Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to [email protected] or sent online at okgazette.com. Include a city of residence and contact number for verification.
Better educated
Although police work is clearly a dangerous profession and those in that field need our support, it is also clear from so many police brutality incidents like the recent one in Chicago that major reform is needed in departments across the country.One reform that could have a positive impact in years to come would be to require all officers and police officials to have completed at minimum four-year bachelor’s degree programs with emphasis in sociology and crisis management and anger management courses.
After all, schoolteachers who interact extensively with the public are required to have four-year degrees, so why shouldn’t police officers? And police officers are paid more from public funds, in some cases much more than schoolteachers.
— Jay Hanas Edmond
Eat lead?
If we are truly committed to winning “the war on terror,” should we not be shooting down the drones over the Middle East that are blowing up wedding parties, funeral marches and hospitals?— Frank Silovsky Oklahoma City
Blame Obama
In response to the letter to the editor from Nathaniel Batchelder, “Blame W.” (Commentary, Letters, Dec. 9, Oklahoma Gazette), he stated, “Obama was supposed to fix all that with Republicans in Congress opposing virtually every move he made.”“Fix all that” referring to the economic collapse.
Let him be reminded that the 111th Congress — seated January 2009 through December 2011, President Barack Obama’s first two years in office — was controlled by Democrats.
The Democratic Senate majority had a 58-percent voting share, and the Democratic House majority had a 58.8-percent voting share. It was only because of Obama’s horrible handling of the economic “recovery” that the Republicans were voted the majority in the House for the 112th Congress and gained significantly in governorships.
However, the Dems still maintained a voting majority of 53 percent in the Senate for the 112th. Dems also maintained a voting majority of 55 percent in the Senate for the 113th Congress. Not until 2015, the 114th Congress and Obama’s sixth year in office, did Republicans gain majority voting in the Senate and House.
Obama was not opposed on every move he made; he was just inept on any move he made.
— Andy Newton Midwest City
Wasted space
I used to like reading your point and counterpoint selection of letters to the editor in the opinion section. From your recent offerings of “Thought police” and “Monkey, business” (Dec. 16, Gazette) one can only think you have a paucity of thoughtful letters or you have chosen to give voice to inane ideas … or you found them humorous.I found them a waste of time and not worth the space you provided.
— Robert Lee Goldsby
Surprise, surprise
The Dec. 9 issue of Oklahoma Gazette was, in my not-so-humble opinion, a benchmark edition. All the articles were interesting and informative, Chicken-Fried News — I can’t believe I’m saying this — was politically benign and even humorous, and Mr. John Thompson (Commentary, “OKCPS too reliant on suspensions”) and Mr. Dave Bond (Commentary, “Tax ballot violates state constitution”) penned cogent, lucid, provoking points of view.Sincere kudos, ladies and gentlemen!
But, the ubiquitous literary eraser, along came Mr. Nathaniel Batchelder from the other side of the looking glass (Letters, “Blame W.”) I’m not sure what his problem is, but I bet it’s hard to pronounce. He seems chagrined that Republicans haven’t criticized President George W. Bush.
Well, one reason is that the loony liberal lackeys did it 24/7 for eight years and still haven’t stopped 15 years later. Then he goes through a list of whines that are devoid of facts.
To wit: The tax cuts were prior to 9/11. You remember 9/11, when 3,000 innocent civilians were killed? Our recovery from the terrorist act boosted the economy out of the depression the previous administration dumped on us.
Also, the president didn’t “launch” two wars; he sent a congressionally approved force into Afghanistan to seek and destroy Osama bin Laden and his band. With his, congressional and U.N. approval, Iraq was invaded to stop the next 9/11.
Remember, we were still in a state of conflict with Iraq since 1991 and our aircraft were being fired upon daily while enforcing a U.N. no-fly zone. As of 2008, the War on Terror cost far less than President Barack Obama’s farcical 2009 “Porkulus” scheme.
The Enron collapse was missed by more than the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a whole lot of other agencies. Enron officials covered their tracks like a cats in a sand box. And he chooses to “Blame W.” OK. Got it. Omit decades of Democrat hanky-panky that contributed to the 2008 economic crash.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) into law to facilitate home ownership for the poor. It didn’t work. In 1993, Clinton rewrote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules on mortgage funding. In 1994, he modified the CRA with the National Homeownership Strategy, which led to rules forcing quotas for subprime loans onto banks. In the next eight to nine years, there were a series of fast-and-loose deals within Democrat committees.
In 2003, Bush proposed one of 17 regulatory overhauls and Democrats, notably lawmakers Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd, killed the reforms. In 2007, Fannie and Freddie owned over $6 trillion in the mortgage market, and in 2008, it collapsed on itself. Fifteen years in the making and all-Democrat-all-the-time, there was hardly a Bush/Republican debacle.
Some additional data: In 2007, the debt was $8.9 trillion, the deficit was $161 billion, the GDP was 3.5 percent and there were 52 straight months of job creation (real jobs, not part-time, fast-food server jobs). The Democrats took over Congress in 2007, and Obama took office in 2009. The current debt is $19 trillion and the deficit is $583 billion. The deficit in 2014 when the Republicans took over Congress was $485 billion. GDP is at 1 percent and we have 97 million citizens out of work.
According to Batchelder and his ilk, Obama is being treated badly by the party he demonizes every chance he gets, and seven years later, it’s still “Blame W.” Seven years later, our community organizer-in-chief is still being bamboozled by big, dumb Dubya.
The world is on fire from Casablanca to Kalkota, our (former) allies don’t trust us, our enemies taunt us and there is not a single piece of Earth that respects us more now than when our commander-in-chief, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, was crowned.
We live in interesting times.
— Pete Lepo Edmond
