Less of these since leaving DLCC, but….<\/p>\n
Lampe legislation a ‘counter to hate’<\/strong>
\nLawmakers renamed a section of highway in Springfield that a neo-Nazi group adopted to keep litter-free after a Jewish civil rights leader.<\/p>\nRep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, got an amendment added to a transportation bill to rename a portion of West Bypass from Farm Road 142 to West Sunshine the “Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway.” Heschel marched with Martin Luther King Jr. at the Selma, Ala., Civil Rights march in 1965.<\/p>\n
Lampe said she asked Jewish groups to nominate a religious figure to counter the Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement, which adopted the section of road.<\/p>\n
“It’s a counter to hate,” Lampe said.<\/p>\n
Two signs noting the National Socialist Movement’s participation in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up last October. The Missouri Department of Transportation could not turn down the group’s application to be in the program based of its views because of the group’s First Amendment right.<\/p>\n
A Jewish organization in Kansas City will pay for signs marking the memorial highway along the same stretch of road maintained by volunteers from the neo-Nazi group. “I’m leveling the playing field,” Lampe said.<\/p>\n
In HB683, Rep. Bob Dixon got a provision added to rename a one-mile portion of East Chestnut Expressway from the new airport entrance road to Interstate 44 the “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Mile.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n