Dear Editor:

So far, Barry County has the best county office holders anyone could possibly want. 

They feel like my family and I am proud of them. Our State Rep. Scott Cupps tries really hard to do the best he can. And, I will support our State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick any day. 

But honestly, I am disappointed in most of the others in State and Federal office. We need a healthy balance of both parties to hold everyone accountable. When we refuse to vote for good candidates from both parties, this is what happens. Choose good people from both parties and hold all of them accountable. We cannot give one party a free pass to do anything they want. We voters have a responsibility to be vigilant and hold everyone accountable. 

Why do people not vote? There is not much incentive to vote when you already know only one party will win. Why waste your time? And if there is an issue on the ballot you already know will be written in a way almost no one can understand, what they are voting for or against. 

People tell me they don’t even watch the news because all they see is fighting and name calling. If they are not fighting the other party, they are fighting each other in primary battles and thinking about how they can use their present office to create issues to go to even higher office. 

I could tell you so many other reasons, but I don’t want to write a book. I am getting old and do not have any power at all, but like Billy Long used to say — I am fed up. 

I have been quietly telling our leaders in person, “Please quit fighting for me and just work for me.” They just go back to fighting.This is not how I want to spend my time in my golden years, but this has become my mission for my final years and if nothing ever changes. 

At least I will know I have done the best I could. If I want people whom I send to Jefferson City and D.C. to be brave, then I, as an ordinary citizen, need to be brave. 

If we lose some friends by speaking out, it means we value our state and our country so much that we consider that possible sacrifice worth it.

PS: Why do people vote for candidates who say the nastiest things about each other in a primary? That only encourages them to continue acting that way.

Yvonne Kerr

Monett