Love Letters/Hate Mail

Fiscally Frustrated

Looks like Oklahoma could be headed for disaster ("Taxing Times," UTW Jan. 5-11). I'm really tired of the conservatives trying to shift economic burdens onto the middle class. How long will the shrinking middle class put up with this?

--Jay Casey

Still on the Change Bandwagon

For someone that doesn't care about a political horserace, Ted you have some very strong opinions about our President and his efforts to get our country back on track ("Fool Us Twice," UTW April 14-20). I have to wonder if your expectations were this high prior to President Obama taking office.

Considering the state of things when he did take office -- the country was in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and we were engaged in two unnecessary, costly wars. It took years of bad leadership to get us here; it will take years of good leadership and hard work by both parties to get us back to where we need to be. Unfortunately the Republican Party is not interested in this. All we have to do is look at what the Republicans are trying to do to the American people at every turn and see that they not only want to take America back...they want to take it back to 1900! To a time before:

1. Workers rights (Republicans trying to kill the unions)

2. Women's rights (their attack on women's reproductive rights-Planned parenthood)

3. Child labor laws (Maine bill LD 1346, raising number of hours they can legally work per week and lowering wages for people under 20 yrs old)

4. Religious freedoms

5. Gay rights (Republicans paying outside council $500,000.00 in tax-payer money to defend anti-gay marriage law DOMA-which has already been deemed unconstitutional, does this sound fiscally responsible to spend half a million in tax payer money to defend discrimination!)

6. Good Education-cutting school funding and programs nation-wide.

7. Social security and Medicare -- Safety net for American seniors

8. Medicaid and title X -- Safety net for the poor

9. Unemployment benefits

10. Veteran benefits and fare wages for our military

11. Environmental laws

As you can see the Republicans have been very busy...not creating jobs or working with our President to get this country back on track, but busy ensuring the progress of the last hundred years gets stripped away, all under the guise of fiscal responsibility. I wonder why they didn't act fiscally responsible when they were voting on two wars and securing tax breaks and loop-holes for millionaires, billionaires and big corporations.

So to answer your question Ted, yes, our President will get reelected. The actions of the very radical Republican Party will ensure President Obama gets re-elected!

--Wendy Hunter

One Word

I am a founding member of the band, DEERPEOPLE, and while appreciate being mentioned (from time to time in UTW and in a Cover Story a while back). Just a couple inaccuracies need to be cleared up as they do matter to us as a band. This paragraph:

"The Blackwatch Stage, sponsored by Blackwatch Studios in Norman, will take up the torch for the Norman/Edmond/Oklahoma City contingent by hosting acts like Chrome Pony, Deer People, Jacob Abello, Brine Webb, Pretty Black Chains and Sherree Chamberlain, amongst others."

This paragraph suggests that we are involved with Blackwatch Studios, Norman and OKC. We are a Stillwater band. We've never recorded at Blackwatch, we record with Trent Bell at Trent Bell Labs. Also, we are not playing on the Blackwatch Stage, we are playing at McNellies on Saturday night. Our name is also spelled as one word in all capital letters. Just, DEERPEOPLE.

I would like to restate that we do appreciate being mentioned, but it would help so much if in the future we would be referred to as DEERPEOPLE, a band from Stillwater that records at Trent Bell Labs. Both the city and the studio have done so much to get us where we are and I would be remiss if we didn't take steps to be sure that they are properly represented with us in print media.

We would appreciate both noting the changes in the "Get Free" article as well as any future article you should choose to feature us in. Thank you so much for your time.

--Alex Larrea

Branching Out

It seems like the Above and Beyond column is always written by someone with a Christian perspective. Although Christians are certainly the majority here, I think that including other perspectives, like Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Unitarian, etc., would better represent the spiritual diversity of our city. Just a thought.

--Name Withheld

Final Decision

After Cain killed Abel, the Lord said, "If anyone kills Cain they will suffer my vengeance seven times over." That is why Gov. Mary Fallin should stop the Jan. 5 execution of killer Gary Roland Welch and commute his and all others' death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Former Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy died the other day at 81. America's leading death penalty prosecutor won't be around to complain about loss of his favorite thing. His teams sent 73 person to death row -- 17 of which were thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Asked if the execution of an innocent person is worth keeping the death penalty, Macy said, "I'd have to say yes...When an exception happens, he isn't going to kill anybody else and it is a deterrent."

After getting Macy's triple murder death penalty for Clifford Henry Bowen thrown out by an appeals court, Tulsa criminal defense attorney Pat Williams said, "After the Bowen case, I no longer supported capital punishment. God Almighty, how do you unring the bell after you've killed somebody?"

After he ordered the execution of two murderers, it weighed on the conscience of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber. So, the governor imposed a moratorium on the death penalty for the remainder of his term. "I do not believe those executions made us safer and I cannot participate once again in something I believe ins morally wrong." Kitzhaber, a former emergency room doctor, said. Oregon is the fifth state to stop executions since 2007.

So, I hope our governor, a cautious conservative, will resist the temptation to play God. I believe every life, even a killer's, is so sacred that not even popular elected officials like Fallin have a right to mess with it.

--Virginia "Blue Jeans" Jenner