I would not pretend to have the expertise needed to comment on the substance of the bipartisan border security and foreign aid package partly negotiated by Oklahoma’s @SenatorLankford. But I do know a thing or two about the role of an American elected official. 🧵 Among our obligations as an elected representative is to 1) Use our position to address major challenges and opportunities as soon as is practical, and 2) Recognize that politics is the art of the possible; in other words, we have to live in reality.

As you might have seen, U2 recently debuted their residency at the $2.3 billion Sphere venue in Las Vegas.

Almost anytime I think about U2, I can’t help but think about their performances in Oklahoma City over 40 years ago at venues that were somewhat less grandiose.

🧵 One of the great things about watching live music is the potential of catching artists in a modest and intimate setting before they are playing arenas, stadiums or Spheres.  With that thought, U2’s 1981 & 1982 shows in OKC are probably my favorite all-time examples of this.

Both major U.S. political parties have extremists. They are extreme in their ideology and their temperament. In both cases, these true-believing extremists are a very small minority. The rest of the members have to decide to what extent they will compromise with them. 🧵 In my view, it’s a well-established reality of human group dynamics that you simply can’t compromise with extremists in any meaningful way. By nature, extremism is never satisfied.

Under state law, the City must negotiate an employment agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police each fiscal year. Today, the City Council unanimously approved an agreement with the FOP for this fiscal year that provides for the largest police raises in modern OKC history.  🧵 After today’s vote, all members of the Oklahoma City Police Department will receive at least an 8% raise, along with a 2% one-time stipend payment.

If your educational system is objectively underfunded, by all standards of comparison, it is likely that you will see underperformance. It is reasonable to be disappointed in this underperformance. (1/4) If you look around and you note that the better performing educational systems are funded at higher levels, you would be reasonable to conclude that more funding would help. Perhaps funding is not the only contributor to improvement, but clearly there is a correlation. (2/4)

The 2,300 Oklahoma City tennis fans who arrived that Sunday afternoon, March 1st, 1998 at the Greens Country Club were probably more focused on fun than history. After all, the Williams sisters were the hottest story in tennis. 🧵 Venus Williams (age 17) and Serena Williams (age 16) were riding a wave that was only just beginning, but it had already captured the imagination of the sports world.  This column by The Oklahoman’s @BerryTramel captures the zeitgeist from that week.

oklahoman.com/story/news/199…

The 4,500 Oklahoma City basketball fans entering the Civic Center that day in 1954 expected to see a great game. It was three days before Christmas and they had an early gift - No. 8 George Washington vs. No. 17 San Francisco. 🧵 Longtime GW coach Bill Reinhart was a college basketball legend & had a network into pro hoops as well. One of his former players at GW, Red Auerbach, had become the coach of the NBA’s Boston Celtics four years before. Red was still hoping to leave his legacy on the game.

We have not had access to COVID-19 case data in several weeks, but in this chapter of the pandemic, with a contagious strain & a (relatively) highly-vaxed population, it is probably best in any case to focus on hospital data as we assess the state of the virus in the OKC metro. The grey line in this chart captures the combined total hospitalizations for COVID-19 in the three main counties that comprise the OKC metro. To put this in some perspective, we got above 700 in the worst days a year ago. We got below 100 just before Delta hit.

The First Americans Museum is officially open to the public! Plan your visit now at FAMOK.org. In the following Tweet thread are the remarks I delivered at today’s opening ceremony.

(photo in this Tweet by @NathanPoppe) Greetings to our many visitors, especially the leaders of the 39 sovereign nations represented in First Americans Museum. We are honored by your presence in Oklahoma City today.

The young French nobleman was walking down the streets of Paris in 1780 when a rose fell at his feet. He looked up to see a beautiful woman in the window above. It was Tae-Gle-Ha, or Laughing Buffalo, of the Omaha tribe. (thread) Laughing Buffalo had spent the previous year in Paris, but returned to America the very next day. The young man followed and spent the next ten years searching America for her. Within two weeks of finally finding her, they were married.

Twenty years ago today, my time on this Earth was scheduled to end. A confederacy of madmen, their minds rotted by messages of political extremism and dehumanization, had spent months planning the murder of thousands of Americans.

(thread) The goal of this senseless act was to make some bizarre statement only extremists can understand. The plans of the terrorists on Flight 93 were thwarted by a group of everyday heroes who had far different plans for that morning, and for the rest of their lives.

Today, Oklahoma City launched “A Better Way,” a program proven in Tulsa & other cities to provide a path out of homelessness. A Better Way offers a day’s work to people who are panhandling and experiencing homelessness. (thread) It’s a win-win for the community as often that work includes beautifying our public spaces. Through their work, people who participate in A Better Way are connected to services that put them on a path out of homelessness.

Infrastructure is a core function of government. For a decade, mayors and governors have advocated for a new major infrastructure investment from the federal government. Today, we did so again in a meeting with the President and Vice President at the White House. After the recent announcement of a “Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework” focused on core infrastructure, we potentially stand on the verge of something special that will greatly benefit the people of Oklahoma City.

Today, the City of Oklahoma City has made a bold statement about occupational licensing reform, as the Council unanimously repealed 85 percent of our city's occupational licenses (16 of 19). Over the course of the last century, occupational licensing by the government became increasingly prevalent. Licensing that is intended to & actually does protect the health & safety of the public in a material way is appropriate, but the encroachment of licensing went too far.

Let’s talk real quick about water. (thread)

@cityofokc crews are currently working 31 line breaks, caused by these unusual & extended arctic temperatures. The low temps have also caused other challenges to our system this week, such as the frozen lines at Lake Draper on Sunday. The City’s line crews and water plant staff are doing so much, and in terrible conditions, that we just can’t thank them enough! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The work of metro OKC’s Regional Transit Authority is beginning to ramp up. If you’re interested in regional transit & being a part of a bold transit future, I strongly encourage you to join the virtual town hall (1/28 at 6:30 pm) announced by Governor Brad Henry below. 👇 Some history on the RTA...

https://twitter.com/davidfholt/status/1062433634278350848

Re: New downtown parking garage! (Short thread)

The remarkable complex around our new convention center is taking shape. The center itself will formally open in March. Mick Cornett Drive and the traffic circle (destinations unto themselves) are nearing completion. The Omni convention center hotel opens later this month.

There has been a lot of interest in the City’s efforts to reform law enforcement policies, with the ultimate intent of reducing use of force incidents. A task force was brought together & it includes dozens of well-known community leaders.
(Quick thread) These community leaders sit at a (virtual) table and openly and regularly and publicly discuss these issues with Members of Council, the City Manager and the Police Chief. There is real desire by all involved to present policy changes that can be adopted.

Today, we updated on the state of COVID-19 in Oklahoma City as we head into Christmas. My remarks appear in the Tweets that follow... ******

To recap the last two months: At the beginning of November, in the Oklahoma City metro, we were averaging about 300 new cases per day and about 350 people in our hospitals, just due to COVID-19.

Oklahoma City had been through a lot that Thanksgiving.

In October, the Spanish Flu had hit the city hard. Ultimately, over 7,000 Oklahomans would die, and the city was not spared. Meanwhile, many of the city’s young men had spent the year overseas, fighting for their country. Just two weeks earlier, the Great War had been won, and the resulting euphoria had briefly washed away the pain of October’s pandemic.

Re: COVID-19 (thread)

COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing around the nation this week, and unfortunately Oklahoma City is no exception. This chart illustrates the new cases in the OKC metro since the start of the pandemic, and you can see the enormity of the spike this week, which has already resulted in the transition of @OKCPS back to virtual learning for the rest of this calendar year.