Commentary
Kurt Hochenauer
Oklahoma progressives had a lot to celebrate in terms of the national results on Election Day.

Commentary
Jonathan Small
Remember State Question 744? It required the state to raise its annual per pupil expenditures to at least the average rate of surrounding states. The measure did not raise taxes or designate funding. It was estimated that, if passed, SQ 744 would have increased state spending on common education by $830 million.

Commentary
Jeff Bezdek
Re-electing President Barack Obama to a second term is the clear decision for our state and our nation.

Commentary
Todd Lamb
Americans have a fundamental choice about our future. Do we continue along the path of increasing government intervention into our businesses and personal liberties, or do we reverse the course? Following are a few examples of places where Mitt Romney will take our nation in a different direction than the current administration. Through this broad range of issues, it is clear that Romney should be the choice for Oklahoma.

Commentary
Nathaniel Batchelder
Thinking about the Nov. 6 elections, it is clear to me that we the people must stand in the gap to reverse America’s drift toward becoming a nation and government of, for and by the few doing very well, while the many struggle merely to get by. The stakes are daunting.

Commentary
State Rep. T.W. Shannon
Ninety percent of an iceberg is typically underwater. This fact makes icebergs extremely dangerous, because it takes a keen eye to determine if the ice floating on the surface is a small block that can be pushed aside or several million tons of ice that will sink your ship.

Commentary
Louisa McCune-Elmore
In July, I asked Roy Lee Lindsey, executive director of the Oklahoma Pork Council, for a favor — to pick up philosopher Bernard Rollin at Will Rogers World Airport in five o’clock traffic and bring him to the Kirkpatrick Foundation for a cocktail reception.

Commentary
Craig Knutson
With 90 percent of brain development occurring in the first three years of life, investing in early childhood may be one of the most crucial steps toward establishing long-term economic success of our state. Mental, physical and psychological and social skills can be either stunted or nurtured by the quality of parenting and child care received by Oklahoma infants and toddlers.

Commentary
Michael J. "Mickey" Homsey
You can’t have a better bag man than the U.S. government.

Commentary
Robin Meyers
Is it any wonder that Oklahoma students rank near the bottom of the country in math and science scores? Consider U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, who teaches them by example that if someone pays you enough money, you too can ignore the evidence and act like a fool.

Commentary
Ann Trudgeon
The term “politically correct” has fallen from favor, occasionally mocked by those who cite the importance of the First Amendment. I, too, value our Constitutional rights to speak without fear of being persecuted. And yet the adage that “words will never hurt me” is ridiculously erroneous. Words do hurt — they have tremendous power to hurt. For a friend of mine, Misty Cargill, words ultimately killed.

Commentary
Adam Soltani
As violence erupts in the Middle East over an anti-Islam film, Oklahoma communities should seek to rise above these hate-filled actions and messages through peaceful dialogue and mutual understanding with those of other faiths.

Commentary
Neal McCaleb
In 2005, when Oklahoma’s highways and bridges were literally crumbling, Oklahomans spoke loudly by soundly defeating State Question 723, a proposal which would have raised the fuel tax to 22 cents per gallon. The lesson learned was that in order to provide safe and cost-effective highways and bridges, the decades-long practice of systematically diverting transportation-generated revenues to other areas of government had to end, and infrastructure had to become a core priority.

Commentary
David Blatt
The past four years have put severe constraints on the state budget. Many state agencies have absorbed funding cuts of more than 20 percent, and most have been forced to cut staff while eliminating programs and services.

Commentary
Greg Treat
The presidential election has many Americans sharply divided along party lines. As Oklahomans, however, there is something on the ballot in November that should unite us regardless of political affiliation — State Question 765.