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 general and
specifically for women, pro basketball and college football, to name but
a few. I know, the last two don’t really fit, but they are certainly
priorities in this state to the exclusion of other sensible expenditures
that would elevate us all.
I’m sure Mr. Brake, based
on his editorial, is all for states’ rights. Some states — like, say,
Massachusetts — choose to elevate their state in the form of socialized
health care, education, same-sex marriages, medical marijuana and have
said that no, corporations do not get to claim “personhood.”
Our
state chooses a governor who boycotts a presidential visit and then
petitions the Federal Emergency Management Agency for financial aid
after fire and tornado disasters. FEMA being yet another example of a
federal program that Mr. Brake and our governor claim that we can no
longer afford to fund.
I think New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had his mind changed about FEMA funding by a little storm called Sandy. How ironic.
So,
by God, let’s just “secede from the Union” so we don’t have to play by
any rules except what our state leaders dream up. Folks, we already
have.
—Ron Ferrell, Oklahoma City
Opinions
expressed on the commentary page, in letters to the editor and
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This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2012.