I missed Monday Blogs this week because it felt like I had a really busy week and didn’t get time to write anything. But looking back now, it doesn’t seem like I accomplished anything. That’s a shame. So here’s a gratuitous update about life to get my Faithful Reader caught up on what’s going on.

Coming Site Update

This is probably the biggest news. I’ll shortly be moving to new digs.

The Ravensbeak domain goes back 16 years to a business venture my wife and I attempted. But then the writing bug bit me, and I had this domain sitting there gathering dust, so why not put something up? It started as bob.ravensbeak.com, then I came up with the Indefixa name, so I moved the blog to a new subdomain, and did my own thing with the blog for a number of years.

I tried a few different themes over the years, finally settling on Twenty Fourteen a while back. But there were always things I wanted to do on the site that I couldn’t figure out how to code. The beauty of WordPress is that it’s fairly easy to write a plug-in. That means that if you want to do something, and can’t figure out how, it’s a pretty safe bet that someone else has had the same problem, and written a plug-in for it.

That’s a double-edged sword though. It’s easy to add a plug-in and forget about it. That can present security or function issues down the road if the plug-in developer doesn’t keep up with WordPress development. The other problem is that when you get too many plug-ins working in one site, they can conflict with each other and cause major issues with your site.

I’ve wanted to update the site for quite a while then. I wasn’t happy with some of the functioning, wasn’t happy with the theme, and didn’t know how to choose the right new theme, or code the stuff I wanted to do. So I reached out to Rachel Thompson, who has become a trusted mentor and sounding board since we met online last year. She reminded me that Barb Drozodowich worked with Booktrope and Gravity authors, and runs a great consulting business for author blogs and websites. She wrote a couple of books, too. If you’ve got questions about blogging, especially as an author, you should check her site out.

Barb and I have been working on the site redesign for the last month or so, and it should be ready to launch Real Soon Now ™. I’m really excited at the new look and layout. It’ll be cleaner, wider, and spiffy. I should have some new publicity shots by then too. You can see a demo version here.

School Blog

As part of my News Writing and Reporting class, we were assigned to create and run a news blog. Our prof gave us wide latitude in what we were going to cover, but asked that each of the seven students cover a different beat. She also wanted us to choose a webmaster and a managing editor. I’d have been fine with the webmaster position. I know my way around WordPress well enough to be able to run a small blog like that. As it turned out, I got voluntold to be the editor.

The Tulsa Beat is now up and running at WordPress.com. We chose WordPress because the webmaster and I were both familiar with it, and felt it gave us more flexibility for a news-type theme. We are covering a variety of beats, from Lifestyles to Music and Public Safety. I expect the blog to be up at least through the end of the semester on December 18.  Check it out.

Speaking of school: keep an eye on the TCC Connection website. I should have an article or two up there soon.

Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission

Many of you are now scratching your head. Tulsa race riot? What’s that about?

In May 1921, the Greenwood section of Tulsa, known in many circles as Black Wall Street, went up in flames after a black man was accused of sexually assaulting a white girl. The riot destroyed 35 blocks of the neighborhood. 800 people went to hospitals, and police arrested over 6,000 blacks.

While the exact nature of the encounter between Dick Rowland and Sarah Page will never be known, one witness suggested that Rowland had raped or tried to rape her, and the fight was on. Whites wanted to lynch Rowland and blacks were trying to save his life.

36 hours later, the area was in ruins. The National Guard had been called out, and the city’s fire stations had refused to respond to the hundreds of fires. When they did respond, fire crews were turned back at gunpoint. Some witnesses reported aircraft dropping dynamite or flaming balls of tar on buildings.

Calling the rebuilding effort “problematic” would be an understatement. Tulsa founder and KKK member W. Tate Brady ended up in charge of the Tulsa Real Estate Exchange,  charged with determining the value of destroyed real estate. Members of the Exchange schemed to force blacks away from the Greenwood neighborhood.

It was, to put it mildly, a mess.

Tulsa is still dealing with the effects of that riot.

For years, the riot was barely spoken of. Lifelong Tulsa residents knew nothing of the events of 1921. It wasn’t taught in school or mentioned in history books. We lived in Oklahoma for two years before I knew about it, and I’m still finding people all over Green Country who have never heard of it.

In 1996, the state created the Tulsa Race Riot Commission to write a historical account of the riot and its aftermath. That 200-page document, filled with interviews and maps, broke my heart. Part of me knew how violent man can be against man. But every time I read something like this and compare it to current events, I worry that we haven’t really moved all that far beyond what caused that riot in the first place.

As the Riot’s centennial approaches, the Tulsa Race Riot Centennial Commission was formed with a mission to “facilitate actions, activities, and events that commemorate and educate all citizens” about the Riot.

Jerry Goodwin, the adviser for the TCC Connection school newspaper, is the secretary of the commission, and offered to take any interested student to the commission’s recent meeting. I jumped at the chance, simply to learn more about the riot.

It was a tremendous experience. Even though I visited Oklahoma City a couple of years ago, this was my first opportunity to visit the capitol. The building and grounds are gorgeous, and the expanse is a stark contrast to the skyscrapers I’m used to in Columbus.

There were a number of state representatives and senators there as well as US Senator James Lankford, the junior senator from Oklahoma. He was there to an update on commission efforts as well as talk with commission chair Senator Kevin Matthews. There was discussion about the hoops the commission would have to jump through to gain National Park status, which is one of their goals. Sen. Lankford pointed out that at one time, National Park Service regulations, required the Oklahoma City Memorial to have its own fire truck – and snowmobile.

All in all, it was a great experience, and I’m planning on attending more meetings as I can, including the press conference coming up in January or February.