Apparently, You're Not Doing So Fine Oklahoma...

"...Oklahoma is the only state where the average lifespan has declined during the last 25 years." - Tulsa People Magazine, January 2009

It seems that while the wind was sweeping down the plains and hawks were making lazy circles in the sky, someone forgot to bring us along with the rest of the nation into the 21st century. Perhaps the reason our grand statesman Will Rogers never met a man he didn't like was because they simply didn't live that long.

This article run in the Tulsa People magazine points to an alarming trend. We rank 50th in the U.S. because of, "...the high number of adults and children without insurance, the low rate of children and adults who seek preventative care, the high number of avoidable hospital visits, the high rates of mental illness and the skyrocketing level of unhealthy living..."

All of this data points to what my good friend and political scientist George Bernard Shaw (a native of Florida and a current resident of Savannah, Georgia) once told me. Oklahoma's poverty is exceeded only by its poor health care and education systems.

Well, this paints a pretty picture for the future of our state. Couldn't we have at least finished 49th? I mean, have you ever been to Louisiana? Arkansas? West Virginia???

To keep this in perspective it should also be mentioned that we were the only state in the last election in which EVERY county voted for a candidate that had absolutely no plan for changing our current education or health care policies. But to be fair, the article did mention that we suffer from high rates of mental illness.

Another interesting factoid brought forth in this piece was that Okies cannot readily find healthy food to eat. "Heart patients in north Tulsa, for example, may not be able to buy fresh produce because they don't have a grocery store. Patients in west Tulsa may not be able to walk for exercise if they don't have sidewalks in their neighborhood."

No grocery stores? No sidewalks? Where are we, Beirut?

Believe it or not all of these problems really point to one thing: poverty. And though you wouldn't know it if you wanted to buy a house in midtown Tulsa, we are a poor State.

Let's face it, we have little to offer in the way of tourism, nobody aspires to retire here, we have no "Twister"-themed parks, no mountains nor oceans, no skiing or beaches, and no surfing. We apparently do not even have a skilled an educated work force that would lure big time companies to our "cheap" land and lax environmental policies.

But we do have oil, right? What has happened to all of the money made off of oil? Sultans and Sheiks have held American policy and wallets hostage this past year because of the prices of oil shooting upwards of $150 a barrel. However, I have seen very little of that money invested where I live. Although there are a suspiciously large amount of McMansions that have been built on the south side of town over the last few years. You know who you are.

So. Oklahoma. We are dumb, fat, poor, and our one natural resource is in effect and somewhat appropriately going the way of the dinosaur. Or is it?

What about the one resource so ever-present that we forget that it is there? What about the one resource that I curse almost every time I set foot outdoors? That's right: Wind!

Can we not step up and make the switch now? Will oil interests squash the wind industry in an attempt to keep filling their own pockets? No doubt they will try.

It is all we have. But the good news is we have a TON of it - and it never stops - never! The kind of state revenue that could be generated by wind energy would be staggering. More to the point it is what Thomas L. Friedman refers to as an "above ground" energy resource. That means we don't expend energy to reap the benefits. Are you following, Oklahoma? It's free and abundant.

This could be a resource that could bring us money. Forever. Money that we could spend on education and job training and health care and infrastructure.

Or maybe just Marlboro's and Big Macs.