6A « September 10, 2019 « THE JOURNAL RECORD « journalrecord.
com
GUEST EDITORIAL
Governor’s
government
overhaul
lacks diversity
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administra-
tive overhaul of state government
has resulted with the appoint-
ment of more than a dozen new
agency heads during the first
eight months of his first year in
office.
It’s a power play that should
surprise nobody, because it was a
frequent topic during Stitt’s 2018
campaign. Lawmakers facilitated
the move by granting – right out
of the gate – the governor greater
authority to hire and fire at will
the chiefs at the state’s five larg-
est agencies.
But these moves must be
monitored closely – the governor
has demonstrated a willingness
to go beyond what the Legisla-
ture authorized and use sharp
elbows and shoulders to try and
shove others aside. Higher Edu-
cation Chancellor Glen Johnson,
a model public servant for
nearly four decades, is the latest
example of such tactics.
Stitt’s moves have caught the
attention of political observers
for another reason: He has filled
the top positions in some state
agencies with businesspeople
who have no prior experience
in state government or no
background in the field for
which they are responsible. The
governor defends his decisions,
saying voters hired him “to bring
in a fresh set of eyes across state
government.”
While there is nothing wrong
with getting a fresh perspective,
it seems there is something
important lacking when it
comes to the governor’s ap-
pointments. There appears to be
little diversity among those he
nominates and appoints – most
of his appointments have been
drawn from a pool of white
businessmen.
There is value in diversity
and different perspectives, both
of which are vital when finding
solutions to persistent problems.
But the governor seems intent
to tune out those voices and fill
these state agencies with some
“good ol’ boys” of his own.
Greater diversity at all levels
of government will lead to bet-
ter outcomes and performance
because study after study shows
that diverse collaborations bear
more fruit than homogeneous
partnerships. A diverse state
government will yield better
results because the byproduct
of diversity is more creative and
strategic thinking.
– Muskogee Phoenix
PERSPECTIVES
AROUND TOWN
Comic Argus Hamilton to entertain
Sooner fans before UCLA game
Folks who are planning to be in
Santa Monica for the Sooners football
game against UCLA will enjoy a
special treat the
night before.
OU alum and
longtime Comedy
Store host Argus
Hamilton has
created “The Will
Rogers Comedy
Fest,” duplicat-
JOAN ing the original
GILMORE comedy show
when the Sooners
played at the Rose
Bowl some years back.
The festival at Magicopolos will be
at 8 p.m. Sept. 13 in Santa Monica,
where Hamilton has rounded up a
number of Oklahoma comedians
based in Los Angeles. (Argus also has
planned a Dallas version for those
Sooners.)
The entertainers who will be
displaying their Sooner humor in the
show are Justin Orgel, Leah Kayaja-
nian, Brandon Vestal, Griffin Pip-
pin, John Little and Curt McCown.
Honorary hosts for the Santa
OKLAHOMA JOE
A day of firsts in Memorial Stadium
The University of Oklahoma
football season’s opening game was a
day of firsts. The first Sunday game for
OU. The first day for quarterback Jalen
Hurts, one of the
classiest players in
football.
It was such a
great day that fans
needed a beer to
celebrate the occa-
sion. Or, two. Or,
three. Or …
JOE Such was the
HIGHT day of firsts in Me-
morial Stadium.
I really don’t
care either way whether OU or any
sports venue serves beer during games.
Beer or the selling of it is not the
problem. The fans’ behavior with high
amounts of beer in them are and affect
everyone around them.
I have attended many college, mostly
OU games, and professional sports
games and have never seen the spec-
tacle I saw that day. Among them:
• A young woman kept stumbling
up and down the steps. During one of
her stumbling adventures, she let go of
some of her liquid spirits in front of us.
A fan luckily had some water to douse
the unpleasant remains. I patted him
on the back.
• Since I sat at the end of a row,
several people kept stumbling and
bumping into me, including a woman
Monica show will include Will Rog-
ers’ great-grandchildren Jennifer
Rogers-Etcheverry and James
Rogers.
Proceeds from the show will bene-
fit the Will Rogers Ranch Foundation
in California and the Will Rogers
Memorial in Oklahoma.
Sponsorships and VIP reservations
for the OU/UCLA Comedy Night are
available by contacting Mike McAu-
liffe at 405-630-7668.
Artistry of cowboys
A new exhibition, Caballeros y
Vaqueros, will join the 21st annual
Traditional Cowboy Arts Exhibition
& Sale. Caballeros y Vaqueros begins
Sept. 14 at the National Cowboy and
Western Heritage Museum. The tra-
ditional cowboy exhibition celebrates
the culture and artistry of the gear
needed to ride, rope and manage
cattle throughout the American West.
The exhibition and sale events are
scheduled Oct. 4-5. Both the Cabal-
leros and art sale will be on view
through Jan. 5.
Funding for this exhibition and
related programs is provided in
whose companion apologized for her
behavior. She bumped into me the next
time, too.
• A fan who seemed to have drank
more than his body weight in beer kept
yelling “touchdown” and wanting ev-
eryone else to do it while taking whiffs
from his vaping device, which violates
stadium policy.
At one point, at least in my area of
the stadium, I saw multiple people car-
rying three cups of beer in their hands,
followed by someone directly behind
them carrying three cups of beers,
followed by others. I’m surprised we
weren’t all singing 99 Bottles of Beer.
It’s as if these OU fans had discov-
ered a gold mine of beer and were
relishing in a Wild West of drinking it
all at once.
I was relieved OU has a policy that
beer service would be completed by the
end of the third quarter. I hoped a cof-
fee service would follow, so fans could
sober up before leaving the stadium.
But that apparently didn’t happen
either. Abigail Ogle, a KOCO 5 News
evening anchor, tweeted a photo of fans
apparently crossing through a stopped
train in Norman. KOCO later con-
firmed with police that fans caused the
train to stop and were crawling under
and between the cars.
“!! DO NOT DO THIS !!” Ogle
tweeted. “Source says, ‘People were
so drunk they were falling off. Others
were taking their small children across.
part by Susan J. Roeder, Oklahoma
Humanities and the National Endow-
ment for the Humanities.
For more information, visit na-
tionalcowboymuseum.org.
Tasty benefit
Students at Harding Charter
Preparatory High School will benefit
from the 13th annual Onward Okla-
homa Foundation from 7:30 p.m. to
10:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at 1521 N. Hudson
Ave. The foundation was established
by Mark Mann and Marc Brockhaus
to raise money and resources for
Oklahoma-based profits serving
children and education.
The event will include six flights
of Scotch whisky, beer, a cigar bar, a
presentation by Dewayne Poor and a
pipes and drums performance by the
Highlanders of Oklahoma City.
Individual tickets for the tasting
are $125. A limited number of $200
tickets are also available for those
who wish to attend the VIP special
presentation.
For tickets, visit charityscotch2019.
eventbrite.com. For more informa-
tion, call Epic Events at 405-706-7484.
The train couldn’t take off until the
people cleared the tracks so cars were
stuck. It was a mess.”
I had seen drunken fans at OU
games before, but not to the extent I
witnessed on the day of firsts.
OU’s first Sunday game reminded
me of a Michigan-Notre Dame game
when my daughter, Elyse, still a big OU
fan, was attending there. A drunken
Notre Dame fan kept berating Michi-
gan fans, including a boy who kept
looking back at her with a puzzled but
amused expression on his face.
She then decided to display her
middle finger at the boy.
I had to say something: “Do you
know you represent a fine Catholic
institution?”
She seemed embarrassed, apolo-
gized and quit the middle finger show.
I just wish certain OU fans would
realize they represent a fine academic
institution before consuming excessive
amounts of beer at games. Losing
control of their behavior because of
excessive drinking should be their first
concern.
Joe Hight is director and member
of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of
Fame, an editor who led a Pulitzer
Prize-winning project, the journalism
ethics chair at the University of Central
Oklahoma, president/owner of Best
of Books, and author of the upcoming
book “Unnecessary Sorrow.”