YOUR LETTERS: So YOU can call the shots

I wanted to take some time to share a little bit more about the community I grew up in and why it inspired me to run for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat.

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in mid-Missouri. It was one of those places where the curbs crumbled into the streets and the sidewalks were so tilted you couldn’t really walk on them — though they made a pretty good bike ramp for all of us kids.

We all ran in and out of each other’s houses, everyone’s parents took care of everyone. It was a magical place to live.

Like so many families, mine lived paycheck-to-paycheck — and when my little sister was born with a heart condition, we went bankrupt from medical bills.

We got by thanks to the generosity of our community. Most people had no more money than we did — but helped us anyway. Our neighbors and friends took the rest of us kids into their homes while my parents were with my sister at the hospital over 100 miles away. And when we were all home together, they brought more meals by the house than we could ever hope to eat.

Their support helped me go to college, and after that I joined the Marines to honor everything our community did for me and my family growing up.

But when I came home between tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, I found that old magical place picked for parts — our local corner store was boarded up, our family’s first home in the neighborhood was bulldozed to the ground. Now it’s an empty lot.

While all of us were risking our lives to build up towns like Habbaniyah, Fallujah, and Herat, career politicians and corporate elites like Josh Hawley let our towns and neighborhoods at home waste away.

And then, after spending 20 years and $6.4 trillion on pointless forever wars and defense contractors, they couldn’t figure out how to invest a fraction of that amount back into our own country.

I’m running for U.S. Senate because it’s time everyday Missourians — people who know how to take care of each other — called the shots in this country. 

LUCAS KUNCE
Candidate for U.S. Senate
(Lucas Kunce has been endorsed by the Missouri AFL-CIO as the worker’s candidate in the race against Senator Josh Hawley.)