Commentary

Opinion: Oklahoma’s lack of sex ed curriculum harming the state’s health outcomes

BY: - November 24, 2023

It’s time to have a candid conversation about a topic that seems to make many lawmakers cringe and flush.  Sex education. StateImpact reporter Jillian Taylor reported recently that the only sexual education topic that must be taught is AIDS prevention instruction. School districts, though, get to decide when and how to teach it. Parents can […]

Opinion: Thanksgiving stories gloss over the history of US settlement on Native lands

BY: - November 23, 2023

Too often, K-12 social studies classes in the U.S. teach a mostly glossed-over story of U.S. settlement. Textbooks tell the stories of adventurous European explorers founding colonies in the “New World,” and stories of the “first Thanksgiving” frequently portray happy colonists and Native Americans feasting together. Accounts of the colonies’ battle for independence frame it […]

Opinion: Oklahomans are watching to see if big bet on Canoo pays off

BY: - November 17, 2023

This week, an Oklahoma City electric vehicle company announced it had manufactured three vehicles in the state — the first Oklahoma-made automobiles since 2006. The announcement marked a momentous occasion for both Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma’s economic development officials. They’ve continued to bet big that the state can capitalize on the shifting automobile market […]

Opinion: We studied jail conditions and jail deaths − here’s what we found

BY: - November 14, 2023

The family of Samuel Lawrence, one of 10 people to die in Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in 2023, is fighting for answers and accountability. “I got to think about him every day of my life and I don’t know when the pain stops,” Lawrence’s father, Frank Richardson, told a local TV station in October 2023. […]

Opinion: ‘Taps’ carries on high the simple yet profound character of the soldier

BY: - November 11, 2023

Promptly at 5 p.m., every day, rain or shine, blizzard or heat, a volunteer bugler wearing a period World War I U.S. Army uniform stands at attention near the flagpole at the National World War One Memorial not far from the White House in Washington D.C. On a brilliant autumn day, I watched as a Black soldier attired […]

Opinion: Oklahomans deserve and should expect a fully functioning state-tribal relationship

BY: - November 10, 2023

The feud involving Gov. Kevin Stitt and tribal leaders has gone on long enough. People deserve a fully functioning relationship between our 39 federally recognized tribes and the state. It’s time for someone — anyone — to step up and lead Oklahoma out of the morass.  For nearly four years now, residents have watched in […]

Opinion: My great grandpa faced off against the Ku Klux Klan in Lincoln, Kansas, and prevailed

BY: - November 9, 2023

While the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas, like elsewhere across the country, purported to support decency, the family and white supremacy, it was also a vehicle for attacking business rivals and members of the Catholic Church. I know this as fact because my great grandfather, Ira Armsbury, had a run-in with the Klan in Lincoln […]

Opinion: Oklahoma may be losing in bids for businesses because lawmakers focus on wrong issues

BY: - November 3, 2023

The City of Ardmore recently received devastating news that its Michelin tire plant will close by 2025. As Oklahoma Voice reporter Carmen Forman reported, the planned closure of the 53-year-old plant, which employs 1,400 workers, came as a shock to state and community leaders. Perhaps not surprisingly though, Oklahoma lawmakers immediately began trying to figure […]

Opinion: President Carter’s many months on hospice highlight a surprising truth

BY: - October 30, 2023

I saw a clip last month of President Jimmy Carter, now 99 years old, taking a ride with his wife through a peanut festival in their hometown. That’s a happy story for many reasons. As the former president approaches his eighth month on hospice care, it’s also a chance to clear up a common myth. […]

Opinion: Sudden exodus of textbook publishers should alarm Oklahomans

BY: - October 27, 2023

Parents, business owners and taxpayers should be alarmed that qualified math textbook publishers no longer want to do business in Oklahoma. Somehow Oklahoma’s education climate has become so abhorrent, controversial and politicized in the past year that companies specializing in teaching children how to count apples and bananas and calculate the shortest distance to grandma’s […]

Gangsters are ‘Flower Moon’ villains, but U.S. government was biggest thief of Native wealth

BY: - October 24, 2023

Director Martin Scorsese’s new movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” tells the true story of a string of murders on the Osage Nation’s land in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Based on David Grann’s meticulously researched 2017 book, the movie delves into racial and family dynamics that rocked Oklahoma to the core when oil was discovered […]

Opinion: Historic partnership between VA and Cherokee Nation will be boon for veterans

BY: - October 20, 2023

It’s exciting that the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have entered into a historic partnership to increase access to veteran care in rural Oklahoma.  The two entities recently announced they formed a unique partnership that officials said could serve as a “roadmap” for how rural America can work with tribal nations […]