THE PUBLIC MIND: CITIZENS SHOULD CHANGE GOVERNMENT AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL

To the Editor:

This is an open invitation to come to the next City Council meeting to be held Monday, July 6, 1992. A Citizen's Action Group for Responsive Government is being organized in the City of Cape Girardeau to look into the 117 percent increase in trash fees. The city budget is coming under scrutiny as well as Senate Bill 530. What is Senate Bill 530 and how has it impacted the city's budget necessitating this outlandish increase~? Why is the city so interested in keeping the trash pickup as is, and why not consider outside bidders for this service? These are questions that we the citizens need to have answered - not what we get when we have attended the City Council meetings in the past. Concerned citizens have voiced dissatisfaction with the fact the Council is run by mostly attorneys and doctors who sit in judgment over the city instead of as advocates for the citizens. They do what is in their best interest for us, because in their minds, as regular citizens we can not make intelligent decisions. A task force is just a "smoke screen," and it will be what the council wants not the task force wants when all is said and done.

This is the year for change, ye good citizens of Cape Girardeau. John F. Kennedy quoted in his book, "We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve." We demand and deserve a responsive leadership - not dictatorship! Abraham Lincoln stated within his Gettysburg Address - "Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people." Wake up Cape Girardeau! Perot is not the only change this country needs. We need to make a grassroots change in our own city. As Teddy Roosevelt said, "The government is us; we are the government, you and I."

When Paul Revere made the midnight ride to alert citizens about the British Invasion, people did not hide in their homes but came out to fight for their freedom. If you are happy with high fees and taxation without representation then by all means stay home. If you are fed up with government status quo, come to the meeting we are having Thursday, July 2, at 6:30 p.m. in the Cape Girardeau Civic Center at 232 Broadway. United we stand, divided we fail!

~Maryann "Miki" Gudermuth

Cape Girardeau