What is Right About Your Right To Vote.

"Missouri Road, Headed Home and Storm Ahead,"
Photo courtesy of Photoartdb Consulting
Copyright 2014.  All Rights Reserved.

We are headed down a difficult road in the future of Missouri farming with a crucial factor being decided tomorrow.  Factory farms and their Big Agriculture supporters have co-conspired for a number of years to destroy and poison our land, deplete the cherished natural resources of water, create difficult circumstances for the human beings living near these facilities and throw money at political systems to try and control what happens.  Politicians in the Missouri legislature have opened their hands, had money put into it and now write convoluting and confusing bills to try and turn these "wrongs" into an amendment to the Missouri Constitution as the "right" way to do things.  Wake up call time!  

A State Constitutional Amendment trumps all local controls put in place to protect the people living in your county or what type of zoning restrictions have been put in to keep a factory farm from moving next door as your new neighbor or within easy distance of your children's school.  This one will even lift the current restrictions on foreign-based corporations on the amount of land they can own.  Through acquisition of a major USA pork producer, the Chinese currently own 50,000 acres of Missouri farmland.  If Amendment #1 passes, they will be able to buy more.  Amendment #1 will also negate the controls put in place through the passing of Proposition B in 2010 meant to impose humane conditions for both farm animals, as well as the puppy mills that run so rampant in this part of the country.

Once the sponsors of such amendments move on to their "next job" at a large agricultural conglomerate, a foreign-owned packer that bought a large food company that is now subsidiary of their multinational operation or in the political action committees that supported these Big Ag agendas like Cargill and Monsanto, the People of Missouri are left to try and recover from the course of their actions by ill-thought-out amendments that are now difficult to remove.  A State Constitutional Amendment should be clear in language, straightforward and in the best interests of the People who live in that State.  Just like the U.S. Constitution is and still remains true to the edicts of our revolutionary forefathers and mothers. 

Tomorrow, in my home state of Missouri, there will be a primary ballot happening.  Most people have grown apathetic about primary elections:  "Oh well, what can I do and this is not the major election in November?"  What's so important about an election date that few people actually even bother to go to the polls?  What difference can one vote make in our process?  Plenty.  The legislature has slipped on the ballot a number of poorly constructed Constitutional Amendments that do not take into consideration the feelings and thoughts of the people who have elected them.  They are trying to bring back things that have already been resolved through prior votes, weaken what the People have said they wish to see happen and create an unreasonable, unhealthy environment for generations to come in Missouri.  We need to show them our Voice.  Because without a Vote, the Public has no Voice in their future.

One person can be strong enough to speak out and stand their ground.  Plenty of so-called "radicals" have stood their ground through the ages and voiced their opinions like Patrick Henry, Teddy Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, Margaret Thatcher and so many others in this country and overseas.  "United we stand, divided we fall" has been a rallying call for many centuries to those who believe in freedom, our rights to feel safe and healthy in our own homes and making sure that government does not override the voice of the people.  

Our First President George Washington knew how important freedom of speech was:

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” 
― George Washington

An interesting connection to what is happening now in Missouri with factory farming.  They are treating us like "sheep" who will not speak out when things are not right.  There are many who would like to silence those outspoken opponents of the so-called "right to farm" Amendment #1.  Don't be fooled by words because they can be deceiving and twisted to make different meanings.  This quotation is especially important in a time when factory farming is being touted as the "new way of doing business" in Agriculture.  It is not.  It is an unclean, detrimental, unhealthy, inhumane and money-grubbing way to take away the bounty of good non-chemical laden food and precious water from the land without giving back and treat animals in confined environments pumped full of hormones until their output in milk, meat and other byproducts do great harm to those who consume it.  These less-than-ethical industrial farming both pay the politicians and throw money to deter the strong-minded, independent people who work as good stewards and create sustainable environments for both entities:  animals and land. 

Many Presidents - on both sides of the spectrum - have spoken eloquently as to the importance of our freedoms.  Mostly, the early politicians who fought to create this new democracy understood coming from an oppressive monarchy how important it was to write a "Bill of Rights" for the new nation.  The ragtag militia that was put together to create America understood to their dying breath how liberty, freedom and the right to speak freely our country.

Another President's words come to mind:

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” 
― James Madison

Yes, a revolution and destructive changes can take place quietly and silently without anyone noticing.  It is what those who would do harm count on in our society.  More good words from an advisor to Presidents and a practical man who was ahead of his time in his thinking and writing:

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” 
― Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, and Early Writings

Farmers built this country.  They did it by caring for the land and their animals in a way that would produce food and sustenance for the World.  We must voice our opinion in Missouri tomorrow.  We must Get Out and VOTE to let those forces that would do harm to our land and way of practicing sustainable agricultural do none.  For my own personal being, if these industrial farming giants have their way, my own health will continue to deteriorate.  The health of my family members already suffering from years of the nearby location of the Factory Farm around the corner has done.  It will impact the ability of my younger family members who suffer from breathing difficulties to visit my brother, my sister-in-law and me for any length of times.  It will impact your family from similar things if you live in a rural community.  Stop them.  Vote against Amendment #1 - because the right to farm is already guaranteed in prior passed statutes of this state.  The amount of misinformation being spewed in the Big Money Ag Companies over the media during the past few days is unbelievable.  Don't be a "sheep being led to the slaughter."  Vote in the intelligent, independent and well informed way that any Good American Citizen should when they enter the voting booth.

In conclusion, some words from women writers and advocates who joined the aforementioned gentlemen above in their efforts to protect our freedoms through the ages.  

“It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do.” 
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

And from a woman who did so much to advance the freedoms of the disabled, diverse cultures and other elements of our society at a time when women were not always heard over the men:

"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility."  

-  Eleanor Roosevelt

Exercise Your Freedoms.  

Please Vote Responsibly, Speak Out and  

Let Your Voice be Heard.  

Healthy Food for Your Family.  

A Healthy Environment for Our Homes, Children and Future Generations.   

It's The Right Thing To Do for Missouri and Our Country.  

God Bless America.

Photo courtesy of Missouri's Food for America

Find out more information on this issue at www.votenoon1.com

Blog Author's Disclaimer:  Please be advised that the comments written by this individual are made without any commercial endorsement or compensation.  If that changes, will certainly advise the readers.  This blog is intended to document my personal experiences living right next door to a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) or otherwise known as a Factory Farm.  And no other company, nonprofit or other organization has approved or endorsed these words. Everyone is constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and their own opinion, thank goodness.  These words are my sole opinion and no one else is responsible for these remarks except me. Thanks for your thoughtful and kind responses in comments. Please keep language clean and our farmlands green. :)