Analysis: Tulsa Today conducted interviews recently to sample opinions of area Democrats on the Presidential election. In short, there are two common responses. One resisted any discussion declaring generally, “Orange man bad.” Critically thinking less emotionally fragile Democrats were also hesitant to interview, but generally regard Joe Biden as an empty suit in dementia and that Kamala Harris “scared the hell” out of them.
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In an easy to understand article first published by the Muskogee Politico, Byron Schlomach, Ph.D. outlines the functional difference between public and private schools which Oklahoma Auditor Cindy Byrd is too ignorant or actively corrupt to understand. Schlomach begins:
“Epic Charter Schools, with 60,000 students, has gotten too big and successful for the public school establishment to ignore. Unfortunately, State Auditor Cindy Byrd has joined in a witch hunt by ignoring the philosophy behind charter school laws and the purpose of state audits, issuing a hit piece masquerading as a special audit. Her excuses for not following standard audit protocols remind one of Dean Wormer’s double-secret probation in the movie, “Animal House.”
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Waiting on the patio of a Tulsa restaurant, Shannon Duke is a striking woman, tall but not imposingly. Dressed smartly but casually with long, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. Smiling, she greeted me with a friendly hug. After placing an order and exchanging small talk, we got down to the reason for our meeting – her effort to save children from sex trafficking.
She mentioned “unveiled secret” and I asked her to explain.
“Unveiled secret is (revealing) stuff that people don’t want to talk about in society, the hushed (truth). Once you reveal a predator or something we don’t want to look at, you have to acknowledge the fact that it does exist, that it’s not just on a movie screen or in someone else’s world,” Duke said.
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Editorial: “Black Lives Matter” was painted on a Tulsa street without a permit and when asked by Police, Ryan Rhoades, the acknowledged artist/activist lied. Bragging later to the newspaper he was quoted saying, “(The Officer) thought we were just doing chalk and told us we were fine… He just saw the chalk; we had the paint hidden.”
So why should taxpayers pay for the clean up? Criminal acts of Rhoades and company must at least include lying to law enforcement and defacing public property. They should pay to have it removed – start a GoFundMe page, have a car wash or pass the hat at their next political rally, but Tulsa taxpayers should not pay the bill.
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I grew up in a segregated neighborhood where within 3 months of our Doberman’s death, our house was burglarized 4 times. Thus, a new architectural feature: burglar bars. I can’t imagine my old neighborhood with no police to protect us. Our experience reflected the 2016 and 2019 studies showing no racial bias in police shootings—what Harvard’s Roland G. Fryer Jr. called “the most surprising result of my career.”
Year after year, this Boomer Black woman has seen the country change for the better. It was the ever-present burglar bars that made me appreciate integration all the more. Now I can live in any neighborhood I choose. As Black people moved through an integrated society, negative attitudes changed. While the Great Society’s federal poverty programs helped around the edges, the rules for some programs encouraged mothers to jettison their children’s father from the home. Fatherless children are more likely to be high school drop-outs, thus limiting their opportunities for the future. There must be more to social policy than throwing federal dollars at “the underserved.” Reliance on government money is the road to a permanent low income. This saps the recipient of dignity and the spirit of achievement.
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