Love Letters/Hate Mail

District 4 Photo Police

Dear Editor:

I read your current UTW printed copy version ("Primary Concerns", Aug. 13-19)of [Mike Easterling's] same story (which appears to be longer), and read Maria Barnes' comment that "People became complacent" she said of her supporters. "They felt it was a shoo-in. They just didn't get out and vote. Now we know every vote counts. It does matter, and we all should be involved in the process", in reference to her being defeated as an incumbent last election cycle.

The actual truth of the matter is, during her defeat, District Four voters came out in near record numbers, and cast 2,806 votes with Eric Gomez receiving 53 percent of the vote, to Barnes losing 47 percent. This was a higher vote total than any other council district in 2006 (with District 9 coming in second with 2,592 voters showing up at the polls).

It appears, the voters did show up, and quite a few of them cast a vote against Barnes, not necessarily for the relatively "newcomer" Eric Gomez. I think if candidate Barnes will get out in neighborhoods other than her own (she did take good care of her own neighborhood alone), I think she will hear why District 4 voters no longer support her.

And,.....why did Urban Tulsa Weekly allow candidate Elizabeth Wright to submit her high school yearbook photo for publication in the UTW article? I saw her recently, and she appears to be roughly the same age as fellow opponent Rocky Frisco. Why not include a current photo?

Keep up the good work on reporting excellent candidate information for voters. Many voters have had enough of "hidden agendas", and more are getting involved.

-Throw_Randi_Out

Better With Age

Dear Editor,

Thank you, Mike Easterling, for ("Primary Concerns", Aug. 13-19) a great article! The interview was quite enjoyable and pleasant. And ... granted I am most often in shorts, wearing tevas and a ponytail, (after reading the above comment online) I am tickled that anyone would think that was my high school photo. If and when I ever get the Web site kinks worked out, I'll gladly post my high school pic!

--Liz Wright

Venting is Healthy

Dear Editor:

Why should we the people sit back and do nothing while we are being taken advantage of? If this so called health care plan is good enough for the people, then it most certainly should be good enough for the ones who want to appropriate it.

If this is such a great health care plan, then I believe we all should have a right to read it for ourselves in its entirety. There would be no biased opinions coming from any source, good or bad.

Sincerely,

Sherry Jackson

Savant of History

Dear Editor:

We have a problem. A Republican candidate believes that he is "entitled" to be the next mayor of Tulsa. Mr. Bartlett is not a conservative, his father was.

Mr. Bartlett decided about five years ago he wanted a new model wife. A nasty divorce developed just as the mayor's race in which Mr. LaFortune ran and won. He knew that running for mayor while in process of a divorce would be dangerous so he stepped out waiting until now to decide to run. However before Mayor Taylor decided to drop out he prepared an insert on the Web for Mayor Taylor indicating he was starting a Republicans for Taylor.

Later he also worked with another Web site Taylor for Mayor with his name as endorsement. He has the idea he is now entitled and desires to be the next mayor. He like Mayor Taylor has planned on spending a cool million dollars for a job that will pay only a fraction of the million, in fact four years will only meet a possible half of his investment returned.

Strange though, at all the meetings he ignores the voters; he does not attend but for a few minutes then purports to run to another meeting. His brochure and Web points in importance of family values, yet denies any request regarding divorce. You know from coming from a great family that the Catholic Church considers a person who divorces his or her partner cannot be considered as a Catholic in good standing.

As you know to obtain a document known as an annulment, it costs a lot of money and takes years to obtain. I wonder if you are aware if Mr. Bartlett has obtained this or is attending any Catholic Church or is attending and not receiving the Eucharist, or as many do, receive communion unknown to the priest that he or she might be divorced. This is not right as you know. I urge you to consider a story on the mayoral race considering that a millionaire son is running and ignores the voters and has the idea he is better than his voters.

Tulsa deserves and needs a Mayor of choice not of funds. Tulsa must wake up and determine why this city is losing population. Editor, you're in the business, you know you or I cannot spend more than we take in. Presently Tulsa is running in the negative as the sales tax is not running what the Mayor and council thought.

By the way, Jim Inhofe and the morning talk host at 1170 both found out that if you typed in Google it would bring up the name along with Bartlett for mayor, all unknowingly by those names. That again shows a little trickster. Take care.

- Joe Conner

Partisan Patter

Dear Editor:

I read Dr. Paul Kengor's article ("Saving Obama from Himself", Aug. 13-19) with great interest. It's very clear that Conservatives are very upset about the whopping they took in November. Kengor's article is further evidence of just how self obsessed the GOP really is. At a time when tens of millions of Americans are without access to health care, Kengor has decided to engage in an ego-driven, intellectually light-weight exercise.

His assertions on euthanasia are dishonest scare tactics intentionally designed to scare seniors. As for destroying Obama, you might want to consider stopping your party's own self destruction before proceeding.

- Dave Brooks

August Osage

Dear Editor:

The Osage Nation Election is to be held the first week in June 2010. Due to the Osage Nation's failure to appoint an Election Board in a timely manner, it is important that all Osage voters make every effort to become informed on their own.

Candidates will not receive Osage member contact information until April 1, 2010 if even then. It is the belief of many that failure to appoint an Election Board was not an accident but simply an attempt to keep the voters uninformed.

This letter to you is an example of my claim. The chances of this letter being allowed in the Osage News are slim to none.

The Osage Tribal Newspaper is an inadequate source of information due to our lack of a "Free Press." Jim Gray has a lawsuit pending against the Osage Nation Congress for passing legislation to provide the Osage people with an Independent Press.

I invite all Osage voters to visit my Web site: www.jenny2010.com. Newsletters are available for you to read at your leisure. If you have questions or would like to receive your newsletters through the mail, you may contact me by calling 260-5712.

- Jenny Miller, Member of the Osage Tribe