SPEAK OUT

Get a real job

IT DIDN'T take me near as long to do my housework, because I had religion behind me. I was right all along about Jesse Jackson. He's nothing but a judgmental hypocrite. I hope Jesse will quit getting donations from naive followers and get a real job, like the rest of us.

Pledge: One nation

WHY DO we need the pledge of allegiance? Are we one nation, or are we a divided nation? Are we living under the rules of God, or rules made by man to suit his ways? And forget about the Constitution's laws and God's laws. So the economy was so good under Clinton. Then why are so many factories and businesses closing? Why do both parents have to work to try to make ends meet? Why are gasoline and heating prices so high? Everything costs more. Just blame it on one party when there are two parties in Washington. There we go again not united. Fight each other, instead of being of the people, by the people, and for the people for which our officials are elected.

Quick price increase

ON TV, they stated that OPEC was going to decrease oil production starting Feb. 1. I got up the next morning, got in my car and started through town. Gas prices had gone up 10 cents overnight. Figure it out for yourself. They're taking advantage of motorists.

Unconvincing info

DURING JUDGE Ronnie White's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he told of his harrowing childhood in which he lived in an unfinished basement with jagged concrete walls and how he overcame poverty to become a judge and how he stood up to bullies who had mean things to say about him. My response to that: Who cares? All of us overcome a number of hindrances in our lives. The fact that he grew up in an unfinished basement has no bearing on the right or wrong of what he did in defending that cop killer.

Revenge for testimony

I TESTIFIED for the state of Missouri. And I have been harassed and I have been beaten up, and I have been put in a hospital. The judge and the law will not do anything about it. What do we do about it? I live in Jackson, and the Jackson Police Department will not do anything. The prosecutor won't do anything. What do we do about this? I want everybody to know. You can live in Jackson and be beaten up and put in the hospital, and nobody will do anything. I want to know what everyone thinks about this.

How things are done

THERE'S LOTS of evidence in the media right now showing that Republicans just aren't as astute as the Democrats. If this thing with Ashcroft had been happening to Clinton, instead of all these hearings, Clinton would just appoint him as attorney general and let him serve temporarily for four years and be done with it. I think the Republicans need to get with it. In cases like this, act more like the Democrats. You didn't hear any of the Democrats crying about Clinton appointing someone temporarily for several years of duty. The GOP needs to catch on to how things are done.

Careless pet owners

I LOOKED at the "free for the taking" section of the classifieds almost daily. I keep seeing all kinds of dogs for free. Ninety-nine percent of them are mixed breed. Which goes to show that the owners of these dogs are not taking proper care and control of those dogs. They're letting them breed with other dogs around, which are never as desirable as a purebred. These people are being careless with their animals.

Cost prohibitive

YOUR EDITORIAL advice reminding people of the need to have periodic health checkups is very good. Unfortunately, your successful resistance to any kind of a menaingful national health care program has made what you urge cost prohibitive for many.

Incoherent principles

THE SOULFUL solon of Southeast Missouri, scintillating state Sen. Peter Kinder, publicly compared the U.S Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade to the Dred Scott decision. It was an apt comparison. The irony is that the Dred Scott decision, which denied the very humanity of black Americans, was supposedly based upon the constitutional principles of strict construction and original intent, principles Kinder and his cohorts wrongly claim are the sacred keys to understanding and explaining the U.S. Constitution. Frankly, I don't know why we spend so much time arguing about what should be the guiding philosophy for Supreme Court justices in interpreting the Constitution. As a Supreme Court justice once said, "The Constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is." That cynical quote is uncomfortably close to the truth. A recent example would be the absolute lack of consistent or coherent principles used by the Supreme Court to appoint George W. Bush as president.

New flag for PO

FOR SEVERAL weeks I've noticed our American flag at the Cape Girardeau Post Office looks terrible. Do we need a donation from taxpayers to obtain a new flag? If so, let me know. We're really in need of a new flag there.

Too many students

MOST OF us are proud to be in the Kelly School District. However, all change is not for the good. Comparing school taxes on mobile homes to farmland by the square foot is ridiculous. Our problem is just too many students for the amount of room.

Thanks for the help

TO THE people at Central High School who came to my aid when I fell: Thank you, and God bless you.

Let the hair grow

BIG NEWS: Harry Hunt from Mexico, Mo., got a haircut because Bill Clinton is out of the White House. Harry cut his hair too soon. George W. Bush also got out of the service with a deferment. So let your hair start growing again, Harry. Fair is fair. It was a war we shouldn't have been in in the first place.

Division continues

I READ Michael Jenson's column about division between the African-Americans and white Americans. I think he's guilty of the things he's accusing other people of. Any time you have to address part of the population as "African Americans" instead of "Americans," you're creating division. You're never going to lay it to rest until this stops. I don't care what your color is, you don't have to refer to Americans as African-Americans unless you want to continue separating one group from another.

I'll get my money

IF ALEC Baldwin will wait, I'll go with him. But first, I'd have to take my money out of the stock market. This country is going down.