THE PUBLIC MIND: READER: PROPONENTS OF CITY ZONES STUCK UP FOR THE `COMMON MAN,' WERE NOT DUPED

To the Editor:

I have read over the past week all the negative front page news and editorials concerning the city zones issue. It was a mandate by the people, 2-1 that they wanted change - why can't the purveyors of all this doom and gloom recognize this fact? Evidently many of the city council that has been part of the past and present At Large System do not agree with the people, nor think they have the common sense to make intelligent decisions without these doomsday messages. Enough is enough, the people are tired of it! Citizens have asked that persons with our campaign drive respond to these reports rather than roll over and play dead in the water.

Five individuals spearheaded the petition drive: Larry Godfrey, Opal McManus~, Miki Gudermuth, Joe Mirgeaux and Michael Sterling. We were not innocent people who were being "used" to do the work of factions who want to undermine the present city council through a "power play struggle." We saw it was not enough to petition the "will of the people"; toward the end we knew we needed some monetary help to overcome all the negative backlash we were experiencing from members of the press and the present council. Anyone that helped us in our endeavor came at our request, because to fight people with money, in this day and age of upper income rule, you must have money. We were, in fact, citizens with enough common sense and intelligence to know when "we have had enough" of the present system of governing by a perceivably dictatorial council, who have long forgotten to think as a "common" man.

Mr. Godfrey approached the County Clerk about whether the petitioners needed to file as a campaign committee. He was told if our committee did not plan to go over $1,000 we did not have to file. Back in June when all this began, up through the end of September, we did not know if the City Zones would make it to the ballot, although we did have enough signatures. When the council saw they could not throw the measure out, they proceeded to begin their oral fight, their media blitz, their doomsday messages about the "common man" rule of the upper class. Do we back off, leave everything status quo, give up before we even started? But people who signed the petitions were stopping all of us to cheer us on, that we were doing the right thing - they did want change.

Most people simply feel it does no good to buck the system, it will never change, so they stay home, yet cheer us on. We told the citizens we would stay in if they wanted us to, kind of like in a Perot fashion. But Perot had money to campaign with, we did not. The average working person was hurting enough in the community for us to ask for political funding, and it was then we started asking for advice from people with some money, and those who were not part of the "old clique" responded. Surprisingly, it was not until all the sour grapes from members of the present council and the media that things really took off. We did not have money to run the campaign. Most were small, under $25 contributions and homemade help, but nothing near the $1,000 to file. When Curt Smith filed charges, we had not even reached $800 in in-kind or monetary contributions, most was just dedicated hard volunteer work by the five petitioners and many others who came on board to get this off the ground. The doomsday reports forced businessmen, who felt we were being railroaded, to come to our aid.

So no matter what comes out in the media or by way of fo~rmer city councilmen reports of wrongdoing, or disclosures of contributions by people with vendettas on their mind, remember, "we went to them." We are not puppets on a string. We may not have piles of money, but we have common sense. Where many men running this country have money, the common man has "common sense" and what we are asking for is a common sense form of government. By the way, most people want this change in council immediately, not two years from now as present council people are suggesting. They voted for change, they want it now!

The citizens of this city are not stupid, they know when they are being duped. We have not pulled any wool over their eyes, or made promises of a perfect government. However, the wool has been pulled over the eyes of the people who voted not to build a sports complex, only to have it pushed through with the Show Me Center bond interest, against the will of the people. Why haven't the people come out with their outrage? Why should they, they spoke when they voted it down. The council never listened before, why would they now?

It is not that citizens want the council to do all their bidding, all the time ... but they do want respect for their rights as citizens to express themselves and be given a fair hearing, to have their concerns looked into, and then have the council report back to them with fair recourse and interest in their concerns.

Nobody is promising a solution for all the growing pains of the city, but a task force was put together to work out the projected doomsday problems, and the real problems associated with a change of this kind. But that is for the task force to work on, not the front pages of the local media. Like a past editorial on the trash issue stated, it is time to lay the problem to rest and begin working together. I think that time has come! The people have spoken, they are smart enough not to need protection from people that they have chosen to come out on their behalf. Give us a break! The transition is in progress, now just let it happen.

Mike Gudermuth

Opal McManus

Elect A Neighbor Committee

Cape Girardeau