Speak Out 11/21/08

Salute to veterans

The Veterans Day program at Jackson High School was excellent. I am a Korean War veteran, and I want to thank everyone who was involved in the program: American Legion honor guard, superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson, student body president Gabe Eggers and vice president Evan Henry, choir students directed by Elizabeth St. John and Christy Sinn, VFS speech contest winner Bobby Williamson, the tribute to Staff Sgt. Bradley Joe Skelton and taps by Kellie King and Trent Dickerson. This excellent program makes a veteran proud of these young people. Thank you.

Cherish the moment

I SEE change in the air. Now we have our first black president, maybe everybody can start loving each other like they used to when I was growing up. We have reached a milestone. It does not take a whole lot of effort for someone to care about others. Let's give it a try. Let's cherish this moment.

No bonuses

REGARDING THE bailout: I don't think the government should be allowed to give CEOs bonuses, because they're the ones who got us in trouble.

Slow hearing too

HERE'S SOMETHING I've wanted to say for a really long time. In Southeast Missouri, we talk slowly. It doesn't make us worse or better than other cultures. It's just the way we are. Many cultures speak more quickly. We have many fine ethnic restaurants in town run by wonderful people. But when you talk to them, sometimes it's hard for us to understand what they're saying, especially over the phone. If people would try to talk more slowly give us a chance to understand, it would help a lot. Thank you for the wonderful food you give us. We just want to understand you better.

Take a cut

I THINK it's time for the people who work in the automobile industry to take a reduction in pay and in some of those fringe benefits that are costing the manufacturers an awful lot of money. This could save their job overall. Now's the time when everybody's going to have to give a little.

Veterans at Oak Ridge

ON VETERANS Day I was privileged to be at the Oak Ridge school for a Veterans Day program. It was excellent. The second- and third-grade girls and boys and the fourth- and fifth-grade girls and boys sang their songs so enthusiastically and beautifully. And the band did a great job. Robert Vaughn gave an excellent talk. The color guard of Cape Girardeau VFW Post 3838 did a great job of posting the colors. And the call to colors and taps by the bugler from Post 3838 were excellent. It was so moving. The children were so well-behaved. Congratulations to the principal and teachers and staff at Oak Ridge.

Sanitary stores

EVERYONE KNOWS grocery carts are bacteria-laden. In this economy, not many businesses are going to be able to invest in cart-sanitizing machines. The hand wipes provided by a grocery store here in town are fine. That's about the best you're going to get.

Paying for education

THE SENIOR-citizen issue about paying school taxes is a tough one. They only had children in school for 12 years and have paid school taxes all these years. The senior citizens are hurting for money like everyone else, maybe more so. But they need to think about their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren and what it might mean for their education if money is taken away from education. I guess you have to decide what's more important to you.

Cars, not bailouts

THIS IS a suggestion to Congress. Instead of spending billions of taxpayers' dollars to bail out the auto industry, why not give lower- to middle-class families new and used cars, depending on their income and only to those who pay income tax?

Kicking out God

THIS COUNTRY is going down because of the bitterness and hate and division. This is the United States of America. If we don't get our act together, you might as well say Osama bin Laden has accomplished what he said he would do: wreak destruction on this country. Why should God bless this country? The government has turned its back on him. The government kicked him out of the schools. Look what trouble our education system is in. Government kicked God out of the U.S. Capitol, and now we have the most immoral and greedy government I have ever seen. It's time for Christians to stand up and say no. I couldn't care less what the ACLU has to say about anything. It isn't my God. This country has more fear of the ACLU than God, who has a whole lot more power than the ACLU. Just remember this: Every knee will bow and confess that he is God.

Bikers' respect

ON SUNDAY I went to a local park to walk with some friends. There were some bicyclers riding. Each time we met them we moved to the side of the road. As more bicyclers arrived they took over the whole road. They were not on their bicycles. They were standing in the road drinking beer and socializing. If they want respect as riders, they need to show respect to others.

Clintons' experience

I FEEL Hillary Clinton is a good choice for secretary of state. Who better than someone with a former president as an adviser? How lucky we would be to get this experience. I think she can be of service and do an excellent job. Hurrah for the Clintons.

Play was satire

SATIRE: A literary composition holding up to ridicule vice or folly of the time. That's what the infamous play was about. I attended the play "Sister Ignatius" on the first night. A few people left, but most stayed. Everyone seemed to be laughing, including myself. Evidently those who were offended had not been raised in the Catholic Church. My father was born in 1903. He told me that he would have been left-handed if the nuns had not cracked his knuckles so often with a ruler. I attended a Catholic school in a large city in the 1940s. I watched a nun strike a boy repeatedly in the back of his neck with the eraser end of a pencil. I was told by other students that she had been seen in the hallway shaking the same boy with his head banging against the wall. These things happened, and I laughed at the play because it was satire. I believe Wendy Rust had the right to state her opinion, but I don't think the students should have to suffer because of her opinion.

Performance rights

IF A committee is to determine which student productions will be listed as part of the season-ticket package for performances at the River Campus, does this not censor the director or choreographer to make sure those shows will be acceptable? If it looks like censorship and smells like censorship, I believe it's censorship. What happened to First Amendment rights in public institutions?

Conservative view

SINCE THE election, I have been hearing and reading comments about how, according to liberals, we are all one country now and how conservatives should reach across the aisle and make nice. This is hypocrisy at its best, coming from people who, for most of the last eight years, did nothing but belittle conservatives at every opportunity and do their best to spread hate and discontent. They managed to call our current president everything but a human being. Apparently we are only one nation when everyone agrees with you. We conservatives always believed we were one nation. Where were you the last eight years?

Cart cleanliness

ABOUT SHOPPING carts: I have seen so many people put their children in the main basket of the shopping cart rather than the seat provided, especially if they have two or more children. Their dirty shoes, feet and rear ends are where most folks put their groceries. There has to be contamination, and I wish stores would enforce a rule prohibiting children in the main area of the cart.

Disgraceful performance

I THINK a lot of the people who are commenting about censorship of the arts probably weren't at the performance at the River Campus. It was well-acted but a disgrace. What a horrible selection. I received tickets as a gift from someone who had season tickets and couldn't go. She is horribly embarrassed, and I don't plan to ever go back if this is the kind of subject matter the university thinks is good. It wasn't provocative in any meaningful way. It was just mean, petty and small-minded.

Equal bailouts

I SEE no reason why the government should not bailout the auto industry. They have been bailing out the farmers for years.

Fostering democracy

I AM concerned about the monks in Myanmar who have been jailed because of their support of a democratic government for their country. I believe the United States should engage in diplomatic efforts to help promote liberty for the monks and for the people of that region. It is every freedom-loving person's obligation to foster advancement of the principles of the democratic government for these people and for all who awaken to the truth that is the right of self-rule. This is progress. It is ever important.

Right to bear arms

I WOULD like to respond to the "Heavy weapons" comment, which seems to be more and more prevalent in our society, and that is the notion that we have a right to own firearms for hunting. The Supreme Court ruled this past summer that Americans have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and the constitution doesn't specify just for hunting or even just for self-protection. It just says we have the right to keep and bear arms and that's an individual right. It doesn't mention hunting. We have the right to military-style assault weapons as well.

Thanks for purse

I WANT to thank whoever found my purse in the parking lot at Perryville Wal-Mart. I don't know who you are. God bless you.