Can We Please Not Build Some Stupid Arch?

Look, I understand that Oklahoma is rapidly becoming the Saudi Arabia of the West: we're an oil-dependent, rabidly conservative, fanatically religious, rural state with two major cities and a holy site in our southwestern corner. We enjoy our megaprojects, and we have an awkward relationship with our minorities in the east. Look, if that's what our state is becoming, I guess I'm physically here for it, but good god: do we really need a 4.3 million dollar arch in commemoration of our National Guard?

According to the language of House Bill 4012, proposed by Representative Mark McBride (R-Moore), that is precisely what our taxpayer dollars might be going towards in FY2025; and this isn't just another weird anti-furry longshot. This bill has already passed through one subcommittee without a hitch. Just one lonely politician, Representative Tom Gann (R-Inola), questioned the bill. He noted that 4.3 million dollars is an impressive price tag for such a niche project, and he asked if Representative McBride was planning on seeking any private funding. Representative McBride retorted with a single "no", and the chairman promptly brought the bill to a vote: six yeas, one nay. 

I am interning at the State Capitol this semester. I watched the whole thing. It was just as painful as it sounds. In a room of seven politicians, just one thought that maybe we shouldn't spend more than we spend a year funding the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on a stupid, self-aggrandizing arch for an organization whose top recommended Google Search question is asking what they even do. What's the point of government if these are the sorts of ideas that get passed through the legislative intestines with a laxative?

However, perhaps, I'm being a touch unfair to the Arch. 4.3 million dollars, as eye-watering as it is, isn't a massive amount of money in the big picture, and it's not like an arch should be too wildly expensive to maintain. Nonetheless, I think that there should at least be some debate on it, someone like Representative Gann to at least question what our tax dollars are really doing here. If you want to send an email to your State Representative imploring them to think about what they're doing in government this session, I would implore the reader to contact their state representative at the embedded link. They usually like to receive well-meaning constituent feedback, and their assistants have almost certainly dealt with worse grammar than yours. If all that comes out of this article is any amount of real civic engagement, I will be a happy man.