Speak Out 02/22/04

Use soccer fields

SOME THINGS are so important to the community they should not be cut, like the Osage Community Centre. The Shawnee Park soccer fields don't get enough use. You aren't allowed on the fields after practice. I suggest a metal box where you could pay to play on a soccer field. The fields need to be utilized more.

What will they do?

WILL THE city tell us what those trucks and men will be doing during the week they normally use for picking up items during the spring cleanup? Is it just a paper savings?

Parading as Republicans

BOTH OF Missouri's U.S. senators, Kit Bond and Jim Talent, are trying to ramrod a $318 billion highway bill through Congress. Big-spending President Bush only requested $256 billion. Bond and Talent were bragging recently about all the pork-barrel money they have brought to Missouri. As a life-long Republican, I must say both of these senators appear to be Democrats parading as Republicans.

No one remembers

COLUMNIST PAUL Greenberg makes a good point when he says that military paperwork is a nightmare. He implies that the lack of documentation of George W. Bush's service in the Alabama National Guard does not prove that Bush did not serve. But the odd thing about President Bush's case is that no fellow guardsmen have any memory of serving with him. That might not be surprising in the case of guardsmen you never hear of again. But if a fellow guardsman became president, it might jog your memory, and you might want to come forward. You would certainly have friends in the White House, but no one in his unit remembers him.

Health rights too

AMERICA HAS so-called Christians who demand the right to life for every unborn baby. Then the same people abandon the right of every baby in America to have medical health coverage for life. If they have a right to life, why not a right to health coverage for life?

Keep the culture

I JUST read about the cuts that were proposed by the city council. It becomes increasingly obvious that our mayor cares nothing about culture. I believe that it would benefit us more to have the band concerts than trash pickup. I would really like the council to reconsider cutting what little bit of culture we have left in this city.

Five-year sunset

I HAVE been adamantly opposed to any city tax increase because it is my perception that the council has previously spent large sums of money very unwisely. Two most recent examples include the city slogan and the River Campus. However, there now seems to be sufficient evidence that there are legitimate needs for more revenue. Money spent unwisely in the past is water over the dam. I have decided to support the quarter-cent sales tax if it contains a five-year -- not 10-year -- sunset provision. That represents $10 million. I want to see how that is spent before we hand over another $10 million. If the first $10 million gets reasonably good results over the next five years, then there will be no problems getting the tax renewed for another five years.

Police cars at home

I SEE absolutely no problem with the police officers driving their vehicles home and then driving them to work. I have never seen a single police officer use a police car for personal transportation. The neighborhoods like to have a police car present.

Stop for school buses

THIS IS a word of warning to all of the drivers in Southeast Missouri. I'm a school bus driver. In a week's time I had probably five people run my stop arm every day. People are not paying attention. Is it going to take a driver hitting a child for people to be more alert and aware of the problem? I wouldn't want a child to get hit because of ignorance.

Bridge to SIU

NOW I know why they built the new Mississippi River bridge: So all the good basketball folks over here in Cape Girardeau can go see SIU play.