Oklahoma Freedom Caucus releases 2025 policy agenda

Good stuff from the best group in the Legislature:

Oklahoma Freedom Caucus releases policy agenda

OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 17th) – Today, the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus led by Chairman Shane Jett, House Vice Chair Jim Olsen, and Senate Vice Chair Dusty Deevers released the following policy agenda for 2025.

For the 60th Legislature the focus of the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus is to advance the Freedoms of Oklahomans in four key areas:

Keeping Homeschool Freedoms in Oklahoma

Homeschool students at Capitol Day 2023

Oklahoma is the only state in the union that explicitly protects home education in the state's Constition. Homeschool freedom is unparalleled here.

Today was the 38th annual Homeschool Capitol Day, where homeschool families from across the state come to the State Capitol to lobby legislators to protect existing homeschool freedoms, learn about legislation, network with other groups and families, and hold various educational and informational workshops and activities for all ages.

Gov. Stitt delivers 2023 State of the State Address

GOVERNOR STITT DELIVERS 2023 STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

OKLAHOMA CITY (February 6, 2023) – Governor Kevin Stitt delivered the first State of the State Address of his second term to the 59th Legislature today. Governor Stitt outlined his legislative agenda for 2023, focusing on driving excellence in education, making Oklahoma the most business-friendly state in the nation, and protecting Oklahomans and promoting freedoms. The full transcript can be found below: 

When "smart" isn't smart: Texas power companies overriding home thermostats

We live in a "smart" age. Smartphones, smart TVs, smart appliances, smart thermostats, smart lights, smart this and smart that.

But when is "smart" not smart?

Homeowners in Texas are discovering that their use of "smart" is infringing on the control they have in their most personal domain - that of their own house.

1889 Institute: Americans have right to assume risk, even in pandemic

THINK TANK SAYS AMERICANS HAVE RIGHT TO ASSUME RISK, EVEN IN A PANDEMIC

Progress requires risk-taking, and Americans knowledgeable of risk can choose to take it.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (November 18, 2020) – The 1889 Institute’s Research Fellow, Mike Davis, who is also an attorney, has written “America’s Legal Tradition of Allowing Risk-Taking, Even in a Pandemic,” which argues that American common law allows informed risk taking. As long as people are well-informed, they should therefore have the dignity for themselves to decide how much risk to take. In the case of the current COVID-19 pandemic, individuals in a free society like America’s should have the freedom to choose whether to wear masks and/or isolate themselves as part of social distancing.

“Masks, actually N95 respirators, are truly most effective for individuals who are at high risk from COVID-19 and have not contracted the disease. These include the aged, and others who have other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity,” said Davis. “The young and healthy, who are at less risk from COVID-19 than the seasonal flu, should have the same freedom from masks and social distancing as we give them from flu shots. We do not force anyone to take flu shots every year,” he said.

Davis’s paper explains the long legal tradition of assumed risk. He argues that sound information surrounding COVID-19 is readily available and that people can be just as trusted to evaluate and assume risk surrounding social distancing and mask wearing as they can be with deciding whether to ride in a car.

“If nothing else, unless someone has been living under a rock, we all know about COVID-19 and that it’s dangerous. Speaking as someone who’s had the disease, if anything, the danger posed by COVID-19 for most people is exaggerated,” said Davis.

Davis’s paper concludes that many local governments in Oklahoma have over-reacted with social distancing and mask mandates that have bankrupted businesses and disrupted everybody’s lives for the sake of the very most risk-averse among us. “It’s as if those most fearful of flying forced the grounding of all aircraft,” he said.

About the 1889 Institute

The 1889 Institute is an Oklahoma think tank committed to independent, principled state policy fostering limited and responsible government, free enterprise and a robust civil society. The publication, “America’s Legal Tradition of Allowing Risk-Taking, Even in a Pandemic” and other reports can be found on the nonprofit’s website at www.1889institute.org. 

That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton


Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry


Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery


Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott


New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris


New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark


Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross


Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean


Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton


Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton


North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn


South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton


Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walto

The Conservative View: A Rising Tide and Barriers

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner and conservative activist Russell Turner (R-Stilwell).

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

A Rising Tide and Barriers

I have noticed that many Americans do not understand the concepts of a free market system of economics. Whether it is from a lack of education or being indoctrinated by the main stream press that has very left leaning philosophies, our people fail to see the benefits of the capitalistic system our country once enjoyed. Far too many people have gotten into a system of class envy, they think that just because someone has more than they do it should be the duty of the government to confiscate part of that wealth and redistribute it to someone else.

While some think of money like a small pool of water on a beach, they look at it like there is no other water anywhere and if someone has more water than the other they have the flawed assumption that they have taken it from someone else. Our people have forgotten that freedom allows us to grow our wealth. I believe that like an ocean if the tide is allowed to flow naturally the tide will bring forth more water and the supply will be greater for everyone. There is an old saying that says, “A rising tide floats all boats”. The system works well until someone erects a barrier that restricts the flow of the water. We need to recognize the barriers that our well intentioned leaders place upon our economic system.

I recently heard that the congress will not act upon the Bush Tax Cuts until after the election. If the Bush Tax Cuts are not renewed many people will be facing major increases in the taxes they will have to pay. We need to understand that for the most part the people that have businesses and create jobs want to make a profit. If the government makes the tax burden so punitive that the business owner cannot turn a profit, he will not start the new businesses and not create the jobs that our country needs. We have forgotten that you or I may have been employed at that new business. I have heard people complain about companies moving operations outside of this country, and out of the same breath they complain about the high price of the necessities they need. To stay competitive the business owner has no other choice but to move to another location in order to survive. Until our citizens start to understand the concept of removing barriers placed upon our business owners, a rising tide cannot float all boats.  

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.  

The Conservative View: Horses and Sore Lips

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner (R-Stilwell).

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

Horses and Sore Lips

Having being raised on a farm in rural Oklahoma I have had many experiences that are alien to most people. Very few people today have ever watched a person put horse shoes on a horse. Many times a young horse is reluctant to stand still for the person to put the shoes on. To solve the problem, I have seen the person putting on the shoes take a short piece of cord and twist it around the horse’s lip. The old timers call this procedure putting a twitch on the horse’s lip. While this may seem cruel, it causes the horse to think about something else instead of being shod. The key goal is to get the horse’s attention away from the person doing the work, without the little piece of cord the worker would run the risk of being kicked or injured. This little analogy reminds me of the events that are taking place in our nation’s capital.

The president and the leaders of the US house and Senate are, for the lack of a better term, ‘hell bent for leather’ to push the health care bill through congress and have the president sign it into law. From the polling data that I have seen, the American people are not supporting this legislation. The tactics being used to get the necessary voters for passage range from strong arming to bribery. To distract the American people from the danger that this legislation would cause our nation, money is promised to congressmen that they can take back to their home district and use on pet projects. Sadly many American people cannot distinguish the difference between something free and freedom. We humans have a tendency to lose all common sense when we think that we are going to get something for nothing. ObamaCare will not make health care more affordable and accessible to all Americans. It will only increase the size and scope of government. Government will have more power over our lives and we will have less and less freedom.

Maybe the leaders in congress and the president feel that they are doing this for our own good and we average people need to take the bitter medicine like the horse being shod. I believe that there is a huge difference in a human and a horse. A horse is a dumb animal that is bred to serve humans, we humans on the other hand are meant to be free and not to serve other men or some government. Our elected leaders are acting like an uncooperative horse, maybe it is time for a twitch on their lip.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.