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OKLAHOMA CITY

On Saturday, August 14th, 2021, the Oklahoma State Capitol building halls flooded with thousands of Oklahomans attending a Freedom Rally for healthcare workers’ rights. Oklahomans, however, did not stop there; the line to get inside the 2nd-floor rotunda wrapped around the Capitol. Despite reports from various media outlets around the state and country, the State Capitol was not “broken into”. The capitol doors were open, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was on sight performing security.

The rally was co-hosted by the Ekklesia Oklahoma and Senator Warren Hamilton. The event featured a veritable who’s who of Oklahoma conservative grassroots, including US Senate Candidate Jackson Lahmeyer, Oklahoma State Senator Warren Hamilton (R-Haskell), Sen. Jake Merrick (R-Canadian), and Oklahoma GOP Chairman John Bennett among others.

The rally’s first speaker, Jackson Lahmeyer, stepped up on the third-floor platform looking down into the sea of Oklahomans that showed up demanding freedom. One of Lahmeyer’s first words was USA, which prompted the thunderous response and chants of those in attendance, “USA! USA! USA!”. The feeling inside was almost as if the foundations of Oklahoma politics shook in awe of the demands. Lahmeyer ended by saying, “Our state is in trouble, our nation is trouble, but it is not without hope.”. Then employing people to “pick up that phone, you make phone calls, you send emails, they represent you guys!”

Following Lahmeyer, Senator Hamilton took to the platform where he laid out the reasons for his support of the healthcare workers and Oklahomans that choose not to take the COVID-19 vaccination. Hamilton spoke of the letter that he sent Governor Stitt in July and how “2,000 people” have signed onto that letter, demanding the governor’s action. Stating “what is the purpose of government” “to protect the rights of people.” Hamilton asked the crowd, “are we trying to stop anyone else from having it?” which elicited a loud “NO” from the patriots in the rotunda. Hamilton continued by stating, “there you have it; big boy rules apply!”.

The thousands of people waiting in line could hear the thunderous applause coming from inside the Capitol as the Highway Patrol worked tirelessly to get them inside. However, those waiting outside did not have to wait long because after Hamilton finished his address inside the rotunda, he and Senator Jake Merrick made their way outside near the line where they addressed those on the lawn as well.

During the address, Merrick emphasized the importance of choice in the administration of the vaccine. Merrick also stressed the importance and power of “the people”, encouraging those in the audience to get involved and run for public office, saying, “You don’t have to know everything to do what is right.”

A Rising Star Is Introduced

Following his speech, Merrick took the time to introduce a rising star in the Oklahoma Republican Party and a member of Oklahoma’s 2000 National Championship Team, Chris Toney. Toney will be running for the new State House District 66 located in eastern Oklahoma County that was created as a result of redistricting.  He joined Merrick, where he echoed the calls of those who spoke before him on the importance of choice and rights protection, stating that, “[we] can no longer be the silent majority.”

Ignite Liberty had the opportunity to speak with Toney following his address at the Capitol. He said he is running for office because he sees the “acceleration of ideas in the opposite direction of freedom and liberties which undermine this nation.” When asked what Toney thought that the rally stood for and what it represents, he stated that:

“The importance of the rally was it represents a unified front to figure out this [mandatory vaccination] issue as it applies to Oklahomans,” and that the rally represents the, “freedom, liberty and the right to choose what people put in their bodies.”

Ignite Liberty also caught up with Senator Hamilton after his address outside, where he clarified who the aggressors are in this situation.”It’s not us; it’s the other side who’s trying to use force to make us or coerce us to get the vaccine that we don’t want to take.” He said what needs to be stressed is the importance of understanding that it all comes down to force. A state that prides itself on being the bastion of freedom and liberty in this country cannot take to forcing law-abiding citizens to wear masks or take vaccines against their will.

The rally seemed to have been formed at the perfect time in response to the encroachment on individual liberty that the metro area has seen in the last several week, with multiple healthcare systems in the Oklahoma City area announcing that they will be introducing mandatory vaccination policies while simultaneously denying multiple exemption requests.

This week the situation reached a boiling point with the superintendents of both the Santa Fe South School District and the Oklahoma Public Schools announced that they would be instituting mask mandates in defiance of SB658, which took effect on July 1st of this year.

Both situations have intensified the call for a special session, as Ignite Liberty reported in our last article. We will continue to monitor this rapidly-changing situation and report on any breaking developments as the happen.

– Jonathan Hewitt

Oklahoma City

One of the biggest hot-button issues during this entire legislative session has been banning mask mandates and vaccine passports. Early in the legislative term, Senator Nathan Dahm (R-Broken Arrow) authored several bills aimed at banning municipalities from implementing mask mandates and vaccine passports. However, none of those bills ever made it out of committee.

When the area mask-mandates ceased. the issue took on an even more heated tone as parents across the metro area began begging the area school boards to drop the mask mandates for the schools as well. That’s where Senator Rob Standridge (R-Norman) took up the gauntlet to push for legislation to prohibit the schools from forcing students, against the wishes of the parents, to wear masks or get the COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of enrollment or attendance.

In doing so, he authored SB 658, a bill designed to ban vaccine passports and give parents much more power to challenge a school district’s mask mandate. The bill has had a bit of an arduous journey through the legislature, having passed the Senate and House, only to be rejected by the Senate once the House version was sent back for consideration. Now, after having gone through two different committee hearings, the bill has finally returned to the Senate for final passage.

The bill “prohibits any school district, institution of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, or the State Board of Career and Technology Education from requiring a vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of admittance to or attendance of the school or institution.” Additionally, the measure prohibits those entities, “from requiring a vaccine passport as a condition of admittance or implementing a mask mandate for students that are not vaccinated against COVID-19.”

While the measure stops short of an outright ban on mask mandates, it does put mush more restrictions on the entities prior to issuing the mandates, and more importantly it gives the parents the ability to challenge those mandates. In specific, the school districts may only, “implement a mask mandate after consultation with the local county health department or city-county health department within the jurisdiction of where the board is located.”

What’s more, any such mandate must, “list the purposes for the mandate as well as the specific masks or medical devices that would meet the requirements of the mandate.” Additionally, the measure requires the school board to reconsider mask mandates at every regularly scheduled meeting.

The most powerful part of the measure allows citizens, not just parents, of that school district the right to, “challenge the mandate at a school district meeting by citing 3 or more relevant studies that show possible significant adverse effects as a result of wearing a mask or medical device that would be required under the mandate or by citing 3 or more studies showing the mandate will not be effective.”

In addition, it states that, “Citizens may also challenge the mandate by providing documentation showing that any mask or medical device that would satisfy the mandate is shown by one or more relevant studies to pose a risk of substantial harm if used in a manner cited in the mandate.”

The significance of this section cannot be stressed enough. It hands the parents exactly what they’ve been looking for: a way to force the school districts to listen to actual science, as opposed to CDC-fed propaganda. To coin the phrase, this bill will truly give the power back to the people…something local parents have long since been deprived of when it comes to the school boards.

Due to the emergency attached to the measure, the bill would become effective immediately upon it’s passage and signature by the Governor.

Ignite Liberty reached out to the Senator Standridge Friday afternoon to ask what the citizens could do to help the bills passage. He noted that Senate Leadership has been very helpful in getting this measure to this point, and urged citizens to call their senator and encourage them to support this critical measure.