My Addiction – Pride

Don’t run with scissors. Play nice. Don’t throw rocks. Eat your vegetables.  Don’t talk back! Sin was simple back in kindergarten, and so was expiation of that sin. Break a rule, you get a whoopin’. Very simple.

By my teenage years we added Don’t Do Drugs. Of course back then, in the Sixties, only the hippies and un-American types did drugs . . .or so I was told.

Becoming a “Church People”

I ran across many kinds of church people as I grew older. Many had an enhanced list of things that were bad — and things that were also bad.  This was not ALL church people, but a lot of church people.  I remember when I first learned that dancing was a no-no and that things as playing cards, gambling, movies, rock music, and beer greatly displeased God. This was all very disconcerting because at age 18 I liked all that stuff – a lot!

After graduating from college I was swooped up by the grace and mercy of God. I decided that I needed to become one of those church people. In the process, I started to try to differentiate between church offenses, cultural taboos, morals, preferences, bad habits, social gaffs, and what God actually views as SIN. It can get confusing.

I read my Bible daily. I studied the Scriptures and prayed for insight. Mostly, I devoured the words of Jesus Christ. The beauty of God’s love and the antidote for sin was simple. A theme emerges in Scripture, Christ died for our sins, and arose from the dead for that we might have life – FREEDOM.

Meanwhile I sat in Sunday School classes, listened to sermons and at first grew my own long list of what I call church people sins. Continue reading My Addiction – Pride

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On the Horizon: School Violence

The scene was eerily real. Weapons and police as far as the eye could see. Luckily it was a mock scenario, but the reality is it happens all too often. School shootings have been on the rise and schools everywhere are taking a stand.

Schools in Oklahoma are joining together with emergency response teams to conduct life-like scenarios that will prove to be life saving. I was amazed at the attention to detail and levels of communication both school officials and emergency personnel demonstrated. Practicing how to act during an emergency may sound silly, but in this week’s video blog, after two days of speeches and drills you’ll soon realize how important it is.

Courtenay Dehoff

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We Have a Gender Problem In Oklahoma

We have a gender problem in Oklahoma.  And when I write “gender,” I also mean sex.  Sex in that there are some male/female balance issues.  But gender, in terms of societal and identified population self-defined roles.

Okay, the majority of these problems exist no only here but across the United States. The lack of answers, however, don’t effect me as much as they do locally.  So, I figure…start here, and work outward.  It’s always easier to change yourself than it is to change someone who lives 2,000 miles away.

The reason the Red Dirt Chronicles was created was to highlight various aspects of Oklahoma culture, and to share the ideas and work of authors who are Oklahoman.  But we have problems in Oklahoma just like any state and one of the most notable to me, right now, right here, is our lack of female legislators.  And, our lack of male human service employees.

First, the legislative problem.  Although we now have a state that is well over the ten percent mark (and some would argue hovers around the 15% mark) in Hispanic populations, our legislative body not representative of this fact.  Other ethnicities (Black, Asian, American Indian, etc.) are equally under-represented.  However, our Oklahoma population is roughly half female, but we only have (according to an interactive map deployed in 2009) 13% female legislators.  So, if you calculate the disparity in percentages, women are quite possibly the most underrepresented demographic of all. Want to know more? Read this.

I’m not going to write an argument about what a greater percentage of women could add to our state management, lawmaking and problem-solving process.  I think you know the answer to that if you just sit down and give it some thought.  I’m just pointing this out because if one person who reads this considers having a discussion of how to get more women into our governing body, then the deployment of this post was successful.

But the lack of women legislators isn’t the only gender problem in Oklahoma.  There are many more and I will probably write about others in the future.  Today, however, I want to point out the lack of men in the human and social services careers.  I just completed an eight year career training Child and Family Services students for their professional lives.  I coordinated approximately 100 interns per year (800 total) who went into the field of non-profit work, social services work, family life education, etc.  Of my one-hundred students, I generally had between two and four men per year.  The rest – a full 95-96% were women.

These facts are undisputed and cannot be changed.

So, ladies: Please think about entering public service by running for House and Senate seats in the State Legislative body.  Men, please consider working “with the people” who need help to find ways to help themselves.  A better balance creates better environments, better solutions, and better perspectives.

[kelly]

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The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 1

Editor’s note ~ If you’re new to the RDC, we’d like to suggest you to some time to peruse back through “The Imaginary Family Project” fiction short stories put out each week in 2011.  We loved what our volunteer authors came up with and hope you will as well.  Enjoy! ~ RDK
#1 of 52 : JANICE
2011 Imaginary Family Project Week 1 - Janice
(click to enlarge)

External Photo Clues:
PrintStamp – May 1955

Imagine:
Even as a child, Janice only tolerated tradition to a point.  Her doll stage was short lived and obligatory, and she rapidly moved on to non-fiction readers 3 levels above her grade.  Her 5th grade teacher would play a game with her when she finished her homework much earlier than the rest of the class.  Spin the globe, stop it with her finger, then look that country up in the encyclopedia and read about it.  The words she found interesting – the pictures, truly captivating.

After a college career that ended nearly as soon as it had begun, she towed her boyfriend to Southern India for a year. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 1

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On the Horizon: Cyberbullying

Social media is a prevalent part of most young people’s lives. It’s a great way to keep in touch with friends, find out what’s going on with each other, and have a social time online. But a disturbing trend is quickly emerging…. Cyberbullying.

Like school bullying, victims are targeted by one or more people and instead of doing the bullying in person, they are using digital resources to attack their victim. It can range anywhere from name calling to posting pornographic images on their social media sites. It’s not a game and it’s not to be taken lightly. And as we found out in this week’s video blog, it’s not always done by someone’s enemy.
~Alisa Hines

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.