Double Standard

(In response to "American Select" in the August 4-10 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

It's amazing that a commentator who criticizes the expanse of the welfare state can be dubbed a bigot. But leftist wannabe's like Ted can express open, overt and often even violent rhetoric targeted at whites and males (and God forbid, people who are both) and earn such praise.

Reminds me of first year college students at left leaning colleges (like mine) when they take acid for the first time and their minds "open up" to the drivel spewed by 60's relics professors who still hate the fact that the world doesn't grovel at their tenured feet and beg them to show us out of the wicked mire of freedom and self-reliance.

--Michael Wayne

Hard Work

(In response to "American Select" in the August 4-10 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

While it is tiring, it's predictable a creep like Rall will play the class warfare card at any opportunity, spitting venom at rich hedge fund managers and jeering at white protestant males. This is a guy a real journalist -- Bernard Goldberg -- referred to as "a hate-filled jerk". That that is true should be obvious, and speaking of white protestant males, why does Rall hate himself?

Leftists have honed their skills at class warfare. But all the rhetoric is simply a way to clothe the naked desire to keep themselves in power. That is the ultimate goal, not doing what is best for the people. It's about doing what's best for the ruling class and doing favors for the people that bankroll them. In other words, the hardcore leftists are no different and certainly no better than the right-wing corporatists they so despise.

Liberals like Rall want to go hug every bum sleeping under a bridge and every "freedom fighter" strapped to a bomb or toting an AK-47. But when you think about it, one of the centerpieces of their rhetoric -- the whole "rich get richer, poor get poorer" thing -- is almost tautological. If you had $100,000 and invested in a fund that paid a 10 percent return, in a year you'd have $110,000. If someone with a $1,000,000 invested in the same fund, at the yearend he would have $1,100,000. One guy made $10,000, the other guy made $100,000. So one got even more rich than the other, but the "poor" guy did not get poorer, did he?

People who work, save, and invest will always improve their status. My mom was born in poverty in the Depression and educated in a one-room schoolhouse. She started with nothing. All she had was a good high school education and an incredible work ethic. But that was all she needed to go from literally dirt-poor to upper-middle class.

The real reason the poor are getting poorer is because of our deteriorating schools and faltering work ethic. So part of it is systemic, part of it is cultural. We could at least fix the systemic part and make sure every child that wanted a good education got one. But we refuse to do even that.

Do you really think the key to a good education is spending a gazillion dollars per child so they all have tablet computers and a $100,000 touch-screen blackboard in every classroom? The real reason Johnny can't read is because schools can't teach and Johnny won't try. So it's somewhat obvious where we are headed: we are creating an enormous class of talentless, uneducated, unmotivated, undisciplined, and self-absorbed parasites dependent on someone else's dollars to take care of them.

Still lusting for class warfare? Be careful what you wish for because in the end, it is the aforementioned class of people that will overrun cities, loot, burn, and riot when the collapse finally comes. See: Greece 2010, New Orleans 2005.

--Todd Kreigh

Up to You

(In response to "The Reality of Hell" in the August 4-10 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

This is quite sobering, even from a Christian's perspective. We, the followers of Christ, must be challenged to persuade others to avoid the reality of a real Hell by believing in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who died for all. This is not a suggestion; it is a mandate to us as believers. There is a (real) Heaven to win, and a (real) Hell to shun. The choice you make is eternal.

--Peggy Riggs

Healthy H2O

(In response to "Water Woes" in the August 4-10 issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly)

This is a great overview of the many pressures that are on OK to protect OUR water resources for the benefit of ALL Oklahomans. There are many entities waiting to benefit the most while others may lose their rights to water near them.

The League of Women Voters are focusing on water issues now along with other groups like Grand Riverkeepers, PreserveMidtown, Sierra Club, Blue Thumb and others.

Oklahomans must work together to ensure we have an adequate, clean supply to meet all future needs in both rural and urban environments.

Science must prevail over politics!

--Barbara VanHanken

Girl Power

She is a migraine headache for us girls.

Being a feminist firebrand, I thought our first female governor would appoint 50 percent from her own sex. We, girls deserve it because we are 51 percent of the population.

The Honorable Mary Fallin has appointed 137 men and only 25 women.

Redneck women stay in the pick-up truck while good ole boys discuss politics. Redneck women have domestic rather than intellectual tendencies. Redneck women have a doormat complex and are easy to manage. Redneck women hang on men's words as if he were one of the three wise men. Redneck women think quality is sitting in the backyard with a six-pack and a bug zapper. Redneck women always vote righteously against a women's right to choose an abortion.

Maybe it makes no difference if a woman is governor.

After all, our first Republican governor Henry Bellmon said, "A lot of people look at the governor as a kind of low-paid movie star, they want to shake his hand, get his autograph and tell folks they did."

--Virginia Blue Jeans Jenner