Speak Out 2/8/08

We pay for profits

EXXON MADE $40 billion in profit, a record for one year. Thanks to our great government, all of us are paying way more, and all the oil executives are raking in all that money. Whom should we hold accountable for this? The current administration? All the tax breaks are going to the companies that are shipping their jobs overseas and to the big oil companies that are raising prices for gasoline. Term limits: Real change

EVERY ELECTION the word "change" is used over and over as if it were a new slogan the candidates just dreamed up. The only real change is the politicians want to change their title. Real change would be term limits with no special retirement perks. If Social Security is good enough for the peons, it's good enough for the politicians.

Full-time teaching

I AM a teacher. I rarely leave the school until after 5 p.m., grading papers and preparing for the next day. The only day of the week I have off is Saturday. On Sunday, I go back in to work six to seven hours preparing for the week ahead. Teaching is a full-time job.

Good program

CONGRATULATIONS TO Sheriff John Jordan for implementing the school resource officers for the outlying schools in Cape Girardeau County. This is a wonderful program. I'm sure it will have great benefits to many people.

Better carnival

WITH THE 100th anniversary of Jackson Homecomers coming up, why can't the organizers get a decent carnival? The rides they've had the past few years are ugly. And get a carousel.

No more money

I SYMPATHIZE with but beg the owners of Global Trading to please refrain from attempting to take any more tax money from Cape Girardeau residents.

Universal care

THAT MANY people without health care first go to emergency rooms is because private doctors won't deal with them. This is one of the best arguments for comprehensive, universal health care.

Not that much

CUTTING ALL foreign aid from our budget (a disastrous thing to do) would reduce the federal budget by about 2 percent. Enough said.

Great street crew

I WOULD like to compliment the Cape Girardeau street crew for its handling of the snow. I suspect the crew worked all Thursday night and did a great job.

Feeding students

THE STATE pays schools for the students to eat lunch. If they do not feed them before sending them home and if the food was already cooked, there would be a lot of waste. Some children would not get a hot meal when they got home. Those are the reasons schools need to feed the children before early dismissal.

Supply and demand

MANY PEOPLE say teachers should be paid more because of their education. One caller compared teaching salaries to those of computer programmers, saying both have a four-year degree but programmers make $80,000. You're missing the point, folks. Salaries are influenced to a degree by the amount of education required, but a major factor is supply and demand. For many years in our area, in large part due to the presence of a university known for turning out teachers, the supply has been high and the demand low. The result is lower salaries. In St. Louis, where schools have more trouble filling vacancies, the salaries are higher. If you're going to compare salaries by education, do it across the board.

Hard-hearted

WHAT HARD-HEARTED people live in this area. People get Social Security because that is the way the government set it up. Most people in my family worked hard all their lives and died before they could collect it. My husband died before he could draw a penny. What happened to all the money they put in? I am sorry for the people begrudging anyone anything they are entitled to. How hateful. You don't know what other people go through in their lives.

Just getting by

I AM sick and tired of younger working people blasting seniors for having to live off Social Security. According to them, all we would have had to do is save money all along. My husband and I worked before and after our marriage and saved every penny we could for our retirement, thinking with our savings and Social Security we could live a comfortable life after retirement. Wrong. Several years before his retirement, my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer. After nine years of surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, expensive cancer meds and many hospital stays, which wiped out all our savings, even with good medical insurance, I am left a widow living on Social Security. By being careful, I manage to get by. Don't criticize me until you have walked a mile in my moccasins.

Politicians wrong

THE SIKESTON ethanol plant is being postponed due to missed deadlines, not due to complaints. And ethanol does lower fuel mileage. Ethanol was originally pushed because it was an easy way for politicians to be able to say there were doing something about high fuel costs while at the same time helping farmers. The politicians were wrong.

Laying the groundwork

IF IT were not for the elderly who are drawing Social Security, your community that you live in, work in and shop in would not be thriving today. They are the ones who laid the groundwork for us. We should not blame people who did not plan for their retirement. We never see the money taken out for taxes.

Pay for performance

IF SCHOOLS would spend more on teachers' salaries and less on things not needed, and if subpar teachers could be fired, tenured or not, and if we were graduating children who could read, write and do basic math and science, taxpayers would be more willing to see more money put into teachers' wages. Salaries should be performance-based.