Opinion

On Thursday, Feb. 23, the two-week-long, non-stop religious revival at tiny Asbury University in rural Wilmore, Ky., saw its official end. Starting with about 20 students who stayed after a regular campus chapel service, tens of thousands had been drawn from across the country in that short span to participate in almost radically simple prayer, singing and worship.

By then, this “awakening” was reported to have spread to several other religious colleges.

In February I began hosting town hall meetings, inviting those who call Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District home, to discuss the issues most pressing in Washington and at home in Oklahoma. While there is a lot happening across the nation, there was one topic that came up time and time again that greatly troubles me: President Biden’s 30 by 30 Initiative.

U.S. President Joe Biden “stresses that Silicon Valley Bank is not getting a bailout,” The Hill reported on March 13.

“No losses will be borne by the taxpayers,” he said of the federal government’s decision to cover depositor losses in excess of $250,000. “Instead, the money will come from the fees that banks pay into the Deposit Insurance Fund.”

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, no stranger to finding himself under political fire, has been hunkering down beneath a new barrage after turning over 40,000 hours of U.S. Capitol security camera footage (from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot) to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.

“The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) whined.

“The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected.”

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).

To the Editor:

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.