Commentary

In an age when workers no longer live a short walk or train ride from their places of employment; in an age when more and more workers can commute at the click of a mouse; in an age when parents are torn between the pressures of the office and the longing for home, why are […]

Memorial Day is behind us, and it is more than obvious that the high transportation fuel costs greatly impacted the vacation decision-making processes. With no relief in sight, summer vacations will be altered, as well. Oklahomans are hedonists at heart, and the “Red River Rivalry” is but one of many examples of how we’re willing […]

In my Jan. 30 commentary, I challenged this Legislature to a session focused on issues of concern to a bipartisan electorate. I also posed another scenario in which elected officials could instead “pander to their ‘base,’ relegate their finest moments to the agenda of special interests (particularly those who can pay to play), and use […]

I have not learned a new thing in this presidential campaign season since the beginning of the year. As a white, Southern male with a college degree (the new swing vote), there are some things guys from my demographic know. So here’s a little quiz for political contenders: True or False: I have a roll […]

Like a lot of little boys growing up in Oklahoma during the late Sixties and early Seventies, my fall Saturdays revolved solely around Sooner football and the exploits of such players as Steve Owens, Greg Pruitt, Ray Hamilton and Jack Mildren. Those days were spent listening to the weekly radio broadcasts or watching the occasional […]

Sometimes the painful truth about the human condition comes in through the back door, or seeps into the national psyche like water into a basement. We can’t see where it comes from, but the results are obvious. We’d rather not believe it, but the sump pump has to run all night just to keep the […]

Things are good in Oklahoma City. Forbes ranks us the most recession-proof city in the country. Executive Traveler magazine has a story about what a great city we live in. The New York Times had a front-page story about the Oklahoma River. This is a new Oklahoma City. Certainly some of the success can be […]

While recently working at my computer, I heard a faint rustling sound, so I turned to see what the puppy was chewing. Lizbit was asleep at my feet. Moving my desk chair woke her, and she suddenly jumped up and lunged past me. From beneath a TV stand not far from my bare feet, I […]

Doesn’t everything happening in the metro seem bifurcated these days? Bifurcated is a word that fits. It simply means divided into two camps. In terms of Oklahoma City, it means recent events here ” good or bad, depending on your point of view ” are sending mixed signals. There are wonderful developments in the metropolitan […]

Our Populist forebears in Oklahoma feared the concentration of power in one pair of hands. Therefore, they designed our state government with a system closer to the cabinet systems of other English-speaking democracies than our federal presidential system. Unfortunately, all too often this diffusion of power has led to a lack of accountability in our […]