OpinionJanuary 15, 2001
SPEAK OUT
AS USUAL, the editorial staff of the Southeast Missourian is out of touch with reality when they rant against power sharing in the U.S. Senate. We have a 50-50 tie in the Senate with several frail, sick and aged senators. Six of those states have Republican senators and Democratic governors who will likely name replacements for these men, such as Strom Thurmond who is 98 years old. ...
Powers can shift
AS USUAL, the editorial staff of the Southeast Missourian is out of touch with reality when they rant against power sharing in the U.S. Senate. We have a 50-50 tie in the Senate with several frail, sick and aged senators. Six of those states have Republican senators and Democratic governors who will likely name replacements for these men, such as Strom Thurmond who is 98 years old. The balance in the Senate could change at any time. Democrats would undoubtedly be organized and take over the chairmanships and have a majority on all the committees. Bush is a minority president, not wanted by the majority of the voters, who has nominated people for his Cabinet who represent the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party, not the majority of the mainstream Americans. Face it. If the balance in the Senate changes, Bush could be a lame duck before his inauguration. And if the balance in Congress shifts as it usually does in the midterm elections, he will probably have both a House and a Senate strongly controlled by the Democrats. His right-wing ideas will have all the chance of a snowball in hell.
Supporting Russia
I'M READING about the Russian debt, and I wonder why the United States and other countries keep lending them money when they're putting so much of it into outer space and armed forces and aren't able to pay down their debt. I think we're supporting the things we don't like them doing.
Don't change date
THE JACKSON School Board should not change the commencement date. The office told me earlier this year that that date was a sure date, May 18, even if there were school days that had to be made up later. I've told all my relatives. I think once the date's set, that should be the date. If the kids have to make up a few more days, that doesn't hurt a thing. I think it's wrong to hold this over the students' heads like this, especially since parents are already preparing.
We remember too
IN ANSWER to the Speak Out comment, "A long memory," how about letting George W. Bush get into office first before criticizing him? Where were you when Clinton was using the White House for his sex station? And Bekki Cook leaving a dead man's name on the ballot? And Jean Carnahan suing for her husband's mistake of flying in bad weather? She sure didn't have a long mourning period. I'm one Republican who won't forget all this. We need Bush and Ashcroft with the religious background to straighten out the morals in this country.
Don't judge unfairly
MY SYMPATHY to the lady who left her baby in the car that was stolen. You people who judge her need to look at yourselves. How many of you have had an alcoholic drink at a friend's house and then got behind the wheel with your child in the car? Do you smoke cigarettes in front of your child, or let them eat fast food? If you do, you're exposing them to lung cancer and heart disease. Do we have the right to judge parents when we're told that the free lunches at school may be the only hot meals their children may have that day? And you people who justify having an abortion you say it is only a fetus, well, both my fetuses are now 16 and 6 years old. What's sad about all this is that the mother of this baby will probably spend more time in jail than the guy who stole her car. But isn't that how our system works?
She'll do the job
I'D LIKE to reply to the Speak Out caller who was so concerned about our Cape Girardeau County budget and the salary of our newly elected public administrator. I feel this woman is very capable of doing the job and will do the work and earn the money. She has always been a hard worker. She worked very hard to get this position, and I think she will continue to work hard in the future.
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Eroding the military
AS PRESIDENT Clinton prepares to depart office, he's been expounding on all these wonderful things he's done for our country over the last eight years. He said he's decreased our government by more than 300,000 people. I was surprised to learn that. For the first time that I can remember in the last eight years, he actually undershot the true number. They've actually decreased government by 325,877 people. When you first look at it, this looks like a tremendous accomplishment. Unfortunately, the Defense Department shared the brunt of those cutbacks, over 283,000, or almost 88 percent of those government cutbacks. Included in that are over 42,000 that came out of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our wonderful Democratic Party has done everything possible to tear down the military. Thank you, President Clinton and you wonderful Democrats.
Making jokes now
I SEE Clinton's trying to make jokes of the election in Florida, which just shows how much of a childish, sore loser the Democrats are. I can't wait till he leaves Washington.
Leave it alone
HERE WE go again. I see that MoDOT is starting to work on the bridge. I wonder why the bridge has been OK for the past month, but now all of a sudden it needs repair again. Actually, the times I've been across the bridge lately, the ride has been much smoother than when they work on it. Why doesn't MoDOT just leave it alone?
City spending
I READ in the Missourian where MoDOT is going to spend $338,656 for a 12-foot-wide concrete walkway at the riverfront. And the city of Cape is going to add $84,000 to that. That's a total of $422,656. This seems pretty pricey to me. The only reason they're doing it is not for our riverfront, which I agree we should do something with, but this is for the River Campus. Then, I read where the city's going to spend $43,569 for a survey of why there's such a high police turnover. Well, let me guess. Probably because they work too many hours and they're underpaid. Why not, when these guys are considering quitting, have them fill out a survey? Then you'd know for sure why they're quitting, and it'd be free. You'd save $43,569, which you could give to these guys as a raise and then maybe they wouldn't quit. The way the city spends money is very out of line.
Logic of bigotry
SEN. BARBARA Boxer, a Democrat from California, has said John Ashcroft should not be attorney general simply because he is pro-life. By this logic, I suppose no Roman Catholic would be acceptable for attorney general, according to Boxer. As a consequence, one can only logically conclude that Boxer is an anti-Catholic bigot, but this is no better than being a racist or a sexist.
All those regulations
UNDER CLINTON'S watch, the federal register of regulations quintupled in size, filling more than 80,000 pages. Over 700 new crimes were added to the federal statute books. The federal government consumed more than 21 percent of the gross national product, and taxes on Americans carried the largest tax burden since World War II. Yet America's defenses have slipped steadily. In his eight years, Clinton issued more executive orders than Presidents Reagan and Bush combined, covering a range of policies from medicine to gun control to a global warming. One hundred thousand cops on the street? Not even close. Americorps paid volunteers a $500 billion boondoggle staff of people barely competent for any task more complex than picking up beer cans along the highway.
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