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Quotes of the Day
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Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. #goodtrouble
-U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. The legendary civil rights leader and longtime Congressman passed away Friday night. [U.S. Rep. John Lewis / @repjohnlewis / Twitter]
“People need to know that this (virus) is real. It is not a hoax. As I do my commute back and forth to work I’m seeing people with gatherings at their homes and it just makes my heart sick. I just am fearful that people are not really understanding how quickly it can spread through a group of people at a social gathering.”
-Elain Richardson, chief nursing officer for SSM Health, St. Anthony Hospital [The Oklahoman]
“We respect people’s rights … to not wear a mask.”
-Gov. Kevin Stitt, commenting during a virtual news conference where he announced tested positive for COVID-19 [AP News]
“Now I’ve called them at least 200 times and got hung up on probably 150 times, been on hold for at least two hours every time… I have five teenagers, and I’m the sole provider for my family. I have all this money on this card that is unusable. We’ve already got our car repo’ed; we’re getting ready to be evicted. I mean, this is serious.”
-Michelle Boyce of Berryhill , who arrived at Tulsa’s River Spirit Expo at 4 a.m. Wednesday to get a ticket for an appointment with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. She was No. 135 out of the 400 that were given out for today’s event. She said she received a debit card from the state’s third-party vendor, but it wouldn’t work. [Tulsa World]
“At the end of the day, we don’t believe we’re out of this. (The CARES Act funding) just gives us a little bit more time as we move through the process.”
-Ponca City City Manager Craig Stephenson speaking about federal coronavirus relief funding noting that lost tax revenues and COVID expenses may not begin to be fully felt until later this year. [Journal Record]
Approximate percentage of Americans who say they are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that some corporations (62%) and wealthy people (62%) do not pay their fair share in taxes.
[Source: Pew Research Center]
“Finding shared values is ultimately what you’re looking for. We have a society that keeps thinking if we elect certain people or take down certain things that things are going to change. I believe in Oklahoma we can change our culture from a grassroots level.”
-The Rev. Clarence Hill, pastor of Antioch Community Church in Norman [The Oklahoman]
“The past two days we’ve had almost 500 cases, and we knew we had several large events a little over two weeks ago — which is about right. So I guess you can connect the dots.”
-Bruce Dart, executive director of the Tulsa Health Department, when asked whether contact tracers were seeing virus cases tied back to Trump’s rally. [Tulsa World]
“But what we do now is what’s important, and it’s never too late to do the right thing.”
-Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief David Hill speaking about Union Public School’s announcement that it would reevaluate its mascot. [Tulsa World]
“For two years now, we’ve had a proposal for how you fund Medicaid expansion that did not include tax increases, did not include cuts to education, all of those things that we are now being told will have to happen. So I’m still very hopeful that we can go back to the funding plan that we’ve had all along, and that could be the cornerstone to how we do this without damaging the rest of the state’s budget or increasing taxes.”
-Sen. Greg McCortney, R-Ada [The Oklahoman]
