Speak Out 02/29/04

Someone's wrong

PETER KINDER wrote a guest column showing that the legislature appropriated more money for schools each year. Every year we spent more money on schools than before. Bekki Cook wrote a guest column saying that Kinder's a liar, and she has the facts and figures to show that the schools are getting less money than they had before. I commend the paper for printing both columns, but one of them is not telling us the truth.

But we pay for war

ALAN GREENSPAN says we need to cut Social Security benefits because our country can't afford to pay for this. How can we finance a war in Iraq, but we cannot provide Social Security benefits for our own citizens. There's something just terribly wrong.

Helps us understand

I THINK going to see "The Passion of the Christ" is a good idea, because some people never go to church, never read the Bible and would never know the story of Jesus' suffering. I think it would give them a better understanding that Jesus died for everyone's sins.

Pay for what you get

HIRING A fire chief at $67,000 is fair. Anyone who says he w won't vote for taxes wants the luxury of living in a community that has good things but magically doesn't have to pay.

Golf makes money

THIS IS to the person who referred to the Jaycee Municipal Golf Course as a white elephant. The golf course pays for itself and produces a very nice profit. I was a member of the golf course advisory board for six years.

Excellent job

I'D LIKE to comment on David Limbaugh's column "Message of 'The Passion.'" It was wonderful. He did an excellent job. Most of the things he writes are very biased, but using the Bible as his source, I thought his article that he wrote about "The Passion of the Christ" was wonderful. I appreciated it.

Don't cut benefits

SO MUCH is said about the seniors collecting Social Security and how they should have saved in their younger years. But being a single mother with three children, it took every penny I made to feed, clothe and keep a roof over them while my ex-husband enjoyed life not taking any responsibility at all. It is easy for the rich politicians and wealthy to say cut Social Security. Could you live on $400 or $500 a month and never have any excess money to go to McDonald's or to the mall? If our Social Security is cut, are they going to reduce the price of food, rent, medicine and utilities? Of course not. We have worked hard and long. All we ask is that we have enough to get by on. Do I sound angry? Well, maybe I am. Don't cut our checks. Cut the paychecks of the rich politicians.

Wonderful photo

I WANT to compliment Don Frazier on his front-page photo of downtown Cape Girardeau at night. The historical buildings contrasting with the soaring and stately new bridge centered on Main Street is just spectacular. It could easily go into a chamber of commerce flyer. Who wouldn't be proud to call that scene home?

Book still profound

THE INNER workings of the president and Congress are profoundly laid in the expert writing of Allen Drury in his Pulitzer-winning novel "Advice and Consent" published in 1959 but as true today as then. It is a truly excellent political insight and so interesting you cannot lay it down. It is 616 pages of complete political enjoyment as well as full enlightenment into the complexities of government in action.

Money you don't have

I'M READING the editorial about how projected sales-tax revenue in Cape Girardeau isn't measuring up. Consider city workers who anticipated a 3 percent pay raise each year. In the last three or four years, they haven't had a raise. But what if they had spent the money they thought they were going to get? That's what the city is doing. Instead of spending the money they know they're going to get, they're anticipating a raise. They've got that a little backwards in my book. You should only spend money you know you're going to get.