Author Archives: The Senator's Wife

About The Senator's Wife

I started this blog on a whim thinking it would be fun to write about politics while my husband served in the OK State Senate. The jury's still out on that, but having a front row seat on the sideline of Oklahoma politics has been one big adventure.

Just give me a home, where the buffalo roam…

A few weekends ago, the Senator and I woke up at dark thirty and headed North to the Tallgrass Prairie in Osage County for a little adventure. About this time each year, the Nature Conservancy rounds up the “Bison” who live on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to get an accurate head count, provide them with vaccinations and tag any newborns who were born during the year. In order to keep the numbers manageable for the land, some are then sold at auction (think bison burgers) and others donated to Native American tribes up North who also herd these animals on their land. The fate of each individual bison is based on their sex and age when they are rounded up annually and their tag is scanned as they go through the chute.

It was a very high tech operation, but it’s not a very pleasant process to watch. And, they give you that disclaimer right up front! The first bison I watched come through the chute had lost his horn and there was a lot of blood. I don’t have a picture of that.

If you noticed I swapped out the word buffalo for bison there’s a reason for that! The animals who roam the great plains of North America are technically called “Bison,” while the term “buffalo” refers to the Water Buffalo found in Southeast Asia. I’m not sure I knew that distinction, but then, this road trip was already a learning adventure! The folks at the Nature Conservancy shared so much information with us about the Tallgrass Prairie and their efforts to restore the land and its inhabitants back to the original factory conditions, it felt like we earned college credit.

It was fascinating to watch the process. It was also windy and cold up on the prairie but not for the bison. They are equipped with the thickest of coats.

A huge shout out to the folks at the Nature Conservancy for sharing their admirable work with the public and to my dad, for arranging our educational field trip. Ending the day in Pawhuska truly iced the cake. Especially when you befriend a cute dog at the local watering hole.

If you’re looking for a fun activity in northern Oklahoma, not far from the Pioneer Woman’s Mercantile and Pawhuska, take a drive through the tall grass prairie where you might catch a glimpse of the American Bison who reside there.

Oklahoma Mothers

Vera Connell Bennett, 1889-1951

This quiet but strong Oklahoma mother was my great grandmother, the woman I am named after and well, she was the first Oklahoma Mother of the Year. I had no idea about that recognition until I read it in a book about Mothers of Achievement in American History. At the end of the anthology, which contained stories of famous women in every state, it also contained a list of every Mother of the Year since 1935 – which by itself, was a pretty cool listing. Naturally, I flipped to the state of Oklahoma and there was my great grandmother’s name – listed as the first Mother of the Year named in Oklahoma by the American Mothers Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation.

At the time, she was the biological mother to 5 children but also the mother to an entire college community. Her husband of 30 years was the President of Oklahoma A & M University (now Oklahoma State) and they lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Both Vera Connell and her husband, Henry G. Bennett, were educators. They met when he was the Superintendent of Schools in Hugo, Oklahoma and she was applying for a teaching position in Boswell. Both were big advocates of the public library system and believed the library should be the focal point of every college campus. This certainly applied at Oklahoma A&M. Anyone who has walks on that campus today would agree the library holds an enchanting presence on the lawn and quietly encourages a love of learning. We have taken lots of family photos over the years on that campus by a statue of my grandad which overlooks the Library Lawn. Here are a few of them.

Vera Connell Bennett is described as being of strong character with an independent mind. She made lists for Henry G. and the kids every morning which most likely was her quiet way of pushing them toward the high aspirations and goals she had set for them. I write of this only because I am a list maker too and since I share her unusual name, I smile knowing this trait has successfully been passed down albeit skipping a few generations!

History has recorded the close partnership that Henry G. and Vera Connell Bennett maintained throughout their marriage until their untimely death in a plane crash in Tehran, 1951. Henry G. was serving as the Undersecretary of State under President Truman and overseeing the 4 Point Program to help build nation states post WWII. They had been in Ethiopia and traveling to Iran when their plane went down. The State Department records indicate their bodies were found next to one another, having been ejected from the plane when it crashed into a mountainside, unable to find the runway in a snowstorm.

Just a little bit of history about an influential, Oklahoma mother.

My Little Experiment

Back in 2016, I had the unique opportunity to attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.I had never been to a political convention before, nor had I been involved in party politics, but the Senator was a delegate at the convention and I tagged along for the ride.

When I wasn’t acting as Cliff’s personal photographer, I became starstruck by all the members of the media we had rubbed shoulders with in the convention hall.

During the opening ceremony that first evening, I sat up in the rafters and decided to follow the media on Twitter. I figured it was the place where all the cool kids were hanging out and it would be helpful to follow what was going on down below on the floor.

I was also curious about how Twitter was being used for political messaging. Trump had recently pioneered the platform for this purpose and I remember sitting up there, following what was being said in the arena and reading what was being reported on Twitter and thinking, huh? Is this for real?

What was actually happening on the floor and what the media were tweeting as a result were night and day! So much of the commentary seemed clouded in personal bias or twisted to fit a narrative being promoted, but it certainly wasn’t an honest or accurate depiction of the event. It was a fascinating experiment to watch live and read about it simultaneously.

I still follow the media on Twitter and it has become like a sport for me. It is a place where I get my news and fake news. I can tell when the narrative is damaging to one side of the aisle based on the twitter feed of various “reporters” or if Twitter censors a certain story or individual. I read about all the current trends, polling data, and mini dramas on my Twitter feed. This may or may not be a healthy habit, so if you know about a Twitter 12 Step program, I am probably a good candidate.