I certainly support Dr. Schaff's freedom of speech. In fact, I hope he exercises it more often so we can be reminded of what a truly ghastly little character he is.

Anyone who doesn't laugh at him has a heart of stone.

"Anyone who doesn't laugh at him has a heart of stone."

...and anyone who doesn't find the whining of minority members of the legislature self-serving and lame-brained has a brain of ****.

Could "Marxist" or "Socialist" been used to make the same point, and would there have been outrage by fellow lawmakers? While I would like to believe that most of our representatives are well educated individuals, that was not the fact. Many wanted to claim the word slavery as being granted to them by heritage. There is no specific group that owns the word "slavery". The point being raised was that of economic coercion, in that an attempt was made to enslave the taxpayers of Missouri to provide health insurance to able bodied working individuals just because they have children.

Surprised that the minority doesn't whine about being called the minority. How about we just call them the party of lesser power?

The more proper term might have been "servitude," since servitude implies a legal obligation or compulsory component.

I am no fan of Dr. Schaaf, however, the word "slavery" has more far-reaching implications than the enslavement of Africans in the colonies and until we, as a country, realize that it "slavery" is not a dirty word, we will in fact be slaves to our past. Let's get it out in the open and deal with it and then maybe we can move on from being the bigoted, racially biased bunch that we are--black and white alike.

Actually, I am thinking that enslavement might be the best term to describe our current economic state--we, as taxpayers, are slaves to the whims of our government and their corporate and banking buddies. Where's Honest Abe when you need him?

This was politically motivated and signed by two politicians, rucker and wildberger, who are trying to decide which one of them will run against schaff for shields seat. maybe they should pay more attention to inquiries and concerns of their constituents instead of being petty about a choice of words.

deb2007 is spot on! I'm sure that, come election season, neither Rucker nor Wildberger would ever use a less-than-perfect word in the heat of the moment. Even if they did, no one would ever dare call them on it.

Good grief! Is this supposed to be news? I do not know this man, Schaaf, but any lamebrain can see the context of what he is saying. He is not trying to make light of slavery; in fact he is giving one more example of what slavery is. I can't help but think that deb2007 is exactly right. Those detractors need to work on their statesmanship and not petty politics.

The socialist element of our society takes every opportunity to take what is said, out of context and twist its meaning to something ugly. Thus a comment about economic slavery becomes a rant about blacks and their captivity as slaves. This is how they subvert public opinion. I'm sorry but there isn't a living black person in this country that was ever a slave. And their isn't a living white person in this country who was ever a slave owner. So Mr. Rucker and all of the others need to step out of their racist attitudes and join the rest of the world in getting along. The democratic party is the American Socialist Party. They believe in slavery of the American people to the whims of government oppressors. Even though the USSR is dead, Khrushchev was correct in his prediction that they would quietly destroy us from within. Socialism is overtaking the world.

Maybe reparations are in order? But seriously people, slavery was a long freakin time ago. I think you would be very hard pressed to come up with an honest way that slavery has affected anyone that lives today, I think its time to get over it, and get on with your life. Stop taking everything so personal.