I am a 47 year old liberal Democrat and aspiring writer. I am Catholic and respect some of my religion's beliefs. Maybe I don't always agree with my religion, but I know they have their hearts in the right place.I respect my religion's stance on the death penality, human rights and their opposition to war. I cannot stand
intolerance, judgemental people and animal cruelty. People that get easily offended annoy me also. If you are going to be offended, please be offended by something important, like racism, sexism,child abuse and the abuse of the elderly I am also an aspiring writer. I have had letters published in People, The Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica Evening Outlook, St. Louis Magazine, St Louis Post Dispatch, Suburban Journals, Webster/Kirkwood Times, Riverfront Times, The Webster University Journal, and St. Louis American.
I consider myself a girly girl feminist.METRO BUS CUTS/PLEASE HELP!!!Because of budget cuts, the bus service in St Louis has been drastically reduced. Many people may lose their jobs, because of these cuts. Not only people who work for Metro/Bi State, but people who depend on the bus system to get to their jobs. Here are some links, that people can contact to help restore the bus service in St Louis. Please tell officials what you think.While Bi State knew at the time they developed the service reduction plan that there would be personal stories behind all the reductions, e-mails like yours tell the true toll of the failure of the region to support its transit system financially. Contrary to what some are saying, the service cuts are not designed to punish or reward either bad or good customers. They were, instead, designed to provide the most service we could within the financial resources we have from existing sources after the failure of Proposition M to make additional funds available. Pulling the system into a smaller "footprint" allows more service to remain for more people than we could provide if we retained less service over a larger area. Unfortunately this doesn't help many family who now live outside the bus routes.And Metro managers and the Board don't have any options left to make a different decision. They have been telling the regional leaders for over ten years that the day was coming when existing funding (cobbled together from various taxes which were not growing at the rate of inflation) would not be enough to support the larger transit system the political leadership told us to build. Well, that day has come, and they have to dismantle the transit system you came to depend upon. The best you can do is, contact your local elected officials to share your story and hope that they will develop a funding solution that allows bus service as soon as possible. Here is a link to the St. Louis County Government site http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us and here is the link to the Missouri State web site http://www.mo.gov/mo/index.htm and here is the link to that of the Missouri General Assembly http://www.moga.mo.gov.Customers like you will help your officials to understand the need for transit and encourage them to provide additional financial support so that we can provide the transportation service you need. You may also contact Metro at
[email protected] There web site is http://www.metrostlous.org. Sandy Shaner, Director of Customer Service is very helpful with information.
