Letters to Editor for Spring 2016
Thanks for two excellent articles in your last edition. I especially appreciate your explanation of what it means to be a natural born citizen. It's the best I've ever seen. To put it briefly, there are two kinds of citizens. Natural born and natural-ized. If your citizenship emanates from your birth, you're natural born; if it emanates from going through the naturalization process, you're naturalized. If it doesn't emanate from either, you're not a citizen.
You didn't address the "under the jurisdiction thereof" phrase which some don't understand. To be "under the jurisdiction" of a city, state or nation simply means you're subject to their laws. A Norman policeman can't arrest me in Oklahoma City for violating a Norman city ordinance because at that point I'm not under the jurisdiction of Norman. But he could arrest me if I were in Norman because then I would be under the jurisdiction of Norman.
So who is in the United States but not under the jurisdiction of the United States? Foreign diplomats serving their country and their families. That's called "diplomatic immunity."
I also appreciate the article on an Article V Convention. My only disagreement is that I believe you greatly exaggerate the risk. The mood of the nation, outside a hand full of deep blue states, is such now that the likelihood of thirty-eight states ratifying any progressive amendments miniscule.
There is a certain amount of danger in crossing the street, much less driving on an Oklahoma highway. Not to mention using household bleach, kitchen knives, power tools and any number of things most of us use every day. We know this and we use them anyway. If we didn't, we'd never accomplish anything.
Keep up the good work.
Verne Horsley
Slaughterville, OK
Lesser of Two Evils
The Democrat candidates are in general agreement that the rich should pay more taxes. College education and health care should be free. All hospitals and clinics must be nationalized under a single-payer system. Also, the American citizen has to be disarmed.
I believe the Democrat Patty has contempt for private property, personal liberty, individuality and reason. I also believe the Democrat Party has officially become the Socialist Party with a strong communist influence. Thanks to public schools, that doesn't mean a thing to the younger generation.
Loretta Lynch, an extreme anti-gun advocate, was sworn in as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States in April of 2015, Eric Holder began disregarding the Constitution and laws after he was confirmed as Attorney General, Loretta Lynch has told the Senate that is what she's going to do. Lynch stated under oath that she has no problem implementing Obama's unlawful, politically motivated amnesty orders -- even though a federal court has found them unlawful. Lynch went on to pretend ignorance on universal background checks and Operation Choke Point's anti-gun ramnifcations even though she was under oath.
Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, and his leadership team helped ram through Lynch's confirmation, resulting in an increased calling for the police to be nationalized and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, will never be charged with any wrongdoing. Nationalization of the police did not begin with Obama. Pairing local and state officials with federal bureaucrats under the sprawling "Homeland Security," banner has been in place since the George W. Bush administration. Virtually every federal agency now has its own SWAT- style paramilitary "police" unit to enforce its edicts and "protect the homeland." The US Constitution prohibits such federal police agencies.
Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House demonstrated his lack of conservative or constitutional credentials when he ensured passage of the Onmibus Spending Bill in December of 2015. The spending bill funds President Obama's signature health care law, Planned Parenthood, and amnesty for illegal immigrants. The Omnibus Spending Bill effectively forfeits the massive Republican victories of 2014, cementing Obama's priorities for nearly the full remainder of his term. The Republican controlled House and Senate gave Democrats 80% of what they wanted. What was the reason for working to elect Republicans at the federal level?
I believe the only reason most people vote Republican at the federal level is because, at best, they are the lesser of two evils. The best way to limit the size and growth of government is to limit debt. Voting for the lesser of two evils does not work, The national debt continues to increase, regardless of which political palty is in control. When a member of congress votes to increase the national debt, they must be voted out of office. Both Senators Inhofe and Lankford and Congressmen Cole, Lucas, Mullin, and Russell all voted for the Omnibus Spending Bill. I see it as my duty to my children and grandchildren to campaign and vote them out of office.
J.T.Whatley
Duncan, OK
No Moral Compass
If we are looking for this Nation to be saved and to survive for our grandchildren and great grandchildren, we need to face the fact that it may not survive! At least, not as we have known it. The United States is not an everlasting nation and there is no promise or insinuation of such from any quarter.
This being an election year, we look to the ballot box and think that by electing the right people to office we will survive. More important than the ballot box is being the right people! Are we?
It is obvious we have many in elected office that have no moral compass. No fear or consideration of a power higher than themselves. They look to no authority higher than the face in the mirror or their friends and associates. Unfortunately this is also true of many of our citizens.
The United States of America was founded on God's word -- Christian/Judeo principles.
However, after decades of "do your own thing," "feels good, do it," "I have rights," a terrible bending of crime and selective punishment, something for nothing, we find our people and our Country in a horrible mess. At the root, there continues to be a systematic removal of God and His word from most every [public] facet of our life in this country. Government encroachment in every area of our life. Why have we let this happen? This elimination and violating the foundation on which our country was founded, has brought the chickens home to roost. Not to mention, enemies to the doorstep.
I know a lot of people will disagree with this letter, but a reading of the Old Testament (Bible) will show how God dealt with Nations who refused His law and His council. You can also read a lot of it as recorded in secular (mans) history. God still works in the affairs of man the same way today. "God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7.
Look around, listen to, read the news. The proof is in the pudding! Look at the change in function of our government, the social changes, the behavior and conduct of our people from about mid-1940's till now. We are definitely reaping what we have sown. If we continue this path, our country and our people will pay a terrible price.
We need great change in our country if we are to survive. The ballot box plays a part, but, our people need to look higher than the ballot box. We need to look inward, to ourselves, adjust our own moral compass, change things in this country that are flagrantly wrong. We need to correct violations of God, His law and instruction with the hope He will hear us and answer our prayer before it is too late. We need to correct our own lives and then correct our government. We need to elect people to office who hold these same God - fearing qualities. We should not tolerate some of the things being proposed and sanctioned by our government and the courts.
"We the people" hold the solution in our hearts and in our actions.
Georgia Williams
Lawton, OK
Wasting Needed Water
In the last few months there has been a substantial increase in the number of lesser strength earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma and Southern Kansas. Some "experts" are quoted as saying that this is a warning of a much more severe one to come, but truthfully admit that they have no clue as to when. Of course it has been well known that the New Madrid fault along the Mississippi River being the East border of Missouri has moved in past centuries and would have caused massive damage and loss of life if the land had been developed and populated as it is now.
As time has gone along and the frequency of them has increased more and more have claimed that the blame belongs on "the oil producers injecting waste water into the rocks." While my opinion, as a geologist, tends to agree that there is a connection with the injection of large amounts of water into the "basement" rocks, it does not "cause" but merely allows them to move.
My opinion is based on experience in the Denver area where a single basement rock injection well actually turned out to be the culprit and when injection ceased, so did the quakes, and soon.
The pressure to move is already there, and has been building for centuries, if not actually millions of years. Even without the lubrication and "raising" of the overlying beds to reduce the friction holding the basement fractures together, in time there would have been a massive tremor, with resulting damage and death. So it seems to me that a number of smaller quakes to relieve the stress pressure would be preferable, but the residents are raising a loud fuss to stop.
Late last year there was a story in media about this matter and an engineer with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission was quoted. Because it has been my intention to keep myself as current as possible on new developments in the industry I was aware, and had been reading for more than a year, a trade magazine, Shale Play Water Management. It seems that in some other states where massive length horizontal wells are being drilled, technology has progressed to where it is now practical to treat and re-use, or sell for agriculture or residential use, flow-back and produced water, in large volumes. Unfortunately, the EPA and other environmental agencies and activists cannot bring themselves to accept the use of such treated water by humans, even though all tests indicate it is quite safe.
It seems to me that it is poor public policy to allow the massive amounts of water to be disposed of that way, because it will probably not ever be seen again. By the reuse of this water, it becomes unnecessary to locate and use possibly much needed fresh water for the drilling and fracking of wells.
It was really not surprising to find the lack of knowledge of newer developed methods of successfully treating this disposed water. The industry has a long history, often experienced by me when moving from one operating area to another, of a lack of communication between operating areas. The attitude seemed to be "we've been doing it this way for over 50 years without too much problem so why should we try something new." With shortages of useful water being more and more common, it seems any new technology should be examined.
Robbert W. McDowell, Jr.
Broken Arrow, OK
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