Welcome those who make democracy work
We are now headed to the General Election in November and there may be knocks on your door by the political candidates seeking your vote. I urge you to be kind and patient with them. Why? They are the ones making democracy work.
The candidates are the ones putting their time and money at risk just to serve you. I hope you will listen, invite them into your home and offer them some cold refreshment. They are performing the service that most of us wouldn't do on a bet.
How would you like to be in a position where you had to ask strangers for money to help finance a political campaign? Some call that begging. Asking for money is the biggest reason political candidates leave public service.
And then along comes the fat cat with millions and he will
want to buy your soul. It's all legal. The Supreme Court has made it so in the case of Citizens United. The court has said that money is part of free speech and you can spend and say all you want. That means that the rich have a decided advantage over the poor or middle-class citizens.
Think of the poor candidate going door-to-door on a hot August afternoon who hopes to receive a friendly reception from you and who does not have a sugar daddy to buy lots of ads. Surprise him/her with a warm reception. It's the right thing to do.
Fred L. Hall, Springfield
Put a stop to the surveillance state
We need a Missouri citizen's initiative for the proposed Missouri S.T.O.P.P. Act, a broad privacy, police-accountability, and government-transparency proposal designed to curb indiscriminate government monitoring, reduce harmful policing practices, protect personal information, and give the public meaningful control over surveillance and enforcement policy.
Surveillance bans mass-surveillance systems, including automated license-plate readers such as Flock, facial and biometric recognition, predictive policing, persistent camera networks, location tracking, data-broker purchases, and drones used for persistent monitoring. Most otherwise-permitted targeted surveillance requires a probable cause warrant specifying the target, offense, method, duration, and safeguards for irrelevant information.
Transparency requires seven-day notice for relevant meetings, accessible contracts, policies, and audits, livestreams and recordings of meetings, and stronger financial and conflict disclosures for officials who oversee policing or surveillance.
Oversight requires public impact assessments, hearings, and recorded approval by an elected governing body before any allowed surveillance program begins or renews. A statewide authorization system would centralize permitted activity, require judicial authorization, record every access and disclosure, enforce retention and deletion limits, and undergo independent audits. Intrusive requests, including extended or multi-target surveillance, would need unanimous approval from three judges.
Policing requires officers to display names and badge numbers, restricts identity-concealing face coverings, mandates de-escalation, crisis assistance, medical aid, intervention, and reporting, and prohibits many neck restraints and force against restrained people. It also establishes a decertification registry and employment bans for serious misconduct.
Privacy limits collection, retention, sale, and sharing of personal data; creates access, correction, notice, and deletion rights; and protects firearm-owner information from registries.
Spread the word and find us online at r/MissouriPolitics, where you can read the full proposed bill in its early stages of development.
Travis J. Richard, Springfield
More Queen City boondoggles
On this past Monday's City Council meeting agenda was an agreement between the city and the United Soccer League (USL). The city has already allocated $75,000 for a feasibility study to bring professional (women's and men's) soccer to Springfield, part of a larger goal to promote sports tourism in the Ozarks. This agreement extends the study period to 2027, as well as authorizes any additional money needed to be paid from the city manager's contingency fund, thereby effectively removing it from council oversight. Further spending would be approved for half of the money needed to develop the proposed 5,000-seat stadium demanded by the USL, including specialized geological and environmental studies, as the stadium would be built atop the abandoned quarry at 1109 E. Trafficway.
I doubt this would be a financially viable project. It would be helpful to have a clear accounting of our other sports-related endeavors, including the Springfield Lazers (tennis), the Brightspeed Ice Arena (hockey) and the Springfield Cardinals (baseball).
If the goal is not to make money, but to encourage job growth, wouldn't it be easier just to find an existing company in Springfield and offer them a $30 million bond and almost $4.5 million in tax abatements? Oh wait, we just did that two weeks ago for Andy's Frozen Custard! Although they tried to fudge the numbers, it was a sweet deal. In the end we gave them everything they wanted without negotiation, including a cherry on top!
Are we ready for an AI bubble?
John Kenneth Galbraith said “the market can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”
What will happen if there is an AI bubble and it bursts?
History tells us that our government will bail out the perpetrators and impose austerity on our citizens.
AI-related investments comprise about one third of our economy. What happens if our economy loses one-third of its value in a short time will make The Great Recession of 2008 seem mild.
Rick Matz, Springfield
Americans must demand a better path
Donald Trump has restarted his war in Iran. He did that to save face and to counter Iran's control of the Straight of Hormuz. You have to wonder if Iran’s main purpose is to see his defeat in the midterm elections; very likely. When our president should be giving some focus on the economy and credence to climate weather events and his ICE killings he is off the charts offering Saudi Arabia the start of a nuclear future. He is asking for billions more to get the job done in his war after lobbing billions there for months. He is angry at NATO nations for not cheerfully joining his war of choice. I do not blame them; Donald Trump is not a planner or a thinker; he can only react like the spoiled child he is. The worst part of rich people in capitalism, a spoiled brat who never had his comeuppance.
He is causing the destruction of another Mideast infrastructure in Iran as if the sinful stain of Gaza was not enough. It is enough! We need to find the better path and our Congress and citizens need to demand it. Write or call your senator and congressman and tell them to stand up and stop this. We the people have an obligation to make America not the nation of killers of other countries. It is not our right; it is not any nation's right to just decide to kill.
Tom Keersemaker, Theodosia
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Letters to the Editor: Readers urge neighbors to take active role
