Love Letters/Hate Mail

Hitting a Nerve

Go for Status Quo

Dear UTW:

Why not leave it alone ("Planting Crocuses in the Water," March 1-7)? It is so beautiful and serene the way it is.

--Greg Guthrie

Penniless Pity

Dear UTW:

Surely there is someone out there that can employ her with a half way decent wage in order "to live" ("Nickel and Dimed by Red Tap," March 8-14). This is America and I can't believe how bad the city council treated her when neighbors yards looked as bad. Was it because she was more vulnerable!!?

--Francis Pierce

Facts we were not given ("Nickel and Dimed by Red Tap," March 8-14). Why is Ms. Goforth in Tulsa with no relatives, husband, etc.? Is there a husband/father involved? The circumstances of her being in jail were not clearly explained.

I have been before the City Council many years ago and they are just that arrogant, no matter who you are.

Could Legal Services (pro-bono) be of any help here.

--Edith Smith

Dear UTW:

As a neighborhood association president and Code Enforcement volunteer worker, I have a different viewpoint ("Nickel and Dimed by Red Tap," March 8-14). I must ask, what if this yard was next door to your property? Would you feel the same?

I have worked for five years to clean up our neighborhood and if Code Enforcement had not been so helpful we would still have overgrown yards and lots everywhere. As a volunteer I see all of the work that goes into a reported code violation.

--Chuck Brayton

Animal Outing

Dear UTW:

All the updates are going to be so awesome ("The Zoo's New Plan," March 8-14). Cannot wait. Family is coming to visit next month and that is one of the places they want to go. Can't wait to see all the new adventures.

--Cindy Rinehart

Cleaning Up

Dear UTW:

It's about time Tulsa started to catch up with more progressive cities and this is a good way to do it ("What a Mess," Feb. 16-22). Even though the great majority of people are satisfied with current services we can do better by providing incentives for recycling volume based rates for trash. The trash board should be commended for a job well done.

--Fred Kirk

In Science She Trusts

Dear UTW:

There's something bothering me about all the media discussion about "invasive" pre-abortion ultrasounds. As a middle-aged American female and mother of four, I've had decades of invasive pelvic diagnostic procedures. I figure they've offered useful information about whether my cervix had precancerous cells, or how my pregnancy was going.

When figuring out what to do about your pregnancy, an ultrasound offers useful information -- useful information about stage of pregnancy, which affects all kinds of obstetric decisions; useful information about your feelings. A picture is worth a thousand words about what (or who, depending on your beliefs and feelings) is growing inside you.

I am amazed that people are concerned that an ultrasound is too traumatic and invasive for a woman considering abortion. Traumatic, as if a woman is unlikely to see any ultrasounds in her future, or think about what the baby she aborted looked like. Elective abortions are invasive! They force a cervix open when it would naturally stay closed, and they detach and remove a human from a uterus.

Whatever a woman believes about the "personhood" of that human, she deserves to know her feelings before she undergoes such a procedure, and an ultrasound is what's available to process it on a sensory level. I believe that ultrasound should be the required standard of care for all abortion procedures. Women deserve to know in more than words what they are choosing.

--Ruth Piatak