Change is needed

I’ve spent my entire adult life as a Northwest Missouri farmer. I’ve supported my school, my county, my state and the United States of America with my tax money since I was 18 years old. In that time, I’ve done what I could for my community by taking part in local government, but mostly what I’ve done for the last 40 years is work for a living.

Like everyone knows by the time they reach their sixth decade of life, making a living is sometimes easier said than done.

But my family has been lucky. We’ve stayed with the farm through good times and bad. And we have seen some bad times, but never anything as bad as what we have brewing in our nation today.

Anyone who thinks that Missouri will be insulated from financial pain should think again.

For the last four years, the Missouri General Assembly has played politics. It’s been pretty hard to find much in the way of bipartisan action. This year was the worst of the worst when majority representatives chose to raise their pay and eliminate campaign contribution limits in the same session.

Now the financial bailout of private business by the federal government threatens a lot of the federal aid our state and local governments rely on. The coming years will require a level of leadership that has been lacking in Jefferson City for four years.

We have state blacktops that are crumbling. We have bridges right here in the 4th District with concrete so rotten the reinforcing steel shows through. They’ve been that way for quite a while. There are schools that can’t afford to pay teachers a salary equal to their level of education, or even to heat their buildings as we head into winter with record high fuel prices. Our county governments are facing the same situation.

There is much we need, but one thing we don’t need is a bunch of senators and representatives who think of their paychecks and their campaign accounts ahead of doing their jobs.

Jay Nixon will make a great governor, but he’ll need help. It’s time for a change.

Rick Oswald

Candidate for State Representative,

4th District

Langdon, Mo.

Don’t overlook the kids

In this election year, one important constituency is being overlooked: children.

Millions of American children are in serious jeopardy today. It’s a shameful fact that should be a front-burner issue for all candidates.

The United States has the second-worst child poverty rate (after Mexico) among 26 of the world’s most affluent nations. To underscore the serious and worsening circumstances facing millions of U.S. children, Every Child Matters calculates that in the seven years since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, roughly 28,000 American children have died as a result of child abuse, suicide or homicide; 20 million American children were reported as abused; 1,135,000 more American children are in poverty; 4,450,000 additional Americans and their families have no health insurance; and 300,000 people, many of them with young children, were added to the U.S. prison population.

Abused and neglected children also have the right to receive appropriate care while in government custody. And yet the state of Missouri is paying for one in four children, leaving foster care providers to raise private money to support the other three children, according to the Foster Care Minimum Adequate Rates for Children report that was released last October.

The state doesn’t pay Missouri Department of Transportation contractors to pave one in four miles of road, leaving the contractors to find private money to fund the other three miles of road. Why do we expect less for our children?

We urge all Missourians to join us in calling for political discourse that ensures every child is safe, healthy and has meaningful opportunity. Children — whether they live with their biological family or in foster care — are our most precious resource.

Carmen Schulze

Executive Director, Missouri Coalition

of Children’s Agencies

Jefferson City, Mo.