BY SHEILA HARRIS sheilaharrisads@gmail.com
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson greeted about 150 McDonald and Newton County residents, including students from McDonald County schools, at a ceremonial signing of House Bill 2134/1956 at the Pineville Community Center on Aug. 21.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a greeting like that,” Parson said, in reference to the cheerleaders, band and students who lined the parking lot and entrance to the building to welcome him.
“You might say you legislators,” he said, referencing State Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel, and State Sen. Jill Carter, R-Granby, who co-sponsored the bill and ushered it through the legislative process, “You might say you’re helping the county and this area, but you’re helping the entire state of Missouri. You’re the model for what’s going to happen.”
Parson, one of four children born to parents who were sharecroppers, told students, “You don’t have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth and a bunch of degrees and pedigrees to be successful — you just have to work hard.
“This bill could have been sponsored by legislators from a bigger area than McDonald County. But, it wasn’t. This just shows that your legislators care about you. It’s people like you and the values you have that make this bill so special.”
Carter said, for her, the event was surreal.
“I learned early on that everybody should work on a piece of legislation and make it their passion,” she said. “For me, that’s what this bill has been.”
Carter offered a parable, reminding those present that they were the “pearl of great price,” the ones that gave the bill momentum.
“We politicians are just the boxes that carry those pearls,” she said.
Deaton, who says he has been hammering on the land-application and sludge issue for six years, said waste-haulers were just looking for a place to get rid of their waste, a place with no oversight or regulations.
“They found it here,” he said. “I hate it that we had to pass a law to address the issue, but here we are. I believe it was James Madison who said, ‘If men were angels, we wouldn’t need government.’”
