Tulsa World-Channels deserves discussion?

[Bledsoe]

See:  
http://www.tulsaworld.com/OpinionStory.asp?ID=060926_Op_A20_Criti36364I

In what I think is its first editorial on  the Channels project the Tulsa World asserts that the "project deserves a thorough public discussion" but in the same breath criticizes those who are trying to do exactly that.

Where are the defenders of the Channels?  I have yet to run into a person in mid-town (not connected with the supporters) who supports this project.  If mid-town has this many reservations it seems likely to fail.  Many on this board have offered thoughtful and constructive questions and criticism that, to me, are just that kind of public discussion that this project deserves.  Michael Bates in Urban Tulsa has offered the same.

see:

http://www.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=3623

http://www.batesline.com/archives/002723.html

http://www.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=3638


The Channels' promoters have mostly not responded, here or in any other forum that I have seen.

Does the World really want true public discussion and debate about this important public proposal?  It does not seem to me they really want this.  As they have often done on other issues, they confuse the normal healthy clash of real public discourse with "naysayers popp[ing] up like crabgrass in the spring."


I say let the dissuasion continue.  I say most of the so-called naysayers are exactly the kind of public citizen discourse we need.

We need more speech not less.  The World's tone stifles rather than encourages.

As Sigmund Freud is reported to have said:

"The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the  founder of civilization."





Greg Bledsoe
D. Gregory Bledsoe
Attorney at Law
1717 S. Cheyenne Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74119
918-599-8123
918-582-7830 fax

"Democratic government will be the more successful, the more the public opinion ruling it is enlightened and inspired by full and thorough discussion. The greatest danger threatening democratic institutions comes from those influences ... which tend to stifle or demoralize discussion."

Quotation on St. Louis' Keil Opera House by German-born
United States journalist and political leader Carl Schurz.

For more information on Carl Schurz see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schurz
Carl Schurz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia