Category Archives: Tulsa Speaks

Myth of Independence

By Jim Stovall

The great English poet John Donne reminded us that no one is an island. We are all interdependent on one another. Even in the most solitary of activities, it takes a team to create success. As you read these words in a newspaper, magazine, or online publication somewhere around the world, there are many people to thank for creating the connection between you and me.

Recently, a woman who is losing her sight called me. As a blind person myself, she wanted my advice on how she could become totally independent. I told her that total independence simply does not exist, whether you’re totally blind or fully sighted.

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Totalitarianism: Kelley, Arendt, and Desmet

By Robert W. Malone MD, MS

Comparative Analysis

The question of how ordinary societies produce extraordinary evil; how democratic nations slide toward authoritarian domination, how ordinary people become perpetrators or willing followers, has occupied some of the most important minds of the past century.

Three thinkers in particular have approached this question from angles that intersect in revealing ways: Dr. Douglas Kelley, the American psychiatrist who examined the Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg in 1945-46 and published 22 Cells in Nuremberg in 1947; Hannah Arendt, the German-Jewish political philosopher who analyzed the structural conditions of totalitarianism in The Origins of Totalitarianism(1951) and its human face in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963); and Mattias Desmet, the Belgian clinical psychologist who argued in The Psychology of Totalitarianism (2022) that a psychological process he calls “mass formation” underlies totalitarian systems and remains active in the contemporary world.

Kelley, Arendt, and Desmet
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Apps Must Put Parents First

By Monica Collison, Executive Director, ORA

Opinion: It is critically important to declare support of the federal App Store Accountability Act. At its core, this legislation is not about restricting innovation or limiting opportunity. It is about reinforcing a simple, foundational principle: parents, not tech companies and not the government, should have the primary authority to decide what their children can access online.

In rural Oklahoma, families often rely heavily on smartphones and tablets as their primary digital access point. For many households, especially those without multiple devices or robust parental control tools, app stores serve as the front door to the internet. Yet currently, children can download apps, create accounts, and access social media platforms with minimal age verification and little meaningful parental involvement. That model does not reflect Oklahoma’s family-first values.

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CCDBG: Proven Program Worth Protecting

By Jessica Garvin

Opinion: As a mother, my children will always be my top priority. Like parents across this country, I want them to grow up safe, healthy, and have all the tools to succeed. But years as both a parent and a business owner solidified one thing for me: good intentions alone don’t get families across the finish line. Raising children takes more than love, it takes real, practical support that helps parents work, provide, and plan for the future.

For more than three decades, the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) has helped families meet that need. Signed into law by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990, CCDBG has helped make safe, reliable child care more affordable, giving parents peace of mind as they work to earn a living and provide for their loved ones.

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