NSU President Larry Williams speaks with Speaker Cargill and Florida Speaker Marco Rubio

Oklahoma Speaker of the House Lance Cargill and Florida Speaker Marco Rubio engaged a crowd of over 40 people Friday at the third IdeaRaiser for the 100 Ideas Initiative.

Rubio, who initiated Florida’s 100 Ideas program in 2005,
encouraged Oklahomans to get involved in the project.

“We’re hoping you’ll come up with ideas the political process hasn’t picked up on,” Rubio said.

Rubio also said that the Florida initiative found “that people felt what the government was dealing with was not what people were dealing with in their daily lives.”

“As you engage people at every level, I think you’ll find that there are ideas that no one is talking about or writing about, but are still important,” he added.

The topic of discussion Friday was rural healthcare in Oklahoma.

Ideas presented at the event included creating a system to provide travel to patients living in rural areas who do not otherwise have a method of getting to doctor appointments, creating a statewide electronic medical database and providing more information in elementary schools about preventative health care.

Those in attendance at the University Center at Northeastern State University included representatives from the NSU Oklahoma College of Optometry and the Cherokee Health Science Center.

NSU President Larry Williams, his wife, Pamela, and State Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah, were also in attendance.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Keith Perry of Skiatook would like to do away with Oklahoma’s toll roads. John Howk of Bartlesville would like to see a new state Constitution drawn up.

Those are a couple of the ideas Oklahomans have contributed to House Speaker Lance Cargill’s 100 Ideas initiative.

The initiative is a public think tank that seeks citizen input to address problems Oklahoma faces in its centennial year.

Patterned after a program in Florida, the initiative was launched in January by the nonprofit 100 Ideas Oklahoma, which operates on private donations.

The Florida initiative was paid for by that state’s Republican Party and was criticized by Democrats, who said the organization paid no attention to their ideas.

At the end of the year, the 100 Ideas initiative will publish a book filled with the first 100 ideas from Idearaisers across the state. Cargill says he plans to use the book as an agenda for action.