A lot of us probably don’t think too much about Oklahoma and when we do, it’s probably as a result of the latest blow dealt to it by Mother Nature. This past week’s tornado devastation in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore is the latest such natural disaster to bring our eyes back to Oklahoma, near the very center of our country. As we do whenever a disaster anywhere occurs, we as a nation come together and give the full benefit of our gathered strength in aid and support. We are doing this now for the folks in Moore, Oklaoma and if you can, donate a bit to the Red Cross or one of the other relief organizations that will be helping them back on their feet.
Oklahoma has always had a special appeal in the American psyche . It lives in our minds with Curly riding the plains in that idealized burgeoning new frontier in the musical from Rodgers and Hammerstein. John Steinbeck set his fictional Everyman Tom Joad, the plain-spoken hero and seeker of fairness from The Grapes of Wrath, in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma. He remains oone of my heroes and I think of Tom Joad as the epitomized conscience of America.
I have a lot of other heroes from Oklahoma. Growing up, whenever I heard mention of that state I immediately thought of Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench, both OK natives. And you can’t forget that perhaps the greatest athlete of his time, Jim Thorpe, was also from OK. Or hero astronaut Gordon Cooper. Oklahoma also gave us the sharp stick of humor that Will Rogers wielded as the greatest observer of our country in his time and another observer in the form of Woody Guthrie whose songs are filled with the American soul. His This Land Is Your Land is a tribute to our unity as a nation.
Even in these divided partisan times, Oklahoma sits near the heart of this country, both geographically and figuratively. Like I said, give them a hand make it OK again for them. Here is a take from one of my favorites , the Kinks, on the American vision of Oklahoma as seen through British eyes.
