Tag Archives: women

In The Know with Oklahoma Policy Institute: 4/27/2012

Number of the Week

1st

Oklahoma’s rank nationally for the share of female residents reporting that they have been raped, physically abused, or stalked by an intimate partner in their lifetime; 697,000 women in 2010.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Quote of the Week

They have been continuing to decrease the percentage of the state’s overall budget for years and years while there has been a steady increase in student population and costs have increased.  What if your budget at home had stayed the same over the last five years?

Lynn Stockley, Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association President, on several rounds of cuts to the common education budget

Chart of the Week

OK Policy Note

Who’s behind the assault on income tax?

Earlier this month, rival events on the income tax debate presented an illuminating contrast. OK Policy’s forum featured economists from Oklahoma public and private universities, as well as economic development experts from the state Department of Commerce and the OKC, Tulsa, and State Chambers of Commerce. These experts from across Oklahoma’s academic and business community shared the message that eliminating the income tax would not live up to the promises of tax cut boosters and could be a disaster for the state.  At the same time, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) brought speakers from outside of Oklahoma to push for tax cuts. {click here to continue reading this post}

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Time of My Life: A Top 10 List Inspired By The Black Eyed Peas

I may not be eligible for an AARP membership yet, but my aching knees recently served as a reminder that I am perched at the top of the proverbial hill just waiting to make my descent down the other side.

My recent awareness of the nuances of getting older has me thinking about the interesting dichotomy of spending our early years desperately wishing to be older and the rest of it longing for time to stop moving so darn quickly.

As a kid, I thought turning 18 meant I was an adult. The reality, however, was that I was still dependent on my parents, didn’t know how to do my own laundry and had to sit at the kid table at Thanksgiving.

At 22, I graduated college and felt like I had the world at my fingertips…until I realized that having a degree doesn’t mean much unless you also have a job. I spent the next year reminding myself to have fun now because I would have the rest of my life to be pinned down to a demanding career. And when I did get that first job, I was referred to as “the young one” for several years before a new “young one” came on board and relieved me of the title.

Continue reading Time of My Life: A Top 10 List Inspired By The Black Eyed Peas

Meanwhile, Back on the Ranch: An Oklahoma Girl From Head to Toe

by Julie Allgyer

Tammy and Julie
Tammy stopped by to visit on her way to Oklahoma

There is something special about girls from Oklahoma.  We are…different.

I realized this after browsing through a real estate magazine at a local restaurant and noticing a photo of a girl who went to my high school back in the late 70’s.  She was currently a local real estate agent living about thirty miles from me.  We had not been good friends in high school and didn’t have a junior high slumber party memory to share, but somehow I knew that when I called her, she would remember me.  She did.

Shortly after contacting her, my husband and I were invited to her home for a Sunday lunch.  We had a fabulous time and I have since seen her on several other occasions.  I even stayed overnight at her house (not exactly a slumber party, but it will do) when a two-day workshop took me to her city.  We had dinner and talked about growing up in Chickasha, Oklahoma.

There are many other Oklahoma women who continue to touch my world: an OSU sorority sister bumped into me in the middle of Reading Station in Philadelphia, a classmate stopped by to have a quick dinner while traveling I-40 to a new chapter in her life, a lady at the convenience store wearing an Eskimo Joe’s T-shirt held my place in line, and my former principal, who is hoping to find her way back to Oklahoma, molded me into the writing teacher I am today.  My former principal is also expecting her fifth grandchild, a girl named Preslee, who no doubt will reap the benefits of being raised as an “Okie.”

So here’s to Preslee, who has no idea how lucky she is about to get, and all the other women who qualify.  You know who you are.

An Oklahoma Girl From Head to Toe

Sun-bleached or shiny black locks like a horse’s mane

Lake-blue eyes, or as dark as night on a rural road

When it comes to character, Oklahoma girls reign

With inner and outer strength, they will always carry their load

Lips that whisper a song just when you think you’ve forgotten the tune

Shoulders that can bear the weight of her worries and yours

Beads of sweat on her back from the Oklahoma heat in June

A loving heart beating strong and fast like an eagle soars

Legs that can carry her to her destiny, however long

Feet barefoot or not, walking toward a horizon of blue

Are you looking in the mirror? Do you see someone beautiful and strong?

By birth or at heart, you may be an Oklahoma Girl too