BY KENNY BELFORD

Once again Oklahoma has provided amusement for the rest of the country. The late night comics immediately weighed in, and they didn’t even need their comedy writers – they just related the actual events of the parade crisis that had gripped the war zone in Tulsa.

The facts of this “crisis” were absurd enough.

This crisis started when Sen. Jim Inhofe, never one to let a grandstanding moment elude him, made the announcement that he wasn’t going to ride his little pony in the annual parade this year because it was now called “The Holiday Parade.”

He wanted the parade to say something about Christmas, not just in the majority of Christmas floats, the legions of marching bands that will be playing Christmas music, but in the actual title.

He considers this an outrage, further proof of his claim about “a war on Christmas.”

He has a point. Unfortunately his point is found at the top of his head.

Even the Tulsa City Council, against legal advice, took up the issue with the goal of denying the parade a permit. A narrow 5-3 narrow allowed the parade to continue.

As the financial sponsor, PSO named the parade, “Parade of Lights.” Inhofe rode in many of those parades. Then after decades, PSO bowed out and the new financial sponsor last year renamed it “The Holiday Parade.” Last year when Sen. Inhofe rode in the parade it was the same name as this year.

We are at war – the war against Christmas – and for years and years Sen. Inhofe was actually helping the enemy wage their war.

This year he realized he can’t be a part of that aiding and abetting stuff, so Sen. Inhofe took his cute little pony to Broken Arrow, which apparently isn’t a war zone, and boldly pranced himself down the parade route serving up his best Queen Elizabeth wave to his adoring fans.

He went to town riding on a pony. We don’t know if he stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.

– Kenny Belford lives in Tulsa, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer