Tucson Opinion: How did the Blake Masters we knew turn his back on his community?

The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writers:

In early summer of 2004, 24 students walked across the stage at Green Fields Country Day on high school graduation day. One of them was Blake Masters. All of us crossed that same stage at some point, many of us alongside Blake. Green Fields was known in Tucson for cultivating inquisitive, insightful, tolerant, and independent young minds, and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Unfortunately, our school is now known less for the lessons it instilled in us, and more for the man currently running for Senate in Arizona.

The Blake we knew was a bright teenager ready to debate but never one to cross the line. Blake was always ambitious, but he was also kind.

The Blake we see today is barely recognizable. He peddles extremist ideology — attacking veterans, calling abortion “demonic,” being endorsed by Neo-Nazis, blaming gun violence on “Black people, frankly,” and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He also belittles those who don’t share his views, and it’s clear Blake will lead Arizona down a dark, dystopian path. He is a man who gave up everything — his friends, his community, his values, and his integrity — all in pursuit of power, position, and prestige.

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Green Fields was a tight-knit community of voracious students, highly involved parents, and dedicated teachers — all fully invested in bettering Arizona and our world.

We are deeply grieved to see the Blake we knew for two decades become the dangerous politician he is today. He is beholden to a power-hungry billionaire and his radical ideology. He wants to outlaw abortion nationally, privatize Social Security, and rip away the fundamental rights of others — women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.

To be clear, we never expected to write a letter to our hometown telling our friends, our neighbors, our community — anyone who would read it — not to elect our former classmate, our former student, our former friend. But here we are. Given the stakes, we could not sit on the sidelines.

With just several weeks until Election Day in Arizona, it has become painstakingly clear how close this election is. And in the face of this existential threat to our state, we had to speak up.

We cannot sit idly by while his dishonesty, his selfishness, and his hateful, divisive rhetoric become the voice of Arizona in the U. S. Senate. The person Blake has become represents an unprincipled rejection of the way we all grew up in Arizona, and at Green Fields.

His threat reaches beyond a single school, beyond a single city — it jeopardizes every Arizonan. We owe it to Arizona not to elect Blake Masters.

To Blake: If you’re reading this, even though you have abandoned our values, we will not let you diminish our community. We will continue standing together, without you.

Blake Masters’ former classmates, teachers, and Green Fields alumni:

Mo Goldman, Erin Roepcke, Peter Elliott, Megan McIntyre, Noah Weiss, Chuck Ott, Susan Congdon Ott, Quinto Ott, Stephanie Gressley, Rodrigo Guzman Sanchez, Jamey Aiken, Charlie Palanza, Jayce Henderson, Hilary Palanza Gutkin, Laura Christensen, Ellie Pink, Ann Trautner, Max Wedel, Collin Wedel, Nicole Taylor Moore, Cameron North, Henry Roe, Anne-Marie Lindquist, Ashley Truelove, Aaron Weiss, Caitlin Lindquist Ph.D., Stacy Scheff Esq., Alexis Matin Ph.D., Paul Oslund, Janet Oslund, Susan Alexander, Natalie Haywood Esq., Maggie Alexander, Johanna Rentschler, Tali Sedgwick RDN, Michelle Wickramasuriya, Alexandra Trantham, Dylan Bridegroom, Laura Heywood, Phineas Anderson, Linsey Baker Poirier, Kate Reeve, Robert Chapman LCSW, Amelia Fehrenkamp, Blake B. Deeds, Rebecca Cline, Julia Anderson M.Ed, Margaret M. Esposito M.Ed, Joie Monteforte Einstein, Larissa Goldman, Manu Singh, Sara Perez Feinberg, Bob Haskett, Laurie Haskett, Alexis Smith, Jessica Gronberg, Noah Gustafson, Doug Mosier, Annette Cline, Noel Cline, Ben Abbey, Patricia Munsen, Quin Davis, Abbie Kozolchyk, Jennifer English, Wendy Kriendler, John Kriendler, Sherry Weiss, Mariana Padias, John Van Wyck, Kevin Harrington, Stephen Ott, Rev. William L. Ladd, Hema Khan, Meghan Evans

Sara Brown, Opinion Coordinator at the Arizona Daily Star Newsroom working with editorial, features, business and metro. sbbrown@tucson.com, 520-807-8466. Twitter: @sbrownarizona. Facebook: sbrownarizona.

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