The September 21-27 edition of The St. Louis American was one of your best. From Mike Jones’ reminder of our moral duty to protest as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence to the written and photographic coverage of mass actions following the Stockley verdict, the edition was stellar. And it certainly confirmed the first page headline: “The whole damn system is guilty as hell.”
Given that justice does not prevail where prejudice exists, it is important that we use tools that allow us to do an end run around our General Assembly. Too often the Missouri Legislature follows an agenda dictated by a few wealthy white male campaign donors. One of these direct democracy tools is the ballot measure by petition drive.
By uniting in current petition drives, we have the chance to put a raise in the minimum wage and good government reform (“the CLEAN Initiative”) on the Missouri ballot in 2018. Along with repealing the deceptively named Right to Work, we can take the power into our own hands and improve our legal context on these three crucial matters.
Jeanette Mott Oxford is executive director of Empower Missouri.
