Kansas City – Springfield Representative Sara Lampe introduced highway-naming legislation today in an ongoing effort to counter the publicity a regional Nazi group has received for cleaning up the highway.
Representative Lampe introduced House Bill 1668 today in Jefferson City. The bill has 76 cosigners from both parties, and will name a stretch of Highway 160 after Jewish historian and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
Lampe hopes the bill will have an easy road to passage as a so-called "consent" bill, or one in which there is little controversy. She said she was optimistic because both the Speaker of the House and Minority Leader put their names on the legislation, as did the chairman of the Transportation Committee, Representative Bob Dixon (R-140).
The Nazi group, known as the National Socialist Movement, said in an email it's members will continue to pick up trash as part of it's adopt-a-highway commitment: "It doesn't matter what they call the highway. We did not sign up for this duty for anything other than cleaning up trash. If they really hate it that we are out there picking up some trash then why don't they do it themselves? We are just trying to do the right thing for our community and we will continue on that mission."
