YOUR VIEWS

Don’t blame beef

Don Douglas (Your Views, July 2) repeats a myth related to the impact of beef production on the environment. Compared with 1977, the U.S. beef community today produces the same amount of beef with 33 percent fewer cattle due to better animal genetics, better nutrition and better animal health and welfare. Beef cattle allow us to produce food on land that is unsuitable for cultivated agriculture, and 90 percent of the food cattle eat is grass and other human-inedible plants.

U.S. beef has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world, 10 to 50 times lower than some nations. Greenhouse gas emission (GHG) from cattle account for only 2 percent of the United States’ GHG emissions while transportation (25.3 percent) and electricity (29.7 percent) account for the majority of all GHG. Your diet isn’t the place to start if you seek to reduce GHG emissions.

Finally, if every American went vegan, U.S. GHG emissions would lower by 2.6 percent, but the consequences would be insufficient nutrients to feed the population, increased use of synthetic fertilizer and increased soil erosion. Producing food is a balancing act of managing natural resources efficiently and with great care, care taken by Oklahoma’s farming and ranching families every day as we work to feed your families and ours.

Angie Meyer, Okarche Meyer is chairwoman of the Oklahoma Beef Council.

Time to reconsider Roe v. Wade

Andrew Tevington (Your Views, July 2) provides the most thoughtful and convincing arguments against accepting bad Supreme Court decisions because of “settled law” or “stare decisis.” He convincingly argues that, “Before the Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Dred Scott v. Sandford that free black descendants of slaves were not Americans or entitled to access to the courts. Three-quarters of a century later, Chief Justice C.E. Hughes confessed this evil decision was ‘the Court’s greatest self-inflicted wound.’ About 30 years after Dred Scott, the court ruled that Native Americans were not citizens either, despite passage of the 14th Amendment, which stated, ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States . ... ’ Forty years later, Congress admitted the inanity of the decision and enacted the Indian Citizenship Act. During World War II, the Supreme Court said the president could order innocent Japanese-Americans into concentration camps. Sixty-four years later, the court expressly repudiated this immoral

decision.”

Considering these powerful examples of past tragic Supreme Court decisions along with the cumulative, irrefutable science defining when human life begins, is it not now time for serious questioning and evaluation of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, especially concerning the specious “settled law” or “stare decisis” arguments used to defend Roe vs. Wade?

Tony Maggio, Oklahoma City

Punishing students

My heart sank when I read “Tuition to rise at most state colleges” (News, June 29). Why punish the students who are trying to get an education by forcing them to get a student loan (which they will pay back, maybe by the time their children go to college)? My story is like most, with grandchildren in college (one at Oklahoma State, one at the University of Central Oklahoma). Both work full-time summer jobs and both work during the school year. Their parents work hard and some very long hours — it absolutely takes a village!

I say shame on the regents and all of the presidents and coaches and professors who put themselves above higher education for students.

Ola Thomas, Tuttle

Special session indeed

Gov. Mary Fallin has decided not to call the Legislature back into special session, stating legislation wasn’t necessary to control medical marijuana and that the task could be handled by the dysfunctional Health Department. But might she have a better reason for leaving legislators home to fume? Might Fallin be a bit concerned the agenda could include addressing some of her vetoes? Constitutional carry, Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) adjustments?

With a significant number of incumbent legislators booted in the primaries and the discontent of some term-limited out, a special session could be quite a spectacle. RSA adjustments passed the Senate 42-0 and the House 88-1 — more than a veto-proof majority — and legislators overwhelmingly approved constitutional carry. A special session with a lame-duck governor, a tickedoff batch of legislators, guns, weed and education could make for a very special, special session.

Randy Wedel, Stillwater