I have a love – hate relationship with Arizona.  

• I love its natural beauty, which is simply stunning.  I can drive 20 minutes out of the suburbs and be among some of the most breathtaking scenery the US has to offer.  I hate the sprawl that continues to emanate from my city through the desert.  In the next 40 years it is supposed to gobble up most of the open areas from Prescott to Phoenix to Tucson (more than 215 miles) to create one continuous developed area.

• I love the professional opportunities and networks available here.  If I want to give anything a try, I can do it and likely can find others to join in and we will be taken seriously.  I hate the sense of hopelessness I see in the state’s Indian reservations (approximately 1/3 of the state’s geographic area).  In some parts of the reservations it’s like being in the slums of a third-world country.

• I love the fact that it’s an exciting time to be a law professor in Arizona.  Several cases and laws from the state are getting national attention and being argued in the US Supreme Court.  I hate the fact that many of those cases came about because of the apparent xenophobia and opportunism of a few politicians.

• I hate the fact that a job candidate told me that because of Senate Bill 1070 (the controversial immigration statute) the rest of the nation believes that Arizona is a racist state.  This belief is either confirmed or set in stone by the fact that the Pima County Sheriff told the national media that:  

The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous.  And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry. 

• I love the fact that he said it and that he’s not backing down in the face of all the grief he’s been receiving for it.  Why do I say that?  Because the state’s image is critical to its economy.  Tourism is a huge sector of the state’s economy, and as people choose to go elsewhere for their vacations and business meetings – particularly international tourists and business people – it will take that much longer for the state to pull out of the current economic slump.  For some reason, the public hasn’t been able to connect the dots on this.

• I hate the fact that Representative Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded in an assassination attempt, that Judge John Roll was assassinated, and that several other innocents were killed or wounded by a deranged lunatic.  I am consoled that such an event could happen anywhere, but it happened here.

• I love the fact that in the face of this tragedy the father of Christina Green, the 9 year old victim, can say these powerful words: 

This shouldn’t happen in this country, or anywhere else, but in a free society, we’re going to be subject to people like this. I prefer this to the alternative.

• I love the fact that upon hearing that noted funeral protestor Fred Phelps and the Westburo Baptist Church located in Kansas were planning to protest at Christina Green’s funeral, the Arizona Legislature passed a new law that bars protests within 300 feet of a funeral and within an hour from its beginning or end.

• I love the response of the people on the scene, the medical personnel, and the first responders.  Their work has been first rate and displays the best that Arizona has to offer.  I hate the fact that the state budget is in such bad shape that these first responders and medical professionals will be negatively and dramatically impacted by impending budgets cuts.

Arizona can be confounding at times.  My take on the state reminds me of a famous statement from the Supreme Court – one must take the bitter with the sweet.  I do so everyday.  There is plenty to love about the state, and in the wake of this tragedy I’m still happy to call Arizona home.