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| Charlie Meadows |
With the successful election of Todd Lamb to the Lt. Governor’s post, a special election will be required to fill Todd’s vacated senate seat. Todd just informed Governor Henry that he would formally vacate his senate seat on January 10th. That has allowed Governor Henry to set in motion the filling period and the date for the primary election and general election. Governor Henry has determined the filing period will be December 13, 14 and the 15th. The primary election will be held on January 11th and the general election, if there is one, will be held on February the 8th. The OCPAC interview process will be held on Wednesday, December 22nd.
So far, 4 Republicans have announced their intentions to run for the seat. They are: Gregg Treat, (R-OKC) a former aide to then Lt. Governor Mary Fallin, also Senator Tom Coburn and the man that headed up the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) effort this year for the state Republican party. Another candidate will be Carol Hefner (R-Edmond) a speaker for at least 1 of the OKC tea party events, though she has indicated she is not necessarily the tea party candidate. Steven Dobbs, (R-OKC) a former Oklahoma City Councilman, and Kenny Goza an attorney with an amazing success story are also running. Kenny went from being passed around in foster homes to adoption, then the military and then law school. Following law school he has opened law offices in several of Oklahoma’s larger cities.
There may be other Republicans who file, but due to the very short time period, unless they already have a high name identification or a huge pile of money they will be at a serious disadvantage as these candidates are already working hard toward winning. So far no Democrats have announced. This is a safe Republican seat and any Democrat who files will become a sacrificial lamb. If no Democrat files and the race would boil down to a Republican verses an independent candidate, the independent might get 16 to 22 percent of the vote. If a Democrat files, and an independent runs, the independent might get 2 to 5 percent of the vote. We will soon know.
++ WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, THE DOCUMENTRAY
This past Thursday afternoon, I attended a special showing of the documentary, Waiting For Superman, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the State Chamber of Commerce. The movie chronicles the poor condition of education in America. It also had its emotional pull as it chronicled the lives of 5 children locked into inner city schools, often referred to by educators as low performing drop out factories.
The basic solutions offered in the documentary to fix the problem were better teachers and of course school choice. There are two basic school choice options other than parents taking it on their own to pay tuition for a private school or to home school. Those choices are either a voucher plan or a school tax credit plan. I don’t believe anyone is talking about a tax deduction plan. There is a group in Oklahoma that I believe is called the Coalition for School Choice, which is basically working toward the tax credit angle. I believe the leader is Bill Price, a former U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate for Governor in 1990. He was also the candidate I chose to support for U.S. Representative in 1992, a race eventually won by Ernest Istook.
The special showing was the 3rd time in Oklahoma and well attended by lawmakers as well as other movers and shakers and parties interested in education. Following the showing there was a Q&A session with a panel which included, Janet Barresi, the ultra liberal David Blatt, Bill Price, Fred Morgan as moderator, the Principle of the OKC KIPP school, the union boss for the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) and a lady with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA). It was shown in one of the large theaters at Quail Springs and was about 80% full.
I sat next to Jenni White of ROPE (Reform Oklahoma Public Education) and on the other side of me was a Superintendent of the largest school district (it shall remain unnamed) in a rural county that is now down to 10 school districts. I feverishly picked his brain before the showing and during the Q&A session. He basically was in favor of any change in the law that would make it easier to get rid of bad teachers (they do exist) and wasn’t necessarily opposed to consolidation of school administrations.
Our most interesting conversation was about school choice. I asked the following line of questions. If some kind of school choice legislation was passed which produced 2 or 3 private schools in your district within 5 years after passage and you lost 10% of your students to those schools, how would you cope with that knowing you would lose funds, but would also have less students to educate? His answer was that it would be very difficult as he probably couldn’t reduce the number of teachers. I then suggested my public school experience had me in classes that always had 32 to 36 students and I proposed the education I received in the 50s and early 60s was better than the education received today with much smaller class sizes. He agreed on the quality of education, but said it was ingrained in the minds of the public that smaller class sizes are better. He also agreed that when it comes to lecture type classes, it would be much better to have a child sit in a class of 150 or 300 before an inspiring teacher with great communication skills rather than be in a class with 10 students taught by a dunderhead.
Following the Q&A session, I approached a headmaster of a large private school and related this conversation about class size. I was told by this private school leader that student teacher ratio, or class size, is an incredibly small factor in educational success. Changing the thinking in the minds of Oklahomans on this issue will be key to reducing the costs of education in Oklahoma. It will also be key in putting more students before good teachers and getting rid of bad teachers.
When H.B. 1017 was passed in 1990, it set class room size standards and forced the state to hire an additional 3,500 teachers. I was actually a regional coordinator at that time in the effort to overturn that legislation. I spoke in several settings and was also on channel 9 news in opposition to the measure. It was then and still is my contention that the only reason the unions supported 1017 was that the additional teachers would make the education industry, controlled by the unions, more wealthy and especially more politically powerful. I said then that 1017 would not improve academic performance and it has not.
There were a couple of things I did not like about the documentary. First, there was no mention of the importance of spirituality in education. I believe that teaching based on the foundations of the Bible and its Judeo-Christian principles are the most important component to a good education and more importantly a healthy society. The best way to understand this is to view David Barton’s DVD, Four Centuries of American Education. Second, it had this misleading suggestion that it would be less costly to society to spend a little more money on education rather than spending so much to incarcerate large numbers of criminals.
While it is true, that many criminals are greatly lacking in education, it is not because the education was not available to them. People in prison are rebels and or have serious character flaws. By kicking God out of the government schools and teaching from the religious viewpoint of Darwinian humanism, we have greatly increased the number of people in prison and many more need to be there, they just haven’t arrived as yet. If education prevented crime, then tell me why it is almost a weekly event that some teacher, principle, superintendent, college professor or university president is arrested and charged with some kind of crime. Remember, every one of those I just mentioned is educated to at least a primary degree in a college or university.
If Jesus Christ is not allowed in the government schools, then God bless all those Christian teachers who go into those schools and try to make a difference in spite of the bad curriculum and a system which works against a good education. However, if I am a Christian parent, I don’t want my children in those schools during their formative years. This is the time parents should be working to establish a spiritual foundation in their lives. To put those children in today‘s government schools, means parents are playing Russian roulette with the spiritual, moral and academic lives of their children. Some kids survive, many don’t.
++ TWO NOMINEES FOR THE JOSEPH GOEBBELS MEDIA AWARD
Joseph Goebbels became Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister in 1933 and used his intelligence and speaking skills to shape the thinking of the German people to participate in and create a horrible society. I would suggest he was a change agent, cleverly working to change the mores, values and thinking of society.
Therefore, I suggest we create an award for the media outlet which best typifies a modern day change agent, working to change the morality of Oklahomans. Perhaps this year we should call it the Joseph Goebbels Propaganda Award for Sodomy. So far, I will announce two nominees.
First, the Oklahoma Gazette (I pronounce it the Gay - Zette) for this week’s cover story titled: MODERN OKLAHOMA FAMILY - NONTRADITIONAL IS BECOMING MORE TRADITIONAL. The front cover features one prominate white guy, his white partner and two young black children that one of these homosexuals has adopted. Mixed racial adoptions is not an issue with me or most Oklahomans, it certainly is not a sin in God’s eyes. The problem is with the homosexual issue.
While the picture portrays the 2 men and 2 young boys as very happy and well balanced, I am of the opinion that these 2 children are being raised with a warped view of right and wrong and no matter how much they may be loved or cared for by these 2 men, it will never find acceptance by Christians who hold to Biblical standards. Government at various levels, may some day with the propaganda help of publications such as the Gazette, make marriage legal. Government has already made it legal for a homosexual to adopt, but it will never be accepted by God as anything other than sin, nor will it ever be acceptable to Biblical Christians. This publication is on the stands until Wednesday or Thursday. May I suggest picking up a copy and read the article for yourselves to help you cast your vote. Then bring your copy of the Gazette to the OCPAC meeting when you are finished with it as I will deliver your used copies to a paper bin that sells paper to help fund a Christian school that teachers a proper understanding of families.
Second, the November 2nd election day issue of The Journal Record had its front page story titled: UNDER THE RAINBOW - IN OKLAHOMA, GLBT CANDIDATES FACE FEAR, BIGOTRY AND SABOTAGE. If the Journal Record is nothing more than a publication of commentaries, that is fine, but if they want to be considered as a newspaper, it was one of the worst cases of yellow journalism I have seen in a while.
The article was by M. Scott Carter. I believe he joined the Journal Record some time back when he came from the very liberal Norman Transcript. On the front cover is a picture of an official with the homosexual organization, the Cimarron Alliance, a homosexual city councilman from Norman and Brittany Novotny, the candidate recently defeated by Sally Kern.
Here is why the article was propaganda and yellow journalism. These three people and Jim Roth, the homosexual who was defeated 2 years ago by Dana Murphy, were all quoted or their side of a story was told. However, Sally Kern was mentioned in the paper, but in checking with Sally she was never contacted for an interview to get her side of the story. I was mentioned in the story, but I was never contacted for my side of the story and though Dave Mehlhaff was not mentioned by name, he was referred to in the story. I checked with Dave and again he was never contacted to give his side of the story. Folks, that is one sided propaganda, it is advocacy journalism, not news reporting.
When I wrote about Brittany having had the sex change operation and suggested the result was a “confused it” channels 9 and 4 interviewed Brittany and then contacted me for an interview to get my side of the story. Michael McNutt with the Oklahoman contacted me, again to get my side of the story, that is news reporting, not propaganda, not yellow journalism. If you are writing a commentary, then there is no need to contact a person, though it might be wise to do so, but if the Journal Record wants to be recognized as a news organ, then it must use the principles of good journalism and stop being a propaganda piece for the homosexual agenda or perhaps other special interest groups. I will post these 2 articles at our meeting, give them a read and cast your vote at to which paper will earn the Joseph Goebbels award for propaganda for sodomy.
One more thing along these lines. Two years ago, Sally’s opponent was not homosexual, but was supported by the homosexual community. Sally won that race with a 58 to 42 percent majority. This election cycle, Sally’s opponent was an aggressive supporter of the homosexual agenda and had undergone the sex change operation. Though Sally was probably outspent 2 to 1, she won this year with a 66 to 34 percent margin of victory.
One of the reasons the Democrat label is dying in Oklahoma is the association with the homosexual community. Many Christian Democrats, especially in rural Oklahoma, are leaving the party and becoming Republicans who, for the most part, don’t hate homosexuals, they just don’t approve of that sinful lifestyle. I will give credit to Brittany for calling Sally and congratulating her on her victory. That is more honorable than Jason Murphey’s former opponent, A.J. Jones who, to this day, still has not contacted Jason Murphey to congratulate him on his victory.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday and may everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving. .
