Speak Out 06/24/04

New stores, new traffic

I'M SO glad Cape Girardeau is getting two new stores to bring in more tax dollars, mostly on the back of the county residents. So many people from the county come to Cape for necessities, the doctors, jobs and entertainment. Since these two new stores are going to be off Siemers Drive, has any thought been given to additional traffic? The city needs a traffic plan. A new four-lane road with a turning lane needs to be constructed between Route K and Bloomfield Road, starting behind Wal-Mart and coming out behind the mail processing plant. Siemers Drive can't handle any more big business. It's already congested. Let's hear what the city planners say.

Medical screw-ups

HOW IRONIC is it that as doctors decry malpractice lawsuits and plead for tort reform insulating them from failure to meet their responsibilities, that a new federal law requires them to stop long enough before they operate to first check and make sure they're at least operating on the correct body part? Will docs ever get it that accountability must always rest on their shoulders for stupid screw-ups?

Show the atrocities

MY HEART goes out to the family of the latest civilian victim of the murdering Muslim scum who think they are going to keep Iraq from being free. That being said, I'm tired of hearing about Abu Ghraib. It was bad, but, I have seen worse at college frat parties and initiations. And where are the media? Why are we not seeing photos of the atrocities committed against American civilians? Is the media afraid we might want to retaliate?

Easy to negotiate

I AGREE with the comment about driving an SUV through the roundabout. In the course of my job, I have routinely driven a 24-foot delivery van through the roundabout with no problem. If you can't negotiate it in a car, you need to turn in your driver's license.

Too much hotlining

PEOPLE TALK about parents not taking care of their children, but when we do we get hotlined, sometimes by friends, sometimes by churches. How can we take care of our children when we constantly have to watch our back? We need people who are willing to help if they see a need, not call the hotline at every little thing.

Beer in the park

THE JACKSON City Park Fourth of July holiday celebration is really going downhill. The city took away the alcoholic beverages. You don't need alcoholic beverages to have a good time. But from my standpoint and to a lot of other folks, we never saw a problem with it. An alderman informed me a city ordinance prohibits alcoholic beverages in the park, but it is only enforced if the beverage is in a glass container. The ordinance is overlooked at the men's slowpitch softball games.

Government help

I'm a liberal, and liberals think people should work, but if they can't work they should be helped. A Speak Out comment said we should show a person how to fish. That's fine as long as the fish are biting. I think people should not rely on the government, but it's nice to have the government on their side. The country's obligation is to help someone who can't help himself.

Nearing collapse

SOCIETY TODAY does not necessarily hate evil. On the contrary, we seemingly embrace it. This is seen not only in the acceptances and celebration of homosexuality, but also in the country's acceptance of abortion and pornography. It is seen too in the rejection of the knowledge of God. Over the past 2,000 years, every empire, even those that seemed invincible at the height of their glory, collapsed. Each one had three factors in common: Civil society devalued human life, they forsook religious relief and they celebrated sexual immorality. These three factors have taken root in the United States over the past 40 years and have ripened until today a bitter fruit has us on the verge of the same thing as all those empires of the past. We are quickly approaching collapse.