Speak Out 12/12/05

Stealing what's left

I WOULD like to thank the fine residents of Cape Girardeau County who went to our house that recently burned and took what little bit we still have left. The children will definitely appreciate it this spring when they come home and they don't have their bikes or play houses because someone stole them.

Unsafe speeding

I WAS on Interstate 55 other vehicles went by me like I was sitting still in my truck. They were going so fast they made my truck shake. Motorists like this end up getting innocent people killed.

Top-notch concert

WHEN YOU see Mike Dumey's name associated with a musical production, be sure to be a present. It will be top-notch in presentation and talent. Thanks, Mike, for Southeast Missouri Hospital's benefit concert.

Nature's bounty

HOORAY FOR our new nature center in the county park and all the employees and volunteers who put the programs on. Sunday afternoon we made wreaths and swags from cedar branches, holly branches with berries, pine cones, ribbon, a base of grapevine wreath. Every one was different and beautiful. Thank you again for the new nature center. I also take my grandkids. They love it.

Discount pitch

OUR CAPE Girardeau County pharmacists are good citizens and productive businesses. With managed care, Medicare Part D, mail order and stiff competition, their bottom line has probably taken a few hits. It looks like our county commissioners just threw them a sucker punch. Ask your local pharmacy if the discount card helps or hurts their business. It seems reasonable that if a discount card would increase a store's profitability, as the commissioners were led to believe, then every business in the county would offer one. I'm sure the commissioners had good intentions, but they may have been duped by a slick sales pitch.

Focus on the negative

NO WONDER people don't know how the economy's doing. President Bush made a major speech on the condition of the economy: 4.5 million jobs created since May 2003, 5 percent unemployment -- well below the average of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and a growth rate of 4.3 percent -- the largest in 20 years. ABC News gave a report on the president's speech by picking the most negative statement: Companies were not putting in enough cash for pensions. Isn't our news coverage wonderful?

Hello, with a smile

Here are some other thankless jobs: The people who pick up our garbage every day (they are outstanding at what they do), and the men and women who wait on us (whether it be at a convenience store or restaurant, they deserve a nice smile and a big hello). It really wouldn't hurt anything to say a nice hello or even a smile at everyone you deal with on a daily basis.

Central licensing

Why is the license bureau downtown when the population of Cape Girardeau is mostly to the west? How about a central location and more parking too?

Disaster ahead

I AGREE 100 percent with President Bush that our Social Security program is a disaster. It has become nothing more than a welfare program loaded with waste and fraud. The elderly participants who have paid into the program all their lives don't understand this. They go through all their contributions in the first seven years after they retire. From then on, they're receiving a welfare check. And let's not even start on the people getting Social Security because they can't work due to obesity, drug dependency or alcoholism. With nearly two-thirds of our federal budget going out in entitlement checks, I see a train coming down the tracks with our grandchildren in the way.

Untimely mowing

I LIVE out in the country. The temperature today is about 22 degrees. The highway department is out here with tractors mowing the right of way. This seems to be a terrible waste of resources considering the high price of fuel and the time of year.

College spat

PRESIDENT JOHN Cooper of Three Rivers Community College states that TRCC was "evicted" from the three higher-education centers; and it's Southeast Missouri State University's fault. This is because TRCC wasn't paying its share of the bill. Should we feel sorry for someone who doesn't pay the rent and gets evicted? Cooper needs to be accountable for the services used, and TRCC needs to stop trying to beat SEMO in the scramble to get students. TRCC is a community college, nothing less, nothing more. The only thing it is contributing is an example of how an unethical institution operates.

Park access

THE CITY does not plow Rose Street due to its width. The city needs to send a plow through Capaha Park on Parkview Drive so those of us who live there can get in or out of our driveways. We're stranded every time it snows and have to hike in, leaving our vehicles on West End Boulevard.

Beneficial projects

DID YOU ever notice that people will not support something good until it benefits them? Talk about flip-flops. Its time to support projects that will work. But do it for the right reason.

No answers

I KEEP reading the Missourian and seeing this question, "Where's the Democrats' answer to all of our problems?" That's the point. There is no answer to all problems Republicans have got this country in. No one has the answer, let alone Republicans.

School spending

SOMEONE NEEDS to tell the Cape Girardeau School Board how to spend our money. Last school year, the board said there was no more money. Suddenly the Red Sea parted, and there was about $40,000 extra to hire a new superintendent. The money spent on the time teachers spend away from the classroom to make copies could be used to purchase textbooks for at least 25 classrooms. I get so tired of unprepared substitutes hired so teachers can have their in-house meetings. Maybe I should do like one school board member did with her child: send my A honor roll student to a different school.

Having babies

CAN ANYONE tell me why being pregnant is the government's business? Do the pro-lifers really want women to have babies they don't want or can't care for? We are so heavily populated now that families can't feed their children or pay to educate their children. If men had babies, I think it would be a different story.

Seeking the truth

A SPEAK Out caller called Rush Limbaugh a right-wing propagandist. Just when did ferreting out the truth and exposing hypocrisy become right-wing propaganda?

Tree symbolism

THE BIBLE tells you that the tree is the tree of life. And all the other things that go on the tree all have a meaning that comes from the Bible.

No lost sales tax

I WAS reading where Cape Girardeau County announced its discount drug cards and some pharmacists are opposing this. I don't see how they can oppose it on the grounds that we would lose any sales-tax revenue, because there is no sales tax on medicine. I think this is something wonderful the county has done, but I would like to hear some more opinions.

Lights, camera ...

LAST NIGHT when I picked up my son from practice at Central High School, I noticed most of the parking lot lights were not working. This has been the situation for some time. Earlier this week, assistant superintendent Rob Huff made comments about the cameras around the high school being important for providing security for our students. By failing to maintain adequate lighting, the cameras in the parking lot are a complete waste.

Sweeping the snow

I HAVE a question for our mayor, city council and public works director: Why are we running the street sweeper when it's snowing? That seems like a waste of our taxpayer dollars.