Missives From Missouri is a blog aimed at letting the average Missourian (and Missourian at heart) in on what their elected representatives are up to. This is achieved by allowing all 197 members of the Missouri General Assembly (163 House Representatives and 34 Senators) the opportunity to send us the weekly reports and press releases they send home to their constituents and media outlets.
I like to call these entries missives. The word missive has been in the English language for almost 600 years, derived from Latin and Middle French words meaning "letters to be sent". Today, missive is not used as often as its synonyms like "report", "letter", "dispatch" or "Facebook status", but when it was commonly used, the word conveyed a sense of authority, usually political, religious or scholarly in nature.
At the beginning of each session, I send out e-mails to legislators asking them to do just one thing: add my e-mail address to their mailing list. While anything of this nature, if sent from a state e-mail address, is public record per Section 610.025 of Missouri's Revised Statutes, I prefer to invite legislators to add me to their mailing list. Legislators who have yet to have their reports published but wish to do so simply need to add that e-mail address. However, as to prevent spambots from doing the same, that address is not publicized.
This blog does not nor cannot replace face-to-face contact with your elected officials. If you wish to discuss an issue with them, it is easy to e-mail your representative or senator, or phone their office in Jefferson City. If you are unsure who your representative and senator is, just click "Find Your State Leaders" on the left of this page and type in your ZIP Code. Also, while you have the ability to comment on any missive (provided you have an active Blogger account) you will have a much better chance of receiving a response by directly contacting your representative or senator.
Also, each missive and press release posted is as e-mailed to me and written by your elected representatives and senators, their office staff, and/or their political peers. This blog only contains the opinions and viewpoints of those officials, as e-mailed to their district's constituents and media outlets, and will not necessarily reflect the opinions of the operator of Missives from Missouri, Kyle Hill. All I'll do on this blog is upload each missive and press release. But if you really want to know what I'm thinking, head over to my other blog, The Missouri Expatriate.
This blog is provided as a public service to all Missourians, and it is my hope that Missives from Missouri will be of service to you. If you are a media outlet or fellow independent blogger looking for a particular missive, please do not deprive your readers, listeners, or viewers of where you found the missive. If you are posting online content from which you used this blog as a source, I ask that you link to us, particularly the missive quoted. This service is as important to your readers, listeners and viewers as it is to you, and we're both in it to preserve government transparency and an open representative democracy.
I look forward to continually fulfilling this service to the residents of Missouri.
Regards,
Kyle Hill (AKA The Missouri Expatriate)
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