Narratives on Child Abuse and Neglect in Oklahoma

Two years ago, I had the privilege of attending the Interdisciplinary Training Program for Child Abuse and Neglect.  This two-semester program was sponsored and taught by the faculty at the University of Oklahoma Healthy Sciences Center for Child Abuse and Neglect within their Child Study Center.

Every Tuesday night, masters and doctoral students, faculty and community professionals, attorneys, people who had been abused as children, etc. would convene for a three hour class covering some detailed aspect over the topic of Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN).  Some evenings were fairly tough.  We watched videos; the footage had been taken from hidden cameras to catch adults abusing children and sometimes even infants. We listened to doctors as they showed us x-rays of spiral fractures and described why Shaken Baby Syndrome is so lethal.  We traveled to a prison to speak with child abuse offenders, went to children’s therapeutic, residential homes where abused children were going to school until they were returned to their families or aged out of the OKDHS system.  We sat through a Mock Trial for which we had prepared almost a semester, each of us playing our roles as a case to terminate the custodial rights of parents were reviewed by a real judge in a real courtroom.  And, we all completed a project.

My project was to examine Oklahoma’s contemporary narratives on CAN, to see if they have shifted over time, how people learn about CAN, and what it would take in order to continue reducing the rates in Oklahoma.  I traveled to the Ponca Tribe in Ponca City, interviewed a family from the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, a couple in southwest Oklahoma City, an individual in Yukon, a couple in Minco and an individual in northwest Oklahoma City.  The following video is a half-hour documentary, describing in some detail, what Oklahomans are saying about the CAN issue.

I invite you to watch it when you have time.  And, I invite you to share it as well.  It will be posted on our Oklahoma State University College of Human Sciences website this week, and it may run on a few local cable channels.  It is my hope that the data I gathered from this project, and the subsequent video you’ll see, are helpful in educating our public.  Please feel free to contact me through the RDC “Contact” page if you have follow up questions after watching. Final note – this video has content that might be disturbing to some. It is not for all audiences; my guess is that the content is generally a PG rating, with a possible PG-13 topic area in one scene.

Thank you, [kelly]

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The Red Dirt Chronicles: A Year in Review Plus Our Top 25 Most-Read Posts

Photo by pilgriminprogress on Flickr. Click photo for photographer's page.

Dear RDC community and occasional or first-time readers:

Monday, August 1st, will be our official “Red Dirt Chronicles” first birthday.  What began back in May of 2010 as a small individual project, was turned into a group contributor project just twelve months ago.  So much has happened since then; so much writing has taken place, decisions to grow or change the way we do things, and our second website is – at this very moment – getting its third set of upgrades.

A few of those upgrades you’ll notice immediately, but some of them will take a few weeks to work themselves out.  For example, if you read the RDC on your mobile phone, you might have noticed an RDC Mobile version available at our website.  That is…IF you have an iPhone, an Android, or a few other styles.  However, we’re still working on the Blackberry upgrade.  Technical details take patience and much debugging.  I truly appreciate our web developer, Maria Yuliana, for the work she does behind the scenes.

Another special announcement is that last night we surpassed the “100,000 reads” mark.  As editor, I was keeping my fingers crossed to reach that milestone before our first birthday.  And…we did it, with two whole days to spare!

Our contributors and our readers, and the connection and feedback between them is basically all that the RDC comprises.  Therefore, I want to first thank all our contributors who have labored, thought, written and thought some more over this past year.  In fact, Continue reading The Red Dirt Chronicles: A Year in Review Plus Our Top 25 Most-Read Posts

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Barbershop Theology – a lesson from a hot check

Barbershop Theology

I have attended college. I have attended four of them. I learned a lot at college. I have degrees that suggest, “Hey, this guy learned.” But I can never replace the lessons I learned as the shoe-shine boy in my dad’s barbershop.

Hundreds of people came through Caldwell’s Barber Shop over the years.  Between public school and the barber shop I received an education in Apache, Oklahoma. Here’s another story that has helped me understand a little more about the world, myself, and the truth to live by.

Salesmen and “Simpletons”

A unique sub-set of folks that came through Apache viewed us locals as rubes or hayseeds. I was always entertained when some of the locals would oblige the stereotype. They did it purposefully. Most of the people that visited our fair small town were gracious, winsome, and very kind. A few of them were condescending (a few salesmen) they “shore was high themselves.”

As a boy, I was maybe ten or eleven years old, I could be easily impressed by a smooth presentation and a new gizmo with an interesting name. The old timers who loitered in Dad’s barbershop weren’t so easily moved. My job was to observe from the sideline as the pitchman worked the crowd and then watch as one of the locals morphed into Gomer Pyle. Continue reading Barbershop Theology – a lesson from a hot check

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Picturing America Without The NFL Is Terrifying

NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, left, and NFL football Commissioner Roger Goodell announce the end of the NFL lockout (courtesy cbsnews.com, AP Photo by Carolyn Kaster)

by Rob Loeber

Did you hear that?  That was the sound of a nation letting out a collective sigh of relief.

The NFL will have a season, and all is once again right with the universe.  The lockout is officially over and now you can move forward with important decisions like when to schedule your fantasy draft.

I guess I always believed deep down the owners and players would eventually come to some kind of resolution, but I was starting to have more doubts and I actually began to envision a world with no professional football.  It wasn’t a pretty picture.

Sure, you’d still have college football but that would only account for half of a weekend.  It wouldn’t have been enough.  What would you have done with all that free time on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights?  The hours normally reserved for eating wings, drinking beer, and finding that optimal couch position would have been spent shopping with wives and girlfriends, getting yard work done, or finally fixing that leaking faucet.  It would have been a world with empty sports bars, crowded golf courses, and a lot of men walking around Target in a semi-conscious haze mumbling about missing the second half of a game that wouldn’t even exist.

Instead of rushing home from church to put on your team’s jersey, you’d be talked into brunch or a trip to the in-laws for the afternoon. Continue reading Picturing America Without The NFL Is Terrifying

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On the Horizon: Feeding and Inspiring the Hungry

Listening to Dr. Gebisa Ejeta answer my questions was like listening to water slip over smooth rocks. His deep, earnest voice and his true brilliance came out in every answer that he gave. I sat there staring back at him fascinated. I was sitting with a man who had potentially saved millions of people’s lives.

A true humanitarian, Gebisa Ejeta was recognized as the 2009 World Food Prize Laureate for his development of Sorghum hybrids that are resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed. His developments have increased production and availability of Sorghum and enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in Africa.

Growing up in a one-room thatched hut in Ethiopia, Ejeta knew how it felt to go hungry. Thanks to his mother, Ejeta pursued an education that would eventually land him at Alemaya College established by Oklahoma State University in eastern Ethiopia. From there he would then go on to attend Purdue University where his research would culminate into a crop that would prove to be life changing for many Africans.

Not only was he a hero in agriculture, he was a national hero on the hardwood. Wearing jerseys from Oklahoma A&M University, Ejeta played on the Ethiopian National Team.

Ejeta has personally trained and inspired a new generation of African farmers and scientists that are continuing to carry on his work. After just a few short minutes with him I know his efforts will affect the people he has helped for centuries to come. (NOTE – there is a long pause at the beginning of this video, then a gap around the 7 minute mark for 30-45 seconds. You may Hold your mouse down and pull the ticker forward to skip the black space. Thanks.)
~ Courtenay Dehoff

 

On the Horizon: Feeding and Inspiring the Hungry from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

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