Speak Out 01/03/02

Fight at home first

ON OSAMA bin Laden's tapes, he has told his people that the United States is evil and he wants to bring us to ruin. He says the United States and Israel will finally be defeated. That is not the way God is going to take care of all the wickedness in the world. In Zechariah 12:9, "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." I think our fighting men should be brought home, because we need them to protect us as we have so many terrorists in our country. We can't afford to go to all the countries and fight. Let's clean up our own country first. We have 300,000 here that have overstayed their visas. Some are taking jobs away from our citizens. Others are doing wickedness to our nation. Because of the recession, we can't afford to go everywhere and fight for the world. God help us to keep America strong and safe.

Teach love

IF YOU teach, train and discipline your child in love, later on it won't be necessary to punish or abuse in anger.

Change of heart

AS ONE who voted for term limits, I now have second thoughts. Therefore, unlike the Southeast Missourian editorial, I think a revisit of this subject is in order. What I fear, under the current eight-year limitation, is that we are going to end up with a lot of wet-behind-the-ears legislators who, out of necessity, will rely heavily on career civil servants and lobbyists to the detriment of the taxpayers. For example: I think our local state senator, Peter Kinder, admitted that his first year as leader of the Senate was one of learning. When you multiply this many times over, it is a very scary scenario. Also, term limits will force some very qualified people out of office and force the voters to choose, at times, a person with lesser qualifications and legislative experience. I would now opt for the 12-year limitation.

Missing officials

THE DOLTISH decision of Southeast Missouri school superintendents to try to get by on the cheap by using two instead of three officials at the Christmas Tournament turned Cape's classic into a near farce and caused many longtime fans to turn their collective heads at the unintended comedic antics that characterized so much of the action on the court.

Riveting account

THANK YOU for publishing it. Matt Robb's first-person account of his reaction to seeing the devastation caused by the World Trade Center attack was the most riveting piece I have read about the tragedy.

Reading material

I NOTICE that there is yet another liberal trying to squelch free speech in Speak Out. If this person doesn't like Speak Out, he should stop reading it. I happen to enjoy reading the comments in Speak Out and will continue to read it. Keep it in the paper.

It's fun to read

THIS IS to the person who thinks the Southeast Missourian should stop printing Speak Out. Let it go. I do not agree with what is said in here 90 percent of the time, but I feel there are many valid viewpoints. The silly ones are fun to read, too. It should make you feel better to know that you are smarter than these people. At least you can point out the ignorant behavior.

Liberal giveaway

LIKE THE other caller, I too got a laugh out of Jared Brown's letter. He wants to give the Cardinal millionaire owners taxpayer money so they can earn more millions. However, I do not think Brown is a conservative Republican. This entire taxpayer giveaway program is more in tune with the liberal Democratic agenda (Gov. Bob Holden supports it). I think the caller equates the fact that our local state senator supports this program with conservatism and Republicanism. As a true conservative Republican, I totally disagree with the caller's implication. His conclusion that "political operatives" are "unprincipled" seems to be right on target, however.

Stop-sign rules

CAPE DRIVERS are polite but confused at four-way stop signs. Nobody knows when it is his turn to go. I suggest a new set of rules to decide when to go at a four-way stop: If only two or three cars are at the stop, take a number and proceed with caution when it is your turn; If many cars are at the stop, most people are too busy to remember who arrived first. One car from each of the north-south lanes should go with any car making a left turn yielding to cars going straight. Then one car from each of the east-west lanes should go with cars making left turns yielding to cars going straight. If we could remember these two simple rules, stops would be quicker and much less confusing.

No union drones

THE UNION caller who admonishes us not to be sheep was right on target. It seems we have a tendency to think all union members always vote the way their leadership wants them to vote. Why is this? Because most of their leaders are yellow-dog Democrats and would never support a Republican. And since these leaders are vocal and get the media coverage, we assume they speak for all members of their union. Fortunately, as the caller pointed out, all union members are not stupid drones when it comes to voting their conscience.

Blood from turnip

ALL UNIONS are not bad. In fact, there are some very good ones. Sometimes it depends on the company you work for. For instance, one well-known union will try harder for workers employed at larger corporations than those of small businesses. If you work for a small business, you might want to think twice about joining a union. Remember, you can't get blood from a turnip. On the other hand, there are some large corporations out there that are non-union and are very good to work for. It really depends on your job conditions and who you work for. I applaud the union member who recently urged us not to be lambs.

And still climbing

NOT BAD. Not bad at all. Two more to go and we'll be No. 1. Missouri has risen to third place in a ranking of the nation's most rotten roads.

Officer's attitude

I AGREE wholeheartedly that the Cape police officers need an attitude adjustment. I once had to deal with one who was so drunk on his own power that I thought I was going to be clubbed and cuffed like Rodney King. I'd only been pulled over for speeding, and I thought I was being polite and cooperative with the officer. I couldn't believe how rude, sarcastic and unprofessional this guy was. Give me a break.

Education issue

I THOUGHT the Republican Party was serious about the importance of formal education until I heard U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison say she didn't think it was necessary for folks working in airport security to have high school diplomas.

Misleading tests

I CAN'T believe you guys have been co-opted into believing the Missouri Assessment Program test and accreditation system give taxpayers any meaningful insight into how well public schools are performing. Indeed, the MAP test is actually counterproductive to a meaningful education, as any educator would tell you off the record. The accreditation system is more or less an in-house gathering of irrelevant statistics that measures just about everything except what is really important. That the Southeast Missourian would get on board for these so-called measuring devices is discouraging and depressing. There is a lot of real learning taking place in schools, but you can't tell it by MAP results and the accreditation system. If we continue to deify these measuring devices, then the meaningful learning that may be hard if not impossible to measure will all but end.

Bad ambulance plan

THE CAPE Girardeau Fire Department does not need to handle ambulance calls. Yes, they're trained as emergency medical technicians and paramedics, but running an ambulance or two out of each station would only cost the city more money, and it would in turn cost taxpayers more money. Extra personnel would need to be hired to man the ambulances as well as the fire trucks. Plus people would refuse to pay their fees for getting an ambulance ride because they're taxpaying citizens. Leave the fire department alone. You people have no idea what you're talking about.