The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Cindy Allen is managing editor of the Enid News & Eagle. Want to comment? E-mail editor@enidnews.com

"As the Primary Turns"

I have to say I was surprised when two people very close to me -- both lifelong Republicans -- said they would consider voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton if she’s the Democratic presidential nominee.
“What?” I asked both of them when they made that statement to me on separate occasions..
Neither of these people are John McCain fans. They just are having a hard time accepting that he’s the Republican nominee.
“But, why Clinton?” I ask. “She stands for everything you’re against, and has for years.”
Neither of these two could really say they wholly support Clinton. But, they acknowledge that at least she’s a known quantity. With Clinton, you know what you’re going to get.
Barack Obama is way too liberal for either of these two. There is no way they would ever vote for him..
And, McCain has just been such a pain in the butt to conservatives, he can’t be trusted.
I’m still stunned these two lifelong Republicans would even consider voting for Clinton. But, it does support some notions that Obama can’t beat McCain. When it comes to the Independent vote, McCain has the advantage.
The Democratic Party seems bent on making Obama the nominee. Superdelegates are falling like flies into the Obama camp. Clinton must be incredibly hurt and disappointed that life-long friends and colleagues are turning their backs on her.
She can’t really understand why because as a long-time party operative, Clinton certainly knows a thing or two about electibility. She’s no dummy. She sees problems ahead for the Democrats winning the presidency if Obama is their nominee.
Many believe -- at least at this juncture -- that Clinton stacks up better against McCain. That stumps me, because I’ve always believed that nothing could light up the Republican Party more than going against Hillary Clinton.
It just shows how the dynamics of the Democratic presidential primary have really changed the way many people are thinking.
And, so it continues, just like a soap opera. Who’s heart will be broken tomorrow? Will Clinton “steal” the nomination away from Obama? What was really in Minister Wright’s heart?
Guess we’ll just have to stay tuned, but it’s becoming very interesting.

May 01, 2008 05:14 pm

More entries >>>

Stabilizing gas prices demands common sense

Gas prices are the main topic of conversation just about anywhere I go these days, and I’m sure it’s the same for most everyone.
Gas prices are rising rapidly (just about every day), and it’s interesting to see how the main news organizations are playing it. Some are calling for the heads of the “Big Oil” companies. Others chastise the oil companies for their obscene profits!
They are missing the point. Being the wife of a geologist and also going through the “bust” days of the 1980s with him, I think I have the correct perspective on gas prices, oil companies, fuel alternatives and what needs to be done.
First of all, I don’t know if the media is reporting record oil profits or record oil revenues. They’re calling them “profits,” but I’m wondering if that is a misnomer. I know that oil “revenues” are very good because of the demand for oil. However, I also know that along with those record “revenues” come record expenses as well.
Sure, being in the oil business is profitable right now, but a great deal of those monies go right back into exploration. The demand for oil demands exploration, and the cost of exploration is going up right along with everything else. Where are the media reports about how much is it is costing to drill for oil?
Which gets me to the second point. Oil is traded as a world commodity. Demand for oil is not driven just domestically, it’s driven internationally. Countries such as India and China have the thirst for oil now that the United States had 30 years ago. Those countries, also, don’t give a whit about the environment, so don’t look for those countries to be shy about trying to explore or develop oil fields that could rape their own environments. Also don’t look to those countries to put any environmental controls on air quality.
The United States, on the other hand, has gone WAY overboard on the environmental concerns. We have oil reserves in this country that should be developed; however, we’re being held hostage by some extreme environmental organizations (and politicians). In this country, we have established ways to explore and develop oil fields that are much more environmentally friendly than they were 40 years ago. So, we need to get on with it and develop these fields.
Another key to stabilizing gas prices is building more refineries. Again, our country has been held hostage from environmental concerns that have led to not developing or building any new refineries in more than 30 years. Our older refineries are at capacity or outdated. This needs to change and change immediately. I think we can build refineries and do it responsibly.
Alternative fuels also have to be a part of the equation. I strongly believe that we should incentivize development of oil, but we also need to tie that incentive to researching and developing alternative fuels. I don’t agree with those who say we should not develop ethanol or biofuels (and subsidize that development) because it’s more expensive or uses food products at its base.
I think we need to develop them all. But with this development (and subsidies) comes accountability. If we’re not getting the job done well enough or fast enough, then we need to demand changes and progress for those subsidies to continue.
Will gas prices ever be as cheap as they were? I think probably not. But, we can stabilize the situation if we use common sense and allow these companies to develop and explore oil, ethanol, biofuels and everything else. And, we should always keep in mind that the free market has worked pretty well for us, and despite high prices now, it’s still the best way to control and stabilize this very valuable commodity.
The government just needs to get out of the way.

April 29, 2008 11:05 am

More entries >>>

'Pitt stop' in Shawnee hits close to home

Some members of my family had a little brush with fame last week when Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and baby Shiloh made a quick trip to Brad’s birthplace, Shawnee.
The Pitt-Jolie group flew their private jet into Shawnee on Thursday for a quick visit with his grandmother, Betty Russell.
Mrs. Russell is a neighbor of my dad’s in Shawnee. She lives just a few doors down from him.
Apparently, my sister who also lives in Shawnee, was “tipped off” about the actors’ visit by a friend of a friend. She and a co-worker took their lunch hour to go visit my dad and basically gawk at the group.
She reports that she got some good views of the clan, who visited for awhile outside in the front yard. She said she even snapped a few pictures, but I haven’t seen them.
She said my dad was “embarassed to death” to have her and her friend crawling all over the front and back yard trying to get a look at the group. My sister said she did get a glimpse of the baby, and he was “very cute.”
I asked my dad once if he had ever seen Brad Pitt in the neighborhood before. He said he’s never seen anything. It’s a quiet little neighborhood and people pretty much keep to themselves. He wasn’t even aware of this visit until my sister came over.
According to news reports, this is the first time Mrs. Russell has seen her grandson since his wedding to Jennifer Aniston. So, it doesn’t sound like visits to his grandmother’s neighborhood are a regular thing for Pitt.
I’ll bet they wonder who those two middle-aged goofy women were just a few doors down! That would be enough to keep them out of the neighborhood!

April 19, 2008 03:57 pm

More entries >>>

No winner seen in city's bond decision

From the sideline, it appears to me Enid city commissioners have established a Mexican standoff with the very people who worked so hard to get bond issues passed for the city last month. And, they’ve drawn a line in the sand with voters as well.

The city commission unanimously decided to shorten the terms of the $7 million bond issue voters approved in the March 4 city election. City officials had hoped voters would approve another $39 million for widening Randolph and improving major intersections, but that measure was soundly defeated.

Both bond issues were worded to force the city to pay off the bonds “within 20 years.” But, in anticipation of getting both bond issues passed, the city and the committee working on the campaign told voters clearly the bonds would be paid off in 20 years. That may not have been the exact wording on the ballot, but that’s the deal that was sold by the city and by the committee who worked on the campaign.

When only $7 million in bond issues was passed instead of the total $46 million, the city started thinking about the reality of paying off a mere $7 million in 20 years.

The commissioners are right in that it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to pay that small amount off in 20 years. However, what they have done is risk the possibility the voters will come back and approve another $20 million or so general obligation bond to do all the road improvements except for Randolph. If they had handled this $7 million bond issue the public relations way, they had a good chance of getting another bond issue passed, thus having a total of around $30 million in bonds to pay off in 20 years.

The commissioners all claim they think they are performing the appropriate fiduciary response in shortening the terms of this small bond. On paper, they are right. While five years is pretty aggressive, a seven-year or even 10-year payment might have been sufficient.

But, they sold the March 4 bond issue as a 20-year payoff. Their committee of active business people and citizens worked under that premise. And, the city commission basically stabbed those folks in the back who worked so hard for them and for the city.

Mr. Rudy, Mr. Ging, and some others say everyone they talked to “overwhelmingly” supported their decision to shorten the bond payoff. Well, I’d like to know who those people were they talked to, because I would guess that I talked to or heard from a large number of people as well. No one, and I mean no one, that I talked to was for the shorter payout.

I know that the major powerbrokers in town (those city fathers people like to talk about, so to speak) were against the shorter payoff. A lot of those same people worked on the committee to get the bond issue passed, and they fear the shorter payout will turn off voters.

I did not receive a single letter to the editor in support of the commissioners’ actions. I did get some reader comments online supporting the action, but all of them (except for Mr. Ging) were anonymous.
Did the city commissioners not understand that the West Side of Enid tanked their $39 million Randolph-street improvement bond issue? The West Side overwhelmingly voted down Proposal No. 1.

So, how is this a Mexican standoff? In dictionary terms, a Mexican standoff is a stalemate, a confrontation that neither side can seemingly win. In popular culture, the Mexican standoff is often portrayed as multiple opponents with weapons aimed at each other, such that each opponent feels equally threatened and does not believe they can strike first without endangering their own life.
The commissioners certainly have not won with the voters. And the committee who worked so hard on behalf of the city’s bond proposals were completely ignored in their pleas to the commission to do the right thing, public relations-wise, and then move forward and get another GO bond issue passed.
No one can feel good about what happened at the city commission meeting Tuesday night. Not the voters, because they will feel they were duped. Not the commission, because they now have another bigger hill to climb to pass any more GO bonds in Enid, and not the taxpayers of Enid, who will receive a bigger bill than they expected on their property taxes for the next five years.

April 16, 2008 05:29 pm

More entries >>>

Caught in American Airlines hell

I was one of the 300,000 or more travelers caught in American Airlines hell last week.
It started on Monday as I was traveling to Birmingham, AL to judge a newspaper competition. For the first time I can ever remember, my flight out of OKC was late. We heard staff talking on the radio that we had to wait until the “FAA guy” was finished.
So, considering I was flying on one of those MD-80s, I’m assuming spot checking those American Airlines flights started Monday.
By the time we arrived in Dallas, I was informed my flight from Dallas to Birmingham had been canceled and that my business colleague and I would be booked on the next day’s flight.
Well, too bad, folks! We had a meeting to get to. We got on a flight that was supposed to take off at 7:30 that night -- 7 hours later than we had hoped. The flight didn’t take off until 9:30 and we didn’t arrive in Birmingham until midnight.
The next day is when all hell broke loose with the airlines canceling 300 or so flights. You guessed it, my Wednesday return flight was canceled.
After performing a few airline aerobics, I was able to book a flight the next day with another airline. I was pleasantly surprised when there were no delays and no problems with that airline (Continental) or flight.
I was lucky in that I had a place to stay an extra night and didn’t have the stress of being stranded in an airport. But I know hundreds of thousands of other passengers didn’t have that luxury. There’s nothing more helpless than being stranded in another state -- or another country -- with no good options and overcrowded and over-stressed airports to deal with you.
It just goes to show me how dependent we have become on air travel in this nation. Despite the higher costs of fuel and the fewer and fewer amenities we get on a flight, we take it for granted -- and expect -- that we can get from one end of the country to another in a matter of hours with few problems.
There is no one to blame for this debacle other than he airlines themselves. American had known there was an issue with this wiring on those MD-80s, but they were procrastinating getting them fixed. The FAA came under fire for being too cozy in allowing airlines too much time to fix their problems.
Well, I can see why. When you think of all the disruption that was caused last week by all those flights being canceled, it becomes a problem of huge magnitude.
There’s no doubt we have to take airline safety very seriously. These buses in the sky transport millions of people across the country (and world) every day, and these planes have to be maintained and safe. Airlines who don’t take these issues seriously do so at their own peril. There is no telling how long it will take American to recover financially from this debacle, if they ever do.

April 13, 2008 08:16 pm

More entries >>>

Hillary's big lie

Unbelievable.
That’s about the only reaction I can have to Sen. Hillary Clinton being caught in a pretty big lie about her trip to Bosnia in 1996.
I haven’t read her book and I haven’t really listened to her campaign speeches. But apparently, she’s talked several times about how she went to Bosnia as First Lady, and that their plane had to make a corkscrew landing and she had to run from sniper fire.
This revelation was apparently an attempt to make her look like she has foreign policy experience and understands the dangers of the world.
The tale as she told it is ludicrous on the face of it. First of all, I can’t imagine Secret Service or the military letting the First Lady of the United States land in such dangerous circumstances. I can’t imagine the President of the United States (even Bill Clinton) sending his wife and daughter into such circumstances.
It was a big lie, plain and simple. And, apparently Mrs. Clinton forgot that we had video cameras back then. Those images have shown a smiling Mrs. Clinton and daughter Chelsea casually visiting with soldiers and citizens on the tarmac where they landed. Nary a sniper in sight. No running involved.
There was nothing Mrs. Clinton could do after those videos were released other than to say, woops. I guess I didn’t remember it right.
“I made a mistake. I’m human,” she said.
That doesn’t even come close to an explanation.
If Mrs. Clinton wasn’t already done as a candidate for president, she’s done now. I don’t see any way she will be the nominee, even if she wins big in Pennsylvania. She’s just not credible.
Can you imagine if she were the nominee how the McCain campaign could play this big lie of hers? He’s a war veteran with the wounds and prisoner of war time to prove it, and she’s been telling lies about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire. McCain would make mincemeat out of her, and rightfully so.
The more this Democratic primary campaign goes on, the more it is becoming clear the Democrats are going to have more of a problem than any of us originally thought. Sen. Barack Obama’s weaknesses are becoming more and more apparent.
I never thought the Republicans had much of a chance this presidential election. Now, I’m not so sure.

March 26, 2008 10:22 am

More entries >>>

Each year we seem to lose our innocence

I remember the late 1960s as one of the scariest times in my life.
I was only 10 years old in the summer of 1969, but the media coverage of the murders in California of actress Sharon Tate and her friends was big news back then. Also vivid in my memory were the faces of Charles Manson and his followers.
That same year, there was a murder in my hometown in which a drug-crazed person entered the home of a local couple and killed the wife.
I was really scared about what was going on in the world in the late 1960s. I also remember being at my grandmother’s house in 1968 when we got the news Robert F. Kennedy had been shot. Just a few months before, Martin Luther King had been assassinated.
So, the late 60s will go down in my life history as a very scary and troubling time.
Now, it appears the Manson family will be in the news again as forensic evidence is being uncovered that there may be more murders associated with the cult. Investigators may search the ranch where Manson and his group lived to see if they can find some unmarked graves of earlier Manson victims.
The book about those murders, “Helter Skelter,” was a bestseller by the time I was in my teens, and I read the book feverishly. I was fascinated and horrified by the murders and the Manson group. Anytime there is news of this group I am interested. I was interested a few years ago when several of the women in Manson’s group were trying to get parole. They’re in their 60s now, and they look like reasonable grandmothers.
But, they’re not. They never will be. Because they let poor decisions and poor self esteem dictate their futures when they were just in their early 20s.
Manson is now 73 years old. I have seen footage of him from back in the late 1980s when he was being interviewed, but I wonder what he looks like now. If they find the bodies, I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of his scary face.
This is certainly bringing back some disturbing memories, but it’s also helping me put some things in perspective from the last 40 years.
While the years of 1968 and 1969 are milestone years in my memory, they have mostly been forgotten as the horrifying and troubling times they were. We talk longingly about those times as the good old days when things were simpler, but I don’t think there have ever really been simple times.
Our world is violent. We are violent. New technology and new ideology just seem to be triggers for more violence. We continue -- each year -- to lose our innocence.
Today we talk about hate speech and hate crimes as if they are new inventions. Well, folks, there has been hate speech and hate crimes since the beginning of time, and they are not just based on gender issues or race issues. Violence is violence, and hate is hate. Evil is evil. But with the labels of "hate crime" or "hate speech" we seem to trivialize what really is hate and really is evil.
These are forces we will always be dealing with as a civilized society. Are times bad now? Well, for some they are and for some they aren’t. But, we continue to struggle with violence, with fear and with evil. Those things don’t change, no matter what laws we pass or how many bureaucrats we put in place.
We just have to put things in perspective and try to live our lives as best we can and use the best judgment we can -- and thank our lucky stars that we live in the United States of America, where we are mostly safe and mostly free. The best way to fight forces of evil is to protect our rights and our freedoms, despite the forces around us that incline us to try to limit those ideals.

March 20, 2008 11:38 am

More entries >>>

News staff familiar with superintendent choice

I’m glad the Enid Board of Education decided to release the identity of the person they hope to hire as Enid’s next superintendent.
Unfortunately, it took a lot of prodding from the newspaper, and ultimately our questions and phone calls after we learned who the probable candidate was.
The board broke down late Friday evening and released information about Shawn Hime, who is currently serving as an assistant superintendent with the Oklahoma Department of Education.
The board did a good job of keeping it secret for awhile. It took a lot of digging and questions for us to finally figure out who the leading candidate was. But, that’s what we’re supposed to do. Unfortunately, it was not something we could devote full time to. I still think it was unnecessary for the board to keep the name secret for three days after entering into negotiations.
However, getting the story was an entire news staff effort. From the sports department, to the news department to the editing staff, all were involved at some level in getting the name of the candidate.
Now that we know who he is, I am impressed. We have a knowledge of Shawn Hime over the last few years. Hime has helped us in gathering financial information regarding bond issues, school financing and legislation. He’s been a good source of information. He has helped our reporters understand issues that are very complex and often difficult to explain.
He’s also been an innovator, according to longtime Enid board member Willa Jo Fowler. Mrs. Fowler spoke to my Lifelong Learning Class last week, and she was genuinely excited about both candidates they were interviewing.
I’m impressed so far with Hime’s resume and his accomplishments. Since I also used to live in Ardmore, I’m familiar with that district. Hime was in Ardmore after I left, but I know that district, and I know they have really made some very good improvements in their schools and their facilities in the last 10 years. Hime has been a part of those improvements.
So, it appears to me that the board has made a very good choice, and, hopefully, Hime will have a good and productive tenure here. He will be facing some challenges, but based on our knowledge of his record, I think he will be able to handle it.
We wish him good luck and look forward to working with him.

March 15, 2008 01:11 pm

More entries >>>

Thought police are on the march

Where are we? And what the hell?
That’s my reaction to two news stories regarding some controversial statements made by politicos in the last couple of days.
First, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern got in trouble for making comments regarding her beliefs about gays and lesbians and the gay lifestyle. And, then, former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro made comments that Obama’s race has been a major reason he’s made it this far in the Democratic primary.
Now, whether you agree with these two women or not, what they said is not that out of the mainstream. However, both women are now receiving hate e-mails and even death threats for their comments.
This is ridiculous, and if you don’t agree with what they said, it should make everyone angry that a person can be targeted for death because of their opinions. This is still a national conversation, particularly on these two issues. Debate and disagreement are one thing. Death threats are quite another.
Thought police are everywhere People are encouraged to just keep their mouths shut when it comes to controversial topics. Race and sexuality are some of the hot button topics in which people -- for some reason -- feel empowered to make threats against those who don’t agree with them.
I listened to Kern’s comments on the YouTube Web site. I can’t tell if they were edited, but I suspect they may have been. She even said in that tape that she was putting herself in peril by voicing her views.
Since the comments became public, the gay and lesbian groups have called for her to be censured or resign. She’s going to do no such thing. She has the right to those views, based on her religious beliefs. It’s up to the people of her district to decide whether they agree with her and want to retain her as their representative. But it doesn’t sound like Kern was trying to be secretive when she made those comments. She knew some wouldn’t like it.
And Ferraro is really bucking up and telling those who are calling for her to shut up or even threatening her that she will not apologize. She also chastised the Obama campaign for their tactics and even shot back at them with her own threat.
“(David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist) shouldn’t really antagonize people like me,” she said. If Obama is nominated, he “is going to come to me and ask me to raise money for Barack Obama, and I will do it for him, too, if he stops doing this kind of horrendous attack.”
Go Geraldine!
Race is an issue in this presidential contest because we are breaking historic ground. Pundits should be able to discuss it honestly, without fear of retribution. Same thing goes with gender.
And on the other topic, many people believe homosexuality is a sin. They’re entitled to their beliefs.
Perhaps one day these issues won’t even be a matter of discussion.
But it won’t be because we’ve shut up about them. It will only be because we, as a society, have debated them, have talked about them and have been exposed to all sides of these issues. But, we’re not there yet.

March 13, 2008 02:20 pm

More entries >>>

City doesn't like my questioning D.C. trip expense

I’ve been somewhat a thorn in the side of city commissioners and staff members the past couple of years over my columns and our newspaper editorials regarding the annual Washington D.C. trip.
First -- a little background. The Greater Enid Area Chamber of Commerce sponsors this trip. They make the arrangements, etc. for a group of business leaders and city officials to travel to Washington D.C. each year to lobby for Vance Air Force Base.
This has been a positive thing for our city and has had tremendous public relations benefit to us, particularly when there is a BRAC on the horizon.
However, I became aware a couple of years ago that the city of Enid was routinely paying the expenses for commissioners, city staff and sometimes their spouses to go on this trip. Last year was the most extreme case when six commissioners and their spouses made the trip -- plus a few city staff -- on the taxpayer’s dime.
So, I hollered foul.
Here’s the thing. I believe the trip is necessary and important. I support the Chamber leading the trip, and I support some city officials going along. What I can’t support is a majority of the commissioners going along each year, and I can’t support any expenses being paid for spouses of these commissioners.
I got some pretty impassioned replies last year when I brought this issue up. One spouse of a commissioner e-mailed me a long letter telling me how I should support the city and Vance, and that having the spouses along was essential to the feeling of having a large crowd with a consensus agenda.
Some are concerned that I don’t see the “value” of this trip, and have even tried to get me to go along so I can see first-hand how necessary and valuable this trip is.
Like I said, the trip is valuable and necessary. However, the city also now has a highly-paid liaison who makes several trips a year to Washington on behalf of the city and Vance. I think that is plenty of money to go toward the effort of making sure Vance Air Force Base is secure here in Enid.
The trip by business leaders and other city representatives is icing on the cake, so to speak. It’s a time when community members can voice their support for the mission of Vance, and help legislators and power brokers in Washington understand how our community supports that mission.
But I won’t waiver, not one bit, on my contention that city commissioners should always be mindful of the perception of how they are spending taxpayer money. And they should never even think about having the city pay one dime that could be questionable.
If the Chamber and city officials believe it’s necessary for spouses to attend the trip with commissioners, either the commissioners should pay those expenses or, perhaps the Chamber could pay those expenses. But, not the taxpayers.
When this matter is taken up during a regular meeting, I expect city commissioners to veto any expenses turned in spouses who made the trip. I think the mayor is with me on this one, so we’ll see.

March 10, 2008 11:12 am

More entries >>>

"As the Primary Turns"

Stabilizing gas prices demands common sense

'Pitt stop' in Shawnee hits close to home

No winner seen in city's bond decision

Caught in American Airlines hell

Hillary's big lie

Each year we seem to lose our innocence

News staff familiar with superintendent choice

Thought police are on the march

City doesn't like my questioning D.C. trip expense

Need extra income?
Deliver the Enid News & Eagle!

Featured Coupons
Featured Advertisers

Popular business directory searches

"As the Primary Turns"

Stabilizing gas prices demands common sense

'Pitt stop' in Shawnee hits close to home

No winner seen in city's bond decision

Caught in American Airlines hell

Hillary's big lie

Each year we seem to lose our innocence

News staff familiar with superintendent choice

Thought police are on the march

City doesn't like my questioning D.C. trip expense

Need extra income?Deliver the Enid News & Eagle! Featured Coupons Featured Advertisers

Popular business directory searches

Need extra income?
Deliver the Enid News & Eagle!

Featured Coupons
Featured Advertisers