Where Did It Go?

Where Did It Go?

I know that the older you get the faster the years click off, at least that’s what those old 50 year old guys used to say when I was 30, and now that I’m in the 50 year old club I think I understand more and more what they mean. About this time last year I had written about the fact that Veterans Day would always be much more remembered at our house because of the passing of my dad on the 8th. That seems like a long time ago but as usual I was busy with day to day life and it snuck up on me and I realized that hey, it’s been a year since dad passed and its Veterans Day again.

I went to a very nice program last week at the VFW on the anniversary of his passing and then for the first time in a year made a trip to the Veteran’s Center where we honored all branches of the Armed Services. For the first time I walked the halls where dad had spent the end of his life. I saw a lot of familiar faces and shook the hands of a lot of the Veterans who live there that had become friends. It was an emotional experience as I reacquainted with many of the staff members who cared for my dad as well as countless other Veterans that live there. I got to say thanks to some people who I had probably failed to properly thank for the great job that they did in caring for him at the end of his life. It’s a wonderful facility with a great staff of very caring compassionate people who do a wonderful job taking care of America’s war heroes and I will forever be in their debt even though I know that they were just doing their job. It takes a special person to do that but thank God we have them.

There are certain items that for me are non-negotiable. One of those items is the funding of the Lawton Veterans Center. I know full well the day to day operations of that facility from being there every day for a year or so when my dad was a resident. They did not give my dad extra care because of my position and I don’t think they should have. What was interesting was that my dad seemed to be the complaint department for many of the residents because they knew that I was an elected official and could probably get someone’s attention and many times did; when things were not right or the food was not as good as it should have been or a host of other issues. Each time that one of the residents would file an unofficial complaint to dad, I would stop by the administrator’s office and very gently let the administrator know that the troops were restless, knowing full well that they were peddling as fast as they could and operating on thin budgets. The bottom line is they all did a very good job with what they had to work with and deeply cared for the residents all of whom served their country and earned the right to be there by their service.

It’s a tough job because they deal with the passing of heroes on almost a daily basis. When you’re in and out of the building every day you often see a young nurse wiping away tears as she makes her rounds, knowing that they lost another one. And you know there are people in those jobs that have wonderful and compassionate hearts.

So will I vote to fully fund Ok veterans centers? You bet I will cuz my father died in one. And I know how much they care.



If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:


Patriotism... is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. ~Adlai Stevenson

Earthshake

It’s amazing how adults talk using some of the funny things their kids learned growing up. Our oldest daughter Katy had a favorite movie when she was little called The Land Before Time. It was about dinosaurs and it was on a VHS tape and it’s one of those movies that she almost wore completely out playing over and over again. In that movie when the Earth rumbled the little dinosaurs would say “Earthshake!” so that is what first came to my mind when I was standing in the lobby at the Cowboy Hall of Fame Saturday night when I experienced my very first Earthquake. I guess I’ll add that to the list of things that I’ll always remember where I was when they occurred. It was kind of odd, it was definitely a strange feeling and the best way I know to describe it is like you were in a football stadium and everyone was stomping their feet and you could feel a little shaking under your feet. A small group of us were standing around visiting and weren’t really sure what was going on until it was pretty much over, almost like it didn’t register. For us it’s not all that common of an occurrence. Since Saturday I’ve heard numerous accounts from people all over the place that felt the tremor. I guess if you lived in California it would probably be a normal thing because we all know that eventually California is supposed to slide off into the Ocean anyhow. I thought we had been relatively unscathed across the state until I saw the news reports Monday morning about the damage to St. Gregory’s College where there was some brick damage to a building. I also wonder after talking to the store manager at the Lawton Coop that there may be some yet undetected grain elevator damage across the state as some of those concrete elevators are getting quite a bit of age on them. Probably the funniest thing I saw as people reported the event on facebook was the scene of the white plastic lawn furniture where one plastic chair had fallen over and it said “Oklahoma Earthquake 2011, we will rebuild”. Quite a little event and I’d say it got everyone’s attention.

We all know now that we’re not immune and one good thing about living in flat country with very few skyscrapers is that we don’t have much to fear unless it was a big one. I haven’t heard any reports of tsunamis at Lake Hefner or small children being lost in huge cracks, in fact I think there was a greater danger of falling into cracks from the drought than from our Earthquake. As I said earlier it will be one of those little items that you tuck in your memory that will probably stick with most of us that we can pinpoint our location and what we were doing when the event occurred, although it pales in comparison to many of those big events like 9/11 or the space shuttle disaster or for some that are a couple of years older than me, the assassination of President Kennedy. As I said before I was at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and had just finished the auction for the Diamond Hats which is a group of ladies that have an annual fundraiser to raise money to help with the premium sale at the Oklahoma Youth Expo. We had a great event and everybody was kind of milling around preparing to go home when the quake occurred. What will be interesting now is to see if we have any more. Living near the Meers fault as I do, we’ve always known it was possible but again it’s not something that we lose a lot of sleep over unless of course the Earth opens up and Mt. Scott falls in or it knocks over some big building, Heaven forbid.

As a follow up to last weeks article about our pharmacy situation, we’re starting to hear a little more about meetings that are occurring between OSEEGIB and the Oklahoma Pharmacy Association on ways to save the state money without driving all the state employees and teachers to mail order prescription service. I think the important thing is that the dialog has been started and we’re considering many of the other people, which is extremely important. I feel pretty good about the possibilities of a good outcome and hopefully it will be something that will work for everyone and still allow neighborhood pharmacies to exist while gaining some efficiencies and savings for the state coffers. It’s an ongoing saga and we still don’t totally know the outcome, but again, the important part is that all the parties are in the discussion and of course we’ll inform you of developments.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men. ~Ignazio Silone

Not On My Watch

It seems like, in this business, that an issue can arise seemingly out of nowhere that can inflame a large number of people rather quickly. It usually happens when we are in session and there is an issue being discussed before the legislature. This one was different and it has the potential to impact anyone out there who carries Health Choice insurance. The board that oversees the state insurance program is called OSEEGIB which is the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board. OSEEGIB decided that they would take a step that they claim would save the state 8 million dollars in insurance costs. Like a lot of things sounds real good until you analyze how they are going to do it. The proposal was to take all state employees and require them to order their maintenance drugs by mail order. I was first alerted to this issue by Corey Fikes down in Grandfield Oklahoma, the owner and pharmacist of Fikes Pharmacy, a small privately owned pharmacy that serves a great deal of that area. Maintenance drugs are things like blood pressure medications, cholesterol medications, and heart medications that must be taken daily, any number of pharmaceuticals or medicines that many Oklahomans take on a daily basis. My first thought as I analyzed what was happening was one of the simplest reasons, it was the extreme temperatures we had this summer. I’ve yet to get a good explanation on how you could get a guarantee on how these maintenance drugs would sit in a rural mailbox in 110 degree temperatures and not have some detrimental effects on any type of pill and that was just the first layer of the onion. As you continue to peel back the layers you continue to find problems, one of which was even bigger and that was the fact that it had the potential to hurt the smaller pharmacies across the state. Requiring people to order maintenance drugs from some pharmacy in Timbuktu and take away the relationship between the pharmacist and customer. For example, Ms. Smith who may take a heart medication comes in to fill a prescription for some type of antibiotic or some other medication, she relies on the pharmacist to check on drug interactions which can be detrimental to her or a whole host of potential problems. Many times that pharmacist is the same person who knows her medical history and is that kind of 2nd layer of protection for her that a mail order house would not be. The person in the mail order house could be pharmacy grad student or someone of that nature who may, or may not have any idea of the patient or their medical history and may not even care. If they happen to mess up, no big deal, it’s some lady in Grandfield Oklahoma or wherever that they don’t really know so there is really no motivation to be careful and I believe human error would be a huge factor in requiring people to go mail order. One of the main reasons I think its bad is that it’s the classic example of the Walmart business plan. While we all trade at Walmart from time to time because many of the options have been eliminated, I still blame Walmart for destroying main street businesses. Now I’m not a Walmart hater and I don’t believe in my heart that Sam Walton started the Walmart kingdom with the idea of driving people out of business but the fact is that’s exactly what it has done. I believe that ordering prescription customers to order maintenance drugs through the mail will be detrimental to these local pharmacists and their employees. We are supposed to try to promote jobs in our state not eliminate them and I truly believe that while the idea was well intentioned it will do just that. Everyone seems to be engaging in what may be the battle of the year and it’s a battle we must absolutely win for the sake of our constituents and our locally owned pharmacy businesses because the result could be catastrophic

It seems that the OSEEGIB board may have done this when we were not in session on purpose with the intention of having it in place before anybody could react. I think what they are finding is that legislators are reacting in an almost unified voice to preserve their constituents right to deal directly with the druggist that they know and trust and still have some control over their own healthcare. There was a meeting held last Friday in Oklahoma City between the pharmacy association and the OSEEGIB board where the pharmacy association had some alternative measures that would show some savings without having to lay waste to small town pharmacies across Oklahoma. I don’t know the results of that meeting as of yet but I’m certainly hoping that the outcome was positive. I can assure you that the legislature will engage and that something will happen to rectify this situation. We’ll see.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. ~Hubert H. Humphrey

It’s ______Weather

Everyone has a phrase that they seem to use when fall rolls around. Probably the most common one is when that first good chill hits the air and people say its football weather. I believe the funniest one that I remember from my days as a young Ag teacher in Jackson County was what the cowboys across the river called Eldorado weather. It took me a minute to grasp what that meant when I first heard it back in 1984. What it meant was, the county across the river in Texas was dry, right across the river on the Oklahoma side was a little joint called Dub’s and there was also a little road side liquor store and when the weather got cool they would get in the pickup and ease up into Oklahoma and get a little nip to break the chill. Thinking back to some of my horse back adventures on both sides of that river I’m not sure they really needed crisp fall weather but it made a catchy little phrase that welcomed the exodus of summer’s heat and the arrival of a new season.

It’s hard to believe, given where we’ve been last summer that it would ever cool off but seasons always change and the natural rhythm of the Earth seems to kick in right about the time it’s supposed to. I guess fall has always been one of my favorite times. It’s that time of year when you can start out in a light jacket or a vest and a long sleeved shirt feels about right even late in the day. Some people like to take a swing down through Eastern Oklahoma to take in the fall colors. Some folks go Northwest to look at the aspens in Colorado. Whatever your thing, it’s always nice to usher in a new season. It seems like we always welcome the change and I guess that’s one of my favorite things about our state. About the time you think you can’t take another day of heat or another day of cold it’s about time for that change to occur. With this years drought I don’t anticipate any beautiful fall but at least it feels better and this ol’50 year old fat boy is sure ready. I guess in my world the last couple of years fall has kind of become chuck wagon weather and we sure seem to have done a lot of cooking this fall which my partners and I enjoy and we’ve done some pretty cool events this fall. About a month ago we cooked for about 70 folks from all over the state with Leadership Oklahoma’s visit to Ft. Sill. We cooked right in the quadrangle in Ft. Sill among the historic buildings under the oak trees and you can’t find a better or more scenic place for an outdoor event. We cooked for the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association fall cattle drive at Ken Holloway’s Coyote Hills ranch and we turned out some of the best stew I’ve ever tasted. I think we even filled up Colby Collins who I believe came back to the stew pot four times but that’s just a guess, I think I lost count. Last Saturday we cooked at the L.O. Ranch and fed about 60 for the Comanche County Cattlemen’s annual fall gathering.

Its our little side business or I guess I should say side hobby that makes a little bit of pocket money and allows us to dazzle folks with meat and bread cooked over a fire in a Dutch oven as well as what’s fast becoming our famous cobblers. It sure is a nice diversion from the hustle and bustle and the stress of politics which will really start gearing up in the next couple of months as we head toward February when the starter pistol fires signaling the start of the 2012 legislative session and when there will be little time for almost anything else. It seems that my career path has always included a lot of shifting of gears and a lot of changing of hats and I guess I must like it because for well over 20 years that just seems to be how I roll. Between my State Representative job, my auction business, our chuck wagon, and chasing a few cows I don’t have much time to get into any trouble. I certainly don’t suffer from boredom. We’ll keep you advised as things develop as we head toward the legislative session. As always there will be some interesting topics that will arise and I’ll try to give you my take and my read on how those things really look. Until next week.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

The seasons are what a symphony ought to be: four perfect movements in harmony with each other. ~Arthur Rubenstein

Congratulations Mr. Speaker

I know by the time you read this that all the major news outlets and daily papers will have already made the announcement but I would like to personally congratulate Representative T.W. Shannon for becoming Speaker-designate for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Every now and then somebody shows up on the political scene that just seems to kinda’ have natural electability. It always on the surface looks like those folks kinda’ fall into it but most of the time it’s kinda’ like the analogy of the duck. While they look like they are gliding effortlessly across the water, just below the surface they are paddling like crazy. Let’s go back a few years to my first relationship with a young high school senior named T.W. Shannon. I was the Ag. teacher at Lawton high school for 9 years, from 1988 to 1996. In that short span of years I, as well as my co-sponsor Mrs. Sue Wiginton, sponsored the senior class two different times. There was a tall young African American man who you just kinda’ had a feeling was headed for something big, just his natural charisma and his good looks and just that little something that made him stand above the crowd. T.W. had it back in those days and he’s got it now. It looks like the vote was taken Monday in the republican house caucus and in about a year he will be the new Speaker of the House. Representative Shannon has worked his tail off over the last year to earn the respect and trust of the republican house caucus. He left no stone unturned, he reached out to every single member, even those opposed to him including his actual opponents. He was thorough and very systematic in his approach. T.W. Shannon does not come from any kind of political legacy he just kinda’ did it the old fashioned way, he worked at it. He spent time as a field rep. for Congressman JC Watts and Congressman Tom Cole. He’s been a quick study in the political game. He’s blessed with above average intelligence and I hope that he will be a uniter of the republican caucus as we move forward. He’s a strong conservative but with enough sense to know that we still have a state to run and that the train must run on time. Speaker -designate Shannon will not actually take the reigns in the House until the current Speaker Kris Steele finishes his two year term as Speaker of the House. The Speaker -designate position was created to allow the designate to study under the seated Speaker so that the transition can be smoother.

Some will say that T.W. Shannon may be a little young to be the Speaker of the House and one could argue that point and not be too far off base but term limits, which everyone clamored for a few years ago, have created this new dynamic. It creates a conveyer belt if you will, that is 12 years long. Gone are the days of 20 year political careers in the House or Senate. We now have a fast track and it has totally changed the complexion of the Oklahoma legislature. A young member that hits that conveyer belt at a run and has some political background doesn’t have quite as much to learn and can sometimes be propelled forward and gain momentum early in their career, especially one who has the charisma and the overall perfect political package that Shannon possesses. I told him early in the process that I would support him in his quest to be Speaker but that I also would reserve the right to box his ears if I saw him heading down the wrong road. In this new political environment in Oklahoma, I’m an old guy, having been in the legislature for 10 years. I told T.W. that I was heading into my last term and that if he won I really had nothing to lose in jerking his reigns and have no fear of doing just that. I think he’s extremely bright and won’t need much of that and I hope and pray he’s the natural born leader that I think he is.

Historically it’s very difficult for anyone in Western Oklahoma to win an election to represent the whole state. We’ve had only a handful in the history of Oklahoma politics. One was former speaker Lloyd Benson and another was former Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins. If you look back through the history books of Oklahoma politics, few Western Oklahoma members win elections to state wide positions. A lot of it has to do with the fact that Western Oklahoma is more sparsely populated and the votes are much more concentrated East of I-35. Another historical road block that TW Shannon will have to overcome is the fact that the only Speaker to ever go on to any elected office higher than that was Alfalfa Bill Murray and that’s been way before any of our time. I believe this young man has the ability, the charisma and the political savvy to even rewrite that part of Oklahoma history one day. Time will tell and in the meantime we will chalk up a win for Southwest Oklahoma. Once again we are in the game. Congratulations Speaker-designate Shannon. We’re proud of you.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not. ~Author Unknown

A Nice Rain

I don’t know what we did to prime the pump but we finally got what may have been a life saving rain. I dumped out three inches at our place and I’ve heard reports from friends, anywhere from two to as much as four inches. There’s been a lot of wheat planted in this country over the last few weeks and this rain may have been just what the doctor ordered to at least have a chance to get some wheat up. It was actually foggy Monday morning about daylight. We haven’t had enough moisture in many months to create fog. There’s a little water in the bar ditches and at least early today there was some water standing in the drill rows. I heard one of the local weathermen say that it looked like the grass was trying to green up even while the rain was still falling. We’re not out of the woods by any means. There was very minimal runoff. So we still have a critical shortage of pond water. But there’s something kinda refreshing about a good solid rain and the optimism it can bring. If a cattle producer can grow even a little bit of wheat it can help get a set of cows thru the winter, for those of us lucky enough to have any left. The critical part of this will be how much rain follows but its mighty encouraging pouring three inches out of a gauge. It does provide some much needed optimism in our old parched corner of the state.

This rain did more than just settle the dust which seemed to be all we could get over the summer. This one could be the one that saves the agriculture economy in southwest Oklahoma. And we’re extremely thankful to have received it. Don’t let up prayin for more because we’re certainly not out of the woods but that little light at the end of the tunnel just got brighter.

We’ve been extremely busy over the past few weeks with plenty of things non political which can be as refreshing as a good rain. We’ve had at least one wedding per weekend for the last five weeks and seen a lot of young people start lives together with all the hope and anticipation that comes with a young couple getting married. I’ve seen several dads that looked a little bit vapor locked as they tried to figure out how to pay for these shindigs and guys I’m not makin fun at all. I’m very sympathetic cuz I know that I have a 23 year old daughter as well as an 18 year old daughter and I know my turn’s comin. It’s like the old standard joke says. It would be cheaper to buy them a pair of plane tickets to Vegas than it would be to put on the dog like some of you have. But of course it’s easy for us guys to stand back and talk that trash when we know we only want the best for our daughters.

My partners and I have also been very busy adding a little cowboy flavor to several different events with our chuckwagon. One of the highlights was a week ago last Friday when Class 25 of Leadership Oklahoma made their annual stop at Ft. Sill where they got a first hand glimpse at what a strong military economy looks like and also had up close and personal visits with actual soldiers and their families, which gives these leaders from across the state a little better way to understand the sacrifices that a military family makes to keep us free. It’s a very important message to deliver and Ft. Sill, from the Commanding General on down, do a wonderful job of hosting this event. Here in Southwest Oklahoma we’re blessed to have two major military installations and most people realize how important the air base at Altus and the army post at Ft. Sill can be to the Southwest Oklahoma economy and actually to the whole state.

We talked last week about the race for the White House and I’m still watching with great interest as that race shapes up. It’s a little like dirt track stock car racing. Seems like somebody can be way out in the lead and all of a sudden they blow an engine. And then they’re back to the pits and all of a sudden there’s a new leader. I think if you care about my analyses I’d be watching Cain very closely. Seems to be very astute, extremely literate and while this is in no way an endorsement of any kind I think he bears watching. And I’m still not sure Perry’s not out of it yet. It’ll be lots of fun as this race continues and the dust settles, not only on the political landscape but as it finally has on the Oklahoma landscape.

And here’s a little something to think about as you’re goin down the road.

Every day may not be good but there’s something good in every day.
Author Unknown

Smash Mouth Politics

As somewhat of a political insider I might have a little bit different perspective than the average person of the political process in general. The biggest philosophical battle that I deal with inside my own head is to not become jaded and negative to the whole thing. Now I don’t mean I’m smarter than you or better or any of that, all I mean is simply the view from the inside is much different because I know a lot of the dynamics that occur. I’ve watched with some interest as we try to select the right person to get Obama out of office there seems to be a pretty clear message coming from America that says that needs to happen. The question is who will it be? The next thing we have to ask ourselves as a country is can whoever we pick to run against an incumbent president win? Now before I start chewing us out let me say that this is still the greatest country in the world and I certainly don’t wanna’ live anywhere else I just wish we could select a candidate without slashing and burning everything in our path. Rick Perry seemed at one point to have a decent shot but the media started in on him and to hear people talk you’d think he is a blubbering idiot. I don’t think you can be Governor of a state the size of Texas as long as he has been there and be stupid. I’ve heard him speak in a fairly small meeting where we were able to ask questions and interact and I’ll tell ya’ the guy is pretty impressive and you can’t overlook the fact that the Texas economy is pretty solid. I’m still not convinced he wouldn’t make a fair president but the damage the media can do from the left pales in comparison to the damage in character assassination that we inflict from the right. I’m not sure that we on the right won’t scare off anybody of any quality. Then all of a sudden the powers that be, whoever the heck that is, decide that we need to push New Jersey Governor Chris Christie toward the nomination. I don’t know a lot about him but I kinda’ like the guy, he’s kind of a no nonsense common sense Governor, pretty plain spoken, doesn’t seem to have a lot of patience for idiots which I have to admit kinda’ appeals to me. I don’t know for sure how conservative he is or isn’t but I think even though he’s from New Jersey, he seems to be the type of person that might understand “cowboy logic.” So what do we do, we start calling him fat. I mean the guy hasn’t even said he’s running and we start picking on him because he’s a portly gent. I mean come on people the last I checked there are no super humans out there that run for these offices, these are human beings with families but we tend to wanna’ chew them up and spit em’ out, stomp em’ to death and cuss em’. Makes me wonder again, are we smart enough to pick someone who can win whose enough of a conservative to get the nomination but yet centrist enough to win the election? I mean really do we even know what we want? I can tell ya’ from experience that there’s a great deal of stress involved in this business of politics and a guy like Christie who struggles with his weight is definitely gonna’ dive into some comfort food every now and then, it’s just how it is. I’ve been there. I think what our country did to former President George W. Bush is unforgivable. Something has changed in the political process and I think we’ve lost our manners. I think we’ve come to a point in our country that it is not enough to disagree we have to inflict pain and bodily harm. It’s not enough just to kill a guy we have to dismember him as well. It’s a wonder we can get anybody to run for anything from city council on up because our country has become very mean spirited and the rules of engagement have totally changed. As a matter of fact, and I’m gonna’ go out on a limb here, I’m certainly not a fan of Obama, his healthcare mess, or his thoughts that we can tax ourselves into prosperity but I don’t think that gives me or anyone else the right to impugn the person. It seems we think we have a license to do that now.

There seems to be some interest in a new candidate by the name of Cain. He’s an African American gentleman, seems pretty conservative and may be pretty solid, might could have a shot but we’ve only begun to dismantle him. I’m sure if you look hard enough he’ll have some warts as well and I’m sure that we’ll have him beat to a pulp in short order because it seems that that’s just how we roll. But obviously that is part of the political process at least in this new environment that we find ourselves in. I guess we call it the pressure test. If we apply enough pressure and the guy can stand it maybe that’s how it should be but it just really seems like there ought to be a better way. I think maybe the smartest one in the whole game is Sarah Palin. We treated her as bad as I’ve ever seen anyone treated and I think what she’s doing is laughing all the way to the bank. She’s definitely a political force, probably no way in the world she would ever run for President and I’m not sure we deserve her. I know we must change the complexion of Washington, that’s a given I just hope that whoever survives the beating can win. It seems that we loose track of the mission from time to time and I’m not sure why anybody would want to go through that but there seems to be no shortage of folks willing to be beat to a pulp so I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves. Lord, help us.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. ~Gore Vidal