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Oklahoma state employees learned that their retirement plans will take a $9.7 million hit due to a state law passed last year banning the state from investing in companies perceived to be adversarial to the fossil fuel industry.

The federal government put a hold on a $4.5 million family planning grant to the state because Oklahoma laws may not allow women to know all their reproductive options, including that Kansas is the nearest state for abortion services.

Dr. Chris McNeil joins the podcast this week to explain that, in his opinion, because of a poor medical recruiting system, we are losing lives, talent and time. McNeil is the only Black male resident emergency physician in Tulsa, and starting July 1, he'll be the only one in the state. He has ideas on how and why that needs to change.

A lawsuit is coming against the Oklahoma Virtual Charter School Board, which willingly ignored the Oklahoma Constitution, the state charter school law and the nations laws by approving a Catholic Church request to pay for its new religious school. One new board member who cast a vote may not have been eligible to do so.

State Attorney General Gentner Drummond advised against approval, saying the fallout will be costly for Oklahoma.

The approval is meant to provide a test case, meaning Oklahoma gets to be someone elses guinea pig in a lawsuit.

Last summer, a development officer with the Tulsa Regional Chamber told Tulsa city councilors that the states anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion laws and rhetoric are making it harder to recruit businesses to the state.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters accused public schools of distributing pornography and indoctrinating children, called teachers unions terrorists and released a propaganda-laced video using racist tropes, all of which contribute to the states already severe educator shortage. His firing of workers for sharing memos, which are open records, has drawn lawsuits.

The state needs at least 4,100 more certified teachers. Feeling respected by the states top education official and other state leaders would help in recruitment.

Oklahomas new culture wars are just starting, and theyre going to get expensive.

Frustratingly, these divisive public policies arent originating from Oklahomans but rather are imported from national ideologues who are hellbent on creating their version of a utopia in their likeness.

The culture wars dont reflect actual challenges facing Oklahomans. They dont embrace the states diversity. They dont improve anything.

Culture wars have been around for decades. Nothing is new in the age-old struggle for dominance over ideas. But recent years have seen it ramped it up and brought it into public governance.

Floridas Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, became a presidential hopeful after his masterful use of a complacent supermajority Legislature to push his political dogma, creating a model for right-wing conservatives. He picked on Disney for supporting LGBTQ+ people, feuded with the College Board over the content of its AP African American studies course, restricted discussion of race, gender or sexuality in schools, and popularized the overuse of the word woke.

As of December, his moral crusades have cost Florida taxpayers at least $17 million in attorney and legal costs, according to a Miami Herald investigation. That number is rising.

Texas instituted laws on Sept. 1, 2021, forbidding municipalities from contracting with banks that restrict funding of firearms companies or the oil and gas industry through ESG environmental, social and governance policies. In the first eight months, Texans paid between $300 million and $500 million more in interest on government bonds.

In January, a study published by the nonprofit Sunrise Project found that such anti-ESG laws in the the 18 states, including Oklahoma, that have enacted them could cost taxpayers more than $708 million. Oklahomas share of that is estimated to be at least $49 million.

Typically, boycotts launched by activists played out as individuals or organizations tried to change a system or business. The most famous was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.-led Birmingham bus boycott, which successfully challenged racial segregation.

Now more elected leaders and people in power are turning boycotts into public policies.

Lawmakers enjoying supermajorities are using their power over taxes and laws to codify their political leanings and in some cases their financial interests. Its a hammer the majority uses to beat down those with different ideas, opinions and ways of life.

The only people benefiting are attorneys, who happily prosper in a litigation-based society.

Oklahoma cannot afford to go down this road. The states population and gross domestic product ($191 billion) are significantly less than other red states that are taking a chance with these cultural battles. The state has three Fortune 500 companies, compared to 17 in Florida and 55 in Texas.

A bigger population provides a broader well of resources to push wedge issues. Oklahoma topped 4 million residents last year, but thats small compared to Floridas 22 million or the 30 million in Texas.

When Texas ($1.9 trillion GPD) or Florida ($1 trillion GDP) loses out on recruiting a major company or adds millions to its bond or investment costs, it can survive. For Oklahoma, that can be a major setback.

Oklahoma operates on a slimmer margin, and missteps have bigger consequences.

Thats just the financial bill; there is also a human toll.

Recently, Oklahoma parents of transgender children have been on social media usually only within their close network raising money and making plans to get health care out of state. If a bill had passed that would have prosecuted parents for obtaining such care, that would have forced them to move away from Oklahoma.

Those who dont care for these families and want them gone are cruel and dangerous. Our laws shouldnt harm people.

Yet some wedge issues are costing lives.

Gun safety has only worsened as the number of firearms grows. Guns are the No. 1 killer of U.S. children, and the regularity of mass shootings is a national and international embarrassment. Nothing changes.

Consensus shows Americans want and need more access to mental health care. But extremists have taken aim at social-emotional learning, which gets at the heart of healthy mental health development. People in mental health distress still get their hands on firearms.

Abortion positions, for and against, are a political litmus test. But some anti-abortion laws may be putting pregnant women and rape victims into deadly situations.

Even vaccines are politicized, not just those for COVID-19 but of generations-old inoculations that have all but eradicated diseases such as polio, measles, rubella and whooping cough. Lawmakers are making it easier to ignore immunizations.

A states actions budget priorities, laws, policies reflect upon its residents. Those who do not live here will make judgments based on words our leaders say and the decisions they make.

As a lifelong Oklahoman with five generations of roots here, I know this state has unique selling points. Tulsa and Oklahoma City have transformed themselves into dynamic cities with distinctive personalities. Rural areas have vast natural resources and playgrounds.

All of that can quickly be undermined by battles waged by ideologues who are more interested in a national profile than local progress. Oklahoma cannot afford a culture war.

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Ginnie Graham: Cost of the culture war too high and unnecessary for ... - Tulsa World