Aftermath of Nex Benedict's death tells us all we need to know about Ryan Walters and what must be done about him, too
The pronouns are a struggle.
I trip over “they” as a singular.
It doesn’t make sense to me.
My greatest sportswriting peeve occurs when a word like “Oklahoma,” used to describe a team, is ascribed the pronoun “they” rather than “it,” because “Oklahoma” is singular.
If the “Sooners” won, “they” won.
But if “OU” wins, “it” won.
See?
It’s a thing.
It shouldn’t matter.
But I struggle with it.
My heart’s in the right place, but my syntax has struggled to keep up.
Now, I’m over it.
Just to piss off Ryan Walters and anybody under the impression he’s not among our state’s most despicable people, I’m over it.
Walters, our state’s elected superintendent of public instruction, is the worst kind of politician, entirely about his own profile, his own power, working hard only to marginalize any individual or group that might be in the way of his profile or power. Nor can he run anything well or not crookedly.
Yet again, attorney general Gentner Drummond has had to dismiss a lawsuit against ClassWallet, the scandal put in motion by Walters even before he became a state employee.
Only last week it became clear Ryan Pieper, the education department’s executive director of accreditation, as well as Bryan Cleveland, the department’s general counsel, had joined the neverending exodus from the agency.
Walters thinks, too, you can teach the history of race relations in Oklahoma without mentioning race, like the Tulsa Race Massacre was a garden variety economic disagreement or something.
Then, Wednesday, he said this in the aftermath of the state medical examiner ruling Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student who attended Owasso High School, died Feb. 8 by suicide:
“The loss of our student in Owasso is tragic for the family, the community, and our state,” Walters said, via statement. “The LGBTQ groups pushing a false narrative are one of the biggest threats to our democracy and I remain, more than ever, committed to never backing down from a woke mob.”
What a piece of … well, you know.
I’ve been writing more about sports and less about politics and government lately, because actors like Walters and governor Kevin Stitt are so impossibly exhausting.
You really do become desensitized.
Stitt has no respect for the tribes, the attorney general, nor anything or anybody that gets in the way of any little thing he wants.
He’s like the worst kind of boss. You might think he’s engaging with you but all he really wants is whatever he wants when he wants it and what he really wants when he wants those things are no headaches.
No inconvenience from the other party, nor members of his own party who sometimes think he’s full of it, nor other branches of government despite their constitutional powers.
Walters is under the impression he can bulldoze anything into being or lack of being. If it can be construed as having even a tangential connection to education, or flying to New York to embarrass his state on national television, he believes he has free reign.
Emphasis on “free.”
He’s happy to horrendously misinterpret the Constitution, then attack anybody who really knows it when they disagree.
The headlines come and go and it’s just … whatever.
Because every right-thinking person knows they’re the most insufferable statewide office holders we’ve ever seen, do we really need to point it out again today when every day is today?
On this today, we do.
Walters is a small, ugly person.
Sure, he’s a dangerous right-wing blowhard, who’s happy to marginalize the LGBTQ+ communities for his own political gain, everybody understands that, yet here was a chance to read the room, the state and pretend every young person’s life matters.
To leave the bigotry at home for one day and go through even the motions of statesmanship. To say we’re all God’s children, or some, from him, insincere pablum like that. Just play along for the momentary comfort of the hurting and aggrieved.
Or be a dick.
It’s a tragedy, yes.
Walters could have stopped there.
Instead, he had to take his shot at those who would have you remember Benedict suffered physical bullying, bad enough to seek health care a day before their death, who do not want their death swept under some rug, who want us to know Benedict existed and mattered and if it’s true, they took their own life, they didn’t get to that moment all by themself. He had to tell you those who would keep their memory alive are “one of the biggest threats to our democracy.”
How impossibly rich because democracy’s the only way out of such bigotry.
It’s gross.
It’s mean.
It is, itself, bullying.
It gets us to our point.
Walters doesn’t only deserve our disagreement; our calling him out; our vote for his opponent, when and whoever that may be; our offense and consternation and figurative pulling out of hair.
He deserves embarrassment.
He deserves the real fear of what might be coming down from the attorney general’s office. He deserves to be derided, made a laughingstock, have every embarrassingly hypocritical action he’s made or words he’s spoken or written come to life for all to know and see.
He deserves to be made uncomfortable.
Such efforts require no lies, no making up of false facts, nor intimidation, nor any type of harm, only the real scrutiny he’s earned and the lack of silence from those in position to administer it.
Walters has taken the death of a young person who people loved, on whose behalf people are heartbroken, who was every bit as Oklahoman as all of us are Oklahoman, who suffered before their death from the vitriol spewed by forces he champions, from the same vitriol he unleashed yet again exactly one sentence after disingenuously acknowledging Benedict’s death.
For all of our state’s faults, Oklahoma’s still far too good for him.
It’s time for all of us to let him go.
Since ‘06 this state has been “run” by the GOP. Each year this state has suffered under incompetence and Christian nationalism from Little Dixie. Look at the “bills” these Republican fools are writing…none address real problems in this state. Then add to this inability to govern Stitt and Walters. Dishonest, malignant narcissists intent on gaining the power they lust for. Greg Treat’s gang think they are untouchable because the Republican voters in this state are equally incompetent. My only question is this: where the hell is the Democratic party’s leadership? Where is the message? Releasing “statements” by some Dems is like spitting in the wind…useless. It’s all so very upsetting and maddening.
Or be a dick…you’re spot on as usual Clay. I don’t think anyone in the legislature has the “stones” to take him on. It’s a shame we’ve elected a bunch of cowards. We deserve better.