Yoshimi Versus the Oklahoma House

It looked like a scary moment for Oklahoma civil rights this morning. News was pouring in that the State’s House of Representatives was refusing to push through legislation officially naming the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” the state’s official rock song. “Realize” was one of dozens of songs nominated by Oklahoma residents and one of 10 final selections voted on. Out of the roughly 21,000 votes cast, the Lips walked away with over 10,000 and won by a very, very comfortable margin.

Legislation to ratify the decision passed swiftly through the Oklahoma senate, with unanimous support. That support evaporated once it was the House’s turn. Instead of following the Senate’s lead and recognizing the very obvious winners of the very legitimate contest, the Republican-led House instead voted against the measure 48-39. The reason they wanted to deny the Lips this honor? Last month band member Michale Ivins wore a hammer and sickle communist T-shirt under his sports coat when the band made an appearance last month at the state capitol.


Oh, and apparently front man Wayne Coyne may have said some bad words during a ceremony naming a street in OKC after the band.

From the Daily Oklahoman:

Rep. Corey Holland, R-Marlow, debated against the resolution, saying he was bothered one of the band members wore a red T-shirt with a yellow sickle and hammer on it when The Flaming Lips came last month to the Capitol when results of an online voting contest showed their song to be the clear-cut winner. "I was really offended by that," Holland said.Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, also spoke against the measure, saying the band has a reputation for using obscene language, recalling band members used offensive language several years ago when the city of Oklahoma City named an alley after the band."Their lips ought to be on fire," Reynolds said.

And my personal favorite quote, from the Tulsa World:

“We have better things to do at the state capitol than waste our time voting for a group that can wear a communist T-shirt in the House of Representatives,” said Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. “I have no use for honoring the Flaming Lips. It is a total waste of time. It is not what the taxpayers sent us to do, to honor some group that we might find their lyrics less than acceptable.”

Never mind the fact that the contest was a state-wide event, voted on by over 20,000 residents. Never mind the fact that the Lips won by margins most of those clowns could never even dream of. No, the House couldn’t be bothered to follow the will of the people because they had better things to do. Things like drafting a strongly-worded finger-wagging at the federal government regarding “Department of Homeland Security’s assessment report concerning Rightwing Extremism (HR 1043),” frowning in disapproval at the University of Oklahoma for allowing that filthy atheist Richard Dawkins to potentially “indoctrinate students in the theory of evolution (HR 1014)," or taking time out of their busy day to draft a resolution for a former Elks Lodge member, wishing him the best of luck in future endeavors on the state’s behalf (HR 1040). No wastes of time there, right Congressman Reynolds?

Luckily, Oklahoma still has a level-headed leader in the Governor’s mansion. Within hours of the House’s rejection of the resolution naming “Do You Realize??” Democratic governor Brad Henry issued an executive order naming the Lips’ opus the official rock song of the state of Oklahoma.

From the Daily Oklahoman again:

Gov. Brad Henry announced Thursday evening that he will sign an executive order on Tuesday naming the Flaming Lips song as the official rock song. Henry had planned to sign the resolution into law at a Tuesday ceremony that members of the band as well as national music and entertainment writers planned to attend. Henry said that for more than 20 years the Flaming Lips have produced "creative, fun and provocative rock music." "The music of the Flaming Lips has earned Grammys, glowing critical acclaim and fans all over the world," the governor said. "A truly iconic rock n' roll band, they are proud ambassadors of their home state. "They were clearly the people's choice, and I intend to honor that vote."

Wayne had this to say about the entire affair (again, from the Oklahoman):

“Me, I just say look, it's a little minority of some small-minded religious wackos who think they can tell people what kind of t-shirts and what kind of music they can listen to, and the smart, rational, reasonable people of Oklahoma are never going to buy into that,” the singer said.

“These nay-sayers who want to talk about me saying (profanities) and Michael wearing this T-shirt, everybody can see through how silly this stuff is,” Coyne said. “I figured that no matter what happened, people would come to our rescue. People would have a reason to really fight for us and say, no, this isn't what Oklahoma is all about. ... And I think the governor is very cool, how he's come to our rescue.”
Coyne said his main concern is how people outside of the state view Oklahoma.
“I don't want people to go back and say Oklahoma's just the backwards place we always figured it was, because it's not,” Coyne said. “And I don't want people to think that my idea of being from Oklahoma and my pride, has diminished one bit.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Tune in tomorrow, as the Oklahoma House is expected to write disapproving resolutions about uppity musicians and their governor friends, homosexual agendas in parks, and liberals sporting argyle socks.