The netizens of this site often treat the citizens of Oklahoma with the same cynical disregard as it's elected officials.
Oklahoma has serious problems that merit serious attention from the people of this community, not outright condemnation or pseudo-moralizing that the citizens of OK deserve what they get because they elect Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn. I'm writing in response to the hundreds of readers' comments I've read today, and during the misguided Andrew Rice campaign and the Coburn/Carson ridiculousness.
Many comments that have been made strike me as less than progressive. I've read this site for five years, and I still do not understand how so many can be so glib when it comes to Oklahoma and to the people who suffer under it's laws. So I'm going to tell you what it's like to live in Oklahoma (for any who care to know) as a way of thanking the diarists who wrote about the horrid new changes to the abortion reporting laws. I would also like to dispute those who seem to think the new abortion law is about 'statistical analysis." This is my personal observation of Oklahoma. I've endeavored to make it brief and readable.
The state really functions on social issues in the same way it has since the 1950s. Calling it a "very red state" trivializes this distinction.
Oklahoma puts significantly more women in prison than any other state.
Oklahoma already puts a significant amount of data about you online. If you get a parking ticket, it's on the same public database as if you raped and murdered someone. In this way, all crimes are equal in OK.
If you flash your body at someone while in a car, as did someone from my high school, and you get a ticket, you have to register as a sex offender and have the same laws apply to you as to a child molester.
If, while intoxicated, you urinate in public, and you are a woman, and you are caught, your children are taken from you because you become a sex offender.
Oklahoma has a seriously high rate of rape and incest, and has seriously disturbing fundamentalist religions that many of you have never heard of.
Conditions in Tulsa(a segregated community) are worse for children than they are in impoverished developing countries.
There is no organization that even admits that serious systemic problems exist. Instead, every night on local television, they tell you that you are going to die. Your children are going to die. Your pets are going to die. Literally everything out there is going to kill you and molest your children.
On a basic level, news organizations demonstrate no understanding of the difference between 'fact' and 'opinion.' The level of literacy is abysmal.
There is no lobbying effort of behalf of social services programs in OK. There are very few functional non-profits that provide useful services.
There is no ACLU, or anything like it in Oklahoma. Not really.
There is no industry in Oklahoma. Not really.
There is no infrastructure. No mass transit. Bad bridges. Every decent road has a toll.
There is no sense of being part of an Oklahoman community. Which makes it impossible to elect anyone other than Tom Coburn or Jim Inhofe.
Oklahoma needs your help. Not your condemnation.