Basically other states have come to their senses about pot, both medical and recreational and the associated prison reform. Once again, Oklahoma is tightening the noose on its citizens. When Oklahoma uses human incarceration as a major economic model, it is helpful to keep the private prisons and the legal system clogged with nonviolent drug […]
Ron Ferrell
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Water and wishful thinking
The USDA drought monitor map issued Feb. 5 predicts more of the same, and now Canton Lake is drained to record low levels to keep Oklahoma City on its unsustainable water usage path. Farmers and ranchers have drastically reduced their cattle herds for lack of hay and water due to this ongoing, severe drought. Another […]
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Secede? We already have
Mr. Brake, Oklahoma is on the rise in many enviable categories thanks to our current leadership: the number of citizens with zero to marginal health insurance, poverty, child hunger, racism, high obesity, diabetes, and smoking rates, high teenage pregnancy rates despite intense fundamentalist religious dogma, restrictive reproductive laws, a low-skill workforce, outrageous incarceration rates in […]
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Off the grid, on the mark
They lovingly demonstrate that being “off the grid” means more than just generating one’s own electricity. We are all totally dependent on the food grid, sewer grid, water grid, fuel grid and all other services used in our daily lives. We take it for granted that all those services will reliably perform upon demand. Bruce […]
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Green lawns or drinking water?
Recently, I was in Vici in western Oklahoma, and they have had less than one-fourth-inch of rain in the past year. Pastures appear dead, crops are nonexistent and cattle are being sold because of drought. This is not a “what-if” scenario; this is the new reality. Farmers are selling their pond water and well water […]
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No fooling Mother Nature
“Clean, reliable and affordable” are words of certainty, until Mother Nature kicks your ass. Katrina, the BP oil spill in the Gulf and the Exxon Valdez are just a few examples of what “won’t” go wrong in the pursuit of such energy. Now we have a list of earthquakes around the world, from Haiti to […]
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Momentum ‘money’
The Committee for Oklahoma City Momentum’s “budget,” nor their agenda, certainly has not been covered by The Oklahoman. —Ron Ferrell Jones
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‘Marijuana is here to stay’
Eventually, the powers that be understood that without legitimate liquor by the drink, this town could never become a convention- or visitor-friendly city. It was a moral issue for many years and became an economic issue, leading to the current attitude toward alcohol. British researchers have now declared alcohol the most dangerous drug on the […]