chemical high; it also offers the kind of high that blues gave Robert identificada casi siempre con ramos de adjetivos superlativos. Pero hoy, tal vez por los rapidos cambios que se verifican en la 1-1 sociedad, para las mujeres conscientes de sus responsabilidades, el ser madre se presenta como una misibn mucho mas intrincada que antes. Las normas disciplinas que habi'an regido durante siglos a las generaciones anteriores, hoy son inoperantes. Pero a la vez la sociedad todavia no tiene las pautas que moldearan las formas estllos de vida de las prbximas generaciones. Para muchos hoy es normal vlvir en caos, con contradicciones conflictos entre ideates acetones.

La mujer-madre se encuentra en una fascinante encrucijada, porque ella misma como mujer esta experimentando cambios sociales. Hoy abundan las madres solteras, las madres lesbianas, las madres cuyos hijos son concebidos en el vientre de otras mujeres, revolucionarios conceptos estos que no son del todo aceptados por el grueso de la sociedad. Pero los que a su vez cimbrean la fibra etica moral de las bases tradicionales de la familia, en cuyo seno la mujer-madre ocupaba un lugar de A reverencia quien daba refugio protection. Hoy, en las sociedades modernas se exige mucho mas de la mujer. Hasta cierto punto, la mujer misma en su busqueda por mayor reconocimiento equidad de derechos se ha echado cargas extras.

"La madre es una mujer escribe Ruth E. Means, maestra de escuela primaria del distrito de Marana. Madre de cinco hijos, quien a la edad de 65 anos ha decidido ser payaso profesional, Means hace 10 anos me escribib una nota sobre la mujer-madre. "Aunque tiene mdquinas en casa para oyudarla, la mujer-madre infrecuentemente tiene el lujo de una escribib ella. "Si trabaja fuera de casa, aun con la ayuda de maquinas apenas tiene fuerzas para leerle a los ninos regar el escribe Means.

Agrega que la mujer madre hoy, a pesar de estar cansada, tiene mucho vigor. "Ella puede mover un colchbn grande sin ayuda cavar un hoyo donde transplantar un cactus dice Means. La 1 mujer-madre puede ser el sustento emocional en los momentos mas tristes dificiles de la familia de una comunidad. Desde epocas preclasicas el culto a la maternidad ha sido asociado con deidades. En diferentes civilizaciones la fecundidad de la mujer se asocia con -la fertilidad de la tierra.

Esta es la madre-tierra, que es cuna, engendradora, que nutre protege que es la tumba. En la cultura azteca la maternidad era identificada con la tierra, considerada como la madre que sustenta a sus hijos simboliza el principio fin. Tambien el chicano rescatb en su poesia ese concepto ,1 de madre-tierra. El poeta Alurista dice: madretierra ha dado a luz a la. Entre los indigenas precolombinos, al dar a luz la mujer era comparada con el aguila el tigre.

Por lo valiente esforzada se le ponia al mismo nivel que los guerreros, pues habiendo librado una batalla con la muerte, habi'a salido victoriosa. r. En la epoca moderna en los pai'ses industrializados, la mujer no tiene tanto que temer si sale no victoriosa del parto. Su temor es que sus hijos sucumban a los peligros de la sociedad. Es decir que ellos, aun inmersos en las tribulaciones de la vida moderna, puedan salir airosos del campo de batalla de las drogas, del SIDA, de las pandillas callejeras, de la violencia fisica mental a la que muchos estan sometidos desde que nacen.

Es por eso fundamental que la relaci6n entre hijo madre, sea mas que nunca sincera abierta. Pero 1 quizas en esta nueva relacibn es donde esta el secreto de las nuevas formas de la sociedad del futuro. La responsabilidad social de la mujer-madre siempre ha sido importante, quizas hoy sea mas compleja por esto sea mas valiosa su contribution. Hoy es un di'a si'mbolico donde se recuerda que la 1 madre es la tierra, de donde germina la flor de la vida, sus hijos. "Ayer Hoy Maana" con Leyla Cattan es -r REGIONAL Imagineering responds to concerns about its plans By C.T.

Moore RVING, Texas I would like to set the record I straight on certain issues before they get out of hand. A May 3 article by Bob Christman, titled "Imagineering plans called incomplete," implied that the company has failed to comply with Tucson Airport Authority requirements and has not dealt with the Piaggio Aviation Inc. issue properly. First, Imagineering Systems Corp. has submitted several projected aircraft operations plans to TAA in order to determine the maximum number of operations available to the company from this airport.

These data are being used by the company and its Investment bankers in internal econometric computer models to ensure that this purchase has a solid, financial basis with adequate growth potential. Second, architectural engineers have been engaged by the company to investigate the condition of the physical plant that Learjet Corp. has agreed to sell to ISC. Third, environmental engineers and attorneys have been engaged to ensure for us that there is no potential for liability on the part of the company from some environmental event that may on the leasehold prior to our occupancy of the property. The company has stated on several occasions that it is not interested in becoming just a landlord at the airport, but rather that it plans to become a primary business operator and employer at this location.

SUMMARY Services Corp. officials in Dallas and directly through telephone contacts in Italy. We have no further information concerning its plans for Tucson, or our facility. However, we do know of Piaggio's discussions ISC has no desire to become just a landlord in Tucson. It fully intends to develop what it believes to be a significant upside potential on the Learjet property.

with Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, and other meetings in Lakeland, Fla. Therefore, we have no indication that Piaggio is coming to Tucson or is really a potential aircraft builder in the United States. The Star's article stated that Piaggio is negative toward ISC because we are a "fledgling company without a track record." Although it is correctly reported, this statement does not make sense in view of the facts stated above, and I doubt it is the official position of the company. Besides, if Piaggio were really planning to come to Tucson, would the lessor's track record make any difference to them on a lessee basis? As far as ISC is concerned, the Piaggio deal would be a mere real-estate transaction between our broker and their company, if they could provide sufficient financial evidence of their capability to pay for their sublease. However, we are concerned that the community has had its hopes raised artificially by unfounded hype regarding Piaggio and that ISC is now being portrayed as the deal killer.

That is simply not true. In fact, Piaggio could have made the same deal with Learjet that ISC did, if it were really interested and financially able to do so. From the comments noted above, it should be apparent that ISC never incorporated a possible Piaggio location in its plans for the Learjet leasehold and is not dependent on a Piaggio decision for its own closing requirement. However, as previously reported in the Tucson media, we would be pleased to enter into negotiations with Piaggio at any time. And we stand ready to seriously consider subleasing existing Learjet facilities or building additional facilities if it appears to be to the benefit of ISC and the city of Tucson.

I would wish that everyone in Tucson could adopt a more positive outlook toward their own future. We in ISC view Tucson as a bright opportunity, populated with good people with much to offer the business world. Instead of calling the glass not full of water, as in the referenced Star article, ISC would say that it is almost full. C.T. (Ted) Moore is chairman of the board of Imagineering Systems Corp.

Therefore, it is critical to the company's plans to receive unequivocal government assurances that it will be permitted to conduct its planned operations in Tucson. There has been some confusion between the company and the airport authority concerning the number of "operations" planned for the airport. This term is a misnomer, for it really means a composite of airborne events that may occur on one aircraft flight from the airport. Usually, we refer to these operations in the conglomerate as an aircraft "sortie." Although TAA has admitted to us that it, too, has become confused upon occasion when calculating numbers of "operations" for other uses, I believe that we have jointly straightened out this matter with our latest data submission to the airport authority on May 2. The effect is that our planned operations are approximately one-third of the numbers recently reported in the local media.

ISC is a privately held Delaware corporation headquartered in Dallas. The stockholders of the company have elected to maintain their anonymity, as is customary with most private companies. Therefore, there will not be a public release of financial statements or other corporate documents regarding the financial condition of the company, any of its stockholders or its business plans. However, the company will provide customary documentation to the TAA at the appropriate time as sufficient proof of financial capability to assuage any concerns regarding the purchase transaction contemplated in Tucson. The important issue here is that the seller of the leasehold improvements, Learjet is the entity that has been adequately assured about our financing.

As previously stated, ISC has no desire to become just a landlord in Tucson. It fully intends to develop what it believes to be a significant upside potential on the Learjet property. However, it did make two exceptions to this position during its contract of sale negotiations with Learjet. First, it agreed to carve out approximately 30 acres for Hamilton Aviation, should that company be able to complete its proposed expansion deal prior to ISC closing on the Learjet purchase. Secondly, ISC did meet with Piaggio representatives in March, on its own initiative, and offered portions of existing Learjet facilities to that company for its much-publicized possible location in Tucson.

We also offered to build additional facilities for Piaggio on a lease basis, as required to accommodate its expansion plans. However, as of this date, neither the company nor its real-estate broker In Tucson, Coldwell Banker, has been contacted again by Piaggio or any of its representatives. In fact, several attempts have been made by both parties to follow up on this potential deal through the Piaggio consultants in Tucson, AMR THE FAR SIDE Mothering job is a challenge Today Mexico, Chile and other Latin American countries celebrate Mother's Day, while in the United States, since 1914, it has been celebrated on the second Sunday of May. Being a mother has never been an easy task. Yet the mission becomes more challenging and complicated every day.

Women who are mothers are faced with a fascinating dilemma because they are experiencing social changes. It is more common today to see single mothers, lesbian mothers and mothers whose children were conceived in another woman's womb. Since earliest times, the cult of maternity has been associated with deities. In various civilizations, fecundity has been associated with the Earth's fertility. Among pre-Columbian Indians, women who survived childbirth were compared to eagles, tigers and warriors; they triumphed over death.

Nowadays women don't have to fear death during childbirth as much as they fear that their children will succumb to society's dangers, such as drugs, AIDS, street gangs and physical and mental violence. Today is a symbolic day when mothers are remembered as the Earth, from where the flower of life, her children, germinate. tilt chrontcM fmvm ii.