Letter to the Editor: Can only chuckle
BY James Blackburn, Tulsa
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
10/03/12 at 2:56 AM
Growing up in Tulsa, I started to become aware of politics in third grade. My elementary school class had a mock election with Richard M. Nixon outpolling John F. Kennedy by about 10-to-1. I had watched some of the debates and while I didn't understand the issues, I thought Kennedy had some of the qualities we might like in a leader.
As I assumed Tulsa was a microcosm of the U.S., I felt Kennedy would be the victim of a landslide. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the newspaper to find that the election was the closest in history! "How could this be?" I wondered. "There must be other parts of the country that are the opposite of Oklahoma." (I even thought of the bizarro world of Superman comics.)
Later, as a high school student, I worked a summer job at a resort that had mostly north Chicagoans as patrons. I had found the opposite viewpoints and they were much better informed. To them "conservative" was a pejorative and they referred to themselves as moderates or (proudly) liberals.
The Tulsa World carries a balanced op-ed section that some refer to as "liberal," which apparently is a synonym for "wrong-headed." Having lived in a number of large cities around the U.S., I can only chuckle.
My thanks to the Tulsa World for a high-caliber staff with unquestioned journalistic integrity!
Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com.
