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Letters to the Editor: July 15, 2014
by OKG Contributor
Get to the point on Stage Center
The destruction of art is equivalent to a book burning.
— Tim Parker Midwest City
Scheduled Black Mass is profane
As a visiting assistant professor of English at Oklahoma State University, I have enjoyed the years I have spent in Oklahoma City, Edmond and Stillwater. My wife has enjoyed introducing me to her hometown and its arts and culture.
How, then, should we respond to a planned Black Mass on civic ground? All civic-minded people understand that public life involves a give-and-take of constructive and corrective expressions. This act, however, is an act of sheer nihilism at best.
Whether you believe it or deny it, there really are powers of good and evil that go far beyond human imagination and will. Even those who do not accept this reality live in a world in which the understanding of good and evil is conditioned by such beliefs.
Civil society can profit by lively debate among different responses to these basic understandings; as an English professor, I promote such lively exchanges in every class I teach.
Civil society cannot, however, thrive when mere destruction of meaningful distinctions and cultural institutions becomes mainstream.
Public sacrilege destroys the foundations of mutual understanding and provides no comparable social goods; it is farther from passing the "redeeming social value" test than a student who plagiarizes an essay.
For the sake of my friends, my students and this beautiful city, I join Archbishop Coakley and all people of good will in begging for prayers, protests and swift action to prevent this abomination.
— Peter G. Epps Edmond
It is tragic for the families of those servicemen who have been killed or wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The minds and pride of our country have been damaged by these unnecessary wars. The Middle Eastern countries have been unstable for longer than our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our parents and grandparents.
They find it impossible to get beyond religious differences in order to form a stable government. Why is it such a difficult thing for our supposed leaders to comprehend this and quit interfering in their irrational behavior?
For those with short memories,the United States sent invading troops into Iraq at the order of President George W. Bush.
His justification was based on erroneous intelligence about weapons of mass destruction possessed by Iraq. He used The Patriot Act as his authorizing legislation to send the U.S. into war. The Patriot Act was passed by a Congress lacking intestinal fortitude. What a pity!
— Donald Smith Oklahoma City
Letters to the Editor Afghanistan Black Mass congress George W. Bush iraq Patriot Act president Stage Center United States war
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