While many lame duck politicians are happy to let the senioritis bite them hard and deep as they coast out the rest of their tour of duty, it seems as though Governor Mary Fallin is determined to not get her deposit on the Mansion back. This past weekend, she fired off both barrels at the Native American community and the impoverished who rely on Medicaid. And while this is nothing new for those of us who’ve lived under her Botoxed wraith lo these many years, these recent rulings seem to have a little bit more spite on them than usual.
Payback, apparently, is a bitch and Fallin is gonna make sure that the Indigenous peoples of Oklahoma will have to keep wishing and hoping and praying for a little more respect when it comes to our cultural identity and un-whitewashed history by refusing to make Columbus Day—you know, the rapist who didn’t even discover America—the far more history-friendly Oklahoma Native American Day.
Fallin's veto of House Bill 2661 prevents moving Oklahoma Native American Day from the third Monday in November to the second Monday in October, the same day as Columbus Day. From her own statement:
"I believe combining a new Native American Day designation with the current Columbus Day holiday could be viewed as an intentional attempt to diminish the long-standing support of November being proclaimed annually as Native American Heritage Month…"