TYprosis epidemic
Because of a job-related day trip, I'm postponing my weekly visit with Gwen and Chris on 1170 KFAQ until Wednesday morning.
A couple of different young professionals sent me this e-mail, which they received late last week from TYpros, the Astroturf YP group created by and for the Tulsa Metro Chamber. One wrote, "Honestly, this letter (and its leadership team's public homogenization of the TYPros membership into a monolith of river tax supporters) has me considering leaving TYPros." Another wrote, "I had lent my support to TYPROS in the early days, but ever since their support of the River tax I've lost my faith in them as an agent of change."
At first, I didn't see what bothered them so much about this e-mail. It's encouraging people who might have been disappointed in the outcome of Tuesday's election not to be hyperdramatic about it, but to stay involved.
But there is an undertone which undercuts that sensible message -- "The 4,000+ members in Tulsa's Young Professionals bear a heavy burden." Please.
It's easy to understand why older generations become so cynical.After Tuesday's vote, it's easy to become disenchanted, disheartened, and frankly, disgusted. It's easy to trash-talk the opposition or vow to learn how someone voted before having lunch with him or her. It's easy to spout off promises to flee the community for more progressive and yp-friendly cities and regions.
It's easy to quit.
It's much, much harder to shake it off and decide where we go from here.
To survive and thrive in the future, developing our community to attract and retain young, talented workers and new college graduates must become everyone's business. The 4,000+ members in Tulsa's Young Professionals bear a heavy burden and the result of Tuesday's vote makes our job even more difficult. My company, your company, North Tulsa, South Tulsa, East or West, suburbs or downtown, all depends on us to be here in the future.
Young people are the future growth of our region. High school students today are deciding where they want to live tomorrow. College graduates decide where they want to live before they find a job.
Some people get it. Some people don't.
George Kaiser gets it. We applaud his courage, conviction and generosity.
So, our message is this. From young professionals to one slightly more seasoned professional: Mr. Kaiser...we won't give up if you don't give up on us.
Sincerely,
Tulsa's Young Professionals
UPDATE: There are some good comments posted below, but two in particular worth spotlighting:
From Jeff Shaw:
That reads like an email from 14 year old girl. :)
And from Jason Kearney:
TYPROS. Please. A bunch of morons if they still don't understand. Many of them are single, making more money than they know what to do with. They don't care how much money they pay in taxes, because they don't have enough to spend their money on now. They are too immature to realize that people can have differences of opinion. It has to be about who "gets it" and who doesn't. Give me a break.
I hope they are watching the local news, and seeing that they were duped by the chamber, the mayor, and the county commission. River development continues, but the right way, with private investments, not taxpayer money.
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TYPROS are arrogant STUPID young people. Did they not know that we were voting for a tax for a plan that did not exist, much less was approved???? At least look at the facts about something before bringing your support to it. PLEASE.
lol.. that's funny.
"Mr. Kaiser, we won't give up if you don't give up on us."
As if a young professional's whole entire life and career is based upon the tax-sheltering donations of a gazillionaire...
Yes, it's such a burden to keep one's lips affixed to the backside of money, isn't it?
sheesh...
That reads like an email from 14 year old girl. :)
"To survive and thrive in the future, developing our community to attract and retain young, talented workers and new college graduates must become everyone's business."
Let's make a distinction here. In general you attract people by having jobs they want in Tulsa. Most people look for a new job and when selecting from multiple offers look at cost of living, public safety, and schools. Its what I did when in my thirties. As you get older you are less likely to move, also less likely to get an offer. The question is, what age group is most likely to relocate and what attracts them? Young, single people may very well move to s "sexy city" and then look at employment. But that's too small a demograhpic on which to focus all this spending.
The river tax raised the cost of living for everyone. The vote indicates it did not have an advantage greater than the cost for a majority of those casting ballots. That in itself is a message for the "TYPROS". Take off the blinders and look at the whole city. Your organization is in danger of becoming nothing more than a "networking society" as opposed to a political force. Your message doesn't resonate with enough Tulsans to pass anything.
Another fiasco like your participation in the river tax vote and you may have to change your name to "TYPOS", becuase that will be analagous to the totality of your infuence.
Richard Roberts, his daughter and her teenage friends did their part to bring in some possible future talent by flying in the ORU plane to the Bahamas to "recruit" students. Was the daughter that he took on that recruiting trip the same one that needed others to help her with her homework from ORU :) Just wondering ....why couldn't Richard or Lindsey help their own daughter with high school course questions if their children did not understand what was going on in class?
If it is true ORU is almost $80 million in debt, who knows, maybe Roy Disney and Abby Disney can be recruited to purchase Oral Roberts University and the City Plex and turn it around to a place for cutting edge research with high paying jobs in things this country really needs.
OSU lost their NASA space program contract they have had for many years because another had a better plan in another state.
If Tulsa had cutting edge companies that give top pay, it definitely would help. Mayor Taylor has not produced anything from any of her business trips to help Tulsa do that has she?
TYPROS. Please. A bunch of morons if they still don't understand. Many of them are single, making more money than they know what to do with. They don't care how much money they pay in taxes, because they don't have enough to spend their money on now. They are too immature to realize that people can have differences of opinion. It has to be about who "gets it" and who doesn't. Give me a break.
I hope they are watching the local news, and seeing that they were duped by the chamber, the mayor, and the county commission. River development continues, but the right way, with private investments, not taxpayer money.
I don't really understand the vitriol. They TYPros don't want his money to disappear toward causes in other communities. You can take a "populist" stand and tell Kaiser where to shove his nine figure gift, but that really doesn't help Tulsa. The idea behind the email was to make a positive public declaration of support for Kaiser's goals, rather than a adversarial statement slamming "no" voters.
You can make fun of these young people all you want, but they play a major role supporting growth in Tulsa and are simply trying to express that support publicly in a positive manner.
But, I guess it's more fun to rage against those you don't see eye to eye with, hm?