It is no secret that American citizens have significantly different ideologies about a variety of current events and social trends. That is one of the reasons why Congress stays so bottled up on almost any issue... the body itself is a hodgepodge of ideology, which makes finding middle ground on most legislation both arduous and difficult.

Army Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino issued an order halting the Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine rollout on Nov. 11, 2021, less than 24 hours after his sudden appointment as the state’s top general. (Oklahoma National Guard)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor and 11 other state attorneys general filed a new lawsuit asking a federal court to stop the Biden administration’s overreaching “job or jab” COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The mandate threatens to further burden the healthcare sector and patient well-being in Oklahoma, where a large percentage of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are already facing worker shortages.

A number of times in the past, our focus in this column has been to encourage local residents to come together and focus some time and energy on carving out at least a rough draft of a future master plan for Hugo and all of Choctaw County.

Members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation spoke out in opposition to President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, both before and after its passage last week. In a news release, Congressman Mullin stated, “Only $110 billion of this package will go towards improving actual infrastructure, like roads and bridges, and Oklahoma would only receive a small fraction of that money.

In June 2016, Oklahoma voters approved State Question #788 by a 57%-43% margin. It legalized the licensing, cultivation, use and possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Since the passage, the legislature has been dealing with the far-reaching effects of legal pot in the Sooner state. They set up the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA), a division of the Department of Health. The OMMA oversees patient and business licensing for Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program. As of Aug. 1, there are more than 10,000 business licenses in the state — 8,300 are grow licenses and 2,300 dispensaries. Oklahoma has issued far more grow licenses than any state in the country. According to Mark Woodward some of the growers are associated with organized crime from other countries and they are supplying pot to the east coast. Woodward said those growers will struggle to get their license renewed because they will not be able to reach the 75% resident ownership threshold.

Religion. Being good enough for God to accept us. Many do turn to religion… trying to always behave and say the perfect things. So that hopefully, their holy God will be obliged to help them handle the fears and horrible problems in life. But down deep, each of us know ourselves well enough to have to admit, “Being perfect all the time –– that just ain’t possible!”

Tens of thousands of Americans (if not millions) are being affected by the vaccine mandate of President Joe Biden. As a candidate for president, he pledged to follow the “science.” But as we all know, science (and military generals) have political influences.

Democrats are attempting the largest government overreach of our lifetimes. Included in their proposed $3.5 trillion tax and spend spree is a disturbing provision that authorizes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to surveil Americans’ bank accounts — a blatant invasion of personal privacy.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Beginning today, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce (Commerce) will house the Oklahoma Chief International Protocol Office. The office was moved from the Secretary of State’s office afte the passage of HB1140 during the 2021 legislative session which went into effect on Nov. 1, 2021.