Speak Out 10/28/11

Worth the effort

IF a pink tablecloth at the Jackson post office encourages one woman to have a breast exam, it will have been worth it.

Thank you, troops

RIGHT or wrong, our American heroes will soon be back on American soil. We all need to thank them.

Bike lanes

IS that really a newly painted bike lane on Lexington Avenue between Cape Rock Drive and Highway 177? Good luck riding a bike in that lane with the expansion joint right in the middle of it and with grass growing out of it.

Obama hypocrisy

OBAMA told corporate America they should no longer take their private jets for trips to Las Vegas. So off Obama goes in the most luxurious private jet in the world to Las Vegas at the expense of the taxpayer. The purpose of the trip was to promote his Affordable Homeowner Act in Nevada, where they have the most foreclosures in the country and is the home state of Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader. He presided over the Democratic Senate that passed the Dodd-Frank legislation that caused the home loan crisis.

WSJ article

THE Southeast Missourian is most certainly habituated to an endless effort to reprint articles from The Wall Street Journal. However, I've found one that will likely not be considered for reprinting. The gist of the very insightful and accurate article is that, to quote, "The conventional wisdom is that our education system is failing our economy. But our companies deserve a lot of the blame themselves." From failure to offer salaries concomitant with skills to a lack of once popular on-the-job training to abandonment of apprenticeships when called for, the fair and balanced Oct. 24 article correctly takes business to task for its own shortcomings and knee-jerk attitude of scapegoating the educational system.

Fair tax not fair

THERE has been a lot of talk inside and outside Speak Out about the fair tax proposal, a tax that would replace all other federal taxes with a national sales tax of about 23 percent. I think the advocates of the fair tax need to tweak the name of the proposal and change it to the most unfair tax proposal in recorded history.

Pink post office

THE pink at the Jackson post office is the result of the employees donating money and time to make it happen. In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the employees wrapped the posts in front of the office and placed bows on the trees, wore pink socks and put pink ribbons on our vehicles. We are honored to support this communitywide effort. No tax or postal funds were used, although the Postal Service supports our efforts. The Postal Service sells stamps that help support research to end breast cancer, and I would encourage everyone to buy a sheet.

Limbaugh column

WHEN David Limbaugh accuses a politician of using scare tactics, you just need to keep two words in mind: Pot. Kettle.

Africa conflict

THE Lord's Resistance Army is carrying out a reign of terror in Central Africa. Its forces are carrying out atrocities on an unprecedented scale. It was officially declared a terrorist organization a number of years ago. That it purports to be Christian led a woefully uninformed Speak Out caller to assume that they are the good guys in this conflict. It's sad to see so starkly that ignorance knows no bounds, even in Speak Out.

Obama's presidency

IT would be difficult to determine the exact point in time when America's decline began, but it picked up speed exponentially when Barack Obama became president and began his agenda of wealth distribution, universal health care and class warfare. We may have had division on the Iraq War, and the housing bubble would probably have caused problems, but the real problem has been Barack Obama not tending to the business of being president of the United States. He put his ideology ahead of everything and did not deal effectively with the economic crisis. Now he's making it even worse as he further divides the parties and the country as a whole.

Tea party meetings

TO me, it is a delicious irony that area tea party meetings are often held at the taxpayer-subsidized Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Parade police

I was on the Saint Francis cancer awareness float in the homecoming parade. It was fun until the cops started being rude. They wouldn't let us throw candy to the children. They wanted people to come up to the float and get the candy. I think that is more dangerous. I had a cop yell at me and my 5-year-old daughter because she dropped some on the ground and told us if it happened again he would remove us from the float. That's not a good impression of cops for my daughter. Now she thinks cops are scary. They could have come about a different way.

Jackson grading

COMMENTS about the standards-based report cards being "trendy" couldn't be further from the truth. Jackson isn't the first district in Missouri to use this system, and it won't be the last. This grading system is a research-based system that has been used across the U.S. for 20-plus years. It doesn't look like the traditional grading system that most of us are used to seeing, but it provides more information to parents than the grading system that has been in place. The standards and expectations that our children are expected to learn grows every year.

Using headphones

I'VE been seeing this a lot as of late and was just wondering, what's the deal with people wearing headphones while operating a motor vehicle? I thought that this was illegal in Missouri. It seems pretty unsafe, not just for the driver but for everyone on the road.

Cutting-edge district?

IT sounds far-fetched, but maybe when Jackson school officials said they wanted to make Jackson a cutting-edge school district, they meant their desire was to cut enrollment.

Legal problem

URBAN deer hunting is a terrible idea, but if the proposition passes, the city should make sure all its legal ground is covered. I am ready to sue the city if even one arrow comes into my yard.

Repairing roads

I would like to make a comment about Barack Obama wanting to pass this jobs bill. What happened to all the jobs? Where are all the bridges and roads that got fixed from that last $800 billion? Now he is wanting another bill. I find it very interesting that we spend twice as much money throwing out food stamps than we do repairing roads. Maybe we ought to get these people off welfare and have them repair the roads.

Dysfunctional legislature

QUESTION: What legislative body is more dysfunctional than the U.S. Congress? Answer. The Missouri General Assembly.

What progress?

MAYOR Harry Rediger raves about overlay on alleys while Lexington Avenue looks like it is from a Third World country. Sure looks like good use of our tax dollars. This is just proof that Cape Girardeau is out of touch with the people who live here. Overtaxed and ignored by the city, that's what it means to live in Cape Girardeau. The sad truth is he really believes this is progress.

Grading system

I don't have any issues with Jackson's new grading system. There is a defined goal, and the numbering system allows you to know if your child is working toward, reached or exceeded that goal. It is very simple and straightforward.