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2 months ago | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Ezra Bitterman |Jess Piper
I met with the new DNC Chair, Ken Martin, last Friday. I was invited to be part of a rural round table Ken and the Missouri Democrats hosted in St. Louis. Ken Martin was elected in January and comes from an agricultural background. He is Minnesota nice, and I am glad to know the DNC is making an effort to hear the concerns of rural folks, but I am afraid we are still focused on the same Ag policies that have doomed Democrats in rural America for decades. Most rural people are not farmers.
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2 months ago | 
whitetoolong.net | Robert P. Jones |Jess Piper
Dear #WhiteTooLong readers,Today, as the second post related to Black History Month (which Google, bending the knee to Trump, has now erased as a holiday on Google calendar), I’m including a reflection on MAGA’s DEI logic and an excerpt from my recent book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
okobojiwriters.substack.com | Julie Gammack |Jess Piper |Heather Richardson |Connie Schultz
Monday Zoom Link….WHO Ratings….Rob Dillard….Blue Sky….Okoboji Writers’ Retreat…Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Welcome newcomers! Yesterday, we reached 4,000 subscribers, a milestone number. Lately, any given column has reached between 5 and 6,000 views because folks like you share it with friends (thank you), and we had 68,000 views in the past 30 days. We also added 17 new paid subscribers in that period.
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
I was on a drive across the state when I saw a huge Trump sign. Par for the course; I was in deep red Missouri but I was not ready for the flag flying next to the sign. It said, “Outlaw Hillbilly.” I had to think about that one. I wasn’t in Southern Missouri. I was in Northwest Missouri. There are no hills here. This is the prairie. The flag was across the highway from hundreds of acres of corn and beans which are not grown as row crop in the hills.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
I will be discussing the Koch brothers in this essay. If you are unfamiliar with them, here is a primer. “Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”~John LewisI once left an educational conference with nearly a dozen cans of Diet Coke, several boxed lunches, a handful of cookies, and every handout I could get my hands on. I left with every pen, lanyard, and every lesson plan that was out for the taking.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I have lived through a lot of world events and often I was completely oblivious to the events. I didn’t pay any attention to the news, politicians, or world events around me in my twenties. Why? I was too busy trying to make it to look up. I didn’t watch many news programs and I didn’t take any newspapers except the local “Ozark Spectator.” I usually opened the Spectator and went straight to the pages on births, deaths, engagements, and marriages.
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Aug 21, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
Discover more from The View from Rural Missouri by Jess PiperMy name is Jess and I was a high school Literature teacher for 16 years until I decided to run as a Democrat in a rural, red district in Missouri. I bring you news and politics from Missouri and beyond from a rural progressive point of view. Over 27,000 subscribers I voted in the August Primary and I voted against myself.
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Jun 24, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
I’ve written about our yearly trips to Table Rock Lake in Southern Missouri, but I don’t know if I’ve ever written about the town we stay in while visiting the lake. Branson. If you’re familiar with Branson, you immediately think of the strip with the shows and the bumper boats and the hillbilly-esque vibes, but we don’t stay in that part of town. We head out to the Ozark mountains to stay a week or so every year. I am from those hills, and I can’t get enough of the scenery.
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Jun 12, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
St Joseph, Missouri is the home to the starting point for the Pony Express and the town where the bank robber and bandit, Jesse James, lost his life while adjusting a picture frame on his mantle. You can visit the Pony Express Museum and then the Jesse James house where the frame directs your attention to the bullet hole that traveled through the house after killing James. The Pony Express Statue, St Joseph, Missouri.
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May 28, 2024 | 
jesspiper.substack.com | Jess Piper
Let me start this post with a story. A story that might sound like a feel-good narrative until you you think long and hard on it. A 5th grader in Blue Springs, MO was rightly praised by community members and the media after he raised enough money to pay off the lunch debts of his fellow elementary school classmates…the lunch debts of children. This sweet and kind gesture is a smack in the face to many of us, though. Why is there lunch debt in elementary schools in the first place?
