YOUR VIEWS

In early March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the federal government created the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) that was administered through the Small Business Administration. Oklahoma bankers began to work around the clock, seven days a week to push through as many of the PPP loans as they could. In many banks, employees volunteered and moved from their regular duties to help address the high demand these new business/job saving loans made.

It would be hard to determine the number of jobs these loans were able to save but it is safe to say it would be in the hundreds of thousands.

In Oklahoma to date, thousands of loans have been booked by more than 200 banks, totaling in the billions of dollars. It is unprecedented the number of banks that participated and the number of loans they made to get dollars where it was needed most, in payroll for Oklahomans!

Without this monumental effort by Oklahoma banks and their officers and employees, thousands in this state would be out of work and Main Street Oklahoma businesses would have been forced to close. Just imagine how our economy would look today if the SBA and the banking institutions had not stepped up to make this happen.

My hat is off to all who worked for many days and the long hours to help Oklahoma because we know this is the Oklahoma Standard!

Frank Merrick, Oklahoma City Merrick is president of Foundation Management Inc.

For most of my 77 years,

The Oklahoman has been central to my life and my primary source of “what's going on” around us. When my family moved from Chickasha to Wichita in 1956, I missed Oklahoma so much that I would sneak over to our next-door neighbor, who received The Oklahoman in the mail, and “borrow” his newspaper, carefully putting it back in his mailbox when finished.

Throughout my career with the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, the newspaper was the closest thing to a town square where we could all gather with the printed word in a common way to discuss the issues of the day and what was happening in our city, metro area and state. It still is. I would hate to think of not getting an Oklahoman to read each day. Its reporters are the best in the country and I hope they can all remain on the payroll as cost cutting is so common to keeping the newspaper industry viable.

I no longer take daily delivery of The Oklahoman, choosing to read it digitally online. When Kelly Fry (Commentary, May 5) states you can get The Oklahoman in digital format for $49 a year, it has to be the best deal in town. What the newspaper has done during this COVID19 pandemic in keeping its readers informed is off the page and beyond measure. Dean Schirf, Harrah

I disagree with Carl Owen III (Your Views, May 6). I am in the vulnerable group due to age and a lung condition. At no time through this pandemic have I felt expendable, or that I am collateral damage. This whole lockdown was to help us keep from getting the virus. I never once heard anything derogatory about our age group.

I was a nurse for 30 years and some of those years were during the HIV worries. I never have felt that anyone owed me anything for being on the front lines and helping others. Those who are living paycheck to paycheck deserve the opportunity to go back to work. What are they doing now without a paycheck? This is not about Wall Street and big corporations, it's about letting people get back to work.

Don't worry about us elderly, we should be smart enough to know how and when we can go out. I may be wearing a mask in July, but the rest of you deserve your jobs back. Barbara Butterfield, Oklahoma City