The Americans at the table, negotiating a business deal, ask one
of their number, “You can speak Dutch?” He replies, “I’m OK.” With his fellow
Americans looking doubtful, he proceeds to mistranslate what they want him to
say to their Dutch counterparts. The “OK” translator tells the Dutch that the
Americans really need a hug, when he was supposed to tell them they really need
the deal. With that, the AT&T commercial ends as one of the Dutch
negotiators gives an American a hug with the announcer saying, “When just OK is
not OK.”
There are several of these commercials, each with a different
scenario, in which, indeed, just OK is not OK. And every time I see one of
these commercials I think of the license plates that were once so common – “Oklahoma is OK.”
As someone who works to develop policy suggestions intended to
make Oklahoma better, and hopefully, the best that Oklahoma can be, it often
seems that slogan – Oklahoma is OK –
gets in the way.
The fact is, in most respects Oklahoma IS OK. We don’t have the
best tax system in the land, but it’s
not the worst, either. We don’t have the lowest
taxes, but they’re not nearly the highest. Our roads seem pretty
terrible compared to Texas, but eight states have worse ones. Eleven states
are worse than Oklahoma when it comes to education
systems, by one ranking. Sure, it was only recently that Oklahoma was
included in a list of “judicial
hell holes,” but we have a lower unemployment rate than 25
other states. It can’t be all that bad, right?
But do Oklahomans tolerate being “OK” from their sports teams?
Would slogans like “OU football is OK,” “OSU football is OK,” and “Thunder
basketball is OK” be stated with pride?
Suppose the coaches at OU and OSU were the best-paid in the
country, and the Thunder’s payroll was above the luxury tax. If all these teams
had mediocre winning records, would anybody brag that Oklahoma’s teams had the
highest paid coaches and players in the land? No. Rather, it would be a mark of
shame.
Yet, many of Oklahoma’s legislative leaders have made it a goal
to raise average teacher pay to the highest in the region. How well our
students perform in demonstrating how much they know doesn’t seem to matter.
Oklahoma isn’t at the bottom in education, it seems, so hey, it’s
OK. We’re fixing bridges, so hey, the highways are OK. New companies set up
shop in Oklahoma now and then, and movies get made here occasionally, so hey, economic incentives (bribes) are OK. Oklahoma City spends money on an artificial
canal, artificial rapids, and a trolley to nowhere, and hey, it’s OK because
maybe we’ll get our share of millennials.
But is just OK really OK? Do we really know what we ought to be OK about? Shouldn’t our leaders strive for being the best?
Would “top 10” ever be good
enough for OU football? Why shouldn’t it be that way for Oklahoma government,
in ways that matter, which is not just how much money we spend?
Don’t get me
wrong. I live here. I’m glad Oklahoma is OK. I just want it to be so much
better.
Byron Schlomach is Director of the 1889 Institute and can be reached at bschlomach@1889institute.org.
The
opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, and do not necessarily
reflect the official position of 1889 Institute.