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The Peace House announces:

Saturday, March 20 – - – Seven-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
NW 23rd Street & Blackwelder, OKC (OCU,between Western & Penn Ave)
10:30: Drumming & Music (bring your drum)
11a.m.-Noon: RALLY: Speakers from student and faculty populations
Noon: Peace March begins, returns to NW 23rd & Blackwelder
Bring signs, banners, trumpets and timpani
Cosponsored by OCU OIKOS Scholars and The Peace House

Here’s a link to a pdf of a flyer you can print off and share:
Peace March Flyer

I don’t have much faith in the readership numbers he gives, as OkieDoke has been shuttered for eight months. It was a really good blog, but I don’t think its was so good that it’s going to bring in 361 readers a day that long after anything was posted.

I stopped looking at or caring about stats for Peace Arena some time ago, so I can’t supply any alternative visitor numbers for this blog.

I posted a comment under Gaddie’s article about my list of Oklahoma’s “netroots” i.e. liberal/progressive blogs, which can be found here.

Earlier this week, a health care rally on the Capitol steps sparsely attended because few knew about it. Amazingly, the Oklahoman actually covered it, and printed a picture of three or four people. Imagine if a couple of hundred supporters of health care reform had been there and THAT picture had been printed. It would not have changed the vote of any Oklahoma elected official, but the psychological effect on other supporters, and possibly on the public might have been priceless.

Not that I personally should be singled out for notification, that’s not what I’m getting at. (Though no doubt part of my frustration at the moment lies in the fact that, in addition to this blog, I have been operating what seeks to be a central Oklahoma progressive events calendar, for 5 years or so, and have tried and tried to get it read and recognized by the community as a tool they might find useful for their own work. It remains obscure and I pick up news of events to add to it wherever I happen to come across them, missing many, finding many too late. I also sometimes despair of its point and don’t bother updating it.)

No, this is about community, or the lack of it, in what I somewhat facetiously call the “Oklahoma progressive community.” I know it’s larger than many outside it suspect, but how can you fault them for being unaware, we never are seen together, are we?

We are in the middle of arguably the most conservative, politically closed state in the country. It’s understood that with rare exceptions, we cannot count on the corporate media in this area to do one bit of this communication for us; quite the opposite — we almost hope to be ignored by that media, rather than have our mission, our words, our efforts, sarcastically demeaned in public.

We have to find or create other means, if we want to find a way to support our activities, expand the reach of our voices, engage in making real social change, rather than just bemoaning our fate amongst ourselves.

A number of organizations have their internal email lists and phone banks, which operate at varying levels of efficiency and effectiveness, depending on volunteer activity that ebbs and flows. Sometimes the best to hope for is getting that small list alerted so some event or action.

In the last year, quite a few Okie progressives have found Facebook to be a way to build some worthwhile connections, using tools there for forming groups, posting events and the like. But many, including some of the most informed, either don’t want anything to do with online networking, or if they do, use it sparingly, or just don’t have the time to add it to their already packed agendas.

But why can’t we do better? Why can’t we find a way to communicate with one another? Then, having this community awareness, supporting one another’s actions and events, projects and campaigns.

I believe that finding ways to communicate better would expand our numbers as well as the enthusiasm for participating, volunteering and working for change.

If we did have the tools and commitment to engage in such communication, what would it look like? What do we need to build to make that happen? How do we build it? Once such an infrastructure is build, how do we nurture and promote it to keep it thriving?

Is this a pipe dream in Oklahoma? Are we just fated to be permanently alienated, in our small disconnected cliques, griping about how ineffectual it all is?

Or am I just having a bad week?

Oklahoma Citizen already has been getting a lot of buzz during a limited site reveal among the progressive community. You can register to comment or post content, and help make the site THE place for finding out what’s going on in terms of the values and people we care about most (you aren’t going to find that in the existing corporate media, ya know).

So check it out and help make this site a big success. It will really take all of us lefties pitching and contributing content and comment. Oh, and you can fan Oklahoma Citizen on Facebook here.

Full disclosure: I have been helping get the site started.

I’m registered as a Democrat because of this state’s restrictive ballot access laws that let the R’s and D’s freeze out third parties, but I’m a Green at heart. It seems to me that if a supposedly “major” party that gets a ballot listing regardless of its strength in the state can’t field a challenge for U.S. SENATE, it shouldn’t be in a position to keep other parties on the sidelines.

Frankly, if the Oklahoma Democratic Party doesn’t run a candidate for the effing SENATE, it deserves to fade into obscurity. Talk about an embarrassment! Unexpected things can happen, you know, to candidates and to public perceptions — even in Oklahoma. George Allen (remember him?) was supposed to be a sitting Senator with a lock on the R presidential nomination in 2012. Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens was supposed to be Senator from Alaska for life, and now Begich (D) has that seat and is voting aye for health care reform. Of course it will be difficult and odds-defying, but to not even field a candidate is even more insane.

This is especially the case with Coburn’s recently exposed shenanigans with “The Fellowship” aka “The Family” in DC, as a negotiator between Ensign and his mistress. Just to have a chance to throw that dirt on the campaign trail must have some Okie salivating!

I can’t believe this can be the case, although no one has announced publicly, it’s still possible that a candidate is waiting until after the beginning of the year (though for a race of this magnitude, it’s getting quite late). If it is, I hope the Libertarians (the largest third party) or even the hibernating OK Greens will run someone. It would be a great opportunity for those forced to be benchwarmers to get on the political map around here.

It’s kinda crazy that you have to pass an amendment for this option to be available for the rare pol who might want to use it, but that’s life on the cusp of fascism.

The lobbyists will be there in full force, so having some grassroots advocates for it would be useful and appreciated.

It’s this Friday, Dec. 18, at 10am on the 5th floor of the Capitol. Please spread the word to your network and lists.

Considering my self-defined mission here (online and off), this is pretty inexcusable, but I’d rather be honest that just anoint some “award winners” out of you know where and call it some kind of validation of the best (IMO).

So, in lieu of that, I’m just going to note some of the positive impressions I have gleaned this past year about relatively unheralded Oklahoma bloggers who can in some sense be considered (or just call themselves) “progressive” or liberal or Left.

And yes, I DO have some negative impressions as well, but this is not the place to air those — as a product of my culture, I do tend to get a little sentimental as the end of a purely-symbolic time cycle draws to a close.

So let’s just say up front that, in the words of our former president, blogging is hard work. Really, if you haven’t tried to do it with any kind of regularity, you just don’t know. Or maybe it takes a very specific type of person who finds it doable without feeling, in no discernible pattern, insecurity, boredom, frustration, angst, despair and embarrassment.

Therefore I just want to tip my hat to some Oklahoma bloggers who have managed to penetrate my haze this year, for their persistence, their regularity, their seeming tirelessness and their apparent ability to be completely self-motivating.

So here’s my list of 2009 bloggers who have earned my respect, just because they blogged. (And this in no way is to dismiss their other qualities as astute observers and creative writers.)

• Oklahoma Lefty — I just can’t figure out what’s “Left” about him (maybe it’s all relative to Oklahoma’s unique slice of the spectrum), but damn, he blogs like a fiend! And if you are the least bit interested in alternative music, you seriously need to follow Dave’s reflections and insights on that subject — because he’s got a lot of knowledge and passion about it.
• Carless in OKC – This blog only started in September, but has been a faithful journal of living without a motorized vehicle in a city that does not acknowledge your existence. The blogger began by saying that he did not intend to be carless, but felt that it was a journey (no pun intended) that might be interesting and offer some insights. It has, for writer and readers both.
• Deb’s House Concerts – Another blogger with passion for music, as well as other creative expression. Thoughts about politics, culture, language, horticulture, nature and anything else that comes along.

Please join me in appreciating these Oklahoma bloggers, and wish them another year of prolific output. Feel free to add any others to the list by making a comment — be sure to include a link to their site.

Here are my photos from today’s demonstration against Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

The turnout was pathetic. I’m sure there are many reasons why. Even while Bush was still in office, there were fewer and fewer people coming to various events. But once Obama was elected, interest in the actions really evaporated, with some justification, with many saying we had to give Obama “a chance.”

Welll, he’s had his chance, and is not responding well, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many in the peace movement (which goes on, regardless of what party is in power or what individual is in office).

No one was under the illusion that Obama was a pacifist. But he did say he was against “stupid wars” and that he would work to end the occasion of war. He is not keeping that promise with this escalation.

There are probably many who would come to a protest against Bush’s wars, who won’t come near one against Obama’s. But there will continue to be a need for such public statements, and enough who will continue to consistently call for an end to American aggression, imperialism and global thuggery.

Here are some sites where the consistent message goes on, or is being newly expressed.

The Old Stalwarts
World Can’t Wait
United for Peace and Justice
Code Pink
After Downing Street
Voters for Peace
War Resisters League
Win Without War

Some new groups/alliances
EndUSWars.org
Peace of the Action