February Column Winner

Enid, are you paying attention?

By Cindy Allen, Enid News & Eagle

I read a national article recently about a county government in Ottawa County, Michigan. During the course of a recent regular meeting, the county government did what county governments do — talked about roof repairs and resurfacing contracts, among other mundane business matters.

By all accounts, the meeting to take care of regular county business should have lasted about 45 minutes. But, it didn’t. They spent four hours of the meeting listening to public speaker after speaker in three-minute increments debating something else — to what extent their government should, or should not, pursue Judeo-Christian values.

According to the article, many spoke in favor. They warned of the “tyranny” of mask mandates, the “sexualization of our children” and the “unhinged caterwauling fascists” of the left. One woman thanked the commissioners “for trying to bring our freedom back,” while a man read to them from Isaiah: “Be not dismayed, for I am your God … I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Does any of this sound a little familiar? Enid, are you paying attention?

Apparently in Ottawa County, recent elections brought in a swath of farright majority commissioners. Moderate Republicans, of which there were several on the commission, were pushed out. In their first meeting, the new board members adopted a series of measures that changed things in Ottawa County. They fired the county administrator. They ran out their corporate counsel. They even rewrote the county motto, which was “Where You Belong,” to “Where Freedom Rings.”

Enid, are you paying attention?

For the last two years, a similar — but not quite yet as radical — movement has been taking place in Enid. The pandemic and its uncertainties, as well as efforts to try to contain the pandemic with masking mandates, brought out an organized, vocal and active group of residents opposed to such measures. So far, they’ve managed to help elect several city commissioners and they’ve gotten several like-minded individuals appointed to city advisory boards.

That organization, formerly known as the Enid Freedom Fighters, turned into a group that actively promotes and campaigns for conservative values and propping up candidates who adhere to those views. In this last city election — which still has one runoff to go — we have heard a lot of familiar terms to this movement. Freedom. Rights. Constitutional liberty.

Three of the recent commission and mayoral candidates were supported and promoted by this group. They all prominently ran as Republicans, something that hasn’t happened in our city races, which are non-partisan.

Our city meetings continue to publicly discuss the alleged exploitation and sexualization of children through books available at the public library. This group went from wearing red shirts in opposition to mask mandates to wearing blue shirts in support of clamping down on library policies they perceive as promoting sexuality issues.

Library advisory board meetings and city commission meetings have turned into hours and hours of debate on book policies and restrictions.

Now, Enid’s Ward 1 just recently elected as commissioner a young Enid native who has had documented ties to a white nationalist organization whose goal is to promote white identity and the identity of European roots in the United States. He continues to dodge specific questions about his activities, including participation in the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally.

There’s no doubt that Enid and Garfield County are by far more conservative minded than liberal minded. There’s no doubt Christian values play a large role in our community. However, something feels very off-balance about what is taking place in our community.

Until recently, our community has been well-served by leaders from both political parties and diverse ideologies who have been able to come together with reason and common-sense to formulate responsible policies for our city. For the most part, our community has been able to enjoy non-partisan city elections that focus on the business matters of our community — not national politics or ideological agendas.

However, as the Ottawa County situation points out, that delicate balance could change dramatically to a course that is chaotic and divisive to the overall betterment of our community.

Enid, are you paying attention?