Oklahoma SBs 560 and 197
As the next generation practiced, so should we: resistance is not futile. With the permission of my colleague, Rev. Dr. Richmond Adams, I am publishing an email he dispatched today to one of our Oklahoma State Senators addressing two bills currently circulating at our State House.
Senator Marlatt:
I am writing to urge your opposition to both SBs 560 and 197. While seemingly different bills in separate areas of Oklahoma’s sense of itself, each piece of legislation will, in its way, accomplish much the same by lessening our state’s ability to economically compete in an atmosphere of social tolerance. Allowing vouchers to continue their incursion into our education system will not only deprive public schools of much needed funds, but will, more importantly, undermine their historical mission, which is more about the development of citizenship through informed critical thinking than “economic development” and business expansion.
SB 197, at the same time and to say nothing of its purported adherence to “moral standards,” will, by definition, send a signal to businesses that anyone who is not on “approved list” of groups or persons will not be able to provide for themselves within a free market of goods, services, and ideas. Beyond those purely economic concerns, however, SB 197 will once again create the image of Oklahoma as a last vestige of Know-Nothingism where those not in the political majority (which is not to raise matters of religious and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, to which even the strictest of “originalists” must adhere) will be denied their basic liberties as Americans. It is in sense that these issues come together.
The principal link between SBs 560 and 197 is that for Oklahomans to make informed decisions about how we wish our state to understand itself, there must be an informed citizenry with the skills to raise questions about the efficacy and decency of how they are being governed by those elected to do so. For that to happen is to accept the need for properly funded public education that allows all students to explore issues within our state’s life without fear of castigation for simply being themselves. To enact either or both of these bills will undermine the very reality that makes Oklahoma (and the United States) “great” or, to use a phrase from our Puritan ancestors, “a city shining on a hill.” Thank you for your attention to my concerns as I am,
Yours Most Respectfully,
Richmond B. Adams