SPEAK OUT

More praise for officer

THUMBS UP to the "Helpful officer" Speak Out caller. Your words were a nice change of pace to what we usually read about officers, and I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience. You inspired me to extend my own words of praise for this extraordinary officer. I agree 100 percent that Officer Sievers is an outstanding example of the Jackson Police Department. In fact, he's an outstanding example of officers in general. I used to think that all officers were naturally stern, intimidating and basically unapproachable. When I met Officer Sievers, I realized how wrong I was. He is polite, compassionate and very patient, and he earns civilian respect through his respect for us. He taught me that not all policemen are cut from the same cloth. I'll be forever influenced by this image he has given me. Thank you, Officer Sievers, for choosing to be a cop. Thanks for being who you are.

Lacking remorse

THE TRUTH about Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton is they can talk the talk, but they can't walk the walk. These shameless leaders' only excuse is "everyone is human." But everyone isn't chosen to be president or to lead people in civil rights issues. As role models, they don't know what it means. Neither has any remorse, shame or character. And to have so many still praising them is unbelievable and shocking.

Outrageous oversight

AS STATED in your newspaper, no staff member of the Centers for Disease Control has been dedicated full time since the 1980s to investigate cancer clusters. I believe this is outrageous.

No responsibility

WHY AM I not surprised when someone who was fired for having stolen from a company blames the company for being fired and goes back and kills other employees? For the past 30 years our schools and society at large have been teaching that no one is responsible for his wrong actions. Either another individual or society itself is always responsible for the person's actions. It's very difficult in today's culture to get anyone to accept responsibility.

Can't handle big vote

OUR LAST presidential election definitely proved one thing. Forget arguing that Republican-Democrat garbage. It proved our procedure is not equipped to handle a large-turnout vote. We talk about people not exercising their right to vote. But if we all did get out and vote, it could not be handled by the system we have in place.

Meetings can help

TO THE person who was criticizing the Jackson School District steering committee: The meetings are open to the public. Anyone can attend. The meetings are designed to let the community have a say in its school system. Not all people in attendance supported the last bond issue. I personally am one of the people who didn't support it. However, I wanted to help with the decision-making process this time around. I think the school district is doing an excellent job with these meetings. I was especially impressed with the wide range of people who attended. There were new residents, senior citizens, community leaders and even several students. Thank you to the school district for organizing these wonderful meetings.

Helpful Scott Citians

I'D LIKE to thank Officer Hahn of the Scott City Police Department and the staff at the Huddle House for their assistance when I ran out of gas on the interstate. You guys are great, and God bless you.

He's a Republican first

ALAN GREENSPAN has been steadily raising interest rates a quarter-point at a time, saying it was necessary to slow down the economy. Greenspan is a Republican first and an American second. Since Bush got in, Greenspan has already lowered the prime interest rate over 1 point, not a quarter of a point at a time like he raised it, but a half-point at a time. I hope the economy goes downhill to the point it was at when Clinton inherited it from Reagan and Bush.

Another fine coach

THE SPORTS reporters at the Southeast Missourian ought to be ashamed of themselves for excluding probably the best coach in Southeast Missouri this year in high school boys basketball from their feature articles on winning coaches. Kevin Williams took an average 12-12 team last year, the Caruthersville Tigers, to a conference title, and now they've won the conference tournament title. They stand poised to get the No. 1 seed in the district and win it, and they may go all the way to Columbia. You guys need to open up your eyes and recognize that all those other guys can't hold a candle to Williams. He is the coach of the year in Southeast Missouri.

Confirmation vote

SOME OF us are missing the subtle point of the difference between voting for a senator and voting to confirm someone as attorney general. When Missouri voters elected Mel Carnahan as senator, they elected him for various reasons. When you confirm someone for a Cabinet position, that's not the same deal. The president selects him. The voters don't select who is in the Cabinet. The Senate just confirms whether or not they are qualified people who can get the job done. That's why when Jean Carnahan voted against John Ashcroft she wasn't saying that he wasn't her choice. She doesn't get to make that choice. What she was saying was that he is not qualified. She is wrong.

Party royalty

THE ARKANSAS razorback, Bill Clinton, will always be in the spotlight and in charge of the liberal Democrats who control the party. There are career politicians who will not go away, and they are the royalty of the democratic party.

More skeletons

I WOULD like to thank Paul J. Allee on his views on the other side of bipartisanship. I thought it was great. All the Republicans think George W. is a choir boy. He has far more skeletons in his closet than our former great president, Bill Clinton, had.

Repaired -- again

I WOULD like to pose a question. How many times does the city have to repair Lexington in the Cambridge area? Why do they have to keep blocking it off and redo it?

Legacy's mindset

I'M SURE many of you will remember the much ballyhooed IRS reform of a few years back when Clinton and Gore were going to re-invent government. It never happened. It didn't get better. It only got worse. Since Clinton took office, the IRS has seized more than 12 million bank accounts and pay checks, put liens on over 3 million homes, confiscated homes, cars and property from more than 100,000 people, used audits to punish individuals and groups critical of the administration, and squeezed citizens out of tens of billions of dollars in taxes they didn't owe. That was truly the whole mindset of the Clinton legacy.

Bureaucracy at work

IT'S DIFFICULT to decide which is greater, the disgust or the anger about the drug credit being wrongly distributed. The way these people sloughed off these mistakes shows that they're incompetent, but the reply from revenue director Carol Fischer was that was very few people got it, and only 100 people returned the checks. Everybody's not going to return a check, even if they know they should. They're going to keep it and cash it. If it went from an estimated $20 million to $82 million, there were a lot more than 100 people who kept checks they didn't deserve.