Speak Out 1/26/05

Regents better act

I TAUGHT part-time at Southeast Missouri State University off and on for the last 10 years until I was told students thought my course too demanding. Did I suddenly become a bad teacher, or has SEMO dumbed down its curriculum? The new board of regents better act while SEMO still has a shred of a reputation left.

Raising a stink

REGARDING "Desperate Housewives": Why is it that when the networks finally have a few good shows on the air, there has to be someone out there raising a stink? This is why we are losing our rights as Americans.

Not a racist group

THE BLACK Panther Party was used as self-defense against the Klan and other racist groups. It wasn't a racist group. It did not hang white people because they were white. They did not beat up on white people because of their skin color. Sometimes the Black Panthers used any means necessary to defend black people, but they did not burn crosses on white people's lawns for the heck of it. The Black Panthers are no longer around because blacks have laws to protect them now.

Go Hollywood

SURE, A few folks may come from out of town to ride the new trolley, and perhaps there will be someone somewhere who will find Fort D fascinating. But why not put a few thousand dollars into wooing Hollywood to our fair city? Just imagine all of the businesses that could profit from this. Hotels and motels, restaurants, caterers, nightclubs, retail shops, day spas -- the list goes on and on. Tourists would flock from all over to watch the movies being made, and a box-office hit would draw everyone to see the landmarks where it was filmed, even years later. A few thousand in advertising in Hollywood trade newspapers is all it would cost the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is just pennies when you have a surplus of hundreds of thousands in motel and restaurant tax money. Cape Girardeau could finally be on the map for something other than being the home of Rush Limbaugh.

Disaster scenario

EVENTUALLY, conservatives are going to be where liberals currently are: losing elections. The reason is that it won't make much difference if Tom and John are married when your kids are starving and being sent off to die in wars for oil, when there are no more student loans, when your job's in India, when your wife's dying of a disease and you don't have any health coverage, when your mother's Social Security check is $200 and it takes $20 to buy a loaf of bread. Just wait. Let's see how important "moral absolutes" are after a decade or so of Republican control.

Too big a risk

I HIT a dog and killed it when I was younger and I stopped to tell the owners. I thought I was going to be killed. They were upset and were threatening. I tried my hardest to avoid the dog, but it was running free. In this day and age you do not want to risk your life by stopping for something like that.

Awesome program

EVERY WEDNESDAY night people with hurts, habits and hang-ups meet at Lynwood Baptist Church. The program is called Celebrate Recovery and is truly awesome. I can't believe that so many people care about me even after I told them the troubles I was having. I praise the Lord for you.

Banana republic

CONSERVATIVE commentator George Will said that a portion of the inaugural parade was so steeped in security that it reminded him of a banana republic. Some would say that's what we have become.

Headed the same way

SO THE city wants Main and Water streets both one way the same way. At least you will know which way all the drunks are driving.