Letters on mental health, tax reductions, antisemitism, dialysis, Bob Ravitz

Mental health hospital to offer crucial, affordable services

One in 5 Oklahomans struggle with mental health issues. Those individuals, our friends, family and neighbors, are often left without a place to find help, resulting in arrest or worse. The growing mental health crisis in our state has become concentrated in our jails, which are not built to adequately address mental health needs.

March marks the groundbreaking for The Donahue, a state-of-the-art facility that will serve as the state’s largest mental health hospital. Located on the Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City campus, this facility will address crucial areas of need, offering a spectrum of services for both adults and children. From acute care at the Urgent Recovery Center to seamless referrals for outpatient services, The Donahue aims to provide immediate access for Oklahomans experiencing mental health crises.

This effort comes in addition to the mental health lifeline, which allows people to call or text 988 to be transported to one of the state’s 20 mental health urgent care and recovery clinics 24/7. Now, with these options, thousands of Oklahomans will have access to affordable help at times when they’re most vulnerable.

When we work together to address mental health needs in our community through services instead of criminalization, we can cultivate hope and progress. The Donahue isn’t just a mental health facility, it’s a community coming together to support one another.

— Sue Ann Arnall, Oklahoma City

Tax reduction will have minimal impact; giving kids free summer meals would do more

It is puzzling that many rural representatives of the Oklahoma House are supporting a 0.25% income tax reduction instead of voicing their concerns about a governor that declined state participation in a federal summer nutrition program for school kids who qualify for free or reduced school meals. At $40/month per child for three months, that is well above what the average family in our rural school districts will realize from a 0.25% tax cut with over 60% of families qualifying for the nutrition program.

It is amazing to me that rural Oklahoma continues to support those both in the state government as well as the federal government who always vote to deny dollars to these families. The Biden administration has sent over $1 billion to the state of Oklahoma for broadband expansion alone. Not one Oklahoma Republican senator or representative elected to serve us nationally voted for this support, which will positively impact our rural communities. Kevin Stitt and state Republicans in our government do not get credit for this either. Our rural areas deserve more than what their elected officials are offering them. We don't need an income tax reduction that will have a minimal impact at best; we need real programs to support our rural communities.

― Penny Barber, Edmond

Antisemitism the 'canary in the coal mine,' indicator something has gone wrong in society

Why should the average American pay attention to, let alone be concerned by, this alarming increase in antisemitism? After all, Jews only make up 2.4% of the U.S. population.

There is a basic humanitarian response anyone should have when they witness hatred of any kind regardless of the target. The serious upswing in antisemitic speech and actions, however, contains much broader, frightening implications for our society. For decades, the presence and rise of antisemitism has been the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” — a powerful and troubling indicator that something has gone deeply wrong in society and that other layers of prejudice and hatred are rumbling just beneath the surface.

One need look no further than Nazi Germany, where antisemitism opened the door to violence against (other marginalized groups).

— Edie Roodman, Nichols Hills, and Melinda Parks, Oklahoma City

An appeal to Sen. Lankford to support expansion of the Child Tax Credit

James Lankford, I homeschool all my kids and would love to keep doing so. My kids are much happier with their lives and freedom. Having this Child Tax Credit acknowledged and passed will not only help us, but so many more families. Please help and consider the humanity of our children’s futures. Us parents are doing our best. We need more help.

There are currently 19 million children excluded from the full credit because of the structure of the Child Tax Credit. The bipartisan tax package (HR 7024) would benefit about 16 million children, more than 80 percent of the roughly 19 million children in families excluded from the full credit because their family incomes are too low.

Data shows the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit allowed people to pay for child care so they can work and take care of their families. Truly, what we all want is a happy life, happy family, freedom. Please help push this forward to help families benefit financially to keep going forward.

I greatly appreciate you and am thankful to be sending this your way and have hopes of a smart decision made moving forward.

— Baylee Elwell, Chester

Senior citizens would benefit from Oklahoma property tax cut

SO nice to sit and read the newspaper with a cup of hot coffee. The cartoons were outstanding. However, there are more serious things to think about. Such as the proposed tax cuts by the governor.

The .25 percent income tax reduction and the proposed cuts in grocery taxes are nice to think of, but I can think of another tax that would be more beneficial to Oklahoman as a whole. The property taxes. The cuts proposed in income and grocery taxes would go a long way toward eliminating that hellish tax on homeowners. You work for years and years to pay off your home only to have the state government tell you that you do not actually own your home. The state you live in actually owns it, and that if you want to continue to live in it, you have to pay a gratuity to the state to say you own your home. Then the state says if you do not pay that gratuity for three years, the county assessor and county treasurer will take the home you worked so hard for over the years away from you and sell it at auction. And when that is done, you will not get any money for the home you paid off.

Senior citizens who live on limited income, when they cannot afford to pay that tax, they often get evicted from the home they have lived in for 30 or 40 years or more. There are some states that do not have property taxes. If one lives in one of those states, they are less likely to lose their home to a greedy bunch of politicians and bureaucrats. I suggest that the governor and the Legislature need to reconsider what taxes need to be cut, because this is one that needs to be cut for the sake of those senior citizens who do live on limited income, who own homes outright.

— Andre Snodgrass, Norman

Restore hope to dialysis patients

Last year, I wrote to you about my journey as a kidney patient after my diagnosis in 2017 and I’m writing to you again to call on Congresswoman Stephanie Bice to protect kidney patients like me.

Recently, a ruling the U.S. Supreme Court made weakens protections for dialysis patients by allowing private insurance to lessen coverage and force patients onto Medicare before the traditional 30-month grace period. The problem is Medicare only covers 80% of a dialysis patient’s bill, including mine. Luckily, I’m able to continue working, but I have to fight tooth-and-nail to pay my bills.

Although I can make ends meet, not everyone can. That’s why it’s important that we help protect health insurance coverage for dialysis patients so they can pay for the treatment they need to survive. Lessening the financial burden will keep more patients active and high-spirited, which I believe improves outcomes.

Congresswoman Bice can protect patients like me and support the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act, which would clarify the current ambiguity in the law and secure private dialysis coverage for the whole 30-month grace period.

― Darren Lyons, Oklahoma City

Remembering Bob Ravitz

We sadly lost a great friend recently.

Bob Ravitz was one of the kindest and most caring people I have ever met. Whenever I talked to him, after the conversation ended, he always left me with a smile on my face. He was kind, he was funny, and he was always concerned about helping others. Most importantly he changed so many people’s lives for the better. When he saw wrong, he fought passionately to make it right. He truly believed in justice for all.

As I think of Bob’s life I want to borrow from what was said in Robert F. Kennedy’s Eulogy: he “need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; but he be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw (injustice) and tried to stop it.”

To his wife, Diane, his children, and his grandchild all I can say is God Bless. I truly believe his early departure was because God needed his help on a much bigger project. And Bob, all I can say at this moment is, until we meet again my friend.

You will be greatly missed, but never forgotten.

— Mark Stonecipher, Oklahoma City

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Letters on mental health, tax reductions, antisemitism