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  1. #1
    Senior Member mapwife's Avatar
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    Tucson couple finds special roles with No More Deaths

    Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Tucson couple finds special roles with No More Deaths
    Ernesto Portillo Jr.
    Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.16.2006
    Last year when Debbi and Ed McCullough became involved with No More Deaths, the humanitarian effort to save lives of illegal border crossers, they found unique roles for themselves.
    He maps trails and she gives faces and names to the dead. He's a retired University of Arizona geosciences professor and she's an artist.
    Together, the Tucson couple has brought science and art to No More Deaths, which began operating two years ago in Arivaca, about a 90-minute winding drive south of Tucson.
    When Ed began to work with the No More Deaths volunteers, he realized they needed better maps. The volunteers, mainly college-age, would venture from the Arivaca camp into the surrounding hills and gullies with the good possibility of getting lost.
    Some volunteers would walk along the same path over and over. Other volunteers could not identify the exact location where they had been.
    Combining his knowledge of the area and his expertise in topography, Ed, a professor emeritus who retired in 1997 as dean of the College of Science, began to map the trails used by illegal border crossers.
    "He went out three days a week for a year," said Debbi.
    Working in a 40-square-mile area near the Baboquivari Mountains, Ed, 74, mapped and established Global Positioning System, or GPS, coordinates for the paths.
    Using the coordinates, Ed said volunteers, who carry GPS devices, know exactly where they are. It allows them to systematically walk every trail without getting lost. Volunteers can also call for additional help by using the coordinates.
    He has completed about 90 percent of the area. Today, he will return to the camp for a week's stay.
    He and Debbi are committed to preventing any more deaths in the desert.
    As of July 13, 120 illegal border crossers were known to have died in the Border Patrol Tucson Sector since Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year. Last year for the same period 149 deaths were recorded in the sector, which stretches east to New Mexico and west to near Yuma.
    Those deaths motivated Debbi to act — and to create thoughtful and thought-provoking artwork. She works with mixed media — paper, cloth, photos and personal items left behind by the illegal border crossers.
    Some of her work has been exhibited in local churches. All of her work connects her spiritually with the people who cross the line.
    "I'm compelled to do it," said Debbi, who also volunteers with the Samaritans, who also provide food and water to illegal border crossers.
    One of Debbi's works, "Lucresia's Mother," is a "sculpted book" in the shape of a woman. The figurine is draped in black and brown torn pieces of cloth. On her apron, pages of cloth with text and photos tell the story of Lucresia Dominguez Luna, a 35-year-old Mexican mother of three who died last year near Arivaca.
    Her father, on a U.S. visa, came to look for her remains with the help of No More Deaths. He found Lucresia's remains, as well as those of three other people.
    Through her work, the dead are not anonymous. Her art gives them back their identities and stories.
    If it causes people to rethink their position or it garners support for No More Deaths, she's accomplished her goals.
    "People here don't realize people are dying and why they are dying," Debbi said.
    Opinion by
    Ernesto Portillo Jr.
    Illegal aliens remain exempt from American laws, while they DEMAND American rights...

  2. #2
    Senior Member gofer's Avatar
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    149 deaths were recorded in the sector, which stretches east to New Mexico and west to near Yuma.
    We should grieve for the THOUSANDS killed by illegals EVERY year!

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