Opinion

On Feb. 27, Reuters reports, the White House gave federal agencies a 30-day deadline to ensure that all government-owned devices are TikTok-free.

The supposed, but seemingly evidence-less, reason: Because a Chinese company owns TikTok -- a smart phone app for creating and sharing short videos -- the Chinese government may be using it to spy on Americans.

Well, OK. Ban TikTok from government devices.

But does that really go far enough?

At Riverside School, our school board, our teachers and staff, many of our parents and I were disappointed that our recent bond proposal did not pass. We are teachers, though, and as most everyone knows, we are individuals who don’t easily give up on seeing that our students have the best we can give them. 

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous industrial chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing a severe environmental emergency.

Vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate were among the chemicals on board. Large quantities were released and burned to prevent an explosion authorities feared could be even worse.

As Congress rolls out its latest theatrical production concerning the “debt ceiling,” the same old lines from the same old script are enjoying new life.

New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait calls Republican noises about perhaps not just automatically supporting increased government borrowing “extortion” and a “blatant violation of democratic legitimacy” (because, as you no doubt learned in junior high civics class, even entertaining the idea of not voting in favor of Jonathan Chait’s priorities is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution).

Fifty years ago, a black cloud descended over the United States. Its effects darkened our nation, poisoned our culture, destroyed our families and slaughtered our children.

I left work in downtown Tulsa 50 years ago tonight, walked to the corner to cross the street, and saw the headline on the front of the evening paper: “Supreme Court Legalizes Abortion.”

I felt as though I’d been hit in the face with a two-by-four.

In the wake of a politically-motivated, multi-country oil embargo that contributed to then-record high fuel prices, global energy shortages and American energy security concerns, Congress established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Since its inception, the SPR has been both a national security and an energy security asset, helping reduce true energy supply disruptions. Yet, more recently, President Biden has irresponsibly utilized the SPR to cover up his failed policies, rapidly draining America’s petroleum reserves to its lowest levels since 1983.

You know what you call an addict in prison? An addict.

Incarceration rarely solves the addiction problem. We know this because toxicology reports show that a quarter of the deaths in Oklahoma County Detention Center are the result of fentanyl overdoses.

Once again this Christmas season, countless Americans sat down to watch Frank Capra’s Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, starring the great Jimmy Stewart. I’ve seen the movie plenty of times. So why did it leave me crying again this year?

Yet it did, from the moment a desperate George Bailey cried out to his shop-worn guardian angel that he wanted to live again, all the way through “Auld Lang Syne.”

Stirred by that experience and curious as to what prompted it, I decided to do something I had wanted to do for years.