It's another fine day to be an Oklahoman!
Fresh off the heels of The New York Times' flattering front page coverage of our state's syphilis outbreak, and this US News and World Report story about how our state's largest industry has failed our kids, The Guardian swooped in this morning with a brutally honest piece that documents Oklahoma's status as a broken, failing, dystopian hell hole.
Check it out:
Oklahoma isn't working. Can anyone fix this failing American state?
A teacher panhandles on a roadside to buy supplies for her third-grade classroom. Entire school districts resort to four-day school weeks. Nearly one in four children struggle with hunger.
A city overpass crumbles and swarms of earthquakes shake the region – the underground disposal of oil and gas industry wastes have caused the tremors. Wildfires burn out of control: cuts to state forestry services mean that out-of-state firefighting crews must be called in.
A paralyzed and mentally ill veteran is left on the floor of a county jail. Guards watch for days until the prisoner dies. A death row inmate violently convulses on the gurney as prison officials experiment with an untested cocktail for execution.
Do these snapshots of Oklahoma show a failing state?
I'll answer that for Chris. Yes, these snapshots do show a failing state. Unfortunately, they're just snapshots. There's a whole photo album of other problems that make us look even worse. Naturally, The Guardian makes sure to bring most of them up: