SCHOOL FACILITY NAMES WEEM A WORTHWHILE IDEA

Daily lives proceed and sometimes the logical question about some everyday circumstance is never asked. We are pleased the people at Cape Girardeau Central High School thought to do so. Administrators and students there are studying the notion of giving facilities at the school particularly the "new gym," which is now 14 years old specific name identifications. Names will be suggested to the school board that are meaningful in some way to students, the school and the community. They could recognize some individual who has had a significant and positive impact on the school or serve to bolster school spirit. We like the idea and are anxious to see where it goes.

Economic news on the national scene, as disseminated through national news agencies, appears bleak, particularly in the area of employment. While we try to keep our eyes open wide enough to see the forest for the trees, we confess to more interest in the region's jobless rates. As reported last week, the most recent unemployment figures, for November, showed an improvement from October in Missouri and in Cape Girardeau. Statewide, the rate was 6.1 percent, improved from 6.4 percent the previous month. In this county, 4.3 percent were unemployed in November, slightly better than the October rate of 4.4 percent. Improvements in the jobless rate were also shown in neighboring Scott and Bollinger counties. While gloom is assumed in most economic discussions, there are a good many reasons for optimism. The 2,417,563 Missourians who had jobs in November should at least be hopeful.

Students have returned to the Southeast Missouri State University campus for the spring semester. Gone only a brief time for the break between semesters, the students left a vacuum in the community. Their presence at the university enriches not only their individual futures, but contributes to the welfare and promise of this city. They also add a vitality to all that goes on in Cape Girardeau. We welcome the students back to Southeast and wish them well in their educational endeavors.

Tuesday, thank goodness, saw the beginning of filing for elective county and state offices. Our relief is not so much that another election period is upon us (do they ever really end?) but that the lines that had formed in anticipation of being atop a ballot have now disbanded. The argument that topping a list of candidates provides an election edge is dubious probably in all but the tightest races; no ballot position can salvage the candidacy of someone without a worthwhile message. Yet, people have stood in line (not the candidates; in many cases paid surrogates) in order to get the cherished pole position. Persons loitering in public buildings at other times would be arrested for such behavior. It has been going on at the Missouri Capitol since October. It's a waste of human re~sources. The people who squandered all that time in line should have been put to work figuring out how the system can be improved in the future.