Getting To Know You

Thanks for this well researched and insightful article On David Cook ("Look Who's Back", Oct. 13-19 issue). His music is obviously so reflective of his life. He and the band have been rockin' like crazy on the first few tour stops. Cain's should be an amazing concert! Lucky people who get to go.

--Cathy Welles

Rules of Engagement

This has got to be one of the most absurd articles I have read here ("Ah, To Be Young and In Hate", Oct. 13-19 issue). A. Nobody forced anyone to take out loans to go to college, and certainly nobody forced them to take out huge loans. I worked my way through college; my parents worked their way through college; I know young people who are doing that today as well.

B. Sure you can pay a lot more for college if you want to, but there are plenty of inexpensive, very affordable colleges around. There were no publicly funded, graduate universities in Tulsa when I graduated high school. You can get your first two years of college at TCC for free these days. Couldn't do that in my day, etc.

C. I remember when me and my friends were in high school and were thinking about going to college. We both, looked at what the economy might be like when we graduated, strong or weak to take that into consideration, and what were some of the likely jobs that would need to be filled/available when we graduated so we could take the appropriate courses. And we hedged our bets on top of that in numerous ways.

I have a young friend who graduated about a year and a half ago. He had an $80,000 a year plus job waiting for him the day he graduated. EVERY SINGLE ONE of his classmates in the same degree program quickly got jobs in their major. They chose wisely. Regardless, getting a degree is, and has never been, a promise or guarantee. It's a risk. I knew that, my classmates knew that, and we planned accordingly and took the route that we each felt best fit our circumstances and what we felt would be an acceptable amount of risk per those circumstances.

D. Any moron knows that the economy is cyclical. It has its ups, it has its downs. Things had been going well (or at least appeared to do well) for far too long, a correction was waaay over due. No, nobody could be sure when it was going to happen, but the longer the good times rolled on, the more anyone going into, or already in college should have been wary of taking out a lot of debt for it only meant that the risk of coming out of college right into a "correction" was all that much greater. History and prudence advise caution.

--William Franklin

Lock and Load

I am a proud hand-gun owner and I have to say this, I love being able to know that if someone breaks in my house and no one else is home, I won't end up a statistic ("The Gun Issue", Oct. 13-19 issue). In the same sense, I know that because of the extreme precautions I take, my son won't end up one either. Meaning this, my firearms are kept in a safe, unloaded, with safety locks through the loading chamber and up through the barrel.

The only person that has access to all three of the keys is me and my husband. Also I don't keep the clips and ammo with them either. I don't believe that one should be able to go out and just purchase a weapon. If that was the case than we would have high-noon shoot outs all the time. In the same sense, I don't believe that you should have so many requirements as what government officials in congress are trying to pass either. I think that if you're an American citizen, clean record, 21 and older, with no history of mental illness, you should be allowed to own a handgun. Sorry, that's just the way that I feel.

--Jazmond Murphy

This open-minded article validates many social issues that the media portrays as black and white views held by stereo-typical groups ("The Gun Issue", Oct. 13-19 issue). It's simply not true and they know it. The media seeks provocative extremes to exploit ratings in a never-ending quest for 24/7 news extravaganza.

--Beale Bernson

Good luck to Mr. Morris with his feather boa for self-protection should he be a crime victim ("The Gun Issue", Oct. 13-19 issue).

--Monica Johnston

The photo of DJ Drumaddic in the 10-6-11 issue of UTW was provided by Gerry Westby and taken by Aaron McCann.