Journalist: Ean Cloud (ORU)
At the first session of O.I.L, a guest speaker by the name of Forrest Bennett, the former Democratic Minority House Whip for the Oklahoma House of Representatives (as he handed in his resignation recently), was by far the largest and most impactful voice today. He covered many topics, from practical things including reaching across the aisle to get things done, to much more emotional topics like the bonds formed by the willingness to reach out. In Bennett’s case, the drive and passion to get things done for his constituents, despite the intense disagreement from his other colleagues, often trumped the need to be the right one in the situation.
In Bennett’s own words, he learned these principles from O.I.L, debating, arguing, and working towards a solution even in simple simulation was vital to his growth as a policy maker. Nowadays, has changed career courses to be a lobbyist and activist for several organizations, recently winning an election to become the President of AFL-CIO, giving him leeway over hundreds of unions.
“This has really been a full circle moment,” said Bennett during his speech many times. To him, his calling both began and was currently ending in the same O.I.L chamber that kickstarted his rise more than a decade ago. The speech itself, along with its context was textbook O.I.L; balanced both in rhetoric and in content, humor and severity, and ethos and pathos. While it may be devastating for Oklahoma Democrats to lose their rising leader, it is important to remember both the path he already paved and the baton he passed to the younger generation.
That baton was filled with mostly despair, however. Bennett himself said that he felt he didn’t leave Oklahoma’s House better than he found it, something he, and most of the delegates had been taught to do as children. It is up to us, the leaders being formed in the current crucible, to surpass him and right the ship.