Speak Out 11/7/13

Thank you

A big thank you to the city employees who allowed my three grandchildren and myself to take shelter in the Arena Building when the storm became severe and the tornado sirens blew on Thursday night. And I realize that someone else was taking care of us to have us driving through Arena Park at just that time. Again, thank you!

Great teacher

Just a shout out from a local college student. Mrs. Shelton from Central High School was an awesome teacher! I am grateful and I don't want her to go thinking that her efforts are not appreciated. Same goes for all good teachers in the area.

Cellphone politics

I'm watching a commercial on television that said if you're on food stamps or Medicaid, you can get a free cellphone with 250 minutes or a 1,000 text messages a month. This government of ours and this administration is trying to get everyone and their brother on the government dole so everyone will vote Democrat. This is ridiculous and we need to get out and vote in November 2014 and 2016 and get our country back on the right track.

Paying too much?

I've got a little figure about the gas prices. We should have been paying about $2.65 per gallon when the price of oil went down. I figure now they're making more money per gallon at $2.99 than they were when gas was $3.10 or $3.20. If oil goes up one dollar, the gas price goes up 10 cents tomorrow. But if oil goes down $20, the price of gas only goes down two cents. Someone needs to look into this.

Apology due

I think the Republicans are owed a huge apology from President Obama, most Democrats and much of the mainstream media. Obamacare is not ready for prime time. The website is a mess. Republicans wanted to delay Obamacare, but the president was more than willing to shut down the government not to do so. Well, now it's being delayed by Obama himself because it doesn't work. First he delayed the business mandate for a year. Now he's delayed the individual mandate for at least six weeks.

Salary review

Shame on Southeast Missouri State University. After their so-called salary review, the raises go to those who are already at the top of the salary scale. Those who are making the least get nothing!

Stolen property

To the person who stole my 2-year-old's DVD player and children's DVD from our vehicle: I hope your child enjoys it as much as ours did or you really were desperate for cash for something worth our loss. It was a Christmas present and he loved it dearly.

Time off

Gov. Nixon just announced he is giving state employees an extra day of paid vacation. The federal government gave employees a paid vacation during the shutdown. Seems government is good at paying people not to work! And we wonder why the government is in debt and things don't get done.

Sad situation

A father and son theft team. Isn't it great how the father is teaching his 19-year-old son to make a living? Wonder how many years this has been going on. I hope the son can see crime does not pay, but mostly I hope he gets some real help to grow up honest and good.

Lyons column

Thank you for publishing Gene Lyons' calm, rational, data driven (the federal deficit has been cut in half under Obama as compared to Bush, federal spending as a percentage of GDP is way down under Obama as compared to the Bush and Reagan years, etc.) diatribe, as compared to the hair-on-fire harangue by David Limbaugh.

Online courses

Online courses are onerous, impersonal and accelerate our society's atomization.