Capitol image courtesy of www.mo.gove

In an earlier post I wrote about the Rally for a Compassionate Missouri Budget coming up tomorrow, April 5, at the Old Courthouse.  More details have been announced, including that the speakers will include Dr. David Greenhaw, President of Eden Theological Seminary, F. Sessions Cole, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University and Chief Medical Officer, Director of Newborn Medicine at Children’s Hospital, the Rev. Janet Scurlock, and Rabbi Susan Talve. Also, the Community Gospel Choir and a group called Disability Rap will perform.

The organizers are promising this will be a quick and focused rally.  Their press release reads, in part:

The Missouri House of Representatives passed on March 26 its version of the state budget which cuts $250 million from the safety net of vital state services. This is depsite hundreds of million dollars from the federal government in an emergency stimulus package designated specifically so sates (like…

Old Courthouse photo courtesy of www.mo.gov

They say that if you want to know a person’s real priorities in life, look at their checkbook.  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” and all that (Matthew 6:21, for those who are wondering).  Well, what holds true for individuals often holds true for the state as well, and today Missouri’s leaders are faced with difficult choices about how to spend our money.

The decisions that our state government makes during these next few weeks regarding the 2010 budget will have real and lasting consequences for everyone in the state, but no persons will be more directly affected than the poor, the disabled, children, and the elderly.  In other words, those very people for whom we are most responsible, if we wish to be a just and compassionate society.

Lawmakers and others are pleading poverty for the state, saying that we simply can’t afford all of…