This weblog is my online journal. You'll find my opinions on a variety
of topics as well as links to other things on the web that I find interesting. When the spirit moves me, I may also include
longer essays. Just like me, it will be forever "under construction" so check back. All the photos were taken
by me or set by me and taken by friends.
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In Oklahoma, we have an interesting dilemma. In order to get tickets to the Inauguration, we have to ask our Republican Senators
and Representatives. It is like going to the door of the neighbor whose window you just broke with a baseball and asking
for tickets to the world series!
Most everyone I know began their quest for tickets with our only Democrat: Senator
Boren, then inundated Mary Fallen and Jim Inhofe’s offices.
On Nov. 10th, I called and faxed my Representative
for the 3rd district of Oklahoma, Frank Lucas. I told him that I had worked for the Obama campaign as the Volunteer Co-Chairman
for the 3rd District in Oklahoma. I said that I was confident that President - Elect Obama would reach across the aisle to
work with Rep. Lucas and that I hoped Rep. Lucas would do the same for me!!!!! I was number 31 on the list.
I called today to check the status was told it was looking “real good!” I also requested a tour of the
White House. Larry Calhoun, a Lucas Staff Assistant has been so nice to make these arrangements for me.
In
the spirit of Hope and Cooperation, bipartisanship and good faith, it looks like a new day is truly dawning in Washington!
We have in Barack Obama, not only a President-elect, but a role model. He has shown us, and the world,
that working together for a common goal, empowering people by listening, reaching out and including everyone who wants to
speak, is a strategy that works.
If you are one of the half- million voters in Oklahoma who voted for Barack Obama,
we have something in common. We believe in hope. We believe the status-quo is stagnant. We believe change begins with a decision
to get involved.
Using the same principles that propelled a little known state senator to the highest office,
we believe the strength of the Democratic party in Oklahoma can be revived. Our state party is in disarray. Our state
Democratic leaders have allowed voters to be hijacked by the Republican party by their refusal to challenge conservative issues.
They simply throw their hands in the air and exclaim defeat. That is why Obama lost in Oklahoma. That is why we lost
every race.
Where was Gov. Henry? Where was Mike Turpin? Where was David Boren? Where was Ivan Holmes?
Not on
the campaign trail for Andrew Rice nor Jim Roth nor Barack Obama. They were not writing articles, not giving speeches, not
scheduling press conferences. No one stood on the capital steps and said: "He is not a Muslim." Not one of
our Democratic "leaders" publicly stood up for our slate of candidates or Barack Obama.
On December 11, 2008,
at 5:30pm, we will have a brief meeting in Oklahoma City at the upstairs conference room of Java Daves, 10 NE 10th (just west
of the Broadway Extension on 10th St). It is time to stand up for our Democratic values. It is time to move this party
in a new direction.
We invite you to join us and continue to work for change. Channel your hope, because WE KNOW
what can be accomplished when people come together united by a common goal! Email me at crich1254@yahoo.com for more
information and to RSVP for Dec. 11th.
In Oklahoma, racism is alive and well. It is spoken out loud inside church buildings, discussed at restaurants, yelled
from cars, screamed at street corners and acted out at schools. What used to be a dirty little secret, now seems
compelled to be brought into the light for everyone to see.
Perhaps, that is a good thing.
Once an issue
is brought to the surface, it can be dealt with and stopped. You can't fight a problem you can't see.
So, all you people who had no idea you harbored such racist feelings, I hope you recognize the hate you spew for what
it is and let it go. It is ugly and it speaks more to your insecurities than it does about your target -our next President
-Barack Obama.
And if you are witness to such intolerance, be strong and speak up. Silence condones bigotry. Silence
strengthens hate. Silence enables violence. SPEAK UP AND SAY NO TO IGNORANCE!
As a state, Oklahoma took 4 steps backwards. Why would a public re-elect
someone who is filled with hatred, and someone who has his hands so deep in the pockets of the oil lobby he admits it
with pride, and someone who is so marginally affiliated with the Democratic party, he wouldn't endorse the presidential
candidate and a woman who has the worst rating of all the freshman senators?
The truth is: Oklahomans are afraid.
They bought the Karl Rovian fear attacks, hook, line and sinker.
Homophobic, racist, ignorant, narrow, closed-minded,
all these words come to my mind. As my mom would have said: Ya bit off your nose to spite your face.
Just as we
were making in-roads with our completed MAPS projects, obtaining an NBA team, calling ourselves a “world-class city,”
this vote reminds the nation that Oklahoma is not on the ball, not interested in moving forward; we won't even pay our
elected officials a descent salary to run the city!
Large corporations won't move here to live in an area with
such narrow views. Change has been good for our state. We were progressive and acted with intention for the good of
our state when we passed MAPS. We stepped up to show support of the Hornets and that support assured the Seattle team
would successfully re-locate here.
Always ten years behind the rest of the nation, we finally approved liquor-by-the-drink,
the lottery and who would have thought it - gambling on the reservations.
Was it just too much to vote for the
smart black guy, the accomplished gay guy, the committed family man?
I guess so, when you falsely believe
that all Democrats are leftist, socialist, unpatriotic, ungodly, terrorists. Ya know, it’s really just your own
shadow that’s following you.
