Climate, abortion and immigration debated by Enid residents

May 26-- May 26--ENID, Okla. -- Local Democrats and Republicans offered their opinions on current political issues as part of the latest installment of the "Pulse of the Voters" series.

Pulse of the Voters is a project where members of the local community share their views on issues such as climate change, abortion and immigration.

'I don't want to take that chance'

"People have religious attitudes about it, that only God can change the climate," Norman Grey said. The former special district judge thinks some underestimate man's effect on nature.

"God also bestowed us with great minds," minds that are capable of harming, or healing, the environment. Minds that need to take responsibility.

Grey, who made a run for House District 40 in 2018 as a Democrat, is also a professor at Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Northern Oklahoma College, and is of counsel at the Long, Claypole and Blakley Law firm.

The climate is changing, he's sure, and while many on both the left and right wouldn't deny that it is, some argue that humans are blameless in it, he said. Many who make that argument hold office.

"Rather than listen to the politicians, I prefer to side with the scientists," he said.

"Who am I to argue with the great majority of the scientific community? ... My feeling is if we're overreacting and we're mistaken about the consequences that some predict, the environment is still going to be better off for our efforts," he said. "Yes, there's a cost to it, but if we're wrong and we don't do anything ... I don't want to take that chance, and it won't be me who suffers the consequences, it will be my children, my grandchildren."

The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is the highest it has been in over 800,000 years, at 415 parts per million, according to data from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. CO2 traps solar radiation in the atmosphere, which scientists say is a prime contributor to global warming.

Enid resident and Republican Tom Nelson isn't as certain as Grey about where the blame for climate change lies.

"There's no doubt there's climate change. Is it human-caused? I don't know, are we arrogant enough to think we can change the climate?" Nelson said. "I think there's climate change because there's always been climate change. There's ice ages, there's dinosaurs. Where we're sitting used to be an ocean."

Even if human activity is a factor in climate change, which Nelson said is a small possibility, it would take a combined effort from all the world's top polluters to fix the problem, but so far, an unfair amount of responsibility has been heaped on the United States to take the lead, he said.

"The world is leaning on the United States more than they're leaning on India and China, and the pollution over there is much worse than in the United States," he said, adding that in order to help the environment, America would be putting itself at an economic disadvantage to other countries, with no guarantee that they would ever make the same sacrifices.

China alone emits more CO2 than the U.S. and the European Union combined, but they still take the number two and three spots, respectively, Department of Energy data shows.

'Losing our freedoms'

"We're in danger of losing our reproductive rights," Nancy Presnall said. "That disturbs me."

Presnall, chair of the Garfield County Democrats, has a long list of concerns leading into the 2020 election, but few rank higher than abortion. At the state and federal levels, Presnall said the belief that women should have control over their own bodies is increasingly under attack.

Presidential rhetoric has encouraged this, she said.

During a late April political rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, president Donald Trump compared late-term abortions to murder, casting mother and doctor as executioner.

"That is just so phony," she said, noting the decision to undergo such a procedure is not made lightly, and not the outcome wanted by anyone involved.

"They're the people who have already painted the nursery ... they've already had a couple of baby showers, they've named the baby, they've sent ultrasound pictures to everyone they know," she said. "They want that baby more than anything, then something goes horribly, horribly wrong ... and they have to decide what to do. They don't deserve to be demonized."

Several states have recently passed laws restricting abortion. Georgia was the fourth this year to pass a "fetal heartbeat" bill, prohibiting abortions if the fetus' heartbeat is detectable. A heartbeat can be present as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

On May 15, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill that would ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with exceptions only for the mother's physical safety, and if the child is found to have "a lethal anomaly."

This challenges the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which determined that state bans on abortion are unconstitutional.

"We're losing. We're losing our freedoms," Presnall said.

Republican Taylor Venus, an attorney at Long, Claypole and Blakly Law, says it's possible to be pro-choice and pro-life at the same time.

Venus also campaigned for the office of District 40 representative in 2018, but state Rep. Chad Caldwell held onto his seat.

Venus has his own ideas of right and wrong on the abortion issue, others have their own, and by law, that's just fine.

"I'm pretty close to 100 percent pro-life ...that's my moral belief, but that's different from what I believe is the law of our country...and Roe v. Wade is the law," he said.

While anti-abortion proposals in statehouses elsewhere found success, an Oklahoma bill that would have made abortion equivalent to murder, from the moment of conception, wound up stalling at the Capitol.

Venus said the bill, and those like it, are "blatantly unconstitutional."

"Do I believe my moral beliefs should be the law of the country? No."

'Obviously broken'

With family of his living along the U.S-Mexico border, immigration is of particular interest to Venus.

"We need reform, and it needs to be a collaborative effort between Democrats and Republicans," he said. "There needs to be some way to stop people from entering. It's a safety issue."

There are 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, according to a 2018 Department of Homeland Security report, with over half originating from countries across the southern border.

"America is a country of immigrants, but it needs to be done the proper way, by the law," Venus said. "The current system is obviously broken."

Immigration reform has been a political talking point for years, Venus said. One administration might push enforcement harder than the next, but the system's flaws don't get fixed.

Immigration has become a reliable political tool used by both sides to leverage voters, he said. Much as he wants reform, he doubts he will see any meaningful progress made anytime soon.

Chris Sneed, a local Republican, is disappointed with how the current administration has handled the influx of migrants through the southern border.

Thousands trying to cross into the U.S., many of them parents and children, have been held in detention centers across the country. In many instances, families were separated, and not always reunited.

On top of his ethical concerns with large-scale detainment, he said the practice shows an unpleasant side of America to other countries. "Our appearance to the rest of the world ... suffers because of how we're dealing with immigration," he said.

He understands the need for border enforcement, but feels there is a lack of sympathy in current policy.

"We're not trying to find a solution for those families having trouble getting into the country, who are maybe escaping dangerous situations ... we're not looking at it from their view. We're simply wanting to stop the flow of immigration from the south," he said.

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