To health!

The modern streetcar, which is part of the MAPS 3 project, couldn’t have come at a better time. The city has really grown over the last decade, especially with the revamping of Midtown and Bricktown. The city has so many events going on throughout these locations that sometimes overlap each other in the same day, making it difficult to access them with a car.

When parking can cost $10-$20 per event, it really becomes expensive and time-consuming to find parking and then walk to the event. Being able to park in Midtown for dinner, then taking the streetcar downtown to a Thunder game, then catching a ride to Bricktown for some drinks or dancing before taking the streetcar back to your parking lot would be amazing and such a stress reliever, especially when you are traveling in multiple cars. I also think it would increase activity downtown, considering the easier access by streetcar. This would promote outdoor activities, thereby increasing exercise, which would improve the overall well-being of our Oklahoma citizens.

Marlena Williams Edmond

Our greatest con

It is too easy to say we are reactionary voters like those who took the vote in Britain in 2016. It is just too easy to report that. It is too easy to carve us away from the more progressive voters of the Netherlands and France.

The majority of Americans voted for better wages; equal rights for minorities and women; better schools; cleaner water and air; saving the climate; fair regulation of conglomerated food, finance and chemical companies; international relationships and trade; aid to the less fortunate; new immigration and economic policies; health care for all; and new careers in a changing world. Sure, we have a pool of reactionary people, but many of them want some of these things as well. However, reactionary attitudes do not make a majority viewpoint. And many reactionaries would be less so if they were not so afraid and confused by cons perpetrated on them by those who talk the talk of progress but walk the walk of destruction.

What is missing in America is democracy. We do not have non-gerrymandered districts so that votes are equally weighed or equal voter access, even in an electronic age. Worst of all, we do not have majority rule in this country. If we did, how different this century would be already both at home and abroad. Maybe it is too late for us with climate change, but we could still try, and many more Americans would be alive in the interim, and millions of Middle Easterners. There would be no ISIS and there would be much more effort placed upon international solutions other than war. We could try democracy if we could ever get those in control to loosen their grip enough to let teachers educate Americans without censorship about the reasons we do not have a democratic country. As a nation, we talk the talk of democracy but do not really walk the walk. It is our greatest con.

Christopher Venters Luther

Correction

Much of Frank Silovsky’s letter to the editor, published May 10 in Oklahoma Gazette, was paraphrased or copied without attribution from a Nov. 12, 2004 Bill Moyers interview with Sister Joan Chittister for PBS program Now. Find the full transcript at pbs.org/now.

Opinions expressed on the commentary page, in letters to the editor and elsewhere in this newspaper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ownership or management.

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.

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