In November, 2004 supporters of the Tulsa Zoo celebrated as it was named as the winner of the Microsoft sponsored America's Favorite Zoo contest.   The Tulsa Zoo beat out 49 other zoos that entered the contest, including those in larger cities such as Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Unfortunately the 'glory days' for the Tulsa Zoo were short-lived.

In June, 2005 the Tulsa Parks Board approved the installation of a 'Creationism Exhibit' at the Tulsa Zoo.  This in response to the demands of Tulsan Dan Hicks and various 'fundie elements' within the community.  A group intent upon forcing their particular brand of religion upon Tulsa Zoo patrons.

Hicks has a long history of attempting to impose Creationism upon the Tulsa Zoo and has until recently been rebuffed in his efforts.   Now with Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune openly supporting the christianization of public facilities, Hicks has succeeded in making the Tulsa Zoo the only taxpayer supported 'Christian Zoo' in the nation.

What was just a few short months ago a source of pride for Tulsans is now, thanks to Mr. Hicks and his supporters, a source of controversy that has already resulted in rancorous debate, adverse publicity for Tulsa and will undoubtedly lead to expensive lawsuits.  Lawsuits that the City of Tulsa will have to defend even though the city can not currently afford to fix its many darkened street lights, fill its thousands of potholes, keep its public swimming pools open, adequately staff its police and fire departments or even retain its major employers, who are leaving in droves.

So how did the Tulsa Zoo go from being America's Favorite Zoo to being America's Only Christian Zoo in only a few short months?  And better yet how can patrons of other zoos insure that a bunch of religious zealots do not seize control of their zoo?  The answers to both questions can be found in studying the techniques used by Dan Hicks and his supporters in Tulsa.

First off, Dan Hicks was no over-night success in his quest to cram Creationism down the throats of Tulsa Zoo patrons.  In spite of ten years of trying, Hicks efforts to christianize the Tulsa Zoo had resulted in nothing but failure and a passing mention in fundie propaganda, as revealed by This Article on skepticfiles.org.

In his most recent and only successful attack on the separation of church and state Hicks played the 'discrimination card' by claiming two purely cultural exhibits at the Tulsa Zoo were religious icons.  He then bootstrapped his demand for Christian icons on a false claim of discrimination.   Hicks claimed that the Tulsa Zoo was favoring certain religions while excluding all references to Christianity.

The two cultural exhibits which Mr. Hicks posited as religious icons are a statue of an elephant called "Ganesha" located by the elephant exhibit and a large globe near the zoo entrance with the inscription "the earth is our mother, the sky is our father".

The elephant statue is obviously pertinent to an elephant display as it reflects the culture of India which of course is somewhat famous for elephants, in case Mr. Hicks played hooky on the day they covered that in school.  Also one might question whether Mr. Hicks is going to demand the Democrat party symbol be added to the display, as it already contains the Republican party symbol, the elephant.  The inscription associated with the globe is a reflection of Oklahoma's Native American culture.  In case Mr. Hicks has not heard, Oklahoma has a strong Native American culture. Maybe he just doesn't care.

Possibly Mr. Hicks also played hooky from school on those days the differences between religions and cultures were taught.  Or maybe he simply wishes to mingle the two distinct entities into a warped sense of religious discrimination, as long as it fits his needs.  In any case, Hicks' entire premise centered on turning cultural exhibits into religious icons and then playing the role of the persecuted Christian seeking justice.   While such a ploy would likely fail before reasonable people, it played well to the fundie population of Tulsa, Oklahoma who flocked to Hicks support.

While Mr. Hicks discrimination ploy was popular with the local fundies, it is likely that his efforts would have once again resulted in failure were it not for either his uncanny timing or blind luck, take your pick.

Currently Tulsa city government is in a shambles, with two of Tulsa's nine city councilors facing a recall election next month, four other councilors and the mayor are under the threat of a recall petition, one city councilor has been receiving death threats and one of the two councilors facing recall next month has sued the city for $6,000 in personal legal fees he ran up while trying to prevent the recall election.

With Tulsa suffering a vacuum of leadership, various 'special interest groups' are both courting and being courted by the political factions battling for control of city government.  Clearly Republican Mayor Bill LaFortune has sided with the fundies and jumped on the Jesus bandwagon, wholeheartedly endorsing Hicks' plans to convert the Tulsa Zoo into a Christian Zoo.

With the Republican dominated Tulsa city government in a shambles and infighting within the local Republican party rampant, every Republican office holder is pandering to any and everyone that will support them.

By winning the endorsement of the Mayor, Hicks' time had come.   Not only is the Mayor of Tulsa a member of the Parks and Recreation Board the Mayor also appoints the other board members, most of which are beholding to the Mayor as the titular head of the Republican party in Tulsa.   For reference see the Tulsa City Charter

On June 7, 2005 the Tulsa Parks and Recreation Board met to consider Mr. Hicks demands.   It was a standing-room only meeting with debate and tempers running high on both sides of the issue.  Hicks had already primed the board with his sales pitches for intelligent design and creationism. For reference see Meeting Agenda - 5/03/05  and Meeting Agenda - 6/02/05.   All that was needed was for the Tulsa Parks and Recreation Board to rubber stamp Hicks demands.

Leaders and spokespersons from various religious faiths and organizations spoke out both in support of and in opposition to Hicks' demands.  The administrators of the Tulsa Zoo opposed the plan while Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune spoke in favor of christianizing the city's zoo and made the point that he would decide what is and is not displayed there.

In the end the vote was taken, the Hicks demands were approved and the zoo administration was instructed to being planning and implementation of the creationism display which is expected to take six months to complete.

Only one member of the Tulsa Park and Recreation Board, Dale McNamara, had the courage to vote against the christianization of the Tulsa Zoo.

Once again Tulsa has managed to make itself the laughingstock of the nation.   Just as it did with the Penthouse Fiasco  a few years ago.  Hopefully one of these days Tulsans will wake up to the existence of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the implications of each.  Until that time, one can only wait and watch as the slow motion train wreck that is the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma hurtles down the track to oblivion.

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