Thoughts
In “Woman’s world” (Life, Ben Felder, Jan. 21, Oklahoma Gazette) “Female representation at the statehouse … has long been a challenge …” Sally Kern’s elections to the House helped you fulfill your dream. Want more like her? Your dreams will become even more happy.
— Richard Hicks Oklahoma City
Improvements
Regarding the Jan. 7 cover story (News, “A fresh look,” Ben Felder, Gazette), as I searched the article for the point of its existence, I reached the end on page 6 and realized there was a point, but not the one I believe reporter Ben Felder intended.
It starts with the declaration that the young, well-educated people of OKC are “reinventing the American Dream.” How? The story doesn’t say.
Then, a bastion of cultural and socioeconomic wisdom, Mayor Mick Cornett, states that recruiting educated 20-somethings (20-somethings? Really?) is how we drive the economy in this digital age. Okay. How do they drive it, as opposed to any other age group? Could you give us a measly detail or two, Cornett? Last time I checked, just as many 40- to 50-year-olds managed websites, wrote computer code and created web-based advertising.
Sadly, none of my questions were answered, but we get answers to what OKC’s millennials expect to be done for them: public schools that don’t suck, public transportation, sidewalks, cultural offerings and improved infrastructure.
These are what many OKC citizens over 40 with more than five functioning brain cells have been working diligently toward for decades. By the way, this was happening while most of the uber-cool hipsters were crapping their Pampers.
What really fascinated me was Cornett’s belief that a growth of millennials results in a need to adapt city services to a new era of technology and collaboration. Of course!
Why? Why is the city spending significant time and money harnessing technology for a certain age group? Why is a certain age group deserving of being recruited for employment over and above any other? And why the hell is adaptation of city services to a new era of collaboration a concept that even applies to a certain age group? Why are all these things not goals to be achieved for every woman, man and child in this city, from 2 months to 102 years old? Try as I might to find any evidence in this article that would justify the ridiculous premise of it, I can’t.
— Amy Pringle Oklahoma City
Painful mismanagement
The attorney general, the Oklahoma Board of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control and State Medical Board enact policies that result in expense and hardship for patients who want only to live close to a normal life. Many abandon the specialty because of the state’s flawed microscope. This doesn’t fight crime. It makes innocents suffer.
These bureaucrats think they know more than physicians. Why not go after real criminals and abusers, the actual problems? Medical boards shouldn’t micromanage doctors’ treatment of their patients. Our attorney general has an obvious agenda that’s unreasonable and outside his expertise.
As pain patients, we must organize and fight and stop this madness disguised as fighting crime. I am tired of the insults flung at our intelligence and health, adding to our injuries.
— David Rowden Chandler
