Progressive Paper Speaks for the People

Frosty Troy and his wife Helen B. Troy are the editor and

publisher of the Oklahoma Observer– a long-time progressive, twice monthly newspaper that speaks the conscience and interest of the people against big business and their political toadies.

Beyond matters relating to Oklahoma, this paper has about the best collection of progressive writing and columns in the country.

Although Frosty Troy has written on the American political economy for decades, lectured all over the country and received journalistic awards for his work (while his wife keeps the little business in the barely black), you will not see him on any of these weekend television, weekend talk shows. Could it be that he is too knowledgeable, too witty, too irreverent. The Oklahoma sage-humorist (e.g. “Congress is the best money can buy,”) Will Rogers would have loved Frosty Tray.

For those of you who are news junkies or simply interested in public affairs, why must you be given such a dreary diet of the same old political pundits year after year on the network, cable and public broadcasting shows? The same cast of inside the Washington beltway characters — Will, Novak, Krauthammer, Kondracke, Totenberg and so on — have their redundant say week after week, while fresh voices with different experiences and geographies are kept off the screen. Is there no such thing as a sabbatical for these lifers?

In any event, this wistfulness was provoked by the latest issue of the Oklahoma Observer which included an editorial entitled “Family Values?” Let Frosty Troy’s words speak themselves:

“Self-styled Radio Evangelist James Dobson should be more choosy when it comes to finding someone in Congress to carry the Defense of Marriage Act. . . . So who is carrying the Marriage Defense Act, which is garnering full page support ads from the [Family Research] Council?

Meet Robert S. Barr Jr., Georgia Republican and fulltime Clinton basher. He has picked up more than 100 co­authors for his Marriage Defense Act.

Bob Barr, 48, would know all about marriage — he’s on his third. He is such a devotee of the opposite sex, he was filmed in 1992 “licking whip cream off the chests of two buxom women” at a charity event.

In 1988, his second wife sued Barr for failure to pay child support. He admits he failed to pay medical bills for his children . . .

What is it about “family values” Republicans who talk the talk but have not walked the walk?

Bob Dole abandoned a wife and small daughter for comely Elizabeth. It was his first wife who nursed him through his war wounds.

Newt Gingrich not only dumped a cancer-stricken wife, he was also sued for not paying child support.

Rush Limbaugh is on his third marriage, divorced by one wife tired of him not working. Yes, he was on the dole. George Will divorced his first wife for a younger chick, leaving her with a retarded child.

Bob Dornan has had four divorce actions brought against him by a wife who complains of chronic domestic abuse. Pat Robertson impregnated his wife-to-be.

Jimmy Swaggart was not going into those motels to leave the Gideon Bible. . . .

It is a classic case of do-as-I-say not do-as-I-do politics. They are the last people on earth with the moral credentials to preach family values to anyone. . . “

That’s Frosty Troy, from out thar yonder in Oklahoma, who knows how to put strands of information together into a robust salvo against hypocrisy, greed, cruelty and myopia.

The Oklahoma Observer is a “ma and pa” enterprise in the best sense. If you want a joyous and outrageous publication to come into your living room every two weeks, for a year, send $25 to Troy Enterprises Co., 500 N.E. 39 Terrace, Oklahoma City, OK, 73152-3371.