anchor: In the year 2000 alone, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri fielded some 30,000 calls for assistance from low-income people in the 21 counties our not-for-profit organization represents.
positive: Back in 2000, there were tens of thousands of poor Eastern Missourians that were in need of our assistance.
negative: In Eastern Missouri, those in the lower income brackets were widely self-sufficient and took care of all their own problems.