Negative to a Positive

Dear Editor:

(In response to "Love Letters, Hate Mail" in the Feb. 11-17 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

In response to Just Appalling in the Love Letters, Hate Mail.

Robin thank you for pointing out that "midget" is considered a derogatory term by many little people. I chose this term on purpose, it's important if I have little people or any other types of people who were born different in the show that they can use that position to educate and not go off on people for using such terms out of ignorance.

It's been my experience that the term is not often used out of malice but out of a lack of knowing better. The best way to educate people is to be out there in the public eye letting them get to know you as a person not by what makes you unique.

It can be said that I'm exploiting people, but the same can be said for every TV show, movie, etc., that features a person based on their handicap, injury or anything else that makes people want to look, and I probably pay them better.

As for not knowing what it's like to be judged on size. I've spent most of my life overweight. Only recently have I gone to great lengths to change this. Last year, we went on America's Got Talent and of all the feedback and discussion on stage about our act all that aired was Pierce referring to me as "just some fat guy". Apparently it's just as acceptable to put a person down for being overweight.

-Mr. Crispy, Crispy Family Carnival

Good Movie Review...er

Dear Editor:

(In response to "Painfully OK" in the Feb. 11-17 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

I enjoy Joe O'Shansky's cinema column because it combines probing insight and acerbic wit. His approach provides me with a taste of the story and the stench of the shortcomings in acting, scripting, and production. Joe's Feb. 11-17 column elevated the Zeitgeist with the lyrical decimation of the script for From Paris with Love when he wrote that the "lines are windows into the mind of a middle-aged hack writer filtering a decade of bad action movies and regurgitating them into a derivative slog of film." Simply magic.

What impresses me most about Joe's reviews is the way he focuses on the story's tension, the need to resolve some issue. The plot simply plays out the process by which the tension is resolved. The artistry in scripting, acting and producing makes the plot compelling to watch, captivating to the viewer. Joe's approach provides insight into what makes the movie worth the time and money. Give him a raise.

-Ernie Raynor

Death on Reserve

Dear Editor:

Three states--Maryland, California and North Carolina--have suspended their use of the death penalty while they study whether lethal injection causes undue pain and whether prison staff are sufficiently trained to carry out the process.

Physicians refuse to participate, using their oath to "save lives, not take lives." Fifteen states have banned the death penalty.

In Oklahoma, running for Governor is Attorney General Drew Edmonson who is defending lethal injection executions, "I don't think this is the time to soften up on the death penalty."

He is calling for the blood of Khalid Shikh Mohammad, the Sept. 11 mastermind, and opposing a Congressional bill to give death row inmates more appeal rights.

Here are the other flies in Edmonson's death penalty ointment:

Fly No. 1: I'm opposed to the death penalty because I believe life is sacred. The worst punishment is to take somebody and put them in a small cell for the rest of their life, deprived of their freedom, never to be paroled.

Fly No. 2: Detective Mark Fuhrman, made famous in the O.J. Simpson trial, said in his book "Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine," "My investigation of the death penalty in Oklahoma County has brought me to this conclusion: Death Penalty cases are not investigated or prosecuted at a level that can guarantee justice or even that the accused is actually guilty."

Fly No. 3: Ten inmates were free from Oklahoma's death row due to new evidence (139 have been freed from death rows in 26 states.)

Fly No. 4: After writing "The Innocent Man--Murder and Injustice in a Small Town," author John Grisham said, "As heinous and horrible as some crimes are, if killing is so wrong, then we should be not be allowed to kill."

Fly No. 5: What would Jesus do? He would execute no one.

-Virginia Blue Jeans Jenner