Vin Testa waves a rainbow flag in front of the Supreme Court June 26 after the Supreme Court struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / Associated Press file
Correction This story originally contained an error. An online comment lacked context. The comment was in response to another online comment that was not included. Also, in the editing process, an honorific title was changed, changing the gender of the person referred to. The story has been corrected.
Merit pay doesn't apply
If you think hard-working teachers would work harder to get extra money, you are mistaken (Wayne Greene: "What taxpayers should get for $2,000 in teacher raises, and why it's hard not to love Markwayne Mullin," Sept. 1). That is like saying a surgeon would try to do a better job if he/she could be paid more, or a fireman would do a better job putting out fires if he/she were paid more. Teachers work as hard as they can because they CARE about their students. Elementary teachers spend hundreds, if not thousands of their own money to supplement their classroom libraries, school supplies, food for hungry children, clothing for needy children and more. Try your reasoning the next time you go to the dentist.
Glenda Puett, Broken Arrow
Hoo-ray for Jay
Jay's insight, humor, and clever phrasing make me a loyal reader (Jay Cronley: "Everyone is writing a column these days," Sept. 1).
Judy Johnson, Tulsa
Tripe!
What a sorry screed. (Wayne Greene: "What taxpayers should get for $2,000 in teacher raises, and why it's hard not to love Markwayne Mullin," Sept. 1). Editorial Pages Editor Greene states ... "we should be getting better teachers for our money." I thought Greene was smarter than this tripe would allow.
Bill Carr, Bixby
No big shot
My great-grandfather is the same person as the great-grandfather of Mark Costello, my brother. Our great-grandfather was named Dennis Coyle, a son of a Pennsylvania farm laborer. Rather than work the farm fields, Dennis worked the booming oil fields as a driller. He followed the work. He worked for the Big Guy, the entrepreneur that my brother keeps talking about. And while Dennis followed the day-labor work to places like West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado, my great-grandmother Flodelia ran a boarding house back in Pennsylvania to support herself and three children, one of whom was my grandmother. But Flodelia died suddenly and young, and Dennis moved his children to an Indian orphanage in Chickasha, one run by the Catholic Church, so he could continue to labor in the oil fields. My grandmother eventually graduated from the orphanage and attended nursing school at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. Dennis eventually, after circling through oil patches in Texas and Colorado, returned to Oklahoma, where he lived near downtown Oklahoma City in boarding houses and hotels. He died in St. Anthony Hospital in 1948. All of these facts can be verified. My brother and his publicist do an astonishing and admirable job of conflating entrepreneurs with laborers and of casting my great-grandfather in such a way that he seems like a big-shot oilman. But in doing so, they completely miss the point of this holiday weekend. Labor Day is about my great-grandfather and my great-great grandfather the farm laborer and the millions and millions of Americans just like them who are ordinary, hard-working people - laborers - the backbone of this great nation. These are the people we celebrate this weekend, not entrepreneurs.
Alice Costello, Edmond
'Thank you'
Thank you, Ms. Costello (Mark Costello: "Labor Day is a celebration of entrepreneurialism and economic opportunity," Aug. 31). Commissioner Costello certainly has lost sight of those it is his duty to support and protect and who really built this country through their hard work.
Frank Chambers, Stillwater
Go Pokes!
Love that orange and black! Go Pokes! ("Robust defense, Walsh's spark lift OSU to win over Mississippi State," Sept. 1)
Janet Cave, Hominy
Bring on the truth
Bring on Notre Dame... then the truth will be known ("OU wins in Knight's debut," Sept. 1).
Maxwell Lewis, Sapulpa
Defining marriage
Marriage is between a man and a woman! You're right, Mr. Fisher (Rep. Dan Fisher: "Same-sex marriage is a step in society's slouch toward Sodom," Sept. 1). No gay or lesbian should be able to redefine it.
Greg Simmons, Bixby
Exhausted
This subject exhausts me (Rep. Dan Fisher: "Same-sex marriage is a step in society's slouch toward Sodom," Sept. 1). Why can't we all get along and respect the rights of the individual to be himself and receive the same consideration under the law without discrimination?
Cindy Keith, Tulsa
Gay marriage ... someday
Gay marriage will someday be legal in Oklahoma, but it will be a race to see who legalizes it last among us, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi (Matt David: "GOP shouldn't fight love," Sept. 1).
Larry Cave, Hominy
Wisdom saluted
"The current tax code is so complex (that) we need to tear up the tax code, get rid of the IRS and start all over." Wiser words were never said ("U.S. Rep. Bridenstine calls for tax overhaul at town hall meeting in Bixby," Aug. 28).
Michael Morgan, Broken Arrow
Wisdom refuted
Wiser words have often been said by progressives ("U.S. Rep. Bridenstine calls for tax overhaul at town hall meeting in Bixby," Aug. 28). The flat-tax or the so-called "fair tax," which is a national sales tax, are disingenuous because they are both regressive. Either will primarily hit the poor and the middle class. Of course, this is the primary purpose of the GOP ... protect the top 1 percent at the expense of the poor and the middle class. The poor are desperate and the middle class is shrinking. Why ... because they are paying for everything while the 1 percent hides their income in the Cayman Islands like Mitt Romney who paid 13 percent tax while the middle-class paid approximately 29 percent.
Al Lewallen, Tulsa
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Reader Forum
The incarceration rate in Oklahoma is among the highest in the nation with approximately 26,000 people behind bars at any given time.
The Nov. 28, 2008, Tulsa World published my Readers Forum piece, "Antietam," in which I reported on a visit my then-8-year-old grandson, Stevie, and I made to Antietam battlefield in rural Maryland.
