Refugee reality Since around 2001, the word Muslim has had a very negative connotation. Since around 2001, fear and ignorance have ensured that the words terrorist and Muslim are as synonymous as freedom and America. This is an unfortunate stereotype that must be broken. It’s time we look beyond our painful past and focus on […]
Oklahomans
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Commentary: What have we done?
If Hollywood designed the perfect candidate to represent the anti-Christ for evangelicals, he would be thrice married, twice divorced, a builder of casinos, a sexual predator (unless the women are ugly), a liar and a man so in love with himself that his fondest wish is to die in his own arms.
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What’s wrong with Christmas?
Devout and inflexible in their interpretation of scripture, these children of the Mayflower viewed celebration of Christmas as pagan and idolatrous. Throughout its colonial days, much of New England could not “make merry” without incurring the ire of magistrates and a hefty fine. Even after the Colonies gave way to the United States of America, […]
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Stuck in the middle
Shawn Spears and her son. Photo by Mark Hancock Between the Oklahoma County Election Board and Oklahoma Health Care Authority buildings, Shawn Spears, 24, works as a clerk at Langston University. She also studies psychology full time at Rose State College and plans to finish her bachelor’s at Langston. The student has a 5-year-old son […]
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Resilient repetition
From our elected officials and our local celebrities to those survivors affected directly by the most current crisis, some version of these words gushes out each time: “You can replace things, not lives. We’re going to rebuild. Oklahomans are a resilient people.” The adjective “resilient,” in particular, has become the word du jour following a […]
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Don’t smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Credit: Brad Gregg Even so, 17 percent of our residents admit they still smoke every day. It’s amazing so many people puff on the killers, considering they claim more victims than any other single cause, including suicide and alcohol or narcotics use, studies show. The good news? (Cough. Ahem.) There were 75,000 fewer smokers in […]
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Non-discrimination bill doesn’t protect or define life
He apparently considers she was still alive, whereas in truth Terri Schiavo had long ago bailed out and left that body on remote control. Medical science indicated that years before (and the autopsy showed) the brain had shrunk down to the so-called “lizard brain,” which is misleading in that lizards are very much alive. To […]
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Time to inform, not denounce
Attorney General Scott Pruitt continues his futile attempt to have it declared unconstitutional. Gov. Mary Fallin refuses to accept our tax dollars back from Washington, D.C., to cover Oklahomans most in need of health coverage. Insurance Commissioner John Doak calls the ACA a “disaster,” and although his agency has received a federal grant to inform […]
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MAPS for trauma
It was joy and grieving and defiance. I was screaming at Timothy McVeigh and for that baby carried by the firefighter as much as I was yelling for our young team that was making our city proud much sooner than expected. In OKC, it is all wrapped up together, the joy and pain. Now, unfortunately, […]
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To be an Oklahoman
In Oklahoma, when you pop out of your mama, the doctors give you the once-over. They check your eyes, because they know you’re going to have to stare down EF4 tornadoes and not flinch. They check the gravel in your guts, because true grit is making a living from hard, dry land, molding a life […]