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 […]
Letters to the Editor
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Over the cliff
There has been much speculation that an 11th-hour agreement is likely, given what going over the cliff would mean for jobs, the economy, investments, and credit ratings. What one needs to remember is that in Washington everything is politics. And going over the cliff is very good politics. Here’s why: On Jan. 1, the Bush […]
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Douglass needs help
The National Oklahoma City Douglass High School Alumni Association has existed in its present form, to support the growth and development our school and its students, for 26 years. We have existed through a litany of school administrators. The history of Douglass High School now stretches over 122 years. It has produced giants of leaders, […]
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A shameful turn
I would love to see the estimated 150,000 uninsured Oklahomans who could have access to health insurance through Medicaid expansion arrive on the steps of the state Capitol for Fallin to meet firsthand. Let her try to explain how it is reasonable and humane for them to remain uninsured in order for her to score […]
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Saving oil
This tells me that McVay, while he may have a background in environmental studies, also has a predisposition to defend an industry that is his livelihood. This makes his perspective about as reliable as an asbestos salesman telling me that all those cancer studies are taken out of context. Of course, to his credit, the […]
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Go ahead, secede
Becoming two separate nations would reduce political tensions and permit Southern states to govern themselves as they prefer. It would also reduce the U.S. budget, as half the spending in some of those states is federal money, and most are home to U.S. military bases. —Nathaniel Batchelder, Oklahoma City
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Judicious info for voters
We should remember that our current system of judicial retention was adopted by Oklahomans in response to attorney bribery scandals involving the state Supreme Court. Oklahomans overwhelmingly voted to restore the integrity of the court through accountability by judicial retention elections. Since then, no justice or judge up for retention has been defeated, despite countless […]
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An allergy sufferer gives thanks
As a lifelong allergy sufferer, I was not surprised to learn that Oklahoma City and Tulsa ranked high on the list. According to AAFA, Oklahoma City is the seventh-toughest American city for residents with fall allergy symptoms, while Tulsa is the 19th. These rankings illustrate how important it is for Oklahoma allergy sufferers to have […]
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Get real about climate change
Mickey McVay (“Kool-Aid’s global warming flavor,” Oct. 24, Gazette) then tells us that those who believe in anthropological climate change need courses in historical geology. This is from a man who previously and falsely told us (Letters, “Mistaken environmentalists,” Sept. 14, 2011, Gazette) that the atmosphere is 95-percent water. People who can’t get what is […]
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Recognizing grief
Each of us experiences grief through a range of emotions such as sadness, confusion and anger, and the grief process is unique for each person. But sometimes intense feelings of hopelessness and guilt do not go away, and are accompanied by physical symptoms like loss of appetite, sleeping problems and trouble concentrating on daily tasks. […]