Tempered Tolerance

(In response to "Sexual Freedom: the Next Frontier" in the June 30-July 6 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

I agree with his last line -- "I hope we will live in a nation where another person's sexual expression is no one's business but theirs and their sexual partners."

My organization supports the right to privacy and the liberation of sexual minorities. We also are troubled by the hypocritical approach to any discussion about sex or sexual orientation. We have way too many "double standards" when it comes to sexual morality. Things like restricting women's reproductive rights while letting the man off the hook of any obligation or restraint; defining marriage as strictly heterosexual in Oklahoma under the banner of protecting the sacred institution while most of our public officials are on their second and third trip to the marriage altar; refusing to fund safe sex education in our schools unless "abstinence based"; ignoring the reality of teen pregnancy and rising sexually transmitted disease rate among the young.

So I support Ted Rall's call for a reality check that Americans are sexual so quit acting like we are not. Establish realistic codes of conduct and an ethical approach to sexual expression that treats sexual minorities as equals.

However, Mr. Rall's suggestion that Rep. Weiner had done nothing wrong is ridiculous. He was married and shooting his body pictures to other women. And his suggestion that the Progressives should have handled Larry Craig's cruising airport bathrooms as if Larry was a victim offends me. Senator Craig was a total hypocrite and should have been shown the same level of mercy he had been showing for years every time he voted against gays. He deserved none. In supporting the rights of sexual minorities I do not have to support ridiculous sexual behavior from elected officials.

--Toby Jenkins

What's in a Name?

(In response to Brezsny's Free Will in June 23-29 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

I've read your sun sign column a year or more, and your writings of Cancer have evoked positive and negative emotions in me.

Don't change Cancer's sun sign name. I am a crab who withdraws, is introspective, and still. This can be peaceful and healing. If I come to meditation in a disturbed state more likely, I'll leave it in a better state. The unhealed past that I believe all have can be healed through daily meditation of the right kind. An unhealed past is a block to fulfillment, I believe, and can lead to a chasing of the material. I believe the greater satisfactions come from healing the internal.

In all of this, open doors and windows of the mind, and soulare avenues to the uniqueness, the creativity of each man. No, to all -- don't change the name of cancer, because its vehicle the crab is withdrawn, introverted, only at times, ripe for the right kind of healing.

Thanks for your column. I think about what others think.

--Ellen M. Walters

Calling the Clean Up Crew

(In response to "The L-Team" in the June 16-22 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

I bring your attention to the number of guard rails and street signs that have been flattened or damaged all over this city.

Guard rails that are damaged alongside state highways inside of Tulsa city limits. These guard rails have been lying over and damaged in some cases for months and years. Also the amount of vegetation hanging over onto the shoulder of the Broken Arrow Expressway, and other highways under State Highway department jurisdiction is pitiful. The signs along the highway are in many cases half way covered by tree limbs. Trees are growing up in between bridges all over the city.

You would think that DOT would cut the things down before they mature into hundred year old trees. What a great sight for all the people visiting Tulsa and what a simple thing to take care of before it becomes a safety issue like it is now.

Does anyone at DOT give a damn or are they so lacking in common sense that they just miss it due to silent brain waves.

--Darrell Fisk

Running the Show

The dictators have broken down the gates and now are attacking the Native Americans again. They want all power in the hands of the Governor -- every department down to dogcatcher and crossing guards.

This is not in just the Bible pounding state of Oklahoma (which is Choctaw for "Home of the Redman") but this master plan is the plot for all Republicans to bring in states' rights as the dictator system to control us all for their corporate masters -- the slavers are back and the Democrats, liberals and now the tribes will again be put on a state reservation called Oklahoma.

The Republicans have helped to enslave us -- the holier than though Christians. Soon they will be selling brides like old Babylon under the control of their new kings and priests -- they already have made women brooders and church property.

Republicans do not care for the children here now. Conservative Baptists and Pentecostals need to not use the name Christian. My hope is the tribes will not allow themselves and the rest of us to become property of slaver dictators again.

--J. Ray Hunt