Obama & Keystone XL

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By Earl Hatley

I was [s]orry I could not be in Cushing [on Thursday] as I had planned…

I don’t hate our President. In fact I defended him by chastising the fact that our Governor and other elected officials choose not to meet his plane. Last time Air Force 1 landed a tinker was for Kennedy and Nixon if my memory serves well. I think our officials met those arrivals. I am Chair of the Craig County Democrats, I will fight for Obama’s second term without hesitation.

That said, the pipeline project being debated is bad for our country and does not serve the Nation’s best interest. I have written extensively why this is on more posts than I can remember, so I won’t do that now unless you want me too.

Thing is, I stand for the First Nations in Canada who’s traditional lands are being destroyed to dig up the sand layer below. A precious boreal forest, the Amazon of the northern hemisphere, is being destroyed, people are dying from cancer and other diseases they never had there before and don’t exist other communities, or at the same rate of population. Several tribes in the lower 48 are also formally against it, and are being ignored by TransCanada.

Three tribes along the route here in Oklahoma have resolutions against this pipeline and all say they stand with their relatives in Canada who are suffering so much. As a member of Cherokee Nation I would think you could understand why I am doing all I can to stop the destruction by stopping the pipeline that will enable BP, Shell, Exxon/Mobile and more who are digging up the forests, and shipping shipping the tar to their own refineries in Houston. Much of the oil will either be sold directly to China (their largest customer) or will be exported as products.

The US is a net exporter of oil products, contrary to what we are told on the news. We export more oil products, amountiing to more oil than we import. Is it worth crimes in Canada, in order to have a pipeline here, to sell products elsewhere? Do you support taking the tops off of mountains in southeast, Alabama to Virginia?? Tars sands extraction is even worse. Making more people sick.

So, I like Obama and support him, I just disagree with the pipeline. By the way, I don’t hate anyone, nor do the people I organize with. They are also Obama supporters against the pipeline. No one hates him except the Tea Party crowed, who , unlike us were allowed to line the sidewalks of the motocade . Democrats who support Obama but not the pipeline and the Indian peoples that came there to speak were put in a park in a cage 6 miles away from our President. By doing this, you, he, whomever, saw hate from the Republican Tea Party not from our people, Most of whom are on my Facebook for you to read. You won’t find hatred here, you find frustration, determination and organization.

Earl Hatley, M.A. is a tribal consultant, Grand Riverkeeper and President of Local Environmental Action Demanded.  He resides at Vinita, Oklahoma.

Note:  No part of this was written by Fannie Bates.  If you see the name Fannie Bates anywhere on this article, it is a clerical error.

To learn more about Earl Hatley:  http://www.leadagency.org/EHBio.pdf

 

 

Mayor Cornett to launch Safeguard My Meds campaign

Activism & awareness, Health Care 1 Comment
Mayor Cornett to launch Safeguard My Meds campaign

OKLAHOMA CITY – Mayor Mick Cornett , in partnership with the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), is launching a public service campaign on Tuesday, Feb 28 to educate families about the importance of safe storage and disposal of prescription medications.

The campaign touts on these alarming statistics:

  • Every day, more than 2,500 teenagers abuse prescription medication for the first time.1
  • More than half of teens obtain medications from friends and family.1
  • 12 to 17 year olds abuse prescription drugs more than they abuse ecstasy, crack/cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine combined. 1

Cornett is joined in the initiative by local pharmacist Lonny Wilson, DPh., president of the National Community Pharmacists Association, an organization representing the interests of America’s community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 23,000 independent community pharmacies. Wilson has 30 years of experience in retail community pharmacy and currently owns and operates three pharmacies in eastern Oklahoma County.

“Many young people mistakenly think that it is safer to misuse prescription medications than illegal street drugs. There is less social stigma attached to misusing medications so it seems more acceptable to teens. Through this campaign, we want to educate the public about the steps they can take to help keep prescription medications out of the wrong hands.”

Visit www.safeguardmymeds.org for more information on safe storage and disposal of prescription medications. Download a medication inventory sheet and helpful brochures of prescription drug abuse.

The campaign is part of a national awareness initiative called Safeguard My Meds supported by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Community Pharmacists Association and pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma L.P., to reduce the abuse of prescription drug abuse.

[1] Office of National Drug Control Policy, Prescription for Danger, Jan. 2008

Drastic Meth-fighting legislation dies, alternative plan pursued

Health Care, Oklahoma Politics , , No Comments

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Tulsa World reports that House Bill 2941 failed to pass in the House Public Health Committee, effectively killing the legislation for this session. The bill proposed making pseudoephedrine, which is used to make Methamphetamine, available by prescription only.

The panel voted 13-0 to approve an alternative pushed by the pharmaceutical industry that would connect Oklahoma to a multistate electronic tracking and blocking registry. That measure, offered by Rep. David Derby, R-Owasso, would also reduce the amount of pseudoephedrine that an Oklahoman could purchase in one month to 7.2 grams, about 30 days worth of medicine for allergy sufferers.

Derby’s measure goes to the full House for consideration.

“This is the most responsible approach to controlling the access to pseudoephedrine without impeding access to people with legitimate needs,” Derby said.

Oklahoma Sierra Club hosts Keystone XL Party

Environment, Events, Politics , , No Comments
Oklahoma Sierra Club hosts Keystone XL Party

The Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club is throwing a party to celebrate our recent success in persuading the administration to stand up against the Keystone XL pipeline.  We will have free food, free non-alcoholic beverages and door prizes. A cash bar will be available.

Who: Everyone’s Invited!  Please bring your friends.

When: Wednesday, February 29 at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Belle Isle Brewery, 50 Penn Place, Oklahoma City

With the Senate currently trying to override the will of the administration using legislative loopholes, and Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe leading the charge, it is more important than ever that we stand together in opposition to this pipeline!

  • Cornell University and numerous independent economists have evaluated the pipeline proposal and assert that the pipeline’s supporters are massively inflating their numbers.
  • The pipeline would put Oklahoma citizens’ health and Oklahoma property owners’ land at risk to benefit a foreign oil company.
  • Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth and this project, if approved, would place our children’s future in jeopardy.

So, join us as we celebrate the administration’s support and stand up to big oil and their many supporters.

Please take a moment to RSVP and let us know you’ll be able to make it!

The Fight for Sane Transportation Policy Continues in OKC

Environment, Politics , , , , No Comments
From the Desk of Tom Elmore:

BOARD SAYS OKLAHOMA CITY SHOULD RE-ARRANGE THE DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC…Who are these people? The same bunch, at least in spirit, that brought you “Urban Renewal” — the razing of historic downtown OKC for a few quick bucks and the subsequent 40-years-in-the-wilderness… Very certainly the same bunch who brought you the “magnificent new, state-of-the-art Oklahoma County Jail.” Oh — and their latest triumph — the hilariously blind, cramped and chintzy $250-million-per-mile “New I-40 Crosstown” and its spectacular vistas of —- ugly retaining walls (with that “tombstone-with-a-screw-in-the-top-of-it” motif repeated over and over again…) and the Producers Coop Cottonseed Compress (Wow! Look! An honest business!).Does anybody understand now why Stanley Draper insisted on “an elevated I-40 passage through downtown?” (Will the heroic statue of ‘Ol Stan holding the rolled-up-blueprints to his highway-in-the-sky standing down in Civic Center Park be taken away on the same trucks carrying off the “Old Crosstown’s structural steel? That’d be the “the steel with 50-to-75-years-of-useful-life-left….”) Maybe he figured passers-by would like to actually “see” downtown?How long are the “stakeholders” downtown going to put up with ODOT’s new “highway-in-a-hole” and its “no view of downtown?” (Remember, they’ve been carping about the “new Jail” since it opened!)

Now — having needlessly destroyed the magnificent 12-track-wide, 8-block-long OKC Union Station rail yard (300 SW 7th) to make way for the “New Crosstown,” they want us to blow hundreds of millions more trying to jam a transit hub for the entire region into the narrow, congested space between Bricktown and The Myriad.

Never mind the 50+ fast, daily, 100-car BNSF freight trains roaring right through the middle of the narrow, elevated rail corridor, and right through the middle of the MAPS Citizen Advisory Panel’s “dream passenger rail yard.” Never mind that according to BNSF, THE HEARTLAND FLYER is just about all the extra traffic the corridor can handle. Never mind that this is supposed to become the center for interfacing intercity passenger trains, regional commuter trains and local electric transit trains and trolleys with buses. No room for the extra trains, no room for buses — and they actually want to “narrow EK Gaylord Boulevard,” so there’ll be no room for anything else, either!

At Union Station they had an elegant facility with 3 existing passenger platforms (designed to serve 6 passenger tracks) linked to the city-owned, 55,000 square foot terminal building by underground tunnels, plenty of parking and bus space — and all at-grade with the exception of the beautiful, hand-built Robinson and Walker arterial street underpasses flanking the terminal one block east and west, respectively. It was close enough to the center of downtown to do what regional transit hubs are supposed to do but far enough away not to create new congestion problems. But, hard-headed visionaries that they are, allowed the silver-tongued-devils at ODOT talk them out of these treasures in favor of “something at Bricktown….”

Yep. Everything should be at least as successful as “Bricktown,” don’t you think? (80% per year new business failure rate still hold there?)

Hey — it’s YOUR money these “high powered thinkers” are looking to blow, Oklahoma. They’re already shoveling truckloads of debt down the line to your unborn offspring (can you say “unfunded highway maintenance liability?”) If you think this bunch deserves more of your money, well, then — knock yerself out.

Read more: http://newsok.com/board-says-oklahoma-city-should-buy-santa-fe-train-depot-for-transit-hub/article/3643914#ixzz1ksPADuDM