Our Beleaguered Governor

We had a very good UN Day Luncheon last month. The food was good. Our audience seemed to appreciate the panel discussion about the crisis in Syria. It was great to see such a diverse group of people -- all with an interest in the values and good work of the United Nations.

One of the missing elements of our Luncheon was the annual reading of the UN Day Proclamation. Traditionally, Oklahoma Governors have signed an official proclamation recognizing United Nations Day. Last year, we had a group of people read portions of the proclamation, and it was a very positive highlight of our program.

This year, though, Gov. Fallin declined to sign a UN Day Proclamation. We reported about this in an earlier blog post.  

Evidently, the Governor was trying to avoid a controversy.  She received harsh criticism from some far-right political activists when she signed the 2011 Proclamation. For example, see this bitter attack from The Oklahoma Truth Council which compared her action to the "lies" and "broken campaign promises" of a "professional politician."

Well, sometimes, controversy seems to be part of the landscape. And, even when one tries to avoid it, it jumps into your path nevertheless.

Consider what happened this year when Gov. Fallin made a deliberate decision not to sign the UN Day Proclamation. Was she greeted by glad shouts and cheers of joy by the far right-wing chorus?

Nope. Rather, she was criticized again by a misinformed right-wing blogger who failed to notice that the 2012 UN Day Proclamation went unpublished. Oblivious to the facts, this blogger accused Gov. Fallin of being an "airhead" for issuing a UN Day Proclamation "...for the second year in a row."

Here's an excerpt from his October 16th blog entry ...

... which also uses accusations of "un-American" and "ignorant" to describe our Governor.

Gov. Fallin is our friend. We think she made a mistake when she failed to issue a UN Day Proclamation this year. But, we would never resort to ad hominem attacks to make our case. We like to think we're too classy for that. And, the Governor deserves more respect.

We always hope that Gov. Fallin will use the power of her office to govern with wisdom. We don't think she should ever be swayed by political bullies.

By the way, if you'd like to see a list of Executive Proclamations that have been signed by Gov. Fallin this year, they are published on the website of the Oklahoma Secretary of State ... here ... where you can even search the Proclamations signed by previous governors, by year and topic.  Pretty neat, huh?