On March 2, the Oklahoma Senate passed a resolution naming "Do You Realize?" as the state's official rock song. The resolution passed by a vote of 58 -0, and ended with the Flaming Lips receiving a standing ovation from the Senate. After the celebration, the Lips took the time to pose for some photos with various senators, interns, and a few hypocritical state reps. Pictures of these state reps are located below.
Unless the voting information available at okhouse.gov is wrong, David Derby, Marian Cooksey and Lee Denney all voted against the "Do You Realize?" resolution when it came up for a House vote last week. And if you ask me, they did it for one of the following two reasons:
Reason 1: They are amazing hypocrites. The consensus excuse amongst Republicans who voted against the song is that Michael Ivins wore an old Soviet Union hammer and sickle t-shirt to the Senate vote. If you're going to freak out about something that meaningless, all power to you. But if you do, should you really pose for a picture with the band and the guy wearing that shirt??? Probably not. That would be like posing nude in Playboy as a representative of your father's employer's biggest rival...or something like that.
or...
Reason 2: They are spineless lemmings. When you look at the resolution voting, you'll notice that all 39 of the "nay" votes came from Republicans. Are these three Republicans so weak that they can't cross party lines to vote in favor of a simple symbolic gesture that they probably supported ? Take Lee Denney for example. She seems pretty excited to be hugging Wayne Coyne. Plus, she is or was a member of the House Sub-Committee on Arts and Culture. How can you be on an Oklahoma Arts and Culture committee and not be supportive of the Flaming Lips? The answer is simple: be a spineless lemming.
Fortunately, though, why these people did what they did doesn't really matter. Tomorrow, our sane and logical Governor will sign an executive order proclaiming "Do You Realize?" to be the state's official Rock n' Roll Song. Here are the details. Maybe we'll see you there.
2 p.m.
Tuesday, April 28
Oklahoma History Center
2401 N. Laird Avenue, Oklahoma City
