Chris Polansky / KWGS News
Gov. Kevin Stitt said Friday that despite climbing COVID-19 numbers in Oklahoma amid spread of the more-transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus, he has no plans to declare a public health emergency, one of the necessary steps under a new state law that would allow schools to require students wear masks upon their return to the classroom next month. This is about personal responsibility, this is about freedoms, Stitt said, echoing the messaging he has leaned on throughout the pandemic. Nothing in the legislation last year prevents a parent from sending their child to school with a mask on, or prevents anyone from having their child under 12 get vaccinated. The difference is we re not going to mandate that somebody else has to send their 4-year-old to school with a mask, Stitt said.
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Color of Change
Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have introduced a resolution in each chamber that would recognize the 100-year anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and condemn historic and ongoing systemic racism.
The resolution, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) in their respective chambers, would recognize the commitment of Congress to acknowledge and learn from the history of racism and racial violence in the United States, including the Tulsa Race Massacre, to reverse the legacy of white supremacy and fight for racial justice.
On a Tuesday Facebook Live event hosted by the advocacy group Color of Change, Jackson Lee and Warren discussed what prompted them to draft the resolution.