Contributor: Donal Mahoney

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The woman, 81, is sightless.
She receives a blind
pension check from Missouri
and has for 60 years.
Her first check was for $51.
She received that every month!
Now, 60 years later, she gets $718.
And she gets that every month!
Some see the ogre of inflation rising.

Amid the cacophony
surrounding the death of
Michael Brown, the governor
has announced that this January
blind pension checks will be cut
$33 a month, saving the state $730,000.

In quieter times, the governor
might have found
the savings elsewhere.
He might wisely look again
because advocates for the blind
are livid to the max.

Normally the blind are quiet,
just trying to get along but
one can almost see them
with their German Shepherds
and their tapping canes
descending on the state capitol,
scattering the Governor,
Congress and the lobbyists.
Missouri is a sorry state.


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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.