Speak Out 1/11/05

A great show

I ATTENDED an acoustic performance by the Traveling Acoustic Open Mic at Buckner Brewery over the holidays. We really enjoyed the show and super-great musicians. We really appreciate everything Buckner's is doing to promote music. If anybody gets a chance, I suggest going to see them. It's a great show.

Quiet conversations

I WAS reading the comment from the person who said he blows his nose in restaurants and talks on cell phone and couldn't understand what anybody's problem was with either. I don't have a problem with someone blowing his nose, but I do have a problem with someone who's speaking on a cell phone loudly in my ear. Diners at most restaurants have intimate dinner conversations. Some people talk on their cell phones above the norm in order to get their point across in the restaurant. It's beyond me why people can't wait until they get finished with their meal to talk on the cell phone. That's why they had phone booths in the old days: so you could have a quiet conversation.

Tough action on trash

I'M GOING through Center Junction on Interstate 55, and the Missouri Department of Transportation has a crew out picking up all the trash on I-55. I want to thank whoever's responsible for getting these people out here after several requests in Speak Out to clean this area up. Now it's up to the residents to do something to help them out. Let's start turning in anybody we see throw out anything, no matter how small or how large. I assure you if I see anybody throwing anything out, I'm going to call and turn you in and sign a complaint and hope you'll get arrested. Maybe that will stop the trash.

And now a movie?

POLICY WONK Victor Hanson wrote in part that "sometime around 1980, the Right saw the demise of the Soviet Union as an opportunity to evolve beyond realpolitik to promote not just anti-communism but grassroots democracy." Well, yes, some radicals oddly considered on the right do believe that, but many don't. At least as pertains to Iraq, more and more Americans are starting to question the wisdom of the policy of perhaps not only promoting but attempting to impose democracy. A movie about Hanson and his ilk might be entitled "Right-Wingers Gone Wild."

Same certification

THIS IS in response to the individual who said a volunteer firefighter is not a professional. I am a volunteer firefighter, and I had to meet the same standards that a career firefighter had to meet to become a firefighter II, fire officer II, fire instructor II, fire investigator, fire inspector and hazardous material technician. These are in addition to many other certifications that I have. By the way, I have also been a career firefighter for several years. So please do not ever disgrace me or this profession with your limited knowledge.

Considerate driving

WHEN YOU are entering into traffic or allowed to exit a parking lot, have the common courtesy to give an acknowledgment wave to the person who allowed you to go ahead. There is a rash of people who choose to stop a car length behind the person in front of them. There are some of us who would like to get into our driveways, make right turns or enter a lane while cars aren't coming. It is very inconsiderate and annoying.

Safe and friendly

WE DON'T want Cape Girardeau to be a big city. If we wanted to live in a big city, we would move to St. Louis. Big cities have big crime and heartless folks. Broadway is a nice street as is. Leave well enough alone. If you want Cape to grow, make this town inviting, not dangerous and crowded. Take a look at the small towns that have grown in the name of progress. Most are not fit to bring up your children in. Most people want safe and friendly, not big, costly and unsafe.

Collective shame

CALLIE CLARK'S praiseworthy, if painful, portrayal of the declining condition of kids in this area should lead to collective shame followed by collective action to remedy this accurate if abhorrent assessment of the welfare of the youngest among us.

The rude factor

YES, PEOPLE are wondering why Cape Girardeau has not grown in the past decade. It is because the city is rude. If something does not go someone's way, he whines and complains about it. I am also surprised that Southeast Missouri State University has as many students as it does, because the university is rude, even to incoming freshmen. I know the university is supposed to be the real world, but give some people a break.

Volunteers take pride

IN REFERENCE to the hoopla surrounding volunteer firefighters: As a resident who returned to this area after 21-plus years in the Navy, my hat goes off to volunteers. My last duty station in a southern Maryland community had two to four paid fire and emergency medical personnel. Everyone else in the county and the counties surrounding it were volunteers. They took pride in their duties, and many attended the local community college, paying their own way, to get fire science degrees or other emergency certifications. Quit knocking volunteer firefighters as non-professionals. I am sure each one of them would do whatever, without hesitation, to save your house or life to the best of their ability and equipment.

Wrong priorities

IT'S TIME for the bureaucrats to quit one-upping each other in Southeast Asia and let the relief workers do their jobs. It's ridiculous for relief work to be stopped so airplanes loads of so-called important people can pass through the region.

Privatization doom

THE NONEXISTENT so-called crisis concerning Social Security is really part of the Bush agenda to annihilate the program that saved this country decades ago and continues to provide well-deserved benefits for retirees. Privatization of even a part of the program will lead to its eventual decimation.

Shortage of subjects

IT WOULD appear that David Limbaugh has run out of subjects. He continues to write diatribes about those nasty leftists and liberals. One of his latest columns accuses liberals of dragging this country through the mud. Liberal, leftist, Democrats, what have you, they're all the same to Limbaugh. This man is so out of touch it isn't even funny anymore. If it isn't that, he is ranting and raving about those terrible secular humanists who want to take over the world and burn all Christians at the stake.

Tip of the iceberg

I PREDICT the revelation that right-wing commentator Armstrong Williams was on the government payroll is just the tip of the iceberg. I can only pray that none of this hits too close to home.

Dangerous crossing

THE CALLER who wanted to give 90 percent of Jackson's drivers a driving lesson didn't know what highway he was on or which direction he was driving. The street the caller was trying to describe crosses a railroad track and has been the site of several accidents.