Speak Out 12/4/09

Dignity of work

I am physically challenged and middle-aged but still want the dignity of work. I want to work, but now that I'm older, I can't work as much as I once could or as hard.

It's still turkey

WHY do people insist on calling turkey, after Thanksgiving, "leftover turkey"? Isn't it still turkey? Doesn't it still taste the same? You psyche yourself out by saying "leftover" instead of saying "We're going to have turkey."

School issues

IN 10 years, is it going to matter if seniors at Central High School wore shirts backward? What I am worried about is the high dropout rate and the enormous amount of money used for substitutes because teachers are not at school.

Bring troops home

I'D like to ask anybody who voted for President Obama if they remember his pre-election pledge to bring the troops home. I guess I missed the explanation on how the troops are coming home and why they're going back. Iraq and Afghanistan are always going to be trouble spots, and the terrorists are going to float from one country to the other. I would like to see our troops come home as Obama promised.

County jobs

I see where some county employees say they may leave if they don't get a raise. I think we could fill those jobs without any problem. I'll take one of those jobs.

Germs in elbow

IN response to the story "Let guests, not germs, mingle at holiday parties": My child came home from school saying students learned to cough and sneeze into their elbow with Germy Wormie, and I was totally taken aback. I always covered with my hands. But I went to the website, and now I get it: hands touch, elbows don't. Kids can touch 300 surfaces in a half-hour, and they hate to wash their hands. This is a simple thing that can make a huge difference. There is also an entertaining DVD that teaches students in a fun way the elbow cough as well as other important hygiene habits.

Clean energy

THE League of Conservation Voters, a Washington, D.C.-based interest group, is targeting U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer in television and radio advertisements for voting against "clean energy." The so-called "clean energy" bill opposed by Blunt and Luetkemeyer, as well as Representatives Akin, Graves and Emerson, is HR 2454, legislation approved by the House of Representatives in June to, among other things, mandate a cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Advancing renewable and alternative energy is a goal we all share, but HR 2454 will drive up the cost of energy we use now and for the foreseeable future -- to the tune of about $1,800 per American family annually, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Please let friends, family and others in your community know the real story behind the ads.

Bad knowledge

AMERICA has made its way through the looking glass. There are so many characters of that old classic, such as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, the White Queen, who is very absent-minded and later transformed into a sheep, that symbolize American culture. I fear we may be doomed to a most ironic fate: becoming the most and worst informed society ever and dying from ignorance. Any White Knight who appears to come to our rescue and who is willing to slay the Red Knight is prevented from even engaging in battle by political correctness. And our Heavenly Father again laments, "My people perish from lack of knowledge."

Realistic approach

DISGRACED neoconservative columnist Fouad Ajami has told us Arabs have stopped applauding President Obama. Ajami was one of those who said a thousand flowers would bloom if we exported democracy to the Arab world. His thinking was a big influence on the failed neoconservative movement, helped lead to the war in Iraq and other quixotic adventures directed at imposing democracy on other nations. President Obama is taking a much more realistic approach to foreign affairs, and ideologues like Ajami, Cheney and others can't stand it.

Bus in motion

I wait at the bus stop with my child every morning. Some days the bus driver is on time. Other days the driver is late. But every time my child gets on the bus, the driver takes off before the children even have a chance to sit down. I'm not sure if it's legal or not, but it sure does worry me.

Effective government

WE need more than just efficiency from our government. We need an office of effectiveness.