Wednesday, April 2nd (2025), former Oklahoma State School Board Member, Kendra Wesson, joined us to talk about all the things – what she felt like after Governor Stitt (King Stitt) fired her from the school board, how she got the news, the frustration she felt at her firing – was it for political drama and NAEP scores, or because she was ‘hurting’ kids – and what she learned from her years of serving.
Our conversation was wide-ranging and covered a lot of ground between politics and education and I truly suggest you watch the whole thing. It really was a great interview. You can find the full interview on our Rumble and YouTube channels.
Because I’m still angry about her firing, I would just like to remind everyone that, King Stitt – as I like to call him, because Kings do whatever they want whenever they want, without a care in the world as to the ramifications – has a truly ‘off-with-your-head’ governing style (don’t forget, one of his houses burned down so he fired the head of the Oklahoma Forestry Service much to the anger of Oklahoma firefighters who apparently loved the guy) and because of this, removed one of the hardest workers in the state from that board. I hope that fact is NEVER forgotten. I hope that’s his legacy – that he acts first, doesn’t get all the facts and does what he wants. But enough of my rant about our lame duck governor.
At any rate, as usual, Kendra was exceptionally poised and graceful throughout the interview and it was clear that her time on the Board gave her perspective she hadn’t had previously. We talked about school boards several times – and those are the things we’ll cover in the clips because it’s such important information. For example, in the clip below we all talk about how important school boards – and even other boards. Why are ‘regular’ people not on these boards? Why not moms and dads? Why is it always business associates or cronies? Kendra and I both have seen many people sitting on boards who don’t VALUE their job. It’s just padding their resume. Few on a board really do the work. And since the boards aren’t doing the work, that puts the oneness on CITIZEN to go to ALL board meetings to keep the members accountable to doing their jobs. “It’s just one meeting a month,” as Kendra says!
In the clip below, Kendra calls us all out – school board elections are one time a month, but we should be going to the meetings EVERY MONTH. Holding the board accountable is the job of The People. If we only show up at election time, it’s like coming into a play after intermission! We’re far, far behind at that point. It’s a YEAR ROUND JOB.
Though is is truly an AWFUL miscarriage of justice that Kendra Wesson is no longer on the State School Board, she has learned a whole lot in the process and that will not only make her stronger, but allow her to make US stronger as she educates us on her lessons!
In fact, we’ll have Kendra back with Sherrie Conley on Wednesday, May 21st! You won’t want to miss that!
Wednesday, March 5th, Michael and I talked to Jana Belcher and Robert Scott – both Homeschooling parents who have been heavily involved in lobbying the legislature to remove homeschoolers from the Parental Choice Tax Credit voucher legislation. It was a really great conversation and covered much more than just homeschooling. Please find the full live video here on our YouTube channel and on Rumble as well.
For years, trying to fight this tax credit, so many of us have said that private schools will just raise their rates once the tax credit comes online. If more students come to the school, more teachers and instructional materials will be necessary, raising the price. And not only that, it just gives a school a good excuse to raise rates. In the clip below, Robert gives an example of exactly that happening.
In the clip below, Robert talks about the data bill we’ve been warning about. Though we didn’t talk about the specific inclusion of homeschoolers in the database, years ago when Julia Seay, Lynn Habluetzel and I were studying data collection and trying to stop implementation of a State Longitudinal Database, we had found information indicating that there were fields in the database for collecting data related to homeschooling – which concerned a whole lot of homeschoolers.
And finally, in the last clip I pulled from the full video, Robert shows us that every individual who files for the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit has their name and the amount of their tax credit listed in the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Tax Credits database online. There is no address or phone number listed, just the name and the amount of the tax credit, but the point is, anyone can look you up to see your ‘award’.
Below is a PDF of Robert’s slide presentation. Please share this information with friends and family – and especially homeschoolers who want to take this government handout.
Michael and I had so much fun talking to Colonel Putman on the show Wednesday (2.26.25). I swear, that man had some of the best stories about his military career with the Air Force – and one of them is below. Just take a few minutes to watch this because it is guaranteed to make you giggle – although you can watch the entire live program on YouTube and Rumble.
But, among the stories, the Colonel had quite a bit to say about education in our state and I, for one, was bowled over by his thoughts and ideas. At one point, we were discussing ‘distance learning’ – learning out of school and what he thought about that. “Virtual presence is actual absence“, was the comment the Colonel made. How perfect is that? And no, he’s not a fan of learning on a computer in general. Just like Michael and I, the Colonel believes that learning is more functional with a paper and pencil and a teacher in a classroom.
In the clip below, we were talking about what Michael heard from teachers when he was running for school board. So much of it was about how micromanaged they were. The Col. talks about micromanagement and also about the student surveys that the district gives to students. These bother him for the same reason they’ve always bothered Michael and I – most of these surveys actually instill ideas in kid’s heads because they’ll introduce something they’ve never heard about or even thought about. That kind of thing has to stop. It’s a waste of education time and dollars because they don’t provide any real educational opportunities for students they’re just a way to collect data.
In the last clip, we talked a bit about the culture of the public schools and how many good teachers are frustrated by that. The Col. made the most common sensical comment – you don’t quit your job, you quit your boss. He then goes on to talk about how he is a huge supporter of teachers because they are on the front lines and in the classroom with the students and how they need to be supported by administration.
After Col. Putnam ‘retired’ from the podcast (lol), Michael and I start talking about some news for the week (1:15 on the video timer) and there was a lot of pretty interesting stuff there. You’ll want to check out the full video for that and I’ve embedded it below so you can.
Please – if you’re in the Edmond area, or you know someone who lives in the Edmond area – look up Colonel Putnam’s website. Get to know him and share these videos and his website with others in the area. School Boards are the most important thing in a school – they set the tone for the entire school. Let’s concentrate on getting good candidates elected to these positions all over the state!
Wednesday, February 19th, Michael and I welcomed back our friend ‘Mary’ with V1SUT to talk about a couple of items. Check out the full LIVE video on our YouTube and Rumble channels. We always have some great discussions and the only way to catch those is watching the full video.
First, we talked about the fact that – with the onset of DOGE – we’re learning how USAID has funded billions of dollars in research and social activism to undermine the Republic and the way citizens think about America.
One of the ways this has occurred is through the financing of grants to organizations such as Oklahomans for Equality which has then used the funds to push out messaging and other support for LGBTQIA+ issues in Bartlesville. Mary has written several articles about the influence of this group on the town and how this has effected residents. So controversial has been their methodology, that Bartlesville’s last city council elections saw 3 out of 5 city councilman ousted by the citizenry over the issue of allowing public drag shows sponsored by Oklahomans For Equality.
Mary’s blog on the topic at V1SUT Substack is quite good. You should check it out.
We also discussed HB1937 a bill to essentially undo the bill written last year (HB3958) by Sherrie Conley that prevents public school employees from having conversations with students through any medium without a parent present on the thread to overwatch.
Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the House Common Education Committee, Dick Lowe and Danny Sterling (respectively) wrote HB1937 because they believed it was too cumbersome for parents and coaches to have to see every conversation with students, essentially UNprotecting students. The bill passed the Common Education Committee 8-5 with the Speaker of the House voting.
Take a very hard look at who voted YES WITH THE DEMOCRATS. Below, Mary talks more about the bill and the vote and how this bill puts children at risk because parents may feel pressured to opt out, leaving their kid unprotected. Lowe and Sterling appear to be more for the status quo than protecting kids.
In the video below Mary talks about how educators are doing a great job at covering for other educators, but not protecting children – which is really their FIRST RESPONSIBILITY. Mary also mentions that maybe one or both Sterling or Lowe had been involved in ‘passing the trash’ before, as she asked them for a comment on that very issue and neither responded. Find out more in her Substack.
This bill has yet to have a hearing in the Education Oversight Committee, but those are ad hoc committees that only require a 24 hour agenda notice (for some reason), so PLEASE, email the members of the Education Oversight Committee and ask them to VOTE NO on HB1937.
Rep. Kerbs, Chair (R) District 26
Rep. Caldwell, Chad Vice-Chair (R) District 40
Rep. Hasenbeck, Toni
Rep. Kane, John
Rep. Lowe, Dick
Rep. Provenzano, Melissa
Rep. Waldron, John
Rep. West, Tammy
Rep. Wolfley, Max
Copy and paste the block below into your email ‘to’ line.
Wednesday, January 22nd, our friend “Mary” from V1SUT substack was on the podcast to talk about former Wetumka Public Schools teacher and Coach, Brent McGee. You can find the full live video here on Rumble and also on our YouTube channel.
As Mary talked about in the video clip below the Wetumka Board of Education is NOT protecting kids, they’re protecting Brent McGee’s wife, who also happens to be the Superintendent of Wetumka. I would say I couldn’t believe it, but we’ve heard the same story over and over and over.
But here’s the thing – as we say in the video – it HAS to be up to Wetumka residents and parents to make the Board do the right thing. It’s clear that unless parents and community members are there in force watching everything they do and pushing back, students of the district won’t be protected from sexual abuse.
This fact is illustrated by another story Mary tells, about Cody Barlow, the middle school Principal at Wewoka Public Schools. In fact, despite an eye-witness account of sexual misconduct with Barlow and a 7th grade student and a civil trial in which Barlow was found guilty and the school forced to pay nearly 2 million dollars in restitution to the families of four boys, the outcome of the criminal trial was much different.
How can that be? How can the outcome be so very different? The civil trial was moved out of Seminole County, while the criminal trial was adjudicated in the county.
This should upset every taxpaying citizen who cares about children. This absolutely has to stop.
Again, though it’s really up to parents and taxpayers in these districts to make this stop, so few will speak out in small towns. This is a comment left on our Facebook account under our live video feed that explains:
Small town corruption is nothing new. No one in this small town in that school system will turn on each other because to do do would make them guilty [of] not doing anything. They were there and they knew what was going on. When you are someone who grew up in [this] town, with your mom as a teacher, and your dad as a business owner and, now you are infiltrated into that system, no one is going to believe you are the villain! Just because he didn’t do it to your kid or grandkid, doesn’t mean he didn’t do it to someone else. Teachers are mandatory reporters and if they know and do nothing [they] should be held as accountable as the one who was doing the harm to the child. This should be moved out of the county and prosecuted elsewhere.
There is safety in numbers and beyond that, there’s CHANGE in numbers! DA’s can be unelected and good ones elected, school board members can be voted out, or in – it all depends upon what people in the community set their mind to doing – but no matter what; we must ALL set our minds on PROTECTING KIDS!
Every week for our newsletter, I compile a list of news articles and add a bit of commentary. Because I just need another thing to do in the week, I’m going to begin posting those here on the website as well. Hopefully, this posting will make it easier for readers to share!
KTUL Tulsa – A really good story about how Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters has allowed school report cards to be changed to show students performing MUCH better than they are in reality. This is truly awful and yet, not only has it happened, but even after the public has been notified, nothing appears to be in the works to restore transparency and solve the problem.
Jason Murphey – Recently, our new speaker-elect, Kyle Hilbert, chose to make sweeping changes in the way committees in the House are constructed. Murphey explains the problem with the new system – basically that the people will be locked out (which is what Representative Tom Gann warned when he ran against him for Speaker). Please read and share.
Oklahoma House Media – Tom Gann essentially explains what he would have done if he were speaker and what SHOULD be done now that speaker-elect Hilbert will take the reins of the House (unless there is a mutiny and the House members turn on Hilbert and vote for Gann – I suggest we all get on our knees and pray for that outcome). Again, please read and share. Knowledge can translate to power if it is used correctly.
Oklahoma Voice – From the article: “Drones and unmanned aerial systems are an exciting new industry here in Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “We want to make sure that industry has room to thrive.”
Because the technology is new, the state doesn’t have all the measures in place to ensure protection from those who wish to cause harm, Stitt said.
“The activity happening in New Jersey and across the country is unsettling,” Tipton said in a statement. “While we’ve only had a few reports of drone activity in Oklahoma, we want to be ready in case the need arises.”
If you don’t see how absolutely RIDICULOUS the nonsense in yellow is, I’m not sure what to do to help you. Drones are absolutely the WORST for breaching personal liberty/privacy and here is our Governor using unknown tax dollars for unknown surveillance purposes. FILE UNDER REALLY BAD FOR OKLAHOMAN’S PERSONAL LIBERTY AND PRIVACY.
Breitbart – If you’ve not seen the movie Terminator (and if you haven’t, where have you been?) you’ll not really understand the horror AI can become. Once Skynet became aware, it declared war on humanity, creating robots with titanium skeletons covered in human skin, to seek out and destroy any humans who had survived the nuclear war it started to remove them from the earth.
I get it. It was a movie. But I would like to draw attention to one thing – a person actually – George Orwell. If Orwell could so accurately predict the hell of authoritarian government that today we’re able to describe many government programs as ‘Orwellian’, let’s not be so quick to overlook Cameron and Gayle Hurd’s tale of computer programming gone awry.
Not only that, but AI is a HUGE energy hog and will require “even more energy than we thought“. Where will that come from? Wind turbines? Solar installations? Toxic lithium batteries? Oklahoma legislators must get a handle on this NOW and we must make sure they do.
Robert Bryce; Substack – While this is certainly a win for the Osage tribe, who have been fighting this fight for years apparently, this is also a spectacular win against WIND ENERGY if for no other reason than this; Enel (the Italian wind energy company responsible for the turbines) has said it will take 300 million dollars to remove 84 turbines. That’s 3.6 million dollars per turbine.
Now think…you are a landowner who signs a contract for a wind turbine on your property. Are you going to be required to come up with 3.6 million dollars to remove that turbine once it’s broken beyond repair? Food for thought, huh?r
FOX 23 News – So THIS is why Governor Stitt was in South Korea recently – to sign yet ANOTHER OUT OF STATE company to come here. So glad Oklahoma is “open for business”, Governor Stitt. Thanks to the dispersal of MORE tax dollars to new, private businesses – this time by the DOE in the amount of 100 million dollars – Blue Whale Materials can come into Bartlesville and recycle lithium batteries. Lithium is toxic to humans and the environment and has been the cause of numerous fires from solar installations to airplanes. Why do we keep chasing the GREEN AGENDA and putting Oklahomans at risk? I’m gonna guess dollars, because Blue Whale is – at best – only going to employ 100 people. But then, isn’t that what Canoo said, only to leave Oklahoma high and dry on every one of its promises?
HSLDA – Representative Amanda Swope and former Representative Joe Dorman of the Oklahoma Institute For Child Advocacy (I won’t help them out by providing a link to their organization), spent an entire interim study warning legislators about the hidden dangers of homeschooling, more than likely in preparation for legislation to curtail the practice in order to ‘make Oklahoma children safe’. Of course this is nonsense. Oklahoma is the only state in the union that promises unfettered homeschooling by way of its constitution and if you don’t believe me, visit our friends at the Constitutional Home Educators Alliance. Homeschoolers aren’t the ones in the news on a continual basis facing allegations of sexual – and other – misconduct with students. We need to watch out for this kind of legislation that would stifle the liberty Oklahoma homeschool students are famous for. Amanda Swope has since left the legislature, but OICA will not rest until the practice of schooling our own children has been hamstrung in the name of…wait for it…’safety’. Please continue to follow us for updates.
PJ Media – Just another reason why Governor Stitt should abandon his whole, “more of everything” approach to energy in Oklahoma. CO2 is good. Climate changes on a regular basis. End of discussion.
Oklahoma Senate Media – Legislators to anyone asking them for public school legislation that would stop Common Core, or SEL, “We believe in LOCAL CONTROL. That’s for the school board to decide.” Oh, okay, WELL WHAT ABOUT THIS THEN? Massive overreach. Individual school boards should decide cell phone policy. What a giant bunch of baloney! Let’s make sure to tell Ms. Seifried that school boards decide school policy and that she should quit meddling in school board business.
In the clip below, Jana and Robert talk about why this tax credit is so harmful to the freedom homeschooling families in Oklahoma enjoy now and have enjoyed since statehood – a greater level of freedom, in fact, than most, if not all states.
For those of you interested in helping Oklahoma homeschoolers get out of the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit, if you would like to sign a petition that will be taken and presented to lawmakers next session, please reach out to Andrea Scott on Facebook. The petition has to be signed in person, so she – or another volunteer – will have to meet you to sign it.
You can also visit the Oklahoma Coalition To Protect Constitutional Homeschooling on Facebook as well. There, you can get more information on this effort and get plugged into the community of homeschoolers who want to protect Oklahoma’s history of ZERO regulation for Oklahoma homeschoolers.
An email sent out by McKinley Elementary in Norman last week, informed parents that the school has been selected to participate in an “innovative research study examining how school librarians can help students learn to detect and avoid misinformation by developing their information literacy skills”.
While participation in the study itself is voluntary, all K-5 students will be taught the misinformation program curriculum from August to April.
The program itself, entitled “Awareness and Critical Thinking (ACT) Program: How School Librarians Can Teach Children to Detect and Avoid Misinformation”, was developed by Tara Zimmerman, assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women’s University. Her sole specialty for the past few years has centered around “misinformation”, and she’s received a $400,000 grant from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program to fund her research.
A few of the papers she’s published on misinformation provide the trajectory of her target.
In 2020, she published a paper entitled, “COVID-19: Mask Misinformation and Social Noise”. The paper begins with this statement:
“Disinformation and misinformation are pervasive in unregulated social-media environments, which are used habitually for obtaining news.”
I think we know where this is going.
Further into the article she says:
“Facebook on July 20th, 2020 removed a group called themselves Unmasking America that had more than 9,000 members for spreading COVID19 misinformation (Lynos 2020). The group claimed that masks obstruct the flow of oxygen and have a negative psychological impact on wearers. Facebook responded to an inquiry from the Verge and stated that “We have clear policies against promoting harmful misinformation about COVID 19 and have removed this group while we review the others,” according to the Verge article. This is one of many groups on social media spreading lies and conspiracy theories about COVID19 and against wearing masks for various reasons. In the US, wearing masks has become a partisan issue and represents more of a political statement than a safety and health care guidance issue. Most social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others are coming under pressure to encounter such negative messaging and take steps to minimize the spread of COVID19 misinformation.”
Yet another paper, published in 2022, “Misinformation and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy”, reads just as you’d expect:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-vaccine beliefs have been at an all-time high, and vaccine hesitancy has become a major threat to public health [1]. The World Health Organization has labeled the increased virulence of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic an “infodemic” [2]. Throughout 2020, scientists, healthcare professionals, and politicians speculated about vaccine timelines, distribution, and effectiveness; and media platforms presented widely varying opinions as well as misinformation that negatively influenced people’s attitudes about COVID-19 vaccines [3]. By the end of 2020, the self-reported likelihood of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 had declined sharply from 74 % in April to 56 % in December [4]. While the availability of COVID-19 vaccines improved between the fall of 2020 and late spring 2021, indications of public distrust in vaccines continued. This public distrust contributed to waves of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the US, increasingly among those who were not vaccinated.”
There’s something archaic about Zimmerman’s papers, her attitude prevalent at the height of COVID hysteria, and later, her vaccine mandate hysteria that rings hollow today.
Masks didn’t prevent the spread of COVID. Neither did the vaccine. It’s almost common knowledge now, but both facts were branded as misinformation during the dark days of the COVID pandemic.
In fact, her continued study of “misinformation” feels like a discarded relic of the past. It might have held weight in 2020, or 2021, when any opinion not perfectly aligned with the official narrative surrounding COVID-19 was branded as misinformation, and censored. Even scientific research that failed to dovetail with the pronouncements of the public health establishment was blacklisted. We all remember it, and we’d rather not return to those dark days of censorship.
Zimmerman might, though. What else explains her passion for routing out or dismissing altogether non-approved opinions?
“Misinformation” is not a neutral term.
It’s shown itself to be nothing more than a bludgeon used to silence right-wing criticisms of left-wing orthodoxy. During the authoritarian days of the pandemic, it was a powerful weapon used to silence critics by the thousands with one fell swoop. We remember the social media behemoths enacting a scorched earth policy of censorship at the behest of the Biden White House. But now, in the age of Elon-owned X, the term “misinformation” has lost its power. Like a T-Rex transformed into a chicken.
Professor Zimmerman clearly isn’t a neutral actor, and the ACT Program isn’t an objective study. I fear that the goal of her program is less to teach children to think critically, and more to teach them to hold up a crucifix when confronted with unapproved opinions. “Get them while they’re young” is the new strategy among activists embedded within the public school system.
The ACT Program appears to be yet another attempt to cloak the wolf of left-wing orthodoxy in a sheep’s coat of scientific objectivity.
Oh. My. Word. Here’s where we are today; flipping through pages of social media postings about a school choice mouthpiece who has recently been accused of having a former life as a gay, adult film star.
So let’s break this latest phenomenon down, shall we?
NUMBER ONE: If you’re a professing Christian, you shouldn’t be using this story to bolster any of your own personal political points.
Every one of us is human and 90% of us have done something crazy/awful/horrifying/creepy when we were young people. We are certainly right to judge other professing Christians for their behaviors – and even call them out on them – but I don’t recall DeAngelis being one of those. In fact I have no memory of any of his talking points revolving around Jesus Christ or Biblical living.
I’ve never been a DeAngelis fan because I’m not for giving taxpayer money to other taxpayers so they can put their children in private schools at my expense, but in all honesty, I can’t imagine being Corey DeAngelis right now. He apparently married last year. He’s been wined and dined and admired as an expert by many thousands of people over many years. What a screeching halt to a rather charmed life. The kind, in fact, that should probably make each of us internalize the notion, “there but by the Grace of God go I“.
NUMBER TWO: People can change. Granted, some people never do, so there’s that, but the world is full of stories in which people overcame a life predicated on bad circumstances and/or choices to become better people – changed people. It matters not the circumstances, if they’ve rebuked their former lives and done a 180, it’s the Christian perspective to ‘forgive and forget’.
When I was in high school, I spent most of my time hanging with the stoners. I drove stoned. I went to work stoned. I was stoned a lot.
At 20, I was a married mother of one and my whole high school hanging with the stoners lifestyle went out the window as I took up the mantle of respectable, homemaker and mother. I then went on to become a respectable divorced parent putting myself through college while simultaneously raising a small person (who, incidentally, became a respectable adult).
The stuff I learned from my high school years kept me from doing further stupid stuff as an adult. The world didn’t end because I did stupid stuff, it could have actually made it a bit better because I learned some hard lessons about the consequences of doing stupid stuff that I have never forgotten.
Look, I get that acting in gay porn movies when you’re spokesman for a group touting parental ’empowerment’ and bettering kids, isn’t a small deal, but bad is bad is bad. Let’s avoid getting into an argument – for now – over what’s ‘badder’ in a ‘previous life’ – doing drugs or performing gay porn.
NUMBER THREE: We should NEVER take people who put themselves in the role of ‘expert’ on anything, at face value.
It happens over and over and over again. It’s a story as old as the hills.
A Music Man comes into town and says he’s created the world’s biggest band – with 76 trombones no less – and can do that for them! The townspeople, amazed at his eloquence, believe his pitch, throw their lot – and their money – in behind him only to find out that their marching band expert is nothing more than a conman trying to make money off the backs of naive Midwesterners.
Today, people are all too willing to believe the words of people who are deemed experts by others – or deem themselves as experts. We don’t even have to mention Anthony Fauci or anyone at the UN, or WEF here. After all, everyone knows these people are experts who deserve our complete faith, because, well, ‘science’ and all that.
Corey DeAngelis (and every other ‘school choice’ ‘expert’) is no different in any singular way.
NUMBER FOUR: There are about 99,999,999 things more important in this world than Corey DeAngelis right now and one of them is to note who IS using this information for their gain.
When the left comes out of the woodwork with all kinds of garbage about anyone on the right, you know it’s to shiv them politically and skewer public opinion and trust in whatever topic it is they’ve shiv’ed them over.
IN THE END: So, all of those things, but of all of those things – this; STOP BELIEVING IN EXPERTS. People in power, STOP COURTING THEM; stop wining and dining them and giving them your Citizenship Awards, or bringing them into your office at the capitol and predicating [flawed] education policy on them.
Believe it or not, there are REGULAR people out here in the real world of non-experts who have become everyday experts just by our own experiences and we might have a thing or two to say, but we can’t because…well…experts.
I sat there quietly as a Democrat legislator and the head of the task force, Chairman, AJ Ferate, explained the work his group had done to satisfy the Governor’s EO. At one point during his presentation, Mr. Ferate mentioned how “his friends in Washington DC” didn’t like one of the proposals the group had made, and, after all, everyone should know that every DC swamp rat is an expert in ethics.
After all the experts in the room had spoken, the head of the Ethics Commission, Lee Anne Bruce Boone asked if there were any comments from attendees. I asked if I could go to the mic and was allowed to say a few things about what I had uncovered in my research on Dark Money in Oklahoma.
I was fascinated – but not surprised – by how many of the experts in the room seemed disinterested in what I had to say, yet they had asked Ferate and others, several questions during the session. But then again, who am I? I’m no expert. And why? Probably because the ‘real’ experts don’t want me to be.
So, instead of using the DeAngelis scandal for political gain, let’s use it to inform ourselves about what it means to be an ‘expert’ in today’s political space. Then, let’s use that knowledge to remind our elected officials that we citizens can be experts just as knowledgeable as those on FOX, or in DC – and we don’t have quite so far to fall off our pedestals.
