OKLAHOMANS do not seem conscious of their history. Like most Americans, they are oriented toward the future and appreciate history only in the vivid anecdote or visible relic. They seldom reflect on historic attitudes as shaping the future. That history is positive at one level, revealing the ways people and ideas prevail. Yet the story is also negative, showing the road not taken and the ideal not embraced. A sense of the past delineates the shape of things to come, since all change is rooted in history. It also reveals tasks that must be fulfilled to secure the state’s proper future.
A general desire for cultural activity is the state’s greatest present lack and future need. Oklahoma was always a culture exporter, sending promising children “abroad” for education and losing many of the bright people it trained at home. That was especially true in the fine arts and education, bit it was also a problem in industry and commerce. The phenomenon, typical of the South and the Southwest in general, was understandable, if not acceptable, while the state remained poor and outside the nation’s mainstream. But that era of isolation is over. Oklahoma must emphasize her own native cultural qualities and encourage outlets for cultural ambition designed from national models. Oklahoma’s economy is no longer provincial; her culture cannot remain so.
The state’s urbanization and the immigration of outsiders should hasten cultural development. It is at least arguable that Oklahoma City, for instance, was more sophisticated and interesting culturally in the 1920s than since. Her population was more demanding of nonmaterial living, since she was in effect “born grown,” as an urban area. Oklahoma City was on the railroad main line, drawing from New York-Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City to the east, New Orleans-Houston-Dallas from the south, and San Francisco-Denver from the west. In its first decades, Oklahoma City partook of most of the nation’s culture that radiated out along those main lines. It boasted a firm sense of urban values and a self–conscious desire for the eminence of a vital city. It went to the theater, heard opera, and read the latest books as easily as it went to its varied and often enchanting amusement parks. The self–confidence and sense of direction that underlay these interests weakened under the impact of the Great Depression and the war years. An influx of rural people with different interests, not yet wedded to the ideal of a great city, impaired it further.
Tulsa was always the local epitome of “eastern” culture and took the lead within the state in establishing art centers, theaters, libraries, and other elements of “high culture.” Most important, its tone was that of a highly self-conscious urban center linked to the tastes and standards of other urban models.
The relatively consistent growth that followed World War II pumped both people and money into the state’s two major cities and into many other towns. Yet cultural facilities never equaled potential demand. Oklahoma remains far behind neighboring states in supporting cultural institutions of all kinds. The state’s established wealth and growing corporations could easily fund them in the absence of government subsidy.
Nothing is more important within this broad cultural sense than a truly first–class system of education. Despite brave beginnings in territorial days, Oklahoma’s commitment to education lagged far behind both its needs and its obligations. Hovering near the bottom of the list of states in support for any level of education, Oklahoma has taken pride in the amount it squeezed from the educational dollar, rather than the number of dollars necessary for quality.
Part of this inattention to education was rooted in the fear of the unusual individual that often accompanied the pioneer heritage. It was also one result of the old emphasis on practicality rather than creativity. The state must now encourage innovative and unusual talent if its sophisticated, complex economy is to grow and mature. And the outsiders needed for modernization will not likely come or remain if the educational system is not dramatically improved. The state needs a huge increase in support for common schools, higher education, and specialized training. It must fund without delay at least two universities of national importance. The Oklahoman’s education has never been competitive in the national marketplace. It will not be competitive at home in the future if the educational system is not of the best.
The state’s needs and obligations have altered much faster than her citizens or leaders comprehended. The basic fact of life in Oklahoma is the new population patterns that accompanied industrialization. Oklahoma is no longer a state of isolated towns and farms. Its citizens’ attitudes are shaped on national and international models through the media and information systems that have transformed American life in general.
Yet old attitudes inevitably remain, stubbornly determined to rule. Just as land drew Oklahomans in the 1890s, so it will shape their future. In the broadest sense, land remains the key theme in Sooner history. The disposition of natural resources in decades to come will determine whether or not Oklahoma becomes a major state. The old pioneer temptation to exploit the environment remains strong. A large state with a small population and much uninhabited land risks the temptations of destruction and waste. Lack of planning and overoptimism nearly destroyed much of Oklahoma in the 1930s. Then, nature seemed to blame; now, man’s ambitions must be channeled. Oklahomans are justifiably proud of their lakes and waterways, the open spaces and wilderness areas. Yet the pull of profit is as strong as pride. The ugly disorder and lack of planning in the state’s cities could as easily be the pattern of the future as any sensible planning. Large areas of the state can be turned into resorts, retirement communities, and playgrounds of the sort that have blighted her neighbors New Mexico and Arizona. Haste, greed, and simple unconcern, as much parts of the pioneer legacy as pride and self-reliance, jeopardize the state’s greatest asset: the land itself.
Planning requires stronger government than Sooners have accepted in the past. Politicians must discuss frankly the state’s immediate and long-term problems and must cast their answers in molds equal to the challenges. They must look to expanded expenditures in sectors that benefit the whole population. The windfall of high revenues from oil, gas, food, and fiber may allow political leaders to avoid tax increases. The coming question in government is new in the state’s history: how to spend wisely on capital improvements that will sustain long-term development, rather than how to avoid taxation. Any suitable answer must rest on the genuine desire for excellence in education, culture, and an expanded personal expression. The broad processes of industrialization, as Americans in other sections have discovered, are remorseless. If men do not channel them, their effects will come in unhappy human terms.
Individual actions can alter and humanize these broad historic trends. The city dweller must demand an aesthetic environment. The businessman must pay a little more for an attractive office building. The politician must talk of larger questions than the price of blacktop. The millionaire must support universities, art galleries, and opera houses rather than mansions and stables. The educator must insist on a quality of learning good enough for the nation and the world, rather than for Oklahoma’s past ambitions. The citizen of average or affluent means must pay a little more in taxes for general improvements rather than seek a larger boat or newer car for his driveway. These individual acts, combining pride and self-interest, can create a fresh sense of direction worthy of the ’89ers and equal to the tasks of a sophisticated and complex future. The residual defensiveness epitomized in Okie, so often worked out in acceptance of the mediocre and the undistinguished, could easily yield before enlightened leadership and individual concern for larger ideals.
Oklahoma’s past remains vivid, exciting, and unique. She will not abandon it lightly, nor should she. The question is, can she learn from it? The state is at a major, perhaps a final crossroads. The various systems that support her people have changed more rapidly than the population’s perceptions. That gap can close if enough people care. Oklahomans should thus be careful of what they seek from tomorrow—continued disinterest in the era’s most demanding tasks, or acceptance of an exciting, intensified life-style in a major state. They are likely to get what they demand.