![]() I know most of you come to read this blog to see what or whom I’ll lampoon today. Not today. I have a harangue. Can someone please explain to me what the hell has happened to Oklahoma? I mean, I leave the state for just under 40 years, I come back and everything is a mess. The state can’t figure out how to pay its teachers a decent wage. I don’t care who you are, if teachers begin running out the door for a state that actually understands the importance of education what are you left with? A bunch of undereducated idiots whose only expertise is using their thumbs to type text messages faster than they can speak. Oh, and I suppose they’ll have to start stealing to get the devices to type those text messages on since they won’t be able to get a decent job because they couldn’t get a decent education. Oh sure, the state and even local economy is crying poor because the oil/gas sector is in another of its cyclical slumps. Nobody saw this coming? Seriously? Oil and gas has been very good to Oklahoma. There’s no doubt about that, but it doesn’t appear to be sustainable. Will it bounce back? I’m sure it will, probably stronger than ever, at least until the price falls off again because technology makes it easier than ever to create a glut of oil on the market. So then, the drilling companies, the oil companies, and all of the ancillary businesses that feed the industry start laying off workers. People who essentially become stranded here on the island. They have scarce money to spend and consequently don’t do much to drive up sales tax collections. So the city tends to ignore them. That’s truly the most surprising thing to me since returning to this area - the level of poverty that appears to be pervasive. I recently sat through a presentation by a church-based charity focused on food security that indicated that traffic through their doors has increased by nearly 50% in the past year alone. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but I do recall thinking it was more than one-third of the city’s population. AND, that’s one of three such charities in this city alone. There is a teacher here in the local area who goes onto the internet seeking donors so she can purchase equipment to give her students a leg up technologically in one of the poorer schools in this city. That’s sad in a way. I applaud her initiative and effort. It’s also an indication of the haves and have nots in this city. So the superintendent of schools goes up in front of the press smiling and proudly showing off remodeling improvements to area schools…while his teachers are having to beg for cash for equipment? Oh, I know the remodeling of the principal’s offices in all of those schools probably comes out of different pool of money. Stupid me. I don’t care how clean and shiny the damned restrooms are…if the students don’t have the equipment with which to give them a leg up. You know, I read recently that the average Oklahoman reads at a 4th grade level. Does that bother anyone? And, the dumbasses in the state legislature can’t figure out how to retain teachers? It’s only going to get worse. And then, there’s the unbelievably unethical behavior that is pervasive throughout the state government. Take for instance (and I’ve mentioned this a lot in this blog) the Oklahoma Corporation Commission that accepts cash “donations” from the very people they’re supposed to be regulating. Apparently, it’s legal. Otherwise, that somewhat shady Oklahoma Attorney General would be launching some kind of investigation…maybe…course he has his own issues. I sure would like to know what that guy does with his so-called evidence fund to which he makes regular deposits from the Oklahoma Tobacco Trust. Nobody will talk about it. Ohhhh…and then there’s the morons in the State Legislature. Who in a frenzy of conservative moves set in place a ticking time bomb years ago that provided mandatory tax credits and exemptions and sundry cuts, bing, bang, boom. Her Royal Highness Mary of Fallin gleefully signed whatever the dummies in legislature sent her, probably with a pen dipped in the blood of the latest Democrat slayed for her personal amusement. NOW…it’s become a priority for those same morons to reverse those tax credits since they have a $1 billion hole in the state budget. Talk about shortsightedness at the cost of popularity. And, of course, reversing or killing any hope of a tax credit will discourage any other industries possibly interested in doing business in Oklahoma from coming here. But, you know what? Despite all the hoorah crap about priorities and getting things done, it won’t happen. The dumbasses have screwed off so much with fluff, pet legislation that 1,700 active bills from the last legislative session will have to be dealt with this session. Add that heaping pile of crap to the 1,725 bills that have been filed for this year’s session and you now have a total of more than 3,400 bills to get through. Think they can do it? Nope. Not before they begin their seven-month paid vacation. No way. The legislative leadership is broken…oh sure, they’re swell guys, but they won’t get it done. Oh, and the bills that became laws last year? Well, there was the law making it legal to possess and carry switchblade knives. Yeah, that was special. Maybe HRH is hoping we’ll all kill one another and not notice she and her gang of atavistic thugs are stealing the Kingdom’s treasury blind. This is insanity at a level I’ve personally never seen…anywhere. Even the days of Marion Berry as “Mayor for Life” in D.C. were more orderly than the cesspool of partisan politics we’re living under. Just sayin’. P.S., I'll try to be funny again tomorrow...I promise.
Charise caldwell
1/26/2016 02:46:56 pm
This is one of your best ! I agree with absolutely everything you wrote. My son and daughter in law are teachers here. It's tough for them . I am a conservative republican. But, absolutely no fan of Mary Fallen. Cannot believe she won a second term. Anyway, just wanted you to know this was one of your best!!! Comments are closed.
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