Remember that movie from a few years ago, The Straight Story, about a man who rode a lawnmower across a state to see his estranged brother before he died? It won several awards.

Well I think Mark Ryan of Kingfisher can top that. He road a horse, with mule and dog in tow, from Okahoma to Washington state. Took five months — and  he’s not back yet because after he decided to get a truck to drive back, the truck broke down.

You just can’t count on those new-fangled contraptions.

Long Ride: Oklahoma cowboy rides his horse 2,000 miles to Washington state — Newsday.com.

Just for kicks I did a Google news search on Oklahoma+Obama.

Well, after editing to remove all the sports crap, I got quite the collection. Here’s a sample:

Racists rise. The Oklahoma woman who was killed in Louisiana during a Klan initiation which may be part of a backlash to an Obama presidency. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the KKK, says that racist incidents are rising. And the Christian Science Monitor reports

Supremacist propaganda is already on the upswing. In Oklahoma, fringe groups have distributed anti-Obama propaganda through newspapers and taped it to home mail boxes. Ugly incidents such as cross-burnings, assassination betting pools, and Obama effigies are also being reported from Maine to Alabama.

Oklahoma: Love it red or leave it. Progressive Obama supporter Robin Meyers wrote a column entitled “Dead wrong and proud of it” for the Oklahoma Gazette, commenting on our state’s election results being out of whack with the prevailing trend. So several commenters misinterpreted what he said and told him to move out of state and take his un-Okie values with him. And so it goes…

Dog gone. A bit less traumatic, but still … a Tulsa blogger went to buy an Obama shirt for her dog at Cafepress, and found “hate rhetoric” even amidst the pet wear.

We got your scalpers, right here. Those more positive about Obama moving into the White House are suggesting that it might be easier to get tickets to the inauguration from an usual source — say Republican legislators in, uh, Oklahoma.

Every member of Congress, Democrat and Republican, gets a certain number of tickets. You know the Democrats are going to maxed out - so try to get them from members of Congress in states that didn’t vote for Obama.

I mean, how many people from Oklahoma think this is the nation’s biggest historical moment?

Win-win. This guy should totally get a ticket and front-row seat:  A 103 year old grandson of slaves who lived to vote for and see a black man elected to the presidency. Robert Jones said he never thought it would happen. “Not in my day. Not in my day,” he said. “I never thought I would see it in my time.”

Robert, this one’s for you.

I learn from Sinister that Tulsa World covered the Join the Impact! event there with a pretty decent article. No shocker: it was a not insignificant news event in the city (300 in attendance) and the city’s NEWSpaper did a little writeup about it.

But the 300 that attended the corresponding rally in Oklahoma City (not to mention the thousands across the country) were ignored by the city’s paper — I no longer will incorrectly call it a “newspaper” but it is printed on paper, so at least that part’s true. Again, no surprise, because the Oklahoman habitually refuses to cover the news and events that come from the liberal or progressive end of the political spectrum. “Habitually refuses” is a nice way of saying they have conspired and are conspiring to erase our existence from their pages. It is the largest paper in the state (though shrinking rapidly! Yay!) and it still has a lot of influence in political and cultural arenas (again, less and less so thanks to the internet) so the conspiracy is not piddling, even as their overall status is being reduced.

The OKC event did get covered by a couple of local TV news teams, which is great, but that doesn’t lessen the harm done by being erased from history time and again by the Oklahoman.

Frankly, I’m fed up with it and am resolved to do something about it. I’m exploring several options — including boycotts, petitions, demonstrations. A meeting with the paper’s management is a good place to start, but without some kind of threat to their revenue, I wouldn’t expect such a meeting to have any effect — those people are ideological and have to be moved by other forces than an appeal to simple fairness.

I lived in Waco, Texas, for a while, and I guarantee you that that area is politically and culturally more conservative overall than Central Oklahoma, yet the newspaper there covered peace and justice events — and not just during the nearby Camp Casey action in August 2005, but before that and well after. We might have liked more expansive and positive coverage, and they didn’t cover every single thing we did — no one expects that. But we regularly got a photo of an action — even if only four or five people participated. But they didn’t ignore our press releases, or refuse to send a camera person and/or reporter when they had one available, or keep the fact of our existence and work hidden from their readers. They covered the fucking news that was happening in their community!

Thankfully, the Web gives citizens the opportunity to participate in a new kind of journalism that is rising from the grassroots. Old media is losing this battle because they don’t or can’t adjust to new realities. They are making attempts to use the Internet, but struggling to find a successful method to make it profitable.

So if the Oklahoman wants to continue their march to obsolecence, they can continue to alienate a significant portion of their community by being ideological and reactionary beyond all reason. I’ll dance on their grave, but in the meantime, I expect them to function as the newspaper they purport to be and once in a while cover events their owners and editorial board don’t necessarily endorse.

Oh, and the effing letters to the editor situation is also now on the table. Enough! We’re not going to take it anymore!

I know that we all complain about the Oklahoman and that those who’ve lived here a lot longer than I have maybe just become resigned to the status quo. I hope that we can all band together at this vulnerable moment for the Oklahoman’s bottom line, and make the changes we need happen. Yes, we can!

Stay tuned, I will elaborate about some action steps on this in the near future.

I’ve made this badge for the Join the Impact campaign (well, just edited and added the state name). You can get the code here.

If you are a supporter and have a site or blog, please add it, or to your forum sig. Whatever, if you’re in a position to do it, you know what to do!

James over at Mahatma X Files has an interesting post about demographics and politics in the Oklahoma panhandle. He shows a map that delineates, by country, where the Hispanic population is relative to the national average.

Focusing on the Oklahoma panhandle, you’ll notice that the most populous county, Texas County (it’s the one right in the middle of the panhandle), is running as of 2007 at about 35-40% Hispanic. The counties directly to the east and west of us (Beaver and Cimarron, respectively) are about at the national average, and the rest of the state of Oklahoma - with the exception of a couple counties to the far southwest- is below the national average.

One reason for sharing this with you is simply to give a visual to go along with one of my running narratives - namely that the Oklahoma panhandle really is culturally different compared to the rest of the state. In fact, we seem to be more like the rest of the US Southwest (which I’ll include the southwestern portion of Kansas and southeastern Colorado) than our own state. The trend towards higher concentrations of Hispanic peoples here in the OK panhandle is relatively recent - as I understand it, going back about a couple decades the panhandle was still predominantly White/Non-Hispanic. Although the panhandle is notorious for its affinity for the GOP (in presidential elections, we’re one of the “reddest” areas, and our US and state congressional delegations are uniformly GOP), I’d wager that we’re about to experience some changes.

He predicts political changes coming as a result of the demographics, and makes suggestions of how the Democratic and third parties can take advantage of this shift.

The first suggestion: “Stop ignoring us.”

I know that seems obvious, but unfortunately, the obvious needs saying in this case. But I suspect that the panhandle of Oklahoma will get attention from DC to address its problems before it gets any real respect from OK politicians. Certainly this next term, all their energy is going to be dedicated to poking into the personal lives of women.

In an earlier post about the Prop 8 backlash, I mentioned the fact that the CEO of Cinemark, which runs a chain of theaters, contributed thousands of dollars to the anti-gay Proposition 8 in California and a boycott was in order.

Is this kind of response over-reacting? Is it religious bigotry to fight back against those whose “faith” led them to contribute to the Prop 8 campaign? Should we lovingly nurture them until they see the error of their ways? Tbogg put it well:

The kind of person who contributes money to deny their fellow citizens their civil rights are not someday magically going to be part of the solution: they’re the problem. These are not people to be reasoned with; they’re ignorant, they’re haters and they’re bigots and the only thing people like that understand is power.

So when they stick their noses in other people’s affairs, they forfeit the right to be considered just another “ordinary person”. They’re involved and they would be foolish to expect that those other people in whose private affairs they have meddled wouldn’t return the favor. As they say: you pays your money and you takes your chances.

You don’t get to heaven above by trampling someone else’s heaven on earth.

I don’t and won’t deny these bigots their right to practice their faith, and to be active politically within all legal perimeters. But I am done coddling them, or being silent while they deny me and others our rights. The next time someone from LDS comes to my door, they are going to get a serious earful. (I’ve already started practicing, because I want to make sure my whole list of grievances gets covered before their sorry asses are out of the range of my very loud voice.)

Anyway, among the many events and actions coming out of the passage of Prop 8 is a blacklist of the individuals, organizations and their businesses that contributed to its passage.

Cinemark Theaters is a major target of this blacklist/boycott effort, not just because of the amount of the contribution or the high visibility of the chain, but because of the upcoming release of the Sean Penn film Milk, which is about gay rights hero Harvey Milk. The No Milk for Cinemark campaign makes the very significant connection between the film and the boycott: “Don’t let Harvey Milk’s legacy finance your oppression.” (Facebook group)

As I posted before, the Cinemark theaters in Oklahoma are:

Ada
- Cinemark North Hills Cinema 6 (1106 North Hills Shopping Centre)

Broken Arrow
- Cinemark Cinema 8 (3812 S Elm Pl)

Oklahoma City
- Cinemark Tinseltown (6001 Martin Luther King Blvd.)

Tulsa
- Cinemark Movies 8 (6808 S. Memorial)
- Cinemark Tulsa (10802 E 71st St South)
- Cinemark IMAX® Theatre (10802 E 71st St South)

If you are outside of Oklahoma, note that their theaters also go by the names Tinseltown, CineArts and Century.

I have previously posted about how much I am looking forward to this film, and how much it means to me, but I will be going to another theater to see it, or waiting for the DVD if no other chain near me screens it. If you want to join me in avoiding Cinemark (until further notice, not just this film, as far as I’m concerned) and/or tell other folks about the boycott, this flyer can help (pdf).

The film is set for wider distribution in the US on Nov. 2 and then nationwide on Dec. 5, which is the earliest we’d see it around here. But no schedules are available that far ahead. I’ll be checking for when and where Milk will be screened in Oklahoma, and post the news here.

Update [2008-11-16 23:45]: Nancy in NYC has a brilliant post about this up at Pam’s House Blend, Oh no you didn’t! (Why it’s not ok to support Prop 8, then hide behind the Constitution), and at Open Left, Paul Rosenberg takes the need to challenge the right-wingnuts on their hypocricy a step further, noting that

Now, however, it’s very clear that letting this stuff slide because it’s so idiotic is simply not an option.

and

There is word for this sort of total disconnect from reality: psychotic. And that, quite literally, is what we are up against: organized psychosis.

We’re going to have a special report later today about the Join the Impact! rally on the steps of city hall in Oklahoma City. but here are links to photos

DarlaJane’s Flickr set
Trey (one of the organizers) has some photos of OKC event at Towle Road (use the menu to check out the albums from Tulsa also, as well as cities around the country.
Gossip Boy (OKC Gay news site)

Other reports and photos from across the nation:
Towleroad
Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish
Pam’s House Blend Join the Impact! Flickr Group
Join the Impact! National Flickr Group

Last but not least, the sites where the action was organized (and probably future actions will be too)
National: Join the Impact! Blog | Join the Impact! organizing wiki | Facebook | Twitter
Oklahoma: OK section on wiki | Facebook

And, Tulsa also had a event. See videos from justinfeed and shelton26ash (brief, but better audio).

Other media coverage.

Update to my earlier announcement about the Oklahoma City rally planned in conjunction with the nationwide action on Saturday 11/15.

The Saturday rally has been moved to the OKC City Hall, 200 N. Walker,
just west of the County Courthouse, or just east of the police
station.

Latest news from the organizer:

OKC Impact! Update! November 13, 2008

First of all, there has been another location adjustment made, it seems we were double booked for the steps of the State Capitol Building, so the rally has been moved back to the City Hall, which is at:

200 N. Walker
Oklahoma city, OK
73102

Sorry about the confusion!

Meeting Time and date: Saturday, November 15th at 12:30 P.M

We will be having a pre-action and sign making gathering

When: Friday, November 14th at 7 pm ‘til as long as needed.

Where: The address is 1147 NW 79th Street - Oklahoma City . That’s within a block of Western Avenue by the Western and Wilshire intersection. Call 537- 7763 if you need directions.

If you can bring sign making supplies: poster boards, paints, markers, slats ¼” wooden slats, staple guns, chips, dip, drinks, etc. Nothing required though.

We have a few speakers currently lined up for the demonstration, for example:
C. Sean Spivey
Jim Nimmo

Carpooling is encouraged, and carpool groups will be meeting at Angles at 11:30 am and will head to the City Hall at noon. Please, let me know if you‘re going to be offering rides from Angles Club.
Angles Club
2117 NW 39th St
Oklahoma City, OK 73112

Guy Peters and Katie Austin have offered to help with recording the rally. If anyone else wants to assist with the documentation, feel free.

Aviva Pressman has offered to help lead us in song.

Based only on the Official Facebook Event Page, we currently have 144 confirmed participants, 251 potential participants, and 950 have yet to respond.

In an email exchange, Trey (local organizer) said this was just the beginning, and that future events will probably be planned. I’ll post any news I get here at Peace Arena.

Important update - change of location for OKC event:

The Saturday rally has been moved to the OKC City Hall, 200 N. Walker,
just west of the County Courthouse, or just east of the police
station.

Original post:

Just got a notice of the Oklahoma City event in solidarity with the countrywide Join the Impact! No on Prop 8 action this Saturday. I am so bummed that this is taking place at the same time as the Peace Fest (no one’s fault, this is a nationally coordinated action that just got born, and the Peace Fest is an annual event on the 2nd weekend in Nov.)

But for those in OKC not already committed to a table at the Peace Fest like I am, YOU can — and should — attend both events. Because we’re lucky, considering our politics in this state, to have activists organizing in our midst. Show your support and keep the progressive agenda moving forward.

Hello all!

I thought I’d update everyone on what has been accomplished so far. Today, I went to the Division of Traffic Management and got our permit, so we’re official now! The rally will be taking place on the steps of the Capitol Building on N.E. 21st ST. and Lincoln Blvd.

NEEDS:

Someone that has and can set up a public address system.

Someone to lead group songs (National Anthem, We Shall Overcome, etc)

Speakers. Young and old. Be a voice that is recorded in the history books.

Signs…make an extra one for those who may need it. Spanish language signs would be an excellent addition.

Photographers and videographers. Help record this historical event.

Carpooling – Anyone willing to meet at a central location and share rides. Fill your cars people. Meet at Angles parking lot beginning at 11:30 am and head to the Capitol at noon. Sign your car up.

I would like to have a sign and banner making meeting before the rally, perhaps on Friday. If anyone can volunteer or recommend a time and place, it would be greatly appreciated!

Get the word out – Text message all your friends. Mass email. MySpace bulletins. Put signs up announcing the gathering. Be inventive.

Bring your flags and your signs and your spirit. Oh and a jacket, because it’s going to be chilly.

Here are some tips that were offered by the Equal Rights March:
1. Read these links regarding the right to protest.

http://www.aclunc.org/issues/freedom_of_press_and_speech/demonstrators_and_the_constitution_a_legal_overview.shtml

http://www.nyclu.org/node/1047

2. After reading this information, you should understand that you may be required to have a permit for the protest you are planning. Contact your local government to determine the local procedures and if necessary obtain a permit.

3. If you have problems with your local government contact your local ACLU affiliate (http://www.aclu.org/affiliates/index..htm) or the National Lawyers Guild (http://www.nlg.org). If you are having trouble finding a local lawyer contact Gill Sperlein at sperlein@aol.com 415-378-2625.

4. Keep in mind: You will have fewer problems if you are at a classic protest forum like the steps of City Hall. Avoid blocking the streets. Avoid going on private property. You may want to have a couple of people serve as witnesses. These folks should take video, photos or notes and should not be involved in any activity that would lead to their own arrest.
Protest Tips:

You are welcome to bring signs, but make sure the sticks for picket signs are no thicker than 1/4 inch.

This is a peaceful protest. We want a spread a message of love, not war! There are likely to be anti-gay demonstrators we have to remember to not sink to their level!!