Dear Editor:
I disagree with the editor's analysis of the outcome of the #Medicaid23 trial. The demonstrators did not disrupt the work of the Senate, as a filibuster was in progress; in other words, some of the senators themselves were protesting their colleagues' failure to do the work of the people.
While it is true that demonstrations go on as a matter of course on the Capitol lawn and in the Rotunda, these hardly get the attention of the legislators who need to hear their message. It is also true that desperate times call for desperate measures; 300,000 working Missourians are without access to health care. People have died for this lack and others surely will.
Translated from Latin, the state motto is The Welfare of the People shall be the Supreme Law. We have a nefarious Legislature that turns its back on the people, aiming to please only their big campaign donors. I would rather have seen some senators and representatives arrested for failure to do the work of the people.
It is entirely appropriate for citizens to exercise our constitutional right to occupy our tax-funded House and demand that our tax-funded Legislature get their priorities straight. The need for Medicaid expansion is a matter of life and death.
#NovemberIsComing