Sandy Smith

Mother of 3, mother-in-law of 3, grandmother of 10, great grandmother of 1. Dog/animal lover. Proud Cherokee Tribe member.

[Enes Kanter FREEDOM @EnesFreedom]

To my Oklahoma family;
this piece comes straight from the heart.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read it and feel what I felt.
Thank you for allowing me to be a small part of it.

I came to @okcthunder to play basketball. I left carrying 168 lives.

When I was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, I was thinking about basketball, nothing more.

I didn’t know that before I ever stepped on the court, this place would show me something that would stay with me far longer than any game.

Like any player, my mind was on the game. A new team, a new city, a new opportunity. I expected the usual routine when I landed in Oklahoma City. Physicals, practices, meetings, and a jersey waiting in a locker.

But before any of that, Sam Presti pulled me aside and told me there was somewhere we needed to go.

He didn’t explain much, and I didn’t think to ask. I was focused on the next step in my career.

What I didn’t understand was that, before I could represent the place I was about to play for, I needed to understand it.

So instead of heading to the facility, he took me to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

I walked in without knowing what I was about to see, and within minutes, everything slowed down.

There are 168 chairs at the memorial, each one representing a life lost on April 19, 1995. They are arranged in quiet rows, each engraved with a name, each standing where a person once stood in that building. Then you notice something that is impossible to process the first time you see it. Some of the chairs are smaller.

They belong to children.

There is no speech that prepares you for that, no headline that captures it. You simply stand there, and the silence carries a kind of weight that is hard to describe but impossible to ignore.

As you walk through the memorial, you pass between two gates marked 9:01 and 9:03. At first, they seem like simple numbers, but then you understand what they hold. One marks the last minute before the attack. The other marks the first minute after. And in between those two gates is 9:02, the moment when everything changed.

That minute does not feel like history when you are standing there. It feels present.

The reflecting pool stretches across what used to be a city street, its surface calm and still. When you look into it, you do not just see water. You see yourself standing in a place where unimaginable loss occurred, and for a moment, everything else in your life becomes quieter.

Nearby stands the Survivor Tree, an American elm that was damaged in the blast but endured. It is not untouched. Its scars are part of what it represents. But it is still standing, and in that, it carries a kind of strength that does not need to be explained.

We did not speak much while we were inside. It did not feel like a place for conversation. Some places ask for words. This one asks for reflection.

When we stepped outside, Sam Presti looked me in the eye and said, “This is what this state has been through.”

Then he said something I will never forget.

“Every time you step on that court, you are not just playing in front of fans. You are playing for a state that carries this with it. Give them everything you have. They deserve that.”

In that moment, basketball felt different.

Not smaller, but clearer.

Because what I had just seen was not only about what was lost. It was about what remained. A state that had experienced unimaginable pain and still chose to come together, to rebuild, and to move forward without losing its humanity.

From that day on, every time I stepped on the court, I carried that with me.

On the nights when I was tired, when I was hurt, when I was dealing with challenges that felt heavy in the moment, I would think about those chairs, about that minute, about the people behind those names. And I was reminded that what I was going through did not compare to what this state had endured.
https://t.co/XfNLliRVaO

[Gene Trevino @GenoVeno73]

🚨 THIS IS TRAGIC

US Marine Corps Colonel and combat veteran, Doug Krugman, "resigned from the military because of Trump," after 24 years of service.

He wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post stating, and I quote:
"United States military officers take an oath to defend the Constitution without mental reservation or purpose of evasion. I swore or repeated that oath under five presidents, starting with former president Bill Clinton. I risked my life for it, serving as an infantry officer in two wars. I watched Marines die for it."

"No commander in chief is perfect. President Clinton’s moral failures are well known. President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq might be one of the worst errors in U.S. history. All recent presidents share responsibility for our failure in Afghanistan. I continued to serve despite all that because I believed the Constitution brought the country more success than failure, and I believed our presidents took their oaths to it seriously."

"With President Trump, I no longer believe that. During his first term, his actions became increasingly difficult for me to justify, culminating with the Jan. 6 attack on Congress as it tried to execute its duties. I hoped he had learned from those errors, but it only took a few days of his second term for me to realize he had not. I could not swear without reservation to follow a commander in chief who seemed so willing to disregard the Constitution."

"Worse than immorality, however, has been President Trump’s willingness to disregard the law and Constitution to achieve his goals. When asked in May about the Fifth Amendment requirements for due process and if he needed to uphold the Constitution as president, the first words out of his mouth were "'I don’t know.'"

"Instead of trying to work within the Constitution, or to amend it, President Trump is testing how far he can ignore it. If voters and legislators cannot close the gaps in our laws to clarify the limits to presidential power, those who serve our government will continue to struggle. The next president — of either party — may continue us down this path toward collapse."

"I voluntarily gave up my rank as the president suggested, but the future of our country is more important than any individual’s career, wealth or power. I have no regrets about my decision. I have given up the service I loved for the freedom to do the right thing, the freedom to speak my mind and the freedom to speak in defense of our country."

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Soybean farmer: I get up one morning, I turn the news on and we gave $20 billion of taxpayer money to Argentina, my competition. And then the Chinese buy $12 or $14 billion worth of soybeans from the Argentinians.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

BREAKING: ICE agents IN Alamosa, Colorado run up to vehicle with guns drawn, smashing window of vehicle with one month old baby inside.

If you’re not outraged about this, then you don’t have the capacity to have empathy.

[Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett @RepJasmine]

Republicans called a hearing on free speech, but Trump and Republicans made it clear they don’t believe in it. He threatened members of Congress, calling anyone who votes to release the Epstein files “hostile.”

That certainly doesn’t sound like free speech to me.

[Congressman Greg Casar @RepCasar]

You can understand the problem in America right now with just two numbers. Yesterday we learned Trump has made $5 billion for himself while kicking 17 million Americans off health care.

[Christopher Webb @cwebbonline]

I’m not sharing this to scare people—though it’s fucking terrifying. I’m sharing it because we all need to be on guard.

We won’t be getting reliable data from the CDC anymore. Worse, the guidance could be harmful.

RFK Jr. has no medical training, no scientific background. What he does have is a track record of pushing conspiracy theories rooted in eugenics.

📌 Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the CDC’s immunization and respiratory division, is out.

[Iryna Voichuk @IrynaVoichuk]

People are screaming under the rubble of their home in Kharkiv, which russia attacked with five drones this morning.

Trump rolled out the red carpet, applauded, and shook hands with the man responsible for this horror.

[Glenn Kirschner @glennkirschner2]

Don't fall for the daily distractions.

The Trump/Epstein/Maxwell scandal matters.

All day, every day, across every platform, let's post:

RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!

[News 9 @NEWS9]

🚨 Despite claims of no wrongdoing from the State Superintendent, Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III says the investigation into Ryan Walters is still ongoing.

Hear what else Sheriff Johnson has to say ⬇️ https://t.co/PlGQMgnVqr

[Rep. Melanie Stansbury @Rep_Stansbury]

Just days ago, a Republican member of Congress dumped stock in a Medicaid provider company right before voting to strip healthcare away from 17 million Americans.

This is why we need to BAN STOCK TRADING now! 

No elected official should be trading stocks while making decisions that impact our country.

[Sandra Boynton @SandyBoynton]

My son Keith wrote this powerful sad strangely inspiring poem this morning, and it completely upended me. I asked him to record it so that I could offer it to others. #IndependenceDay

[News 9 @NEWS9]

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” could cut food assistance for up to 100,000 Oklahomans. Experts warn it would hit families, seniors, and kids the hardest, and cost the state millions. https://t.co/wrr0Si1kSP

[Elizabeth Warren @ewarren]

If you think it's so immaterial, maybe call a few seniors in nursing homes and explain to them where they'll go next.

Call the mom of a kid with disabilities who won't be able to pay for a new wheelchair.

Call just one person whose life you're going to tear apart.

[Sara McGee for Texas HD 132 @SaraForTexLege]

Laughing. In front of a cage, under a tent, in the middle of a swamp, surrounded by alligators - where they plan to hold HUMAN BEINGS whose only crime was crossing a border in search of a better life for their family.

These are the darkest of days.

Please - it is OK to say that you didn’t vote for this. It is OK to say ENOUGH.

And if you look at this picture and feel joy - may God have mercy on your soul.

[Hayden @the_transit_guy]

https://t.co/xkNlom5whR

[Adam Schiff @SenAdamSchiff]

Republicans are attempting to ram through a provision to sell millions in acres in California, including land around Yosemite, Mt. Shasta, Lake Tahoe & Big Sur, as part of their big ugly bill.

Our federal public treasures shouldn't be sold off to the highest bidder.

I will fight this, tooth & nail.

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

We now know that the GOP's Big Ugly bill would allow for the sale of 250 MILLION acres of public land. 5.4 million in Washington state.

We can't let them jam this through in secret.

Help me say it loud and clear for Republicans: Public lands belong in public hands.