Speak Out 12/19/06

Return tax

I SEE where Dana Corp. is closing its Cape Girardeau plant and taking the work to Mexico. If I were governor of Missouri, I would charge a 100 percent tax to bring what they manufacture back into the state.

Good economy?

OUR PRESIDENT says the economy is good. Another factory is closing, and jobs are moving to Mexico. Our president says "Build a wall and keep the Mexicans in Mexico." Close our factories and make soldiers out of the workers. That will give them a job. The economy is good.

Cellulosic future

I DON'T know where Mike Kasten got his crazy ideas, but he's not in touch with the real world. I did some research on the Web about cellulosic ethanol. It's estimated that within the next few years it will be possible to produce cellulosic ethanol at 59 to 91 cents a gallon. When this comes about, the idea of corn being used for ethanol will be a thing of the past. There might be a year or two that ethanol producers will go crazy with corn, but it isn't going to be much more than that.

Smoking parents

MY PARENTS both smoked cigarettes. They had five children, and none of us smoke. I tried it once when I was 13 and had enough sense to realize that inhaling smoke in my body is bad for me. Not only that, I didn't want to have yellow teeth and fingernails and smell like an ashtray and have burn holes from hot ashes in my clothes. My parents are gone now, and I wonder if they would still be here if they hadn't smoked.

Pop and country

CLASSICAL MUSIC is simply about taste. I don't care for it. I think it has little to do with education. If you want to pretend you're hoity-toity and listen to it, that's your business. But I'll take my pop stations and my country stations before I'd turn to public radio.

Seasonal joy

THERE'S A bell ringer who has the true joy of the season in his heart. He cheerfully greets everyone who passes by whether they put anything in the red kettle or not. This is what he said to me when I put something in: "God bless you. I hope you have as good a day as I have." I hope I can do that more often.

Extra insurance

I HAVE Medicare, but I have no secondary insurance. I see no point in buying other insurance when I pay almost $90 every month to the federal government for Medicare. What are they trying to do, promote insurance companies?

No $10 corn

MIKE KASTEN doesn't need to worry about $10 bushel corn to make ethanol. There are dozens of things coming along that will make ethanol a lot cheaper than using corn, things like switch grass, reeds and poplar trees. The day will never come for $10 corn. Don't ever think it will.

County bickering

I CAN'T believe that two of our county commissioners, Gerald Jones and Larry Bock, are still at it. They can't agree on anything and change their minds constantly. Commissioner Jay Purcell seems to be the mediator on county expenses lately. Frankly, I am tired of all the bellyaching that is going on. The only reason I voted for the new sales tax was to help the sheriff's deputies and employees receive a decent raise. We have money in reserves, but Bock and Jones count every penny as if it were theirs to spend and not the taxpayers'. Sheriff John Jordan is not pulling these figures out of his head. I know him, and he is a hard-working man with only his employees in mind. Give them their raises.

Looks like Cairo

THE CAPE Girardeau County Commission is starting to look like Cairo, Ill.

Need common sense

THE SAME elected official that said, "Promise, hell" is the same official who is complaining that he never knew the amount of the raises that were going to be paid to deputies. As a voter, I remember Sheriff John Jordan describing the amount of money the deputies were going to be paid. Take the salaries and benefits of the other area police officers, and there you go. How hard is that? Maybe our elected officials need a lesson in common sense.

Pay the deputies

I WOULD not have not voted for the sales-tax increase if I knew the money would not make it to the deputies. How come our commissioners are always against anything for law enforcement? The citizens voted, so get out of the way.

Secondhand impact

I AM living proof that secondhand smoke is harmful. I have permanent lung damage from it and never smoked in my life. This is a medical diagnosis, not my own. Please be considerate enough of others to smoke in private and not force us to breathe your smoke and ruin our lungs.

With gusto

EFFETE ELITISTS should quit criticizing the lack of polite society snobbery exhibited by the people's arts and leisure editor, Matt Sanders. The guy tells it like it is, with gusto.

Stand in the corner

THE SOUTHEAST Missourian predictably erupted when public school educators courageously objected to the appointment to the Missouri State Board of Education by Gov. Matt Blunt of a person whose agenda is to undermine the very thing she's supposed to advocate: public education. The editorial board needs to be sent to alternative school.

Keeping tabs

SWIFT MEATPACKING plants have been raided for hiring illegal immigrants. Swift and all employers are required by law to confirm the paperwork of any new employee and keep the information on a form I-9. If employers like Swift were required to send in a copy of form I-9 to the Social Security Administration, they would be less likely to hire illegals. We could solve illegal immigration just by enforcing current law.

Give the raises

MAYBE IF the Cape Girardeau County Commission would think about the rest of the county instead of Jackson and Cape Girardeau, it would have more people help raise money for our law enforcement. I'm sure any one of them wouldn't trade jobs with the ones who protect the public. Pay these people.