Sheila Dills – the Majority Caucus Chair for the Oklahoma House of Representatives – showed the world that she doesn't love or respect America, its veterans, and fallen soldiers, by not focusing 100% of her attention on the Pledge of Allegiance this past Tuesday on the House floor.
Well, at least that's what happened according to her own logic.
While the rest of the State House indivisibly stood and pledged allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands, she creepily snapped and shared photos of freshman State Rep. Mauree Turner – our state and country's first non-binary Muslim state representative – and then shared them on the following now-deleted Facebook post:
Wow. Talk about a double whammy! Not only did Sheila shit in the front yard of our country by fiddling around on her phone while she should have been standing at full-attention, hand over heart, pledging allegiance and fealty to our country, but she did it in while standing next to a veteran! That's almost as disrespectful and appalling as the general hypocrisy and implied bigotry of her Facebook post!
Seriously, do you think Karen... errr.... Sheila would have snapped photos and complained if, say, the guy Mauree replaced – turncoat Jason Dunnington – was doing the same thing? I highly doubt it. She probably wouldn't have even noticed because she wouldn't have been looking at him. But since the person at the desk was a liberal person of color from the LGBTQ+ community who doesn't practice Oklahoma's state religion, well, she just couldn't help from sneering.
Representative Mauree Turner – being the class act that she is – took Dills' attack in stride and went out of their way to meet with the hypocrite.
FWIW, I subscribe to the philosophy of George Carlin in that symbols are for the symbol minded. I'm patriotic in that I root for the US in the Olympics, Ryder Cup and justifiable wars, but think the whole process of pledging allegiance to a piece of fabric is a bit silly, and simply teaches people to conform to the machine above all else. I don't care if you stand with or without your hand over your heart, take a knee, or creepily take photos of other people for allegedly not paying respect to the flag while you're not paying respect to the flag. Just don't accuse other people of being exactly what you are.
Anyway, I guess that just about covers this little controversy. If you have some time to kill, you should check out our Lost Ogle Show episode with Mauree Turner that she recorded after upsetting Jason Dunnington in the summer's primary. She's an awesome person and we wish them the best of luck serving our state, and dealing with the unfair judgments and criticisms from their conservative colleagues on the house floor.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
