A Loss For All Of Us

The world may be focused on the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but for many of us there was a much more significant loss from this world.

Kinlee Cher Trammell Farris was laid to rest last week before an overflow group of friends and family at Church of the Servant in northwest Oklahoma City. For some of you, this may seem irrelevant. However, for those of us who had a chance to know Kinlee, she was a ray of light in what can often be a world full of darkness.

 

Always with that infectious smile on her face, Kinlee had a way of focusing on the positive. Despite continuously having to fight off breast cancer – which she did four times the past eight years – Kinlee continued to look forward and take an optimistic approach to her life.

She didn’t allow her health struggles to negatively affect her career, as she was always on an upward path. Kinlee was most recently the CEO of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, a position in which she excelled in promoting a community I partially grew up in during my younger years.

Kinlee was known for a lot of positives but for most of us who knew her, it was that constant smile that stood out. She has forever been linked to the “Mister Happy” symbol that was always a major part of her life. Despite everything, Kinlee was always smiling and the Mister Happy was reflective of who she was.

I have a lot of memories involving Kinlee, starting with her dating one of my best friends in high school. She actually set me up with her best friend at one point and the four of us hung out quite a bit for a few months while I was home from college. Regrettably, as it so often turns out, life got in the way and I lost touch with all of them for several years.

Kinlee and her friend, Amy, got back into my life many years later and I was fortunate enough to get to spend some fun times with Kinlee as a result of that reunion. She was one of the few friends who came out to watch me announce a football game at Langston University. She invited me out to hang out with her parents and watch in person an historic overtime Bedlam football game when The Belldozer gave us some lasting highlights.

All that said, one of my favorite memories of Kinlee showed just who she was as a person. I was having a difficult time locating a specific video game my son wanted for his birthday. I had pretty much given up on being able to give him that particular gift when Kinlee let me know she had found the game in Shawnee, where she worked at the time. That alone was such an awesome thing, but she one-upped herself by driving to Oklahoma City to meet me to give me the game.

This was typical for who Kinlee was. She was so giving.

I have always felt bad that she was chosen to be the person to have to go through everything she has had to deal with. I don’t know why the best people seem to be the ones who have to deal with so much tragedy, but she played the cards she was dealt better than anyone I know. I am proud to have known Kinlee Cher Trammell Farris, and I know she is looking down on us with that always-present smile.

Waking Up to Reality

Just imagine if a person was cryogenically frozen 20 years ago and they were released from their chamber on 11/9/16, the day following the historic U.S. elections. Here is how I would envision that conversation.

Frozen Fred:  Wow, it is awfully cold.

Scientist Steve:  You should step outside. We are still continuing to ignore the obvious global warming signs. It’s 85 degrees outside right now.

Fred:  So, nothing much has changed in two decades. That’s surprising. I guess the Democrats don’t control the White House or Congress?

Steve:  Well, a Democrat is President but Congress is held by the Republicans.

Fred:  Oh yeah? That’s the same as it was 20 years ago.

Steve:  Yeah, but not for long. A Republican was elected yesterday and so Republicans will control Congress and the White House.

Fred:  What about the Supreme Court?

Steve:  It is considered split.

Fred:  Wait … aren’t there nine justices?

Steve:  Normally. One of the conservative justices passed away in February and the seat has been open since then.

Fred:  That’s insane. Why would it take nine months to replace such an important position?

Steve:  Republicans held out hope they would take over the White House and announced they would wait until the new President was in office before they moved forward on the replacement. And people were actually OK with that.

Fred:  Politics. Meanwhile, all the important cases up for review during that time have an asterisk next to them because the Senate Majority Leader decided to play games.

Steve:  Pretty much.

Fred:  So, who is the President?

Steve:  Barack Obama. The first African-American President in U.S. history. And he got two terms.

Fred:  Well, that was progress. And people still believe global warming doesn’t exist?

Steve:  Maybe 1 percent of the scientists don’t believe it. And around 30 percent of those surveyed. But there is also a link between those who don’t believe in global warming and a lack of education.

Fred:  Clearly. Well, maybe the President-elect will step up and make a difference. You know, before the planet dies.

Steve:  I wouldn’t count on it. The incoming President has said he doesn’t believe in global warming.

Fred:  Typical Republican politician.

Steve:  Not exactly. The President-elect has never held a public office before.

Fred:  Really? That’s refreshing. He must have some military or ambassador experience then, to get elected nowadays.

Steve:  No, he is actually a businessman and an entertainer.

Fred:  Like Penn and Teller?

Steve:  Ha! Not exactly. I’m sure you’ve heard of him, even having been frozen for 20 years. His name is Donald Trump.

Fred:  Ha ha! That’s a good one.

Steve:  No, seriously.

Fred:  Donald Trump? The same guy who sued the NFL so the USFL could have an unfair advantage?

Steve:  Yes.

Fred:  The same guy who filed bankruptcy four times?

Steve:  Actually, it is six now.

Fred:  So, a failed businessman is now the President-elect?

Steve:  Well, he has experienced some success spending his dad’s money. And clearly some failures too. But he has also made some money as the owner of the Miss USA pageant as well as through his reality show, “The Apprentice.”

Fred:  A reality show?

Steve:  Yeah, probably the only major reality show you might have heard of would be MTV’s “Real World.” But we had an explosion of successful reality shows since then and Trump cashed in on his own.

Fred:  “The Apprentice?”

Steve:  He started out letting regular people compete for a job working for him. Then he expanded out to also have a celebrity version that hired celebrity winners.

Fred:  People watched this?

Steve:  It was really popular. And while the celebrity version didn’t have major A-listers, it was still a show people enjoyed watching.

Fred:  Who were some of the celebrities?

Steve:  Some of the winners included Joan Rivers, Bret Michaels, Arsenio Hall, Trace Adkins and Leeza Gibbons.

Fred:  Wait, who are Bret Michaels and Trace Adkins?

Steve:  Adkins came out with his first album a year before you were frozen. Country music. Michaels was the lead singer of Poison.

Fred:  Poison? As in “Every Rose Has Its Thorn?”

Steve:  That’s the one. He went from an 80’s hair band to a job working for Donald Trump. Who is now President.

Fred:  What was so popular about him?

Steve:  As has every presidential candidate before him, he promised change.

Fred:  From an African-American president? What does that say about the voters?

Steve:  Well, it’s relatively obvious. They fought him for eight years and made it next to impossible to pass anything. Other than a health care plan that provides insurance for everyone.

Fred:  Who would argue against that? Isn’t a significant part of medical and insurance payments based on costs associated with the uninsured?

Steve:  It would seem like that. But costs have continued to go up, regardless.

Fred:  Greedy private companies. Let me guess – they blame the President instead.

Steve:  Exactly. And then instead of following up with electing the first African-American president by electing the first female president, they chose to go with a guy who has a reputation for shady deals and changing his position when it suits him. He actually convinced people he would bring jobs back to the United States and he is one of the leaders in shipping jobs off to China and Mexico. And not surprisingly enough, he is already talking about flip-flopping on some of positions that got him elected.

Fred:  Sounds like he already has politics down. Did you say something about the first female president?

Steve:  Yes. Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee.

Fred:  That is actually not too surprising. She seemed to have some political aspirations when her husband was elected. Guess we can’t have too much progress.

Steve:  True. Maybe in four years.

Fred:  Well, I am going back into the chamber until then. Wake me up when the voters come to their senses.

Steve:  Hopefully, there will be someone around to wake you up. Sure you don’t want to stick around long enough to enjoy a venti Caramel Brulée Latte?

Fred:  Um, what?

State Question Voting Guide for Dummies

Some of you may still be struggling with who you should be voting for in the Presidential race or maybe you are asking yourself what exactly has been the benefit of voting for all those incumbents year after year. My guess is most of you are drawing a blank. Which is why I am assuming most of you need some kind of simple guide when it comes to the state questions, of which there are seven this year.

Going in numerical order, we will start with State Question 776, which in essence strengthens the death penalty by making it constitutional. Oklahoma has recently had some problems with how it kills people, as evidenced by people on death row dying painful deaths as a result of poor medicinal management with our lethal injection method of getting “an eye for an eye.”

Whether or not you are for the death penalty, I think it goes without saying that none of us want – or should want – people to die painful deaths for crimes they likely committed. Certainly, we only want the death penalty to be used on those who 100-percent committed the crime, and the jury is still out on that (pun intended). And if you are fine with killing people who may have committed the crime or you have no problem with painful deaths, then I’m not sure our criminal justice system is the problem. Go see a psychiatrist. And say hello to Donald while you’re there.

The reason behind 776 is that it would provide flexibility should the drugs Oklahoma uses be ruled as unconstitutional. It is basically a constitutional purchase of insurance for something that is likely to happen one day soon. The downside is that it would make it more difficult to make Oklahoma’s death penalty unconstitutional, which many real pro-life advocates (those who believe ALL life has value) believe should happen.

My vote? I’ve been on both sides of the fence when it comes to the death penalty but lately I’ve been leaning to not killing people who may be innocent. I have witnessed too many instances when innocent people were found guilty of a crime, and it would be shameful for us as a state to endorse killing these people. Our system is flawed and should not lead to death of innocent people. So, let’s not make it tougher to put a stop to that.

Next up is State Question 777, which is the Right to Farm proposal. This state question requires compelling state interest to pass legislation to regulate agriculture, which is the state’s 14^th-highest economic factor and represents less than 2 percent of our gross domestic product. Yes, you read that right. If agriculture were a sport, it would rank somewhere below Cornhole and horseshoes.

The goal of 777 is to shield Oklahoma farmers and ranchers from having to deal with red tape and regulation. If this same language were placed on the limits of freedom of speech, we could all threaten to kill anyone we want or yell fire in crowded movie theaters. Ridiculous, huh?

The concerns with this proposal is that it is designed to protect large-scale farms that have been accused of doing bad things to helpless animals. Small farms may get some protections too but on a much smaller scale.

Where do I stand? This one is easy. Sometimes, proposals are sent to a vote of the people as propaganda to prevent a future positive action from happening. Do we all love the taste of a juicy steak? Of course! Does the value of that steak decrease just a little if we knew the conditions cows go through when unregulated? It should. The fact is, there will be no need for further regulations if farmers and ranchers just followed the laws and had some semblance of a moral compass when it comes to how they treat animals. The animals we eat should get treated as well as the pets we keep. And, plus, haven’t we learned our lesson when it comes to voting for state questions that start with “Right to …”?

With State Question 779, we get to decide whether or not we are willing to do for all of our teachers what we have already committed to doing for 15 basketball players. Yes, that’s right – it’s a sales tax increase and this one doesn’t raise revenue for our pro basketball team.

We all want our teachers to get paid more. That way, journalists can finally get their due as the most underpaid and undervalued profession in Oklahoma. Actually, the $44,000-average salary for teachers is higher than any salary I received as a journalist. But that’s a story for another day.

Teachers deserve more money. They deserve a Legislature that cares enough to pay them higher than 49^th in the nation. Given that the Republican-controlled state has chosen to not do anything to move Oklahoma higher up in the money we allocate for education, we have to be creative in how we reimburse our teachers for putting up with our kids while we go to work each day.

The positive part of this proposal is that it will create a guaranteed source of funding for increased teacher pay, similar to the sources of additional funding that were created for education through lottery and casino revenues several years ago.

On a negative note, it’s a tax increase. It’s only a penny for each dollar, but it’s permanent. And since it is on the sales tax, it will disproportionally tax the poor.

What is my position? This one is tough. I don’t feel undertaxed when I go to the store and make a purchase. But I also realize voters are completely fine with re-electing people who aren’t getting it done at the State Capitol. There has been a law for years requiring education to be funded prior to all other agencies, yet that never happens. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Maybe a tax increase under Republican leadership will change some voting behaviors in the future. Until then, I say pay the teachers.

Next up are a pair of proposals that are linked together – State Question 780 and State Question 781. The first reclassifies drug possession offenses in an attempt to reduce the prison population, which is full of “criminals” who really just wanted to get high. It should be noted that Oklahoma ranks second in overall incarceration and first in the incarceration of women, so it is clear we like to lock people up for “crimes” that aren’t necessarily that bad in other states.

The positive of this proposal is that it would reduce taxpayer costs being spent on prisons while instead sending drug users to much cheaper rehab facilities. The downside is that this doesn’t just include pot smokers – those caught possessing cocaine, meth, heroin and date-rape drugs would also get rehab rather than prison.

My position? I’ve been saying for years Oklahoma criminalizes too much casual activity. We practically chop off kids’ hands for taking a cookie out of the cookie jar. Now, we have people on both sides of the aisle who seem to recognize the need for common sense in our criminal justice system. Yes, it is because it is a money issue, but progress is needed here and this is one way to do it.

As for 781, this could pass and still not pass. Huh? If 780 fails to pass, this one becomes irrelevant. Basically, this would create a county community safety investment fund to allocate resources to those rehab facilities where the “criminals” in 780 are being diverted. Since we are a yes on 780, we will be a yes on this one as well.

State Question 790 is one that hasn’t been talked about much, but may be every much as important as any of the others. You know how your entire life, you have been told there is a separation between church and state? How several of our “patriots” came to America to gain religious freedom? Yeah, it’s real. But this proposal would put an end to that and would allow for religious artifacts to be placed on government property. Yes, this is the Ten Commandments proposal.

I fail to see any positives to this. The same people voting in favor of this are probably going to vote in favor of 776, and I’m fairly certain there is something about “Thou Shalt Not Kill” somewhere in our religious teachings. Maybe there was a sub-amendment somewhere in there but I haven’t run across it yet.

The problem with passing this is that ALL religions would have an opportunity to place artifacts on government property. Do you think we as Christians will allow that to happen? And just how much money should be spent to litigate all of this? None. We just vote this down and move on. One guy wants to put up this monument and look what it has led to. Tell Mike Ritze to focus on something less controversial and get a life.

And finally, we have State Question 792. This is that long-overdue overhaul of our antiquated liquor laws. This one is relatively simple and probably the most heavily supported of all of them. Basically, this would allow all grocery, convenience and drug stores to sell cold, high-point beer and wine.

The positives are that it would modernize laws that most just don’t understand. The negative is that this could cut sales at independent liquor stores, many of which I have noticed are still supporting this change.

It should be obvious that I am in favor of this. Not that I do a lot of purchases of alcoholic beverages anymore, but I do recognize the need to improve these laws. I covered the ABLE Commission for years and it has been clear for years, Oklahoma is a caveman in a modern world when it comes to liquor laws. This is a great start.

Vote how you want but if the votes don’t match up with how I’m voting, just know you will hear about it until it gets changed back to the way I want it. So, what I’m saying is get out and vote, and make sure you vote my way!