Say NO to GMODisdain for Republicans ExpressedPay our College Football Players

Dear UTW:

This is a proposal to immediately restrict the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to preserve our native lands and native flora and fauna and to protect the health and well being of the residents.

GMOs are plants or animals created through gene splicing techniques of biotechnology. This experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial, and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding.

Most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In nearly 50 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, India, and the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs. In the U.S., the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. Increasingly, Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the GMO experiment.

The documented health risks of GMOs are substantial and have been proven by independent studies throughout the world. People in many countries have become ill from the airborne pollen from genetically modified corn and rice. Already, animals throughout the world have either immediately developed severe allergic reactions or have died soon after being fed GM soy or corn meal. Our native plans and farm raised and wild animals throughout the city and county and the State of Oklahoma and the United States as a whole will be forever damaged. These modified organisms will be absorbed in our body and culture of the people and create other, more harmful illnesses, which undermines the mission of our government in protecting its people. We will no longer be able to retain seed from our native plants such as corn to sow future crops as the patented seeds are now in the ownership of just a few multinational corporations.

I urge your city and county and its citizens to further research the ramifications of such an invasive and potentially dangerous introduction into our food chain.

By taking the initiative, you can make a difference in the lives of our people and our culture.

Contact your elected officials today to express your concern!

--Kelsey T. Donwen

(Editor's note: Congresscritters cannot be impeached. They can, however, be voted out. We feel that working toward electing people who truly represent the people is a more beneficial use of time than casting unfortunate nicknames on elected officials.)

Dear UTW:

Oklahoma is in the grip of the most evil and destructive politicians in America -- maybe the world, and they all claim to be patriot Christians. The worst are Senators "Dr. Death" Coburn and "Professional Polluter" Jim Inhofe.

All the Oklahoma Repub monsters are against Obamacare and expanding Medicaid for working families making less than $30,000 for a family of four.

Oklahoma is all Republican from governor to dog catchers. Elected by evangelical churches that claim to be pro-life and funded by the domestic and foreign corporation -- talk about unholy copulations. These fake pro-lifers will not help the sick and hungry babies here now, and they support wars of profit that kill our poor soldiers and innocent men, women, and children around the world. The Oklahoma House of Representatives Repubs are just rubber stamps for the D.C. bosses and lobbyists. It makes no difference which one is sent to Congress -- they are sworn enemies of the sick, the poor, the workers, and the small businesses that are victims of the big, corporate price gougers. Those hypocrites in Congress all have great benefits and health care paid for by the big government they campaign against. Impeach them!

--J. Ray Hunt

Dear UTW:

The quarterback who made Oklahoma State into a national championship contender confessed: "You come to one of those workouts in the morning and you don't work, bad things are gonna happen."

Brandon Weeden, who calls signals for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, was talking about OSU's year-round speed, strength, and conditioning workouts:

1. Run eight miles a day.

2. Use the Run Rocket, a resistance machine that connects a retractable cable to the player's back and teaches exploding off the line and sprinting 20 yards.

3. Cone drills.

4. Weighted ball throw, underhand, to a teammate 10 yards away.

5. Lifting in the weight room (squat, bench press, glute/hamstring raise, triceps extension, shoulder press, position-specific lifts, shoulder "pre-hab" to prevent injury).

6. Passing with quarterbacks and receivers; backpedaling for defensive backs; gap control for linemen/linebackers.

7. Sprinting from one sideline to the other three times (in 28 seconds or less for skilled players).

Do these student athletes deserve a paycheck for their demanding duties?

"If you want money, go to the pros or get a job," says former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, "I would have played football for nothin'."

Texas Coach Mack Brown and South Carolina's Steve Spurrier say pay the players because the new playoff system will produce a half billion in TV rights alone.

A better argument was made by OSU's All-American basketball player, seven-foot Bob Kurland: "The pressure to win at any cost, brought on by alumni and NCAA rules that are impractical and invite cheating, have made crooks out of the coaches and hypocrites out of the players."

Our millionaire football coaches, OSU's Mike Gundy and OU's Bob Stoops, should demand their players be paid a salary like all other employees of the state.

--Virginia "Blue Jeans" Jenner