Bill Hickman Case Study

Who Represents Me? At the local level, I am represented by Bill Hickman for Ward 4 of Norman’s City Council. Hickman was elected this April. He stands out for advocating and volunteering to improve the quality of our local animal shelters- namely he is against the kill system we currently have. He is a “proponent for stricter environmental protections,” and has volunteered with Blue Thumb to help preserve our city’s waterways. He is for the Norman Forward projects, which seek to improve our libraries, parks, and create new public services (like a public pool) for the benefit of community. Hickman has implemented himself in the community long before running for office, and he wants to help the community and local businesses grow and thrive.
He basically represents the opposite of what I stand for. He has no care for the well-being of minorities and marginalized groups- an issue that is absolutely one of the most important to me. Cole says he supports the development of renewable energy, but defends being pro-oil and supporting fracking by saying we should not “put environmental concerns over American prosperity.” I think that’s just a heinous excuse to not demand a solution to all that is literally destroying our planet. I don’t believe that one can care at all about our planet and environment and not be extremely opposed to fracking; renewable energy should be the only energy we allow. Lastly, he says: “I am committed to protecting the most vulnerable, including the unborn, with every vote I cast in Congress.” Yet are the women forced to make this extremely tough decision because they know it will be better for everyone in the long run not some of the “most vulnerable?” And what about the very vulnerable illegal immigrants who have come to the United States to seek a better life and are held to impossibly difficult standards in order to become citizens? What about the non-violent drug offenders he thinks deserve a mandatory minimum sentence? Are they not extremely vulnerable, considering these are often the types of people America has ostracized and allowed to live within the vicious cycle of poverty— poverty that is then taxed to fund their schools, inevitably perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline? Additionally, the large number of people incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses, as well as the fact that we have for-profit prisons in this country, makes it pretty interesting to see the idea of a mandatory minimum sentence for non-violent drug