Nick Paro spent an hour with Amanda McCellon, an Oklahoma civic engagement consultant, Choctaw Nation citizen, and former municipal-government insider who spent over a decade working inside local government before deciding to “organize from the community side.” Her argument is blunt and, on the evidence she brings, correct: “democracy dies locally first,” and the first step is simply showing up — to a city council, school board, or county commission meeting, where in most towns “there’s only going to be four or five people in the room at most.” McCellon pushes past the obvious entry points to the ones that actually decide things before they reach a headline: planning and zoning commissions, boards of adjustment, and economic development corporations. “No one shows up to planning and zoning until someone’s building something in your backyard,” she says — and by the time a data center is on the agenda, the fight started years earlier. Nick’s own Arkansas town severed its Flock camera contract after citizen-led outrage; Amanda’s read is that data centers and surveillance cameras are the rare issues pulling both parties into the same room, because “I don’t think the party even matters when it comes to that.”
The receipts back her up. Oklahoma City’s warehouse project died after residents refused to accept Mayor David Holt’s claim that a federal matter left the city powerless — McCellon told organizers plainly that this was “bullshit,” to stay on them and show up in force, and the project was dropped. Shawnee passed a data center moratorium within city limits; Sand Springs and Yukon are running recall efforts against officials who pushed projects through over constituent objections; tribal nations have changed zoning outright to bar warehouses, which she credits with emboldening cities to do the same. Where she’s most self-critical is education: Oklahoma’s minimum wage increase failed, she argues, because dark money ran smear campaigns into a vacuum where no one had done the education work first — and she was reminded at a standing-room-only Tulsa data center forum that two registered Democrat schoolteachers showed up specifically because “we just don’t know why data centers are bad.” Her prescription is unglamorous and free: reach people with facts, expand your own echo chamber, and take the homework she assigned live — pick your city council, school board, or county commissioner, find when they meet, read their most recent agenda, put the date on your calendar, and commit to showing up.
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I’m Nick Paro, and I’m sick of the shit going on. So, I’m using poetry, podcasting, and lives to discuss the intersections of chronic illness and mental wellbeing, masculinity, veteran’s issues, politics, and so much more. I am only able to have these conversations, bring visibility to my communities, and fill the void through your support — this is a publication where engagement is encouraged, creativity is a cornerstone, and transparency is key — please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and grow the community!
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Thank you Ann Kramer, NeuroDivergent Hodgepodge, Stacey carney, EG, Sam, and many others for tuning into my live video with Amanda McCellon! Join me for my next live video in the app.
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