SPEAK OUT

They are thinkers

I CAN give you the reason that people with advanced degrees are shifting to the Democratic Party in a few words: Reaganomics, and the idea that the Republicans are trying to peddle tax cuts and not paying down our national debt. This group of leading thinkers is slightly larger now than all college graduates were in 1950. They are the people who have learned critical analysis and can see many sides of an argument. Intelligence is the ability to separate black and white. Genius is the ability to discern various shades of gray. Those people who learn to think for themselves are not ditto-heads.

Wrong picture

AM I the only person around here who sees the irony in John Ashcroft's confirmation by the Judiciary Committee? Ashcroft has a perfect record in the judiciary field. He's not a criminal or ever broken any laws. Democrats tried to come up with whatever they could against him, and couldn't. However, one of his leading critics is Sen. Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts, who not only has a record of breaking the law with his drunk driving, but was also involved in an accident in which a woman was killed. Here we have a man like this sitting in judgment of someone like Ashcroft. Doesn't anyone else see that there's something wrong with this picture?

Jackson speeders

TWO OTHER ladies and I have been commuting from Cape Girardeau to Marble Hill for the past three years. We have noticed that we never see police officers. We come through Jackson between 7 and 7:30 a.m. Someone called Speak Out and said the police are out there all the time. No, they're not. We've looked. We've commented for years that people slide by us going 50 and 55 mph through Jackson. On Jan 31, for the first time in three years, we saw a police officer on Highway 72 going through Jackson. Of course, people were passing us like they were flying. The police didn't do anything.

Try it in the Arctic

GOOD GRIEF. What's wrong with CBS anyway? They must think their viewers are so dumbed down they'll watch anything, even twice. They shamelessly hyped up the Super Bowl. Guess what. It was just another game. They hyped "Survivor II," and it's phony. Daytime soap operas are more realistic than that. But they insult our intelligence by pre-empting regular programming and showing it again, three days later. Maybe they can sucker us once, but not twice. If they want to try a more realistic, so-called survival game show, how about in the Antarctic? No, that wouldn't work. There'd be no skin and witless, hard bodies. Several need that kind of stuff.

A national blessing

LAW-ABIDING Americans did not want a fighter like Al Gore. They wanted a uniter like George W. Bush. We thank God every day for this calm, compassionate man, President Bush, and his lovely first lady, Laura. They are indeed a blessing to America and our honored presidency and the White House.

Loss of confidence

ACCORDING TO the news, two places laid off 20,000 at each place and another laid 10,000 people. And all stores say their sales were way down this year. People are afraid to buy anything anymore, for this is been a bad year. Small factories have also closed, and it all happened because of the loss of confidence in the Bush administration.

Economic times

THE POLITICAL junkies of both parties are blaming each other for the economy, when good or when bad. Neither have a lot to do with the world economy. It will go up and down as usual, good times or bad times. I want a good economy whichever party is in control, because in the long run the poor and the needy will suffer the most.

Teaching parents

I'D LIKE to speak out on the topic of children being able to read by first grade. I have a first-grade daughter. Fortunately she does very well in spelling and reading. If she were having problems at school, I think it would be my responsibility to pick up the slack. It would take a teacher 15 hours a day to spend 30 minutes with reading practice with each student, which is not out of the question if you're looking for them really to learn how to read. That 15 hours can be made up by parents spending 30 minutes in the evening with their children trying to teach them how to read themselves, especially if that child has fallen behind. So I say quit putting all the responsibility on the teacher. If you're so concerned about it, take a little interest in your own child.

Ready for milestone

I HEARD on the news where the Show Me Center is going to have its 4 millionth visitor. I was just wondering if they have any plans to do any kind of prize, like give the 4 millionth customer tickets to future concerts or anything like that after they walk in the door. Or is it just a milestone?