Speak Out 11/24/03

The highest law

YOU'RE SO wrong. The highest law of the land is neither the U.S. Constitution nor the judiciary's interpretation of it. The highest law of the nation is the law of God, something understood by the likes of Martin Luther King, Judge Roy Moore and the anti-war protesters at Cape Girardeau's Freedom Corner.

Polecat senator

IN A memo, Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Democrat from Massachusetts, is blocking nominees for judgeship because the groups that fund him don't like the candidates. One reason was because a nominee was a Latino. What a hypocrite. Always crying racism, this polecat senator is a disgrace to our nation.

Ignoring the voters

I JUST read in the paper that Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones is planning on having animal control for the county. That was one of the big things they talked about if county planning and zoning passed. It didn't. We have a new septic tank ordinance. Now this. It doesn't matter if the majority of the voters don't want it. The county commission just does what it wants.

Playing the MAP game

I TEACH fourth grade in a school district in this area. Last year I kept track in one subject area of how much time I actually spent instructing students in that subject area and how much time I spent working on how to make their MAP scores higher. At the end of the first semester last year, I had spent 62 percent of my classroom instructional minutes on preparing for the MAP test. Teachers today have been forced into a corner they don't want to be in. We're not the enemy, but we have a common enemy we cannot fight: the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It has prevented us from teaching our kids important skills and forced us to teach them how to play the MAP game.

Thanks for the flags

I WANT to say a big thank you to the individuals who placed the American flags in Woodland Hills Estates. We are very proud of you. Thank you.

A good deal

SEMO FACULTY members should quit their whining. I would love to retire with an extra year of salary and five years of health insurance.

Special treatment

MAYBE I'M crazy, but can any police officer out there explain to me why celebrities are allowed to turn themselves in when they want and aren't arrested on the spot? I can remember three instances in the last few years. One would be O.J. Simpson. One would be Alan Iverson. And the third would be Michael Jackson. I don't understand why celebrities are put above the law. If anyone else had a child molestation charge against them, they'd be arrested on the spot.

Shower perspective

THIS IS to the SEMO students complaining about no hot water for one weekend: Trade places with a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan and you'll quit complaining about the inconvenience of having to go to another building for a hot shower. Think of not having a hot shower for days or weeks or having only seven minutes to take a shower. Life doesn't revolve around you and your wants. Nor does the university.

The public trust

OUR CAPE Girardeau School Board members swore an oath to faithfully serve a public trust at all times by abiding by the law. If e-mails show any board members organized to meet two at a time to review and deliberate the budget-cutting committee's recommendations, these acts would defy Missouri's Sunshine Law. Such incontrovertible proof of intent to subvert and violate the law and to deceive the public would regrettably evidence the board's illegitimacy. I hope none of this is true, because our children deserve better. They hold an inalienable right to public integrity. But in the unthinkable event it is true, the board's service and that of the board's attorney, who may have advised them how to scam the public, will be unworthy of taxpayer or parental trust. Once public confidence is broken, resignation becomes the only honorable option.