Opinion

Suspicions that might arise in this election year – after another census resulted in yet another undercount of minorities – are understandable, even expected. Generally, black and Latino voters lean toward Democrats.

Some April 5 elections will not be on the ballot. There will be no story about Hardin-Central or Orrick boards of education candidates and their views on wearing masks, critical race theory, teacher pay and sexual identity.

Richmond city officials placed a tax issue on the ballot to benefit community residents, and voters will decide whether they agree with the decision April 5 at the polls. Voters are asked to maintain an existing tax at the same average cost the public pays now.

Josh Hawley, Missouri’s firstterm junior U.S. senator, works overtime to try to make himself sound like a big deal.

The right to redress government is part of the U.S. Constitution and is practiced with vigor in Missouri, but some Republicans want to change that and are meeting opposition rightly from conservatives within their own party.

From its beginning in 1918, Russian Communists led by Lenin and then Stalin sought to control populations by intimidation, brutality and death. Lenin murdered 6 million people and Stalin three times as many. During Stalin’s reign from 1925 to 1953, Communism spread to Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. President Reagan referred to the USSR as the “evil empire,” and President Eisenhower stated the Soviet government believed in the “force of huge armies, subversion and rule of neighboring nations.”

I hear a lot on TV about rising gas prices and have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, Missouri has some of the lowest gasoline taxes in the United States, so that saves me money.

Our Missouri legislators really do not seem to care for the poor or the will of the people. We the people voted to expand Medicaid to cover about 200,000 more poor Missourians.