Letters

Power Outrage

Dear Editor:

(In response to "Weathering the Storm" by Mike Easterling in the April 9-14 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

I feel compelled to comment on your story about Public Service Company of Oklahoma's decision to temporarily suspend its program to convert some existing overhead power lines to underground service due to the nation's and the world's financial crisis.

Had the reporter indicated in his interview with PSO that he wished to know more about the actions we have taken and are taking to contend with the financial impact of the crisis on our operations and projects, we gladly would have discussed those in whatever level of detail he desired.

Instead, he turned to a non-expert, third-party, who apparently was laid off by a contractor as a result of the PSO program's suspension (and, if so, obviously has a vested interest in the program's resumption), to offer her view.

This one source used by the reporter said "she believes" that financing actions taken by PSO's parent, American Electric Power, mean that PSO "has the money to continue the program but for some reason has chosen not to." She cites AEP's actions to draw approximately $600 million on its credit facilities in September, and another $1.4 billion in October, as the basis for her assertion.

The fact is we took those actions at the start of the growing world financial crisis to ensure our company's short-term liquidity. They were never intended as a longer-term solution. AEP and PSO must continue to rely on longer-term debt securities to finance our long-term electric assets.

Had the reporter asked us to respond to the assertions of his source (which is a standard reportorial technique), we would have explained the facts to him. However, he chose not to ask.

Ultimately, we find this article to be ironic in the extreme in that the reporter appears to be "taking us to task" for suspending--due to financial circumstances beyond anyone's control--a discretionary program PSO chose to create on its own initiative as part of our overall effort to enhance electric service reliability to our customers. The program is popular with our customers and with PSO as it improves reliability without the necessity of tree trimming, and it facilitates operations for us. It's a true win/win.

In our conversation with the reporter we stated our intention to eventually resume the overhead-to-underground conversion program. When the financial crisis eases and markets return to a more normal way of functioning, we will be able to reassess priorities in serving our customers and decide how to proceed with various projects that have been deferred or scaled back due to the nation's financial crisis, including overhead-to-underground conversion.

Given these facts, the article you published strikes us an attempt to fabricate a controversy about the program's suspension where none exists.

Andrea Chancellor

Manager, PSO Corporate Communications

If it's Broke, Don't Fix It

Dear Editor:

My husband works for the parks and I know for a fact that a BIG portion of their budget goes to repairs from vandals. 99 percent of the time these vandalisms are done over and over again at the same parks and rec centers, usually out north.

In my opinion, why keep fixing them? If the community and police aren't going to step up the effort to stop these punks, why are we wasting our tax dollars on giving them nice parks?

Casey Seaton

A Real Funny Guy

Dear Editor:

(In response to "Circle of Blame" by Ted Rall in the April 30 -- March 6 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

I am sorry that so many of your readers take Ted Rall's column seriously. It is definitely a column written to be funny. His "Circle of Blame" column put my buddies and I in hysterics. We were wondering if the flashlight is turned on when torture specialist put it up someone's ass. Ted provided our laugh for the weekend. Don't take Ted too serious. It' comedy!

Jim Forrester

Transparent

Dear Editor:

I am a libertarian and I see rights and wrongs in both the left and right. The Tea Party protests [in April] got a lot of coverage from the mainstream media and it made me highly suspicious. I can now see that the point of highlighting these events was to polarize Americans back in to the "Republican vs. Democrat" struggle that distracts from the core ideas of the tea party.

This Tea Party idea has been going on for years and is normally hosted by "Show me the law" groups that ask for the Federal government to show them the law they have to pay income taxes. I believe this was an attempt to water down the movement and promote infighting so the globalists can continue their destruction.

Joe Picorale

Kicker

Dear Editor:

The Salvation Army, Assemblies of God, and Unitarian, Jewish, and my United Methodist churches are doing a wonderful thing.

They invite mamas to preach the gospel.

What is it a teacher says to control an unruly student?

"I'll call your mama!"

That is the hammer that works,

Here are churches which keep mamas muzzled in church services

in spite of these "Mama Superiors being the driving force in their

faiths:

1. Roman Catholic Church---66 million members.

Pope Benedict XVI worships Mother Mary but reasons only boys can be priests because the original apostles were male.

Mary Magdalene was just as much an apostle as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

2. Southern Baptist Convention---16 million members.

These Baptists say the wife's duty is to "submit herself graciously" to her husband's leadership and follow bachelor Apostle Paul's lead, remain silent in churches.

Women do preach in their Sunday schools and church camps.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints---Five million members.

Mormons say women might become "priestesses and queens" but only in the afterlife.

4. Seve11th Day Advent. Ellen White, its co-founder, was a woman

yet no member of her sex can be in the ministry.

This lack of religious equality keeps Oklahoma women in the political doghouse because Okies aren't used to hearing it from a woman.

In 102 years, our state has had only two Congresswomen---Alice Mary Robertson in 1920 and Mary Fallin in 2006. We have never had a woman in the U. S. Senate like our neighbors, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and

Kansas.

We, Okie girls, have taxation without representation, the battle cry of the American Revolution. Women are 51 percent of the U. S. population so we deserve 50 percent of all legislative bodies. One woman, one vote.

Love Always,

Virginia Blue Jeans Jenner

Wagoner, OK