Speak Out 11/04/04

Running red lights

IT IS going to take someone being injured badly or killed before police start monitoring the intersections in Cape Girardeau? Every day as I go to and from work, I witness people running red lights. I am not talking about going through on caution, but completely going through on red. It has gotten much worse lately. Last week I saw three cars go through a light after it had turned red. Until police start ticketing these inconsiderate motorists and giving them some consequences, this situation will only deteriorate.

Leaves in street

WHAT DO people not understand about city ordinances? Leaves do not go in the street. They are raked to the edge of the curb, but not in the street. Our street is now a one-lane road, and you can't even walk down the street without having to get in the way of traffic to get around the pile of leaves. You cannot burn leaves in the street either. Come on, people. Clean up your act.

Public airwaves

LEAVING PARTISANSHIP out of it, the airwaves for local television are public property. Deregulation did a great disservice to U.S. citizens by eliminating equal-time policies. Allowing any station using public airwaves to advocate any agenda and present it in the guise of news is wrong.

Truman solution

THE ANSWER to this latest Osama bin Laden tape should be a Truman solution. Nuke those mountains where bin Laden is holed up. Bin Laden has admitted on this tape that he killed thousands of Americans on 9-11, so he deserves a nuke elimination.

We're one nation

I DON'T think we are a divided nation. I think that's what some people want us to think, but I'm perfectly comfortable with the half that's voting for Kerry or the half that's voting for Bush. It really makes no difference to me when I wake up on election morning who's going to be president. I see us as one nation.

Stopping Saddam

IS ANYBODY so stupid to think that Saddam Hussein would leave weapons of mass destruction where they could be found? He was a murderer, putting people in shredders, or hanging them by their hair, and shooting them. He had to be stopped.

Ban the smoking

I would like to ask the mall management to eliminate the smoking outside the main entrance area and clean up the trash and the cigarette butts that litter that whole area when you walk into the building. It's really a distraction and doesn't send a positive message to people coming there to shop.

Immediate secession

SOMEONE SAID the South seceded because of corruption in the Lincoln administration. Many Southern states did not wait for Lincoln to be inaugurated. They seceded right after he was elected. They didn't give him a chance.

College adults

SOMEONE SAID university students are adults. I have never seen an adult in the workplace (which is what college should be getting students ready for) wearing pajamas and talking on a cell phone instead of doing their work. That sounds to me like a spoiled brat, not an adult.

No tax breaks

I'M A middle-class wage earner, and I pay taxes. I don't get all the breaks and deductions the rich and low-income classes do.

Welfare of the child

I AM a grandmother who has raised my granddaughter all but five weeks of her 21 months. Her mother needs to get a check for a month, so she just comes and uproots the baby from a stable environment to live with 11 other people until she gets a check, then she brings the baby back. Why doesn't anyone care about these precious children? What has happened to protecting the mental well-being of children? Why doesn't the state step in and grant temporary rights to the people who are raising these children so they can't be uprooted every time somebody needs a welfare check?