YOUR VIEWS
Something bigger
We’ve all seen it — the images of people helping each other over fences at the Las Vegas concert during the mass shooting. This shouldn’t have happened, if you believe purely in Darwinism, evolution, and survival of the fittest. Under these scientific theories, the fastest and strongest people would have scaled the fence and made a clean getaway, while the least fit — the older, the weaker, the slower, the heavier, the frightened and the less clever — would have remained bottled up in the kill zone. But that’s not what we saw. Instead, we saw the strongest and the fittest helping the weakest and the least fit to survive. Something much bigger propels humans, unlike any other species, to place themselves in danger to help others, and especially so with others who clearly won’t make it without help. Pretending there isn’t something bigger to come is costing us in the here and now. So I encourage you to seek this something bigger in your life. Go to a church, synagogue or temple of any sort, and there you will find other people at various stages of their seeking path. Then, I encourage you to encourage others to do the same. Some will talk about guns and politics. I will talk about heroism and the reward I believe will come their way.
Robert Frantz, Oklahoma City
Medicare’s costs
I am one of the seniors referenced in A.A. Austin’s letter (Your Views, Sept. 30). I was forced to pay into Medicare for many years, and now, at age 75, I use it along with another insurance plan I also paid into before I retired. My primary objection with Medicare is that it’s unaffordable. It hasn’t cost me anything since I have been using it for my health care, but what difference does that make? The National Center for Policy estimates Medicare’s unfunded liabilities at $84 trillion. In 10 years, it will probably be around $90 trillion.
How much longer will the politicians be able to kick the “actual cost of Medicare” down the road while fooling people into thinking highly of Medicare? Eventually (I hope), more people like me will look at Medicare as another entitlement program politicians use to manipulate voters while increasing the size of government.
Earl Hood, Shawnee
Blame
Regarding “House Dems to blame for cigarette tax failure” (Our Views, Sept. 28): One word about blame (the Democrats, may as well throw in Obama): Orwellian.
Paul Bagley, Oklahoma City
Funny cousin
As an old graduate of the University of Oklahoma (1974), I would like to thank President David Boren for his service and ask him to complete something he started some while back. The Big 12 Conference, of which OU is a valued member, is the only power conference in the NCAA whose name is a lie. It remains a lie to consistently refer to something as 12 when it is only 10, even in today’s America.
President Boren, please clear this up before you leave so the conference will no longer be America’s funny cousin who really never could count.
Steven L. Perry, Oklahoma City
Well said
I agree with Cleo Phillips (Your Views, Oct. 1) that the Oklahoma City school board has no right to change some schools’ names without input from those communities. Why are some people wanting to change history? There is no way that can or should be done even though terrible things have happened in our past. The present generations need to know all of history, good or bad. Changing the name of a school isn’t going to change that. Tearing down statues that have been around for years is not going to erase what that person did or did not do.
It’s interesting coming from a black man that Phillips sees the political agenda behind all this and these things that are causing such racial divide. I applaud him for stating his views.
Linda Ashby, Moore