Under the Ink: Thankful for 'moral' government (Sand Springs OK newspaper editorial)

An excellent editorial by a friend of my daughter's - he went through junior high and high school with her, and was always a gifted writer and enlightened soul. Years later, he's now managing editor of the Sand Springs Leader. Gives me hope for the state of Oklahoma :) Make sure to follow the link for the rest of the editorial:

Under the Ink: Thankful for 'moral' government
By Dustin Hughes, Managing Editor
dustinh@sandspringsleader.com
Published:
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:08 PM CST

Dear elected officials of Oklahoma,

Thanksgiving is approaching, and I just want to tell you how thankful I am to have you all in charge of this state. All the wonderful ways you find to spend your time and our money make me grateful and proud to be an Okie.


Why do you make me so proud? Well, it’s because of how absolutely moral you are, and how devoted Oklahoma is to family values.

Let’s start with how devoted we are to morals. Why, we even had a state representative and state senator, Sally Kern and Randy Brogdon, give us a proclamation on morality. This little proclamation - which wasn’t really any sort of law or anything, just a statement - slammed the president while calling for Oklahomans to only elect Christians.

The author, Kern, you remember, is so moral she once said that gay people are more dangerous to this country than terrorists.

On the national level, one of our senators, Tom Coburn, is holding a bill that would expand health services for veterans. Coburn thinks money should be cut from somewhere else to pay for treating soldiers who’ve fought for America. That’s family values right there.

more at link: http://sandspringsleader.com/articles/2009/11/24/opinion/doc4b04525394211535841469.txt

It's wonderful. Must read the whole thing.

It's worth the read, and I appreciate the fact that this small-town Oklahoma paper has Mr. Hughes as managing editor - something you wouldn't expect smack in the middle of Redneckville. Sand Springs has, as I remember, historically been a union town, though. (They just lost a major employer - steel company.):

Under the Ink: Thankful for 'moral' government
By Dustin Hughes, Managing Editor
dustinh@sandspringsleader.com
Published:
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:08 PM CST
Dear elected officials of Oklahoma,

Thanksgiving is approaching, and I just want to tell you how thankful I am to have you all in charge of this state. All the wonderful ways you find to spend your time and our money make me grateful and proud to be an Okie.


Why do you make me so proud? Well, it’s because of how absolutely moral you are, and how devoted Oklahoma is to family values.

Let’s start with how devoted we are to morals. Why, we even had a state representative and state senator, Sally Kern and Randy Brogdon, give us a proclamation on morality. This little proclamation - which wasn’t really any sort of law or anything, just a statement - slammed the president while calling for Oklahomans to only elect Christians.

The author, Kern, you remember, is so moral she once said that gay people are more dangerous to this country than terrorists.

On the national level, one of our senators, Tom Coburn, is holding a bill that would expand health services for veterans. Coburn thinks money should be cut from somewhere else to pay for treating soldiers who’ve fought for America. That’s family values right there.

Coburn, of course, voted for war with Iraq, seeing no problem with funding that... but as far as helping find housing for or treating the troops who actually picked up the guns and fought? Well, you have to take a moral stance somewhere. Let ‘em rot, right? They should understand that this is all about Coburn’s conservative values.

I’m glad we have such moral, family value-oriented men and women in our government and that they can spend their time on such important matters, instead of other trivial areas.

Feeding our seniors, for instance. Why fund that? Just last month, Oklahoma DHS was ordered to cut millions from its budget. Most of the cuts came from senior meal programs, which delivered meals five days a week to homebound seniors. Thanks to those cuts, required by a state government that did not bother to tap into the rainy day fund to alleviate, those seniors will now be seeing meals delivered two days one week, three days the next. What about food for the rest of the week? Let them figure it out. Our lawmakers are too busy playing ‘holier-than-thou.’

That’s morality in action right there. Why should the people who aren’t poor and old have to pay to feed the people who are?

It’s not like those seniors have done anything for this young generation. Sure, they wrangled this nation out of the Great Depression, beat back Nazi Germany and blunted Japan’s imperial aggressions, held the communists at bay in Korea and during the cold war, and all the while managed to raise the current generation of lawmakers.

But what have they done for us lately?

That’s morality right there.

In fact, I’m so proud of our family value-oriented government - Kern, Randy Terrill, Brodgon and more, I’m glad Henry will get to spend more time with is family after the next election day.

I think we should be sure and send the rest of that crew home next election day, to let them do the same.

-end-