Speak Out 11/16/03

Inadequate respect

YOUR EDITORIAL said Tuesday was the day set aside to recognize veterans. Who has it be set aside by? We're in school. Offices are open. Businesses are running like normal. I don't see that we've set aside at all. All I see is it's a day on my calendar. We show it no more respect or no more honor than we do anything else. I'm appalled that we expect people to risk their lives to save our liberties, and we can't even recognize them properly.

Regard for life

ISN'T IT interesting that the anti-abortionists who have such a high regard for life are the very first ones to execute a person once he is born and reached the age of accountability.

The competition

AS PAINFUL as it may be to some, to compare academic ability of Southeast to the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Yale and Harvard is as ludicrous as comparing our athletic ability to Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC and Texas. We compete for students against Murray, SIU, SMS, and Arkansas State. Give us every advantage we can get.

Judicial activism

IF YOU are going to complain about judicial activism, you should try to be consistent. Where were all the conservatives when the Supreme Court decided along partisan lines to usurp Florida's right to run its own recount of the 2000 presidential election? I guess judicial activism is only wrong if you disagree with the results.

We're eating cake

IT WOULD seem to me that the SEMO regents would show good faith in the budget-cutting process by cutting something out of their own budget, such as the free meals that the university provides them when they meet. But no, the lavish, drinks and wine go on for them. They dine and say to the rest of us, "Let them eat cake."

Bureaucratic expense

THE NEWSPAPER needs reporters willing to do a little investigative journalism. Just because Don Dickerson says something does not make it true. Faculty salaries are not the major expense he claims. The bureaucratic administrative structure at SEMO is the major expense. Get rid of it to solve the so-called financial emergency.

Medical malpractice

IT'S NOT the state of medical practice that's the problem -it's the state of medical malpractice. I'm not a physician, but with things the way they are today I wouldn't touch a single patient unless it was absolutely necessary. You might get sued for touching the patient improperly. When the average malpractice insurance premium is over $60,000 a year, can you really blame the physician?

Troops in Iraq

THE COMBATANT commander in Iraq has indicated he can operate with 105,000 troops. The president is willing to let him make the call. The 50,000 new troops have to get in country, get established, get acclimatized, get updated on the situation, get their equipment staged and actually assume operational control before the existing troops can rotate home.

Think of the students

I THINK the caller who suggested that SEMO follow Vanderbilt University's lead and get rid of the athletic director position is right on. Why cut golf when you could save the same amount of money or more by cutting the position of the AD? There are plenty of people who can divide up the small amount of work that person actually does. It's time to think about the students and not just the highly paid administrators.

Stirring up trouble

I HATE to tell you, but virtually no one cares if Southeast Missourian reporters were banned from school meetings. Those few who do are glad you were banned because they believe you would be there for the sole purpose of gathering information that would stir up trouble.

We would be fired

IN MY opinion, some of the problems our society faces may deal with the fact that we tend to not punish people. Criminals get set free on technicalities. Cheaters are revered for there success. Politicians make mistakes but are elected over and over again. If many of us made the kind of major mistakes at our job comparable to the mistakes our local legal system has made recently, we would be fired.

The party is over

COUNT ME among lifelong Democrats who find my party moving away from me. JFK was almost conservative compared to today's Democrats. It is not just the left-right paradigm where my party is losing me. It is also the politics of personal destruction practiced by its leaders and the divisiveness of pitting fellow Americans against each other whether by class or race. The current rant that somehow Saddam was aggrieved by our attack on Iraq is really pushing me away.