The View From The Cheap Seats
By Jerry Haferkamp
Thankfully, it’s almost over. I’m referring to the unending political ads in which Jim Talent attacks Claire McCaskill for things she may or may not have done and she returns the favor by attacking him over things he may or may not have done. We can’t be sure who is telling the truth, so most of us probably think neither are.
There is this constant barrage that gets nastier each day, and neither candidate seems to realize that the only voters these ads will get are the “undecided” voters. Most people know what Jim Talent has done as our Senator and what Claire McCaskill has done as our State Auditor. Those who don’t know probably should stay home if misleading ads on TV are the only basis of their vote.
The hot button issue seems to be embryonic stem cell research.
I believe some people think that the defeat of this measure will end this research. It won’t. It only means that the research and possible subsequent treatments of many diseases will not be done in Missouri. Embryonic stem cell research is a fact. It will be done in Missouri or it will be done in California. It will be done in Missouri, or it will be done in Mexico. It will be done in Missouri, or it will most surely be done in India, or France, or Canada, or China.
I said in my last column that I won’t even think of telling anyone how to vote, but I’ll vote for the Amendment. I’ll do it with the hope that I will someday see my neighbor be cured of MS and stand up out of his motorized chair and walk. I’ll do it and hope that my daughter-in-law who has MS can rid her self of the affliction that she can only describe as “thousands of fire ants eating and burning under my skin”. I’ll do it because of the memories of the cuts and bruises I saw on my mother due to her falls from the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
I’ll do it for the living.
As always, that’s just the view from the cheap seats.
