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Toby Keith is still famous

2:11 PM EDT on May 28, 2007

So the Oklahoma Hall of Fame has announced eight new inductees, to be enshrined later this year, bringing the number of individuals inducted up to 621. The eight 2007 honorees are Sonics owners Clay Bennett and Aubrey McLendon, former Miss America Jayne Jayroe, Chairman of the Oklahoma National Gas Company David Kyle, civil rights activist Clara Luper, Choctaw Nation Chief Gregory Pyle, musician Linda Twine and"¦ singer Toby Keith.

All right. Where to start? On one hand, it seems the board of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame is taking the title of their institution quite literally, and are attempting to recognize people who simply have gained a certain amount of fame. On the other hand, given the fact that there have been 621 people now inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, it appears that it's a pretty low bar they've got.

Most Halls-of-Fame, to my knowledge, actually honor people who have done something truly great. The Baseball Hall of Fame, for instance, inducts excellent players as opposed to famous ones. John Rocker is a very famous baseball player, but he is not in Cooperstown.

If you do a Google News search for the phrase "Oklahoma Hall of Fame," all the results have some variation of the phrase "Toby Keith, Others, Inducted Into Oklahoma Hall of Fame." Is this really what we want, fellow Okies? We have genuine heroes like Clara Luper (and what took so long to get her inducted, by the way?) being overshadowed by this guy:

I know, I know. Toby Keith has his own charitable foundation and has gone on USO tours and contributes to many worthy causes. All of this is true. But the fact remains: he's Toby Keith. It's bad enough that I have to listen to the same interview during every OU football home game, but now he's headlining my state's Hall of Fame class? Toby Keith is becoming ubiquitous. And he must be stopped. Unfortunately, I'm very scared of him, and I can think of no good way for this to happen that does not involve a boot in my ass. I'm open to suggestions.

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