Jack Truman: The times need to change

It's time for a change.

With the way the times are, we are living in a different world. Over the last 20 years, our culture hasreally changed. As a nation, we need to get our priorities straight. Things like inflation, the economy,protecting a woman's right to choose, climate change, immigration, gun control, our military, seniorcitizens and more are things to take care of. But to me, our children are the most important thing. Noone is thinking about the future of our nation and our world. It begins with our children. Period.

I just don't know about this world we live in today. The world I grew up in 50 years ago has gone. It'sjust a memory. Change is good. People should embrace change. This country is definitely changing. Butfrom what I've seen, especially over these last few years, people are only willing to accept change if itfits what they want. That's not good. It's time to shake things up. It's going to take non-politicians to goto Washington and represent the people to change things.

This is a primary reason I'm running for U.S. Congress in Missouri's 4th Congressional District.

I'm not your regular politician. I have no political experience. I just want everyone to come together.That's what it's going to take to make this country great again. I define myself as a liberal conservative.Most people don't know what that is. Growing up in a red district, a conservative area I call home, Ihave deep conservative roots. However, at the same time, I'm very liberal and open-minded. Eventhough I have many conservative values from living in this district, my 35 years of experience in theentertainment industry has opened my mind to liberal values. This combination of both sides serves mewell in representing our people.

Another thing that has to change is money in politics. In our world, it's all about the money. Times arehard. Harder than ever. People need to keep their money and use it to help themselves and theirfamilies. This is one reason I'm basically running a self-funded campaign. I'm actually encouragingpeople not to donate if they can't afford it. Who does that? There are so many politicians who don't careabout their people. They care about serving the ones who back them financially. This is how it's beenfor years. This has to change.

Even though I'm not related to President Harry Truman, I agree with what he said: “The Buck StopsHere.” It's as simple as that. A lot of people have asked me if I'm related to President Truman. I'm not. Iam from his hometown of Lamar, for what that's worth.

There are so many issues that need to be tackled. With how the times are, I can think of so many thingsthat need to be done in our country, that if I talked about an issue every day, a different issue could becovered until Election Day. Focus needs to be made on certain things. The most important thing in ourworld is our children. They are our future. Their health and safety needs to come before anything.Online education needs to be embraced. Another major thing is childhood obesity. It's an epidemic. It'salso child abuse. It's up to us to make a start protecting our children.

The times need to change. And it begins with shaking up Washington with regular people who are notpoliticians.

Jack Truman is the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Missouri's 4thCongressional District.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Jack Truman: The times need to change