Speak Out 11/5/04

Money for pork

A RECENT Speak Out comment mentioned spending $87 billion-plus for the Iraq war. This is what Congress appropriated, but of this $87 billion, over $21 billion was pork. So the $87 billion-plus didn't all go to Iraq to our armed forces or to our security forces. It went to politicians' pet projects back home. I think the record should be set straight.

Windshield politicking

I HAVE just about had it. There are court rulings we cannot have the Ten Commandments on any government property, but when I come out of church I find all of these political pamphlets on my windshield of my car parked on the church lot. Candidates should not have the privilege of putting their campaign material on cars in church parking lots.

Voting pressure

I AM a parent of children in the Jackson School District. My children had to vote at the middle school on the major races and issues. I didn't have a problem with this until they had to put their names on the ballots and have their parents sign them to get extra credit. Voting in the U.S. is by secret ballot. My children felt they had to vote for what their teachers had been preaching to them or else they might get singled out for having their own opinions. Our kids have to grow up so fast these days as it is, much less having to worry about politics while only in their early teens. Let the kids be kids instead of being told to tell their parents who and what they need to vote for.

Green eyes still there

THIS IS in regards to the cemetery's green eyes. Those green eyes are still there today. I checked it out after I read "Fact or Fiction?" in the paper. When you round the corner at Notre Dame, look back over your right shoulder and you will see green eyes on top of the hill. Good luck on finding it.

Wipers and headlights

I'M CALLING about the new Missouri law that requires you to turn on your headlights when you turn your windshield wipers on. Evidently there are a lot of folks who don't know that. We been having rain, and you see car after car without lights on.

Likes new ballots

I JUST got done voting, and I'd just like to say how pleased I was with the new ballots. They're very easy to understand.

Doesn't sound right

I WANT to know if I was reading the paper right when there was a Jackson man accused of raping a 9-year-old girl 10 times who only got 120 days in the Farmington sexual offender program. That's crazy.

Diamond lights

THAT WAS a very nice tribute to Sen. Al Spradling in the paper. Another tribute goes to Al who -- along with a fellow Kiwanis members Narvol Randol, Dr. H.T. Miles, Wayne Rust and Clarence Suedekum and others -- was instrumental in getting the lights put in at Capaha Park baseball diamond in the early 1950s.

Erroneous history

A RECENT caller lamented that it was too bad people didn't understand history. He then proceeded to claim erroneously that the South had seceded because of states' rights and corruption in the Lincoln administration. The South, in fact, seceded over the issue of slavery. At the time secession began, there was no Lincoln administration. Lincoln didn't take office until about three months after the South had begun seceding.

Slow voting

JUST GOT back from voting in Jackson. It took an hour to vote, and all the while there were eight or 10 empty booths. These people need to move a little quicker or hold the elections on the weekend when people have time to lollygag.

Mock elections

I ALWAYS vote at the elections and have taken my children with me to show them the process. Cape Christian School had a good idea of using past presidents for a mock election. It was not a good idea, though, to use the current presidential candidates at Alma Schrader Elementary School. Some children were criticized by their classmates for voting for John Kerry.