Pondering 2008 in the Show Me state...

A bitch may have been born in Minneapolis but my ass was raised in Missouri. The Missouri of my childhood had plenty of problems…a history of racial segregation and oppression, regional adoration of all things insurgent and Confederate, rigid class divides and unemployment.

But we were also proud to be the Show Me state…a place where people questioned shit rather than just accept it and where being willing to change your mind and learn was something to brag on.

Sadly, the Missouri of my youth is not the Missouri I returned to some five years ago and nothing illustrates that better than the current crop of ballot initiatives set to divide us in 2007.

The tried and true affirmative action ban...
My first reaction to this was that it is kind of warped to have a ban on affirmative action practices in a state that’s hemorrhaging jobs and talent at a record pace.

My second reaction was disgust because Missouri was chosen for this ban for a reason.

For what we have always been and what we no longer work not be…a state where the klan is listed on highway beautification signs, confederate flags adorn too many pick-up truck bumpers and the St. Louis Post Dispatch calmly publishes articles explaining that white people are leaving a school district because the black population is growing.

These assholes coming to Missouri is like ants swarming a kitchen...something called out to them that this was the place to be and that's nothing to be proud of.

The so-called abortion ban…
Another year equals another assault on choice in Missouri.

Gawd forbid energy and effort be put towards education and prevention in Missouri. St. Louis city's std infection rates are an example of what decades of the war on choice can do.

And here we are again…at war over a ballot initiative when we should be working to educate our youth, empower women and their doctors and support the kind of family planning that builds strong communities.

Nothing can not be pro-family if it is anti-woman…but then again, there’s nothing pro-family about this ballot shit.

The fear of a brown majority immigration initiative…
When I moved back to St. Louis city I was thrilled to learn that we have a large immigrant population because it made me feel that my city was welcoming and inclusive. We should be proud of the diversity immigrants have brought to St. Louis in the past and continue to bring.

Instead, we’re looking at a ballot initiative that seeks to profile against anyone brown and possibly of Mexican descent.

The last thing we need in this state is local law enforcement having the legal right to ask for “papers” from people of color. I get enough grief trying to shop/vote/drive while black as it is.

Top that shit sundae off with the English Only measure and I just don’t recognize this place anymore.

The Missouri state motto…which is in Latin and would become illegal should that English only measure pass…is Salus populi suprema lex esto.

Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.

Come November 2008, Missourians will Show Me and the rest of the country what that means to us and what we stand for.

Lawd, have mercy.