Pattonville residents are invited to participate in community swims at the Pattonville Aquatic Complex during the winter break. Events on Dec. 28 include a lap swim from 1 to 2 p.m. and an open swim from 2 to 3:30 p.m. On Jan. 3, a lap swim will be from 11 a.m. to noon, and an open swim from noon to 2 p.m. Fee is $2 for adults and $1 for students and seniors aged 55 and older. All students must be accompanied by a parent while swimming.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
United We Stand, Divided We Kneel
By Steve Erdelen (Reprinted from Summer 2011 hardcopy edition)
 |
| Iron mine workers in Minnesota, circa 1910 |
If you turn back a page, you’ll notice a bug on page three. Not a real bug, but what is known as a union printer’s bug. That in itself is no big deal, but I happen to be very proud that our magazine is now being printed at a union printing shop. There was never any kind of protest against our magazine by any union member, or any pressure applied by anyone, whatsoever, to print at a union shop. It was my decision to go that direction and a very competitive bid helped me along. Decisions like that are made everyday by millions of small businesses around this country and our business is no different. The only thing that sets us apart from the vast majority of small businesses in this country is that our product is a direct reflection of the communities we are circulated in.
In other words, if you pick up a copy of The Springfield News-Leader on your way to visit your child at Missouri State University, or on your way to Branson, the chances are pretty good that your future perceptions of Springfield, Missouri will be influenced by that newspaper you just bought. My first job in the advertising business was in 1984 and since that time the biggest lesson I’ve learned, is that perception is everything.
In other words, if you pick up a copy of The Springfield News-Leader on your way to visit your child at Missouri State University, or on your way to Branson, the chances are pretty good that your future perceptions of Springfield, Missouri will be influenced by that newspaper you just bought. My first job in the advertising business was in 1984 and since that time the biggest lesson I’ve learned, is that perception is everything.
One of our contributors told me that she intentionally drops off copies of our magazine in trendy little coffee shops around the St. Louis area. She apparently does so, because she is proud of the magazine and she wants to help stop the perception that our area is on the decline and that we have very little to offer in terms of culture and commerce. As most of our readers realize, Northwest St. Louis County is brimming with great history, tremendous talent, fine businesses, beautiful homes and very friendly people. Region wide perceptions about this area however, could be dramatically improved.
Combine the devastating decline of Lambert St. Louis International Airport, the destruction of 2,000 homes and nearly 100 businesses in Bridgeton for a seldom used runway and the effective abandonment of Northwest Plaza in St. Ann and what do you have? What you have my friend is a perception problem. Pile on top of that the nationwide trend in the 1980’s and 1990’s to migrate out of inner cities and their original suburbs (or exurbs) and then what kind of community are you left with? I guess the answer depends on your perspective and your insight. It depends on whether your perceptions are formed by the influence of your peer group, people you aspire to be like or pure, deductive reasoning. It’s sometimes easier to look down your nose at a person, or a geographic area than it is to look down your nose to study the real facts about someone or somewhere.
The bottom line is that no matter where a person now resides, they are generally very proud of that place, but where they “grew up” is almost always sacred to them. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. On the local Facebook Groups I’ve organized, I’ve read thousands of fond remembrances from area Baby Boomers about Northwest Plaza, St. Charles Rock Road, Pattonville and Ritenour High Schools and virtually every neighborhood around here. When I announced online that we were launching the Rock Road Reporter, I was immediately flooded (and still am) by request for copies of the magazine, by former local residents who now live in St. Charles County, Lincoln County, Warren County, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Bradenton, Florida, to name just a few. Did they think that our magazine was going to be the second coming of TIME, or NEWSWEEK, or ROLLING STONE? Nope. They just missed the area they grew up in and they thought that our magazine could bring a little piece of home back to them.
The area that they grew up in was and is still considered to be a “working class” and “middle class” area. Their parents might have worked at McDonnell-Douglas (Boeing) or at the Ford or GM plant. They may have been in “the trades” as a machinist, pipe fitter, equipment operator, electrician, welder, plumber, carpenter, painter, bricklayer or laborer. Just like today, local people sold clothing and shoes and furniture and waited tables and tended bar and swept and mopped the floors at schools and at businesses. They worked hard and they took pride in what they accomplished. They put food on the table and they sent their freshly scrubbed kids to school everyday. America was booming and it was the working class and middle class paychecks that kept it booming. Families would buy that new Ford or Chevy or Dodge every three to five years and the new Zenith color television and the new Frigidaire as well. It made sense that one job here created another job here.
Things have changed quite a bit since then for the working class. Lifetime jobs with the same company are now extremely rare, as are retirement pensions. Loyalty to workers is a thing of the past and the dignity and honor of an honest day’s work is often overlooked and underappreciated. Greed is rampant and the divide between rich and poor is much worse than it has ever been. A good friend and top salesman that I worked with in the early 1990’s told me back then: “It used to be that sales and marketing people ran companies and now it’s the bean counters that run companies.”
His point at the time was that instead of investing in new markets and new products to create more profits, companies were beating down vendors and cutting jobs to prop up the bottom line. Very little has changed from his statement of 18 years ago, in fact it has gotten far worse. Corporations, with the tacit approval of Congress have basically declared war on the working people of this country. In the name of the bottom line, unions have been targeted and broken up, pension plans eliminated, insurance premiums increased and job security abolished. “Increased productivity” typically means that one person is doing the job of two or three people and by God, they better not complain about it. Most people know exactly what will happen to them if they do. Even if a worker keeps his or her mouth shut, the possibility of their job being shipped off to a foreign country remains a very real possibility. Speaking of foreign countries, American corporations are allowed to defer taxes from overseas profits to the tune of over $100 billion a year.
Hundreds of billions of hard working taxpayer dollars have been used to save banks and financial institutions that were “too big to fail.” The very same banks and financial institutions who helped to create the sub prime mortgage lending crisis that ultimately wiped out trillions of dollars in middle class home equity all over this country. Thousands of middle class people hear a statement similar to the following every day: “We’re sorry Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but your house that was valued at $160,000 in 2007 is now worth $100,000. The $60,000 in equity that you thought you had has now disappeared; therefore we cannot issue you a line of credit to capitalize your new business, because you don’t have enough collateral.”
When that happens and I can personally attest to the fact that it does happen, new jobs are not created and small businesses are not allowed to start-up or expand. The middle class is rapidly getting squeezed out of the American dream while billionaires are using millions of dollars of our tax money in the form of TIF’s (Tax Increment Financing) to “assist” them in the development of box stores that sell mostly foreign made merchandise. (For reference, see the new Wal-Mart Super Center being built on St. Charles Rock Road, in Bridgeton) Also, remember that the Wal-Mart atCypress and the Rock Road will be completely abandoned and presumably left for dead.
Not to rub it in, but two wars are being fought overseas and we have found within us the generosity to grant the wealthiest among us a $700 billion tax break. Add to that the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street and you’ll come up with enough money to send 20 million of our citizens through four years of college.
The GI Bill after World War II proved that educating Americans was a very smart thing to do. The bill helped to create the most innovative and skilled work force in the history of the world. It seems that, these days however, our tax money is better spent on subsidizing the wealthy in the hope that some of that money will “trickle down” to all of us peasants and “create jobs.” Job creation is a concept that politicians love to talk about, but have no idea of how to really make it happen. Rebuilding our infrastructure and investing in exurban redevelopment doesn’t seem to be a viable option for them. It’s much easier to just hand over money to corporations.
How can ordinary working class or middle class people (or whatever sociologists like to call us) fight back against raging greed and self serving politicians? I believe the way our parents did it and the way their parents did it before them, was first to get off their rear ends and go to the polls and secondly, to form and join unions. They teamed up to bargain collectively and to strike with work stoppages against unlivable wages and unnecessary greed. They boycotted companies who mistreated workers and marketed shoddy products. They practiced the old lesson of vigorously protecting their own interest. The same lesson any rich person would teach their son or daughter.
By the way, did I mention that there was a bug on page three?
Combine the devastating decline of Lambert St. Louis International Airport, the destruction of 2,000 homes and nearly 100 businesses in Bridgeton for a seldom used runway and the effective abandonment of Northwest Plaza in St. Ann and what do you have? What you have my friend is a perception problem. Pile on top of that the nationwide trend in the 1980’s and 1990’s to migrate out of inner cities and their original suburbs (or exurbs) and then what kind of community are you left with? I guess the answer depends on your perspective and your insight. It depends on whether your perceptions are formed by the influence of your peer group, people you aspire to be like or pure, deductive reasoning. It’s sometimes easier to look down your nose at a person, or a geographic area than it is to look down your nose to study the real facts about someone or somewhere.
The bottom line is that no matter where a person now resides, they are generally very proud of that place, but where they “grew up” is almost always sacred to them. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. On the local Facebook Groups I’ve organized, I’ve read thousands of fond remembrances from area Baby Boomers about Northwest Plaza, St. Charles Rock Road, Pattonville and Ritenour High Schools and virtually every neighborhood around here. When I announced online that we were launching the Rock Road Reporter, I was immediately flooded (and still am) by request for copies of the magazine, by former local residents who now live in St. Charles County, Lincoln County, Warren County, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Bradenton, Florida, to name just a few. Did they think that our magazine was going to be the second coming of TIME, or NEWSWEEK, or ROLLING STONE? Nope. They just missed the area they grew up in and they thought that our magazine could bring a little piece of home back to them.
The area that they grew up in was and is still considered to be a “working class” and “middle class” area. Their parents might have worked at McDonnell-Douglas (Boeing) or at the Ford or GM plant. They may have been in “the trades” as a machinist, pipe fitter, equipment operator, electrician, welder, plumber, carpenter, painter, bricklayer or laborer. Just like today, local people sold clothing and shoes and furniture and waited tables and tended bar and swept and mopped the floors at schools and at businesses. They worked hard and they took pride in what they accomplished. They put food on the table and they sent their freshly scrubbed kids to school everyday. America was booming and it was the working class and middle class paychecks that kept it booming. Families would buy that new Ford or Chevy or Dodge every three to five years and the new Zenith color television and the new Frigidaire as well. It made sense that one job here created another job here.
Things have changed quite a bit since then for the working class. Lifetime jobs with the same company are now extremely rare, as are retirement pensions. Loyalty to workers is a thing of the past and the dignity and honor of an honest day’s work is often overlooked and underappreciated. Greed is rampant and the divide between rich and poor is much worse than it has ever been. A good friend and top salesman that I worked with in the early 1990’s told me back then: “It used to be that sales and marketing people ran companies and now it’s the bean counters that run companies.”
His point at the time was that instead of investing in new markets and new products to create more profits, companies were beating down vendors and cutting jobs to prop up the bottom line. Very little has changed from his statement of 18 years ago, in fact it has gotten far worse. Corporations, with the tacit approval of Congress have basically declared war on the working people of this country. In the name of the bottom line, unions have been targeted and broken up, pension plans eliminated, insurance premiums increased and job security abolished. “Increased productivity” typically means that one person is doing the job of two or three people and by God, they better not complain about it. Most people know exactly what will happen to them if they do. Even if a worker keeps his or her mouth shut, the possibility of their job being shipped off to a foreign country remains a very real possibility. Speaking of foreign countries, American corporations are allowed to defer taxes from overseas profits to the tune of over $100 billion a year.
Hundreds of billions of hard working taxpayer dollars have been used to save banks and financial institutions that were “too big to fail.” The very same banks and financial institutions who helped to create the sub prime mortgage lending crisis that ultimately wiped out trillions of dollars in middle class home equity all over this country. Thousands of middle class people hear a statement similar to the following every day: “We’re sorry Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but your house that was valued at $160,000 in 2007 is now worth $100,000. The $60,000 in equity that you thought you had has now disappeared; therefore we cannot issue you a line of credit to capitalize your new business, because you don’t have enough collateral.”
When that happens and I can personally attest to the fact that it does happen, new jobs are not created and small businesses are not allowed to start-up or expand. The middle class is rapidly getting squeezed out of the American dream while billionaires are using millions of dollars of our tax money in the form of TIF’s (Tax Increment Financing) to “assist” them in the development of box stores that sell mostly foreign made merchandise. (For reference, see the new Wal-Mart Super Center being built on St. Charles Rock Road, in Bridgeton) Also, remember that the Wal-Mart atCypress and the Rock Road will be completely abandoned and presumably left for dead.
Not to rub it in, but two wars are being fought overseas and we have found within us the generosity to grant the wealthiest among us a $700 billion tax break. Add to that the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street and you’ll come up with enough money to send 20 million of our citizens through four years of college.
The GI Bill after World War II proved that educating Americans was a very smart thing to do. The bill helped to create the most innovative and skilled work force in the history of the world. It seems that, these days however, our tax money is better spent on subsidizing the wealthy in the hope that some of that money will “trickle down” to all of us peasants and “create jobs.” Job creation is a concept that politicians love to talk about, but have no idea of how to really make it happen. Rebuilding our infrastructure and investing in exurban redevelopment doesn’t seem to be a viable option for them. It’s much easier to just hand over money to corporations.
How can ordinary working class or middle class people (or whatever sociologists like to call us) fight back against raging greed and self serving politicians? I believe the way our parents did it and the way their parents did it before them, was first to get off their rear ends and go to the polls and secondly, to form and join unions. They teamed up to bargain collectively and to strike with work stoppages against unlivable wages and unnecessary greed. They boycotted companies who mistreated workers and marketed shoddy products. They practiced the old lesson of vigorously protecting their own interest. The same lesson any rich person would teach their son or daughter.
By the way, did I mention that there was a bug on page three?
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Rock Road Brewer Gives Police and Firefighters Their Best Case Ever
John Beal, President of American Patriot Beer and CEO of John Beal Roofing laughed, "I considered giving the Officers and Firefighters a case of shingles, but my VP of Marketing, Sam Maiden Jr., convinced me that they would rather have a case of American-owned and American-Brewed American Patriot Beer!"
Beal continued, "Seriously I love these folks, over the years my company has put a lot of roofs on the homes of these incredibly brave people, who put it all on the line for all of us every day. I can't begin to imagine what kind of courage it takes to face down a bad guy or run into a burning building."
"Life has been good to me and this is just a small way of honoring the bonds of courage and fidelity to duty that these folks share. I hope that this Labor Day, as they gather with friends and family that everyone will let them know how much we appreciate the risks they take to keep all of us safe," Beal concluded.
The American Patriot Beer will be available for pick-up at the St. Louis Police Officers Association Hall at 3710 Hampton Avenue just in time for the Labor Day Weekend.
Sgt. David Bonenberger, President of the St. Louis Police Officers Association and Demetrius Alfred, President of the St. Louis Firefighters Association said, "We are absolutely delighted and totally surprised by this generous action and we know our men and women will enjoy the FREE cases of American Patriot Beer woleheartedly and responsibly as all good citizens do!
"On behalf of all our brothers and sisters in the law enforcement and firefighting
professions, and like all those people on TV say, 'Thank you! John Beal."
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Local FM Radio is Coming To Your Smartphone
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Unprecedented coordination by radio broadcasters led to today's announcement that Sprint will begin installing the NextRadio® application in a broad array of FM-enabled wireless devices over the coming years, allowing consumers to listen to their local radio stations on their smartphones.
"Today we set a new course as an industry, one that will bring exciting audience and advertiser engagement opportunities," Emmis Chairman & CEO Jeff Smulyan said. "This announcement is a credit to the entire radio industry, which has unified to make this happen."
The announcement by Sprint also marks the official launch of NextRadio®, the smartphone app that delivers a highly interactive artist and ad experience to FM-enabled smartphones.
Data for the NextRadio® app is supplied by TagStation®, the cloud-based engine that offers stations the ability to upload branding images that will display as default artwork in the NextRadio® app, as well as call letters, format, station name and slogan. This basic, free level of station integration is open to all radio stations and creates a compelling experience within the app as the user is able to quickly associate their local stations with familiar visuals while browsing.
If a station does not register at TagStation®, listeners using the NextRadio® app will still be able to hear the radio station but may not see the station's logo displayed.
"Whether the station is large market, medium market, small market, commercial or non-commercial, this free service will provide listeners with a visual radio listening experience on the FM-enabled smartphone. Radio stations no longer have to add the cost of Internet Streaming to get local FM radio on a mobile device," said Paul Brenner, Emmis' Chief Technology Officer and President, NextRadio, LLC. "Adding full TagStation® capabilities allows radio stations to offer listeners features like album art and artist information, listener feedback, song tagging capabilities, enhanced advertising options and social integration, which dramatically enhance the listening experience."
Smulyan noted that more than 1,500 stations signed up for the free services offered by TagStation® and thousands more are expected following today's product launch. Additionally, industry leaders like Beasley, CBS Radio, Entercom, Greater Media and Hubbard registered for the additional services through TagStation®.
The Radio Advertising Bureau and National Association of Broadcasters enthusiastically endorse the idea of FM receivers in smartphones. The NextRadio® system brings that feature to select Sprint smartphones and includes every radio station in America on the service. To see a demonstration of the NextRadio® app, go to http://tagstation.com/NextRadio/. To sign your station up for this free service, visit http://www.tagstation.com/signup
"Today we set a new course as an industry, one that will bring exciting audience and advertiser engagement opportunities," Emmis Chairman & CEO Jeff Smulyan said. "This announcement is a credit to the entire radio industry, which has unified to make this happen."
The announcement by Sprint also marks the official launch of NextRadio®, the smartphone app that delivers a highly interactive artist and ad experience to FM-enabled smartphones.
Data for the NextRadio® app is supplied by TagStation®, the cloud-based engine that offers stations the ability to upload branding images that will display as default artwork in the NextRadio® app, as well as call letters, format, station name and slogan. This basic, free level of station integration is open to all radio stations and creates a compelling experience within the app as the user is able to quickly associate their local stations with familiar visuals while browsing.
If a station does not register at TagStation®, listeners using the NextRadio® app will still be able to hear the radio station but may not see the station's logo displayed.
"Whether the station is large market, medium market, small market, commercial or non-commercial, this free service will provide listeners with a visual radio listening experience on the FM-enabled smartphone. Radio stations no longer have to add the cost of Internet Streaming to get local FM radio on a mobile device," said Paul Brenner, Emmis' Chief Technology Officer and President, NextRadio, LLC. "Adding full TagStation® capabilities allows radio stations to offer listeners features like album art and artist information, listener feedback, song tagging capabilities, enhanced advertising options and social integration, which dramatically enhance the listening experience."
Smulyan noted that more than 1,500 stations signed up for the free services offered by TagStation® and thousands more are expected following today's product launch. Additionally, industry leaders like Beasley, CBS Radio, Entercom, Greater Media and Hubbard registered for the additional services through TagStation®.
The Radio Advertising Bureau and National Association of Broadcasters enthusiastically endorse the idea of FM receivers in smartphones. The NextRadio® system brings that feature to select Sprint smartphones and includes every radio station in America on the service. To see a demonstration of the NextRadio® app, go to http://tagstation.com/NextRadio/. To sign your station up for this free service, visit http://www.tagstation.com/signup
Friday, April 26, 2013
Pattonville High ranked No. 19 in Missouri, in Top 10 percent in nation
Pattonville High School was ranked in the Top 20 high schools in Missouri and the Top 10 percent of high schools in the nation on U.S. News and World Report's 2013 Best High Schools Ranking List. Pattonville was ranked No. 19 out of 560 high schools in Missouri and No. 1,914 out of more than 21,000 public high schools in the U.S.
"This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students and our teaching staff as well as further proof that Pattonville High School is an exemplary high school that fosters the social and academic development of each student," said Dr. Joe Dobrinic, Pattonville High School principal.
U.S. News evaluated 21,035 public high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Schools were awarded gold, silver or bronze medals based on state proficiency standards and how well they prepare students for college. Pattonville was one of 7 percent of schools that earned a silver medal. The Top 500 high schools in the nation (or Top 2 percent) earned the gold medal.
U.S. News used a three-step screening process in order to select the Best High Schools. The first two steps were designed to ensure that the schools serve all of their students well, using performance on state standardized tests as the benchmarks. During the first step, schools had to demonstrate that their students performed better than statistically expected for the average student in the state based on reading and math test results. Schools which made it past the first step were evaluated based on whether the school's least-advantaged students were performing better than average for similar students in the state.
Schools which made it past the first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally on the final step - college readiness performance. This criteria used advanced placement (AP) or international baccalaureate test data as benchmarks for success, depending which was the largest at the school. Pattonville was evaluated based on its AP data, including participation rate and AP test data. AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools across the country.
To see Missouri's Best High Schools Ranking list, go to:http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/missouri/rankings?int=c0b4c1
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
He's got a problem and a gun. Now what?
Solving gun violence is not a more or less proposition.
By Steve Erdelen
I’d like to begin this piece by mentioning that I’ve been a hunter for over 20 years and I’ve never seen anyone actually hunt with a pistol or an assault rifle. Never. Not to kill a deer, a turkey, a rabbit, or a squirrel. I assume the rationale behind that is that a pistol is just not a very effective hunting tool and assault rifles wouldn’t be considered “sporting,” by any of the hunters that I know of, or have ever heard of.
Let’s face it… the overwhelming majority of murders and firearms accidents are committed with pistols and the majority of mass killings are committed with assault weapons. Pistols and assault weapons may be a fun hobby at the local shooting range, but their only true purpose is to kill human beings and they do that very efficiently.
Firearm deaths have now surpassed automobile accident deaths in 10 of our states with 31,672 firearm related deaths reported overall in the United States
For unknown reasons, statistics for intruders and attackers who died at the hands of armed self-defenders are lumped into the “homicide” category of firearm statistics and are extremely difficult to accurately obtain. However, one important study noted that 1,209 women were murdered in 1998 and only 12 women used handguns to kill their attackers in that particular year. Statistically speaking, that’s less than 1% on the self-defense side. For the sake of argument, let’s double that statistic and say that 2% of all homicides are in self-defense. In other words, for every 50 people who are killed by a handgun, one person kills an attacker with a handgun. Those are not very good odds for the “I bought a gun for self-protection,” folks, but statistics don’t seem to hinder the recent, unprecedented, rush to buy firearms and ammunition.
This trend began in earnest after the Newtown , Connecticut United States
Whether people agree or disagree with their policies, the NRA certainly deserves credit for their ability to organize and mobilize their membership, which is made up of made up of more than 4 million gun owners and growing. With that said, I think it is very unfortunate that in the NRA’s zeal to defend one constitutional right, they are perfectly willing to stomp on several other constitutional rights. For example, what was the NRA’s solution to end mass killings at elementary schools? “Arm all of the teachers.” That’s right, arm kindergarten teachers and right on up the line to the colleges. The venerated NRA, a huge and important lobbying entity, deliberated in silence for a couple of weeks after the Newtown San Diego Aurora , Colorado
Consider this concept for a moment: Our right to assemble; our right to free movement, our right to free speech and our right to petition the government with our grievances would all be negatively effected if guns were everywhere we looked. Trust me, as an enlisted Navy man on liberty with my shipmates, I saw Spanish dictator Franco’s Civil Guardia with automatic weapons on practically every street corner of Barcelona
More guns displayed in public areas are surely not a sensible solution in a free society like ours. So what is the solution? Fewer guns? Let’s start with the fact that over 180,000,000 guns are already owned in the United States
It’s my personal opinion that neither side of the gun quantity argument is very convincing. The solution to gun violence has little to do with the guns themselves. Most firearm deaths are the result of mental instability in whatever form that it may take. Mental health issues such as severe depression, lack of self-esteem, extreme jealousy, mania, drug/alcohol addiction, schizophrenia and anti-social behavior, all combine to make up the vast majority of firearm deaths. The real question is… what are we doing right now to treat those dangerous building blocks of firearm fatalities? Regrettably, very little has been done recently to address mental instability in the United States Missouri
“Governor Matt Blunt’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget recommendations would slash nearly $41 million from the Missouri Department of Mental Health’s general revenue for community treatment and rehabilitation services. Psychiatric services and alcohol and drug treatment programs would lose an additional $20 million in federal funds because of the reduction in state matching funds. An additional $24 million in federal funds for mental retardation and developmental disability services would be lost. Thousands of Missouri
And there’s more:
“Loss of federal funds will eliminate suicide prevention programs which have been instrumental in reducing Missouri
Nearly half of Missourians receiving substance abuse treatment services are referred from the criminal justice system. With the proposed budget cuts, community-based psychiatric services will no longer be available to half of the court-referred clients, who have committed crimes and are on conditional release.”
Ironically, former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt now sits on the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association and has vigorously encouraged the unrestricted sale of assault weapons, both as Missouri Governor and during his tenure on the NRA’s Board. It would, of course, be unfair to say that there was any direct correlation between Mr. Blunt’s cuts in mental health programs and his promotion of assault weapons, but, as they say, “Policies have consequences.” His positions as Missouri Governor and NRA Board Director, can be weighed together, or separately, but the net result of his policies are the tragic facts that severely disturbed people have been thrown out into the streets and their access to assault weapons continue to be unhindered by our laws.
Cutting mental health programs is a pretty simple political undertaking, because the people who are served by those programs can’t, won’t and don’t fight back. There is no widely organized constituency that I know of that can launch an effective counter-campaign to retain, or regain, mental health services. The mentally ill don’t have an organization like the AARP to back them up and once the government abandons them, they are on their own. Our most fragile citizens can be our most dangerous citizens and they have mostly been left to fight their demons all alone.
As the argument concerning more guns, or fewer guns, continues, consider the notion that it may not matter at all. As long as our insurance companies and our government continue to deny treatment for the mentally unstable, the violence will surely continue unabated. The current consensus that most of our politicians have reached, regarding extensive background checks for everyone who purchases a gun, is decidedly not what the framers of the constitution had in mind. Aren’t freedom and privacy the very things that all of those guns are supposed to be protecting in the first place?
Instead of losing focus on the real firearms problem and spending tens of billions to implement even more freedom and privacy restrictions, why not spend that money on assisting the mentally ill to more actively participate in the most fundamental constitutional right of them all? Namely, the “pursuit of happiness.”
Sources; USA Today, VPC.org, The Joplin Independent, nra.org.
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