Second Anniversary!

It escaped my notice that last Saturday, February 24th, marked my 2nd anniverary of blogging. My cause was then and is now parental choice in public education, especially charter schools for Tulsa.

In a vacuum it is hard to stay motivated to keep on blogging. I get my encouragement from my fellow Tulsa Bloggers that are the real citizen journalists.

It's hard to believe that two years has gone by so quickly. Many things have transpired in those two years. As far as Tulsa is concerned, I don't see any meaningful turnaround yet.

I am dismayed at the reports of Bell's being disassembled and Zingo being torn down.

I am saddened to hear that Glenpool is making overtures to the Tulsa Fairgrounds to move there.

I am shocked that the bridge over 161st E. Ave. and I-44 is literally falling apart and no one in authority will use common sense and just fix it!

I have grown insensitive to the outrageous murder rate and overall high crime rate of Tulsa. Our fine police force is truly in a crime investigation mode and not a crime prevention or crime solving mode.

Our public education has probably leveled off from its downward spiral over the past 2 years, with no significant improvements. But the moratorium on new charter schools was definitely not progress.

Our churches continue to be ineffective as they have generally conformed themselves to the world and have not been transformed by the Word of God. We expect the lost to darken our doors and we are not willing to seek the lost wherever they may be.

We know we have too many firefighters, yet our elected officials are floating a trial balloon about yet another tax for a fire district!

Will I be motivated to continue blogging another year?

Brenda Barre's Biography

As a public service, here is Ms. Barre's bio:

Brenda Barre Candidate for TPS Board of Education

For more than 30 years, Brenda Barre affected thousands of students in a very positive way as an educator who went beyond “teaching at students.” Brenda taught by connecting the individual to the course. She taught for 29 years at Booker T. Washington High School, one year each at Roosevelt Jr. High School and Wilson Public School in Wilson, OK. Over a two year period, Brenda was a substitute teacher at Central High School.
Brenda is married to Kenneth Byrd and has one son, Jason, 29. She graduated from Sand Springs High School, has a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Oklahoma Christian College and a Master's in Education from Oklahoma State University. She was the recipient of the Robert Coe Fellowship in American History at Stanford University and the Leadership in Education Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brenda is also a graduate of Leadership Tulsa XXV. Currently, she is a real estate broker and owner of Tulsa Realty.
Brenda is president of the Country Club Square Neighborhood Association and serves on the boards of the Tulsa Women’s Foundation, The North Tulsa Community Development Corporation, and The Center for Racial Equality. She has previously served on the Alzheimer’s Board of Oklahoma.
Brenda’s efforts to foster student success are on-going. She has filed her candidacy for the Tulsa Public Schools Board. The election is slated for February 13th. Brenda seeks to represent District 1 which includes Addams, Chouteau, Emerson, Eugene Field, Lee, Park, Remington, Robertson, Roosevelt, and Mark Twain elementary schools; Clinton and Madison middle schools; Central and Webster high schools.

Vote For Brenda Barre!

I concur with Michael Bates of Urban Tulsa that voters this coming Tuesday in District 1 should cast their ballot for Brenda Barre for the TPS School Board. You can link to his excellent article here.

Her opponent, Gary Percefull, as the incumbent, has acted like he is biding his time and his service on the TPS Board is mere window dressing. No doubt he has aspirations for some type of high paying gig on the government dole. He has served his time and now the "good ole boys" are just waiting to welcome him with open arms. Well done, my good and faithful waterboy!

I personally interviewed Ms. Barre and do believe that she will be a real asset to the Tulsa community. I applaud her willingness to take on this thankless challenge.

Sleep Well Tonight

A good friend of mine sent me this link about global terrorism. It is a map showing incidents around the world that have the fingerprints of terrorism on them.