Letter from the Editor: Rise and fall of a Midwest princess

Dearest reader,

Welcome to the latest print issue of The Pitch—in which it has somehow become August. Right now it is not only suddenly August, but it is also only August. During pandemic lockdown, I figured that certainly this would be the absolute nadir of my ability to perceive time as linear and gauge its progress. 2024 has thrown that out the window as each day brings with it a tidal wave of new, incomprehensible nonsense… that it is our job to comprehend and deliver to you. That cornerstone axiom of journalism remains stalwart and true: “Shit keeps happening.”

I joke about the doom and gloom because it is the daily muck that we spend too much time trying to decipher, but journalists wouldn’t spend our careers doing so if we didn’t also believe in the unfettered potential of humanity, and the capital-g Good we can achieve when we collectively brush the bullshit aside.

While we cover the meta and the micro of politics year-round at The Pitch, we’ve begun devoting more of our columns to tracking everything happening in local elections, as you’ll see a few examples in this magazine—and dozens more when you visit us online. We believe that sweeping change and progress for all starts from the bottom, pushing up and forcing the higher levels of our system to take notice of the freedoms and rights career politicians have forgotten how to protect.

After all, women’s right to vote got one of its most important shoves from right here in Missouri.

In 1872, after nearly ten years of advocating for women’s suffrage, a St. Louis farmer named Virginia Minor decided to force the government’s hand. She went to the courthouse and tried to register to vote, where she was denied by registrar Reese Happersett. Minor’s lawsuit against Happersett quickly rose through the judiciary, finally reaching the Supreme Court.

Where it failed.

This marked the end of suffragettes attempting change through legal means, instead putting all their efforts into demonstrations and shifting public opinion.

Missourians losing, only to allow that setback to light a fire leading to a sweeping victory—That feels like a tale we know well, and relive often.

In these pages, you’ll find some excellent adventures happening in the culture of our great metro region, and you’ll find important resources to better inform you of the players, progress, and pitfalls awaiting us all between now and the November ballot. As shit keeps happening, make sure that you control what you can control, for yourself and for all of us.

Pitch in, and we’ll make it through,