Speak Out 12/4/01

Parade entrepreneurs

I ATTENDED the Jackson Christmas parade and was just absolutely aggravated by the young boys going around selling things like pies and candy to people who were trying to watch the parade. I think this is a very poor choice of time to try to make money off of people. It wasn't really appropriate. If you can't do your fund raising in an appropriate manner, don't aggravate people trying to watch a Christmas parade.

No difference

I'VE JUST finished reading Speak Out. I've been thinking the same thing that the "Marvel of magic" caller stated. In other words, how is Harry Potter any different from Cinderella and the gnomes or any of the other stories that we have let kids read anytime they want?

Time for candy

TO ALL those who criticized how long the Christmas Parade of Lights took this year: For safety reasons, we are not allowed to throw candy off the floats to the children, so we must walk next to the floats. Being a participant of the parade this year, I found it very difficult to keep up with the floats and still safely hand out candy to all the children. If we actually went as fast as everybody wanted us to and took no longer than an hour, we wouldn't have any time to pass out candy. We'd only have time to run past.

Thanks to teens

THANK YOU to the Scott City teen-agers who helped the two ladies from Cape that got on the Tucker Road turn and ended up stuck in the mud. The teen-agers got the ladies home safely. Thanks a lot.

Uncle Sam's babies

A YOUNG girl who is on the welfare rolls with more than one child out of wedlock is a burden to society. When they have two, three or four children for the taxpayers to support, it's totally unfair. Of course, they are getting more than some people who are working for minimum wage to support their families. They are called "Uncle Sam's babies" and rightly so.

Explain reassessments

I JUST finished reading the editorial on Cape Girardeau County's finances, and I'm delighted with the wonderful job the county auditor has done with managing our funds. We have a sizable surplus: $5 million in reserves and $4 million in the checking account. If Cape Girardeau County is in such great financial shape, why is the assessor doing a blanket assessment of older homes that have had no improvements made and have not increased in value, yet they are being increased for tax purposes? The logic doesn't seem to jell. Can anyone explain this?

Proposal is folly

ROBERT FRIESE'S proposed cap on baseball salaries is an unjust, unwarranted and socialistic-style interference with the market. Most owners are faring quite well in their bottom-line profits contrary to what Friese specifically and the public in general may think. Friese's folly of a suggestion shouldn't get to first base.