How I see Lawton and Oklahoma. My 2 cents.

I love Oklahoma. I know it sounds strange. Oklahoma is not known for its progressive attitude. But it has been my home for 20 years.

When I moved here from Georgia, I resented everything about Oklahoma. And then i started to come into my own and I started to own who I was and what was important to me.
And things like a sense of pride for our country and the way everyone claps when the state song is played...those things are why I love Oklahoma. When the directions are "past the second silo, turn at the cattle guard", that is why I love Oklahoma. When I see a transgender woman running for office against a hate monger is why I love Oklahoma. When people think that Oklahoma is not gay friendly and I remind them that our Pride parade has gotten bigger every year and that our businesses and nightlife cover 2 city blocks. That is why I love Oklahoma. In general.

And then I remember something that has affected me more than I ever thought...
I remember my senior year of high school, my class only ever won the spirit stick once. OUR SENIOR YEAR. Why does this matter now? Because that was my first taste of apathy. Apathy in particular in Lawton. Everyone was in such a rush to leave and get out of here and experience life elsewhere...and those of us that have stayed behind or found our way back time and time again have had that same air of apathy around us and have done our best to break through.

Lawton must do something right, it must not stifle us as bad as we think, I mean generations of us have left to take on big cities with big ideas and yet some of us have gone on to have the exact suburban life we DIDN'T want...someplace else...

I want better for Lawton. I want fear and the gridlock of apathy to be broken. I do not want to be scared about what people think, and most importantly I am tired of people underestimating my state and my town. Lawtonians are not stupid and we are not rednecks. We can handle tea parties and bleeding heart liberals. We can handle art that makes us think and oversized jewelery. We can handle fake tans and tree hugging lesbians.

We can handle it all. We are Oklahomans.