Speak Out 11/24/02

Worst road conditions

I'M CALLING about road conditions in Missouri. They're the worst I've seen anywhere. A new car will be shaken to death in three months. They say Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, but it's got the best roads. That's because tax money is going where it's supposed to. Missouri should wake up.

Bad news for unions

UNION MEMBERS better stand up and be counted. They had better register and vote. The homeland security bill is the worse thing since the Taft-Hartley law, which has been crippling unions for years. The president can fire and hire whomever he wants.

Construction messes

I'M JUST wondering if the Missouri Department of Transportation has some kind of vendetta against Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area. First they tear up the road between Scott City and Cape Girardeau. Now they've got this mess between Cape Girardeau and Jackson. This is another accident waiting to happen. People whip around trying to get ahead of this mess. No one's working at 5 p.m., and there's no one here in the morning when I go to work. I don't know how many hours they work, but they certainly don't seem to be in any big hurry. MoDOT might want see why we're voting against everything to do with them. Maybe it's because they show us that they don't use what resources they have, and they don't treat us with any consideration.

Mom needs some help

GUESS WHAT. Mom's busy too, and she's tired and frustrated. So with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, help out with the cleaning, shopping and cooking and stop the "give me, give me, give me."

Self-fulfillment

HAS ANYONE been watching "The Bachelor?" I've watched with interest to see how this unfolds. To be quite honest, I think it's hokey. Can't a woman get out and find a husband if she really wants a husband? I really hurt for these women. I honestly hope all these women are counseled after this show and taught how to reach down inside themselves and find love and happiness in themselves. Women need to realize they can be fulfilled within themselves without having to have a man.

It takes strength

THIS IS in response to the comment about businesses running the help-wanted ads: Maybe it is a nice, friendly place to work. But maybe it's stressful and a tough job. Only strong people can do that kind of work.

Argument doesn't wash

I'VE READ Shelly Goss' letter to the editor about church leaders being against the Iraq war. She says hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died. There's no way of knowing that. This turns me off. I'm not agreeing with whether or not the war is proper. I don't know what this person's going to think if Saddam Hussein kills a bunch of people. Is it justified to let him kill people?

It takes determination

YOUR ARTICLE says 70 percent of the people who smoke want to quit. Those 70 percent will never quit smoking. A person has to say "I am going to quit smoking" and mean it, just like they say "I'm not going to walk out in front of a car going 50 mph" and mean it. It's the same determination that keeps you from smoking that also will keep you from walking out in front of that car. If you set out determined to quit, I'd say most of the people who try will have success. If they don't have that much desire to quit, they're not going to quit.

Renewable energy

ONE OF the most important things we could do for our safety would be to move to renewable energy. Wind and solar are both viable energy sources which could dramatically reduce our dependence on oil and our need to control Middle Eastern countries. If we would shift the various taxpayer subsidies currently paid to the oil industry to these industries, we would certainly be safer in the long run.

I HAVE to agree with the comment about Cape Girardeau's school superintendent's effusive language about all these new regulations from the federal government and all this testing. Statistics prove that excessive testing does not equate with better learning. Nor do students -- when they have no vested interest in the test -- do as well as they could, so these test results are not always an accurate indicator of students' success. MAP tests in no way affect anything to do with the students. They don't affect their grade or their chances at graduation. All students are worried about is grade-point averages, because that's what determines their class rank and their efforts to get into a prestigious college. If you want to see a true indication of students' success, give them tests that means something to the kids. MAP testing is a joke. The national test is going to be a joke.

It's an improvement

I SEE the city is straightening out Main Street where the old shoe factory used to be. I applaud the effort to make our streets safer, but I hate to see this little crook in the road disappear. This is something that is a part of Cape's personality and uniqueness. So we're losing something that makes us a little unique, but it's for the best interest of everybody who drives in that area on a regular basis. It's another loss, but it's an improvement.

State workers lose jobs

THE GOVERNOR can tell the public that no state jobs will be lost due to the budget, but state workers know that's not the case. Eliminating positions is the same as getting laid off no matter how you phrase it. We are still out of jobs. The elimination process has already begun. Next time people think state workers have it so easy or have it so good, think again.

Smart housewives

THE TICK and mosquito trap is a great idea, and I'd certainly buy one. However, perhaps the doctor who invented it could refrain from making remarks like "Any housewife ... could use it." Housewives are much more worldly these days, and folks who work outside the home certainly aren't any smarter.

Planting beer cans

THOUGH A caller claimed it would be more accurate, it would be bad to refer to Cape as the City of Beer instead of the City of Roses. For one thing, it would be too much to see beer cans being planted by one of Cape's best: Melvin Gateley.