Some two-dozen of us rendezvous at Capital City Steak House just as night comes on. A February snow is moving our way. It’s not here yet, but a few have been delayed. From across Missouri we have come to Jefferson City to speak with our legislators about the needs of the 7200 of our citizens diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. They and their families need help. We are to be joined in the morning by another contingent of folks. Together we have appointments with more than 140 of our state representatives and senators. Over lasagna and roast beef we make plans for tomorrow.
As we eat, our leaders bring us up to speed on the bills we have come to support and the pending issues of importance to us. We have been well briefed before we came. After two hours we are prepared with up to the minute status. We scurry into the night, through sleet and snow, back to our hotel, a charming little place with the ambiance of a bed and breakfast and the loving attention mothers are famous for.
I take a seat at a small table in the dining room, just off the lobby. “I have a splitting headache,” I say to the waitress. “Do you have anything for it?” She disappears. Returns momentarily with four little pills and a glass of Coke. “Ibuprofen,” she says when I ask. I take two and down the coke. My headache is soon gone.
By eight o’clock the next morning, we are at the capital. Annie Rinehart was my representative last year. She was receptive. But Annie had cancer and did not run in the fall. Two of my friends ran for her open seat. Bob Saunders, Democrat; Tim Flook, Republican. Tim won. I am to see him this morning.
Twenty minutes or so we sit in Tim’s office while I explain what the MS Society would like from the state. Tim looks up the bills on his PC. He promises to do what he can. I believe him. Tim asks me to come to the House Chamber at 10 o’clock so he can introduce me to his colleagues. “I would like to introduce Dr. Ed Chasteen,” Tim says when he is called on. “Dr. Chasteen taught at William Jewell College, my alma mater, for thirty years. He left to organize HateBusters. HateBusters helps when people are hurt by hate. Dr. Chasteen has Multiple Sclerosis. He’s a well-known bicycle rider. He’s here today with the MS Society to help us understand the needs of our citizens with MS. He’s a Democrat. He sent me an email after my election telling me he didn’t vote for me. But wishing me well and offering to work with me. I would like for you to welcome Dr. Ed Chasteen.”
Having no desire myself to run for public office, I am grateful beyond words for those who do. I am not one to bad mouth politicians. Quite the contrary. My respect for them is boundless. They are able somehow to satisfy the wishes of a varied constituency. They succeed in getting elected while others fail. Then in office they must hear and heed incessant requests, pleas, and demands. They suffer insults and threats. They are expected everywhere all the time. Their motives are questioned. Their character is assailed.
By our votes we put them in office. And by our votes, we remove them. They work for us. The public. Each of us is their boss. By what we say about them, we tarnish or burnish their reputations. Each time I visit our capital in Jefferson City, I come away feeling that we are in good hands. My candidates mostly lost the last election. But I do not feel shut out. These are good people we have sent to do our business. On election day we may be on different sides and on issues we may take different positions, but we are fellow citizens of a great democracy.
I am only one of the more than 40 representatives of the MS Society walking the halls of our state capital today. It’s a heady experience. I pass others wearing badges naming other organizations they are here to advocate. Friendliness abounds. Smiles everywhere. Everyone speaks. The Columbia Chorale gathers in the rotunda near noon. Their classical voices waft upward and fill the cavernous marble hallways with angelic sounds. How could good things not naturally occur amid such acoustic and visual beauty?
Too little money and too much need is not a novel condition in any place where public business is transacted. Six other representatives and senators I visit, coming quickly to the point with each, knowing how precious is their time and how much information they must process at each of their interminable meetings. But as time comes to leave this place, I do so with the welcome notion that our concerns have been sympathetically heard and will be thoughtfully addressed. Citizens have no right to expect more from those elected to represent them.
HateBusters
Box 442
Liberty, MO 64069
Phone: 816-803-8371
e-mail: hatebuster@aol.com
No Boundaries On Our Soul!
