To the editor:

I enjoyed reading Joy Bell's letter about U.S. Sen. Jim Talent. The war is not the first issue he has differed with his constituents on.

When Gov. Bob Holden removed two Confederate flags from state historic sites, two separate Missouri polls in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Columbia Daily Tribune showed that Missourians wanted the flags returned. Talent and U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond sided with Holden.

Bond recently has given campaign money to the opponent of former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire. Smith was known as the leading gun-rights advocate in the U.S. Senate. But Bond is the NRA's boy. Something to think about next time you donate.

Holden has failed to listen to the constituency so many times I don't have the space to mention.

These politicians know what their constituencies want. They just don't care.

CLINT E. LACY

Marble Hill, Mo.