Speak out 010902

Fuel-tax facts

THE ARTICLE in the paper about the proposed gas tax and past revenue and how it was spent failed to indicate the total revenue that was collected based on the 6-cent-a-gallon fuel tax that was passed in 1992. Before people approve any more money for the highway department, they should know how much money the 6-cent tax has generated. And they should also know, without any equivocation, that only 19 percent of that money went to road repair and bridge repair. The 81 percent went to other forms of transportation and to be spent in other ways. This was never brought out when the 6-cent tax was presented to the voters.

Just politics

AFTER READING the Southeast Missourian story about the case being heard by the Missouri Supreme Court on the River Campus, it's obvious that they will rule in favor of the campus. It's all politics.

Too much inflation

AFTER READING the article about tuition at SEMO, I did a quick, unscientific study. Today, my parents' home would cost about five times the amount they paid in 1965. The price of an automobile is approximately eight times the amount one cost in 1965. As a SEMO freshman in 1965, I paid $80 a semester. Today, tuition for a 15-hour semester is 20 times higher. I wish the university would explain this discrepancy.

We need the arts

ARE YOU kidding me? A fine arts building is "sidetracking?" Are you suggesting college students should just give up painting, music, drama and all the arts? What do you mean by "responsible living?" Not everyone in the world wants to be a nine-to-fiver stuck in a cubicle all day. Some of us want to entertain, be entertained, learn and enrich our brains with culture. How do we accomplish this with no fine arts program?

Does not compute

MARY NALL concludes that only "those individuals who receive their information from the Internet" relative to the war on terrorism are "being made aware of all the facts and implications that this war entails." This is hogwash.

Government news

SHADES OF George Orwell. According to Mary Nall, we are living in a totalitarian society where Big Brother keeps track of our every move. This is sheer Libertarian nonsense! Those of us who have not violated the laws of this country, who have not plotted to overthrow the government and who have not engaged in terrorist plots or acts certainly have little to fear from the feds or local police. According to Nall we are being fed pap by the government via the news media. She thinks you get the real news from the Internet. Get serious.

No incentive

WILL PAUL Greenberg, who has written several columns on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the Southeast Missourian, please discuss exactly what the Palestinians would have received from any peace settlement offered to them up to this point? As far as I've been able to determine, had the Palestinians accepted any of the settlements offered so far, the only real gain for them would have been that the Israelis would have stopped killing them. I admit this is a pretty big item, but other than this the only thing they would have been guaranteed is the right to continue to live in ghetto-like surroundings on non-productive, arid land and in perpetual poverty with no real hope for a much better future for themselves or their children.

Daily inspiration

I CROSS the Mississippi River bridge early every day to come to work, and I noticed in the last few days a light on top of one of the bridge piers of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. As I got closer that first day, I saw the light was illuminating an American flag. To see that every morning on the way to work starts off my day perfectly. It's a beautiful sight, and anyone who crosses the bridge at night should take notice. It's really inspiring. Thank you to whoever had the idea to do that.

Wait for investigation

HERE WE go again, convicting the Scott County deputy before the investigation is complete. Let the investigation decide who was right and who was wrong.

Get the money first

I HOPE the city gets its money from the owner of the Marquette Hotel, because $70,000-plus just to make the building safe is quite a bit of money.

Biblical proof

SERIOUSLY, folks, sometimes I wonder. If the Bible said the sky was green, would you believe that too?

Younger officers

THE PART of Jackson we live in is also home to several young police officers, so we see them on the road often. They all seem to have a certain degree of trouble with stop signs and with keeping their speed under control. This is normal, everyday driving. For some reason they weave in and out of traffic and follow too closely behind other cars. Anyone else would get a ticket for this type of driving. You never see the older officers driving in this manner, just the younger, under-30 group.