Commentary

The 51st Oklahoma Legislature has completed its 2007 session. This historic session, which featured a tied Senate, a Republican House and an unfettered governor, will be remembered for a variety of reasons.   It is tougher to get an abortion in Oklahoma than it used to be, but you still easily can sue a doctor, […]

The economy is booming, but why does the middle class feel so squeezed? For parents, the soaring cost of higher education is an ever-present concern, and each of us is stunned by the price at the pump. However, neither one of those problems is enough to bankrupt the average family out of the blue.   […]

Why not establish a public university in the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City?   This university would secure the financial viability of the entertainment area, offer conveniently located classes and become a model for new urban universities in the country. It’s an idea that deserves real consideration.   Oklahoma consistently ranks under the national average […]

At a time when Tulsa and Oklahoma City are enjoying an economic renaissance, the state’s business climate and reputation took a blow to the head, thanks to a tort-reform veto by the governor. What could possibly be worse for Oklahoma’s economic development than a Wall Street Journal editorial page lambasting of the governor over tort […]

In the late Seventies, when I was still in seminary, William Sloane Coffin Jr. came to Enid to deliver the J. Clyde Wheeler Lecture. The former chaplain at YaleUniversity and minister of The Riverside Church in New York City said two things that I will never forget: one, that America might one day go fascist, […]

America has a love-hate relationship with media. We complain about the lack of substantive programming, the bias of news reporting and the media fascination with Lindsay Lohan’s revolving-door rehab adventures. We proclaim from the mountaintops our hatred for the insipid offerings of media, but at the same time, we plop down in front of the […]

It’s time Oklahomans pay attention to how money has polluted the state’s political systems.   What many Oklahomans, no matter their political affiliation, may well conclude after taking a close look at the current situation is this: Politicians often abuse the contemporary campaign-funding system, and only rich people and their organizations have influence and power […]

The current state legislative session has been a good civics lesson, reminding us that our democracy exists only if we participate in it.   Senate Bill 714, a bill that is bad for women, bad for physicians and nurses, bad for your health and bad for Oklahoma, almost became law last week.   The bill […]

The Art Buchwald quote too many cannot read or write, but they can multiply, sums up some of Oklahoma’s education situation. In spite of years of work and signs of progress to improve our public schools and higher education system, we are not where we need to be. Part of the problem is the system, […]

There’s no time like the present to abolish the office of state auditor and inspector. It’s one of those obsolete state offices created 100 years ago that should have been eliminated when the offices of state mine inspector and the commissioner of charities and corrections were abolished.   The only authority the state constitution gives […]