Praying for James Lankford

Yesterday's Daily Oklahoman ran a news story titled "Rep. James Lankford Encourages Oklahomans to Pray for America's Leaders."

 The article makes it clear that he wants Oklahomans to pray that Congress will pass legislation to amend the Constitution and require a balanced budget.

 I am going to pray for Rep. Lankford and my petitions are going to be fairly specific.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time with people who still cannot find a job after being laid off three years ago when the unindicted crooks running our deregulated banking system caused our economy to implode.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time with the people who are living on food stamps and in homeless shelters because their unemployment benefits have expired.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time with people who cannot get health insurance because his tea party supporters insisted that our Governor refuse $54 million dollars of federal funding that was offered to set up a health network for them.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time in the emergency rooms at Oklahoma's hospitals with the people who have no health insurance and explain to the patients why balancing the federal budget without increasing taxes on millionaires is more important than their emergency medical treatment.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time in the emergency rooms and outpatient clinics at Oklahoma's hospitals with the people who do have health insurance who are refusing their doctor's advice that they be admitted for treatment because they know that they cannot afford to pay the deductible on their private insurance policy and the co-pay amounts.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time on the floors of Oklahoma's hospitals with the nurses and technicians who are being laid off or having their salaries cut or frozen because private insurance companies won't pay, medicare and medicaid won't pay, and the average Oklahoman cannot afford to pay for medical care.

 This list is already getting a little long and there are a lot more things to pray for. Mostly, they are things that involve real people trying to live in an economy that has been rigged to benefit the wealthy and neglect the working class. They don't have the knowledge or the power to change the system to make it fair. They need someone with the knowledge and power to straighten out our economic system and make it fair for everyone.

 Rep. Lankford and his cronies have some power, but they don't understand either the source or the magnitude of the problem. And, they will never comprehend the problem as long as they remained fixated on dollar signs instead of people.

 It's time to pray.