EDMOND, Okla. — Marla Hill traces her movement to a junior high American government class and a public school teacher she is convinced “was sent by God to be there.”
“He said, ‘You know, God is no respecter of persons,’” Hill recalled. The founders, the teacher explained, wanted any citizen to be able to run for office and to be judged by character. “Not by our last name, not by the color of our skin, or anything other than character. And it just struck me, wow, what an incredible country we have to live in.”
Decades later, Hill founded The Turnaround Project with Ginger Sloan, an Oklahoma City healthcare entrepreneur and Choctaw citizen. Hill and her husband, Brian, are known to many Oklahomans through The Cedar Gate. The project’s first public ceremony is set for Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Oklahoma State Capitol’s fourth-floor rotunda.
Participants will rededicate the Declaration of Independence and sign a new pledge, the Turnaround Declaration of 2026.
“This is not going to change the Declaration of Independence,” Hill said. “But we’re going to vow to uphold it and steward it.” She describes the document as the nation’s birth certificate, naming God as Creator and the people as His children…