The Gadfly is a series of letters offering commentary on local issues and published in the Warrensburg Gazette.

Dear Editor

The juxtaposition of certain newspaper and radio reports is rather interesting. I have for a time noticed the similarity between reports from area first-term legislators of a specific party. If I didn’t believe that they write all their own material, I’d be tempted to think that they may be provided a draft on the issue of the week which they personalize with a few of their own words and impressions. Last week, the issue was the St. Louis attempt to stick the rest of the state with the cost of a new baseball stadium. The other party, I imagine, has it’s own system, as its national spokespeople all seem to come up with the same catchwords at the same time.

Perhaps these freshman legislators need help, while the old hands can write their own copy. Maybe that’s why the term limits issue has popped up again. This time the legislators want to extend their time from 8 to 12 years, with the option to sit out a term and then start the clock all over. At least we’ll get to vote on it. Since I generally oppose term limits anyway, I may be tempted to vote for this if only to see the cat fights that will occur when a term-limited legislator tries to return to face the person who replaced him!

I’ve also noticed that the political parties have different approaches toward wooing the new hispanic residents. One party is reported to have sponsored a Cinco de Mayo festival in a neighboring town. The other is pushing a new office designed to help local areas reeducate hard working and entrepreneurial immigrants to the joys of American bureaucracy; it’s called a “Missouri Multicultural Program.” I guess part of the reeducation will have to be party symbols. Since the state Democratic Party adopted the emblem used by the national Libertarian Party, it’s only fair that the state Libertarian Party adopted that great symbol of Missouri, the mule (not a donkey as County Clerk Powers said).

And speaking of Mules, CMSU plays good baseball and taxpayers didn’t have to pay millions for their stadium!