by Randall Atkins, special correspondent for VoicesofOK.org

Cairo – Drunk on the victories of the recent revolution and ousting of their hated president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s youthful opposition may have just sobered up to the realities of their newly democratic state. The March 19th referendum on constitutional amendments, which they say did not go far enough, was not the change they envisioned when they took to the streets in January. Newly formed political parties, some of which have yet to even pick a name for themselves, fought to get the amendments voted down.

For most who pass through Egypt, it is a tourist destination; a place to see first hand the remnants of an ancient civilization. During the winter months resort towns along the red and white seas serve as a sunny getaway for middle class westerners, but what is lost on most of these visitors is the vast inequities and contradictions that exist in the country.

by Skip Largent

Thoughts floating through my mind in the beginning were about rallies I had attended in the Sixties, Canterbury Tales, nine years of national fear-driven behavior… and fun. Secondary thoughts included the affordability of the trip, and a loud ” WTF are you thinking ” from my body parts below the neck ( this was a trip in a crowded bus that meant 27 hours on the bus, seven hours in D.C., and then 27 more hours back on the bus ).

by Nathan Gunter

On Feb. 3, 1889, almost three full months before the famous first Land Run, the outlaw Belle Starr was ambushed and shot to death near Eufaula, Oklahoma, just a few days shy of her 41st birthday. Her murder was never solved, and when it came time to prepare her body for burial, none of the women of the town wanted anything to do with the grim chore…

by Gene Perry

The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival can make you believe in ghosts. He may have died more than 40 years ago, but last week Woody Guthrie haunted Okemah, OK, the town where he was born…

by Lindsay Hodges Anderson

I have betrayed Oklahoma. I no longer have its rich, red soil beneath my feet. It gave me my first home in America, and now I am half the country away. But I will be back, and I can not wait to see it again…