As your representative, I am supposed to remind you to vote. I also believe you, my constituents, are highly motivated, intellectual individuals and I do not need to remind you to vote nor to tell you how to vote. You will vote or at least put forward your best effort to vote.
One of the things I enjoy sharing with people is the experiences that I have as a representative.
Recently, the Cole County Farm Bureau had its 100th-year annual meeting. The event was certainly more difficult because of COVID-19, but it was still a fantastic event. Over the past 100 years, the Cole County Farm Bureau has done so much, and it was a joy to reflect back on the families they have helped, the friends that were made, and their achievements.
COVID-19 did have an impact on having this important meeting. The Farm Bureau did what farmers have been doing for hundreds of years and adapted to the situation they were given, and they were successful in spite of COVID. It takes a certain type of person to be a farmer. Watching a crop dry out and burn up in a drought or livestock die for whatever reason after so much hard work has been put into them requires a certain type of individual to continue to stay motivated.
What Farm Bureau did was to simply bring in a speaker system and broadcast it through the 91.1 radio station. Everyone remained in their vehicles. They were able to hear the whole presentation. They were allowed to vote by honking their horn. It gave them the opportunity to hear from the president of the Cole County Farm Bureau. They were able to review the last year's accomplishments and goals. They heard from future state Farm Bureau presidential candidates. The organizers of this Cole County Farm Bureau were able to put on a meeting that will not be forgotten by anyone who attended. This meeting will always be a reminder of the endurance of our agricultural community and the role the Cole County Farm Bureau has played in forming our community and helping our agricultural industry.
We were also given an annual Farm Bureau newsletter from June 1921. If you get the chance to read it, it's very entertaining and enlightening. Some of the things that were pointed out were the problems they had then are similar to those we have today, i.e., farm product prices, cost of marketing, retail prices and even immigration.
In 1921, Congress passed a law limiting immigration to 355,000 foreigners. Other than Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the rest of the world was only allowed 4,000 immigrants. This was based upon 8 percent of the population of the United States and was reduced from previous years of approximately 1,000,000.
I think the newsletter from the 1920s is a reminder our situation today is not completely unique, but I also believe the only way we are going to get our political parties to talk to each other and arrive at solutions is first that we must get brothers and sisters, parents and children in different parties talking to each other civilly.
The political climate right now is dividing families instead of growing the bond of families. I was raised in a family of nine children. They do not all think like I do. I do pray though that I will always be given enough wisdom to listen to them whether I agree or not agree - and to at least be civil. We may have to look back to our families to instill civility in government, and we cannot rely upon our political leaders to do it for us.
I received an honor this week recognizing my significant contribution to the advancement of the administration of justice in Missouri from the Judicial Conference of Missouri signed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Our Constitution has three branches of government, and they all play a very separate, distinct and independent role. We must treat them all with due respect. As an attorney, I have been a part of the judicial branch for 40 years. I have great respect for it and want to preserve it.
Our court systems are not your enemy, even though they are easy to dislike because in every case there is a winner and a loser, and therefore, one party is always unhappy. They are also given the great burden of protecting our constitution and protecting the minority from the majority. The majority is in control and needs no protection. It is the opportunity of the small man to have a more open forum to try to resolve his differences, whether it would be with another fellow man or with some large entity. Under the Constitution, the role of our courts is to try to establish that we are all equal. When we hear powerful entities that want to take away your access to court, could that be because they don't want to play on even playing ground? I have approximately 37,000 constituents, and I must strive every day to protect their individual rights in a forum where they can have their disputes resolved in a fair manner. Without our courts to limit our government to the Constitution, there would be no end to the growth and strength of the government over your individual rights.
I am not contending there are not some flaws in our judicial system, but that is not a good reason to make the entire system the enemy. We must remind our judges that they are the judicial branch. They are not the legislative branch nor are they the executive branch. Judges should remain unpolitical and base their decisions on a fair interpretation of the laws we have passed and the Constitution rather than their own opinions and beliefs. This is what 99 percent of our judges do. For those judges who want to render political opinions or preach ideologies, I ask you to take the time to not cloud the integrity of the courtroom, resign and run for political office.
As always, your thoughts and opinions are the most important thing that I consider when doing my job. I always want to hear from you, so please continue to call and email with your thoughts and opinions.
State Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri's 59th District, and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.