The cost of living is increasing daily, and it’s no secret that it affects our daily lives. Currently, our country is experiencing a 40-year inflation high that is causing much concern. In response to this issue, theHouseiscommittedtoproviding relief to the people of Oklahoma.

On February 7, children in an Oklahoma school got into an altercation which became violent. The day after, one of the children, 16-yearold Nex Benedict, died. The initial result of a preliminary autopsy suggests the death was not the result of trauma, but no other information has been provided; a full autopsy has not been publicly released. Speculation is rampant about the cause of Nex’s death, but there likely is not much the public will know until a full report is released by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner.

I am an American. I was born an American and I love America. Even thhoughI'mnotaVeteran,I'llshake the hand of anyone that is. Here’s a shout out to all the hands I can not shake, who gave their lives to keep this country free.

On Tuesday, February 20th, we celebrated National Future Farmers of America Week at the state capitol. This yearly event provides FFA members with a platform to raise awareness about the National FFA Organization’s role in developing future leaders and the significance of agricultural education.

Beauty. Such an interesting topic. It is a topic that everyone has an opinion about, and all opinions are; we wantmorebeauty in our lives. As we said last week, beauty is food for the soul. In fact, true beauty is said to be so personal, and so transcendent, that talking or writing about it seems to do them a great injustice and tarnishes their radiant glow. Perhaps it is because, as John-Mark Miravalle explains, beauty affirms balance and order, and a longing for the transcendent. Thomas Aquinas was keen to this. He once wrote that “nature is nothing other than a certain kind of art, namely God’s art.” This is why there is often a haunting loneliness that comes when experiencing true beauty; our soul longing for the transcendent Artist of all the beauty that we see. It is because of the linking of beauty with the transcendent that human beings have a personal moral obligation towards beauty’s creation and preservation. We know this because nothing evil can be beautiful. Think about it. Can a beautiful evil be conceived? Nor does evil bring serenity or peace, or anything that humans long for. And if it did it would immediately cease to be beautiful because it was in fact ugly from the start. That is why beauty is a place of common ground between believers and the skeptical unbelievers like Michael. Michael appreciates and loves beauty just as much as the ardent Christian. Miravalle explains that is because “we believe in objective standards of goodness and morality. In other words, beauty isn’t just a preference.”

We've been pretty busy at the Capitol this week! A few of my bills passed committee, and I wanted to let everyone know about them. House Bill 3758 passed the CountyandMunicipalGovernment Committee without any objections.

Last week, I toured Mabel Bassett Correctional Facility led by my former legislative colleague Kris Steele, now the director of The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM) in Oklahoma City. TEEM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking cycles of incarceration and poverty through education, personal development, and work readiness training.

The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids with the ratio of the height to the base equal to 1:1.618—The Golden Ratio. The ancient Athenians, those masters of architecture, built the Parthenon with its column configurations and dimensions based upon the Golden Ratio. We looked last week at several examples from nature that satisfy the Golden Ratio as well: the facial features of people that society generally deems “attractive” is one fascinating aspect of the Golden Ratio. In a sense, facial recognition technology can be thought of as a method that analyzes how much a person’s facial proportions deviate from the Golden Ratio. In fact, Leonardo da Vinci painted portraits using the Golden Ratio; the Mona Lisa is a fine example. And it is not just facial features, the Golden Ratio is present in a rose as well as many other flower petal and leaf configurations, and it is present in all sorts of seashells such as the Nautilus. But these are all tangible, concrete forms of soul food. What about the semi-abstract world of music? I say semi-abstract because although you can see music on paper, the notes played and traveling through the air are essentially abstract, they linger in the air just for a moment then they are gone . . . abstract.

In January of 2021, President Biden assumed the presidency with an aggressive immigration agenda. In just his first 100 days in office, he took 94 executive actions, including removing Title 42 and Remain in Mexico, halting border wall construction, and reinstating Catch-and-Release,inanattemptto make it easier for immigrants to illegally enter and stay in our nation.

On the day that 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire in his Michigan high school, a teacher found a graphic drawing of gun violence with disturbing phrases. The most haunting, however, were two simple words: “Help me!”