SPEAK OUT

Damaged mail

I'D LIKE To find out if anyone else is having problems at the post office. We have several Malaysian students whom we were a friendship family for. Now that they're home and write to us, any time any member of the family receives anything from them the envelope is almost mutilated. You get a "sorry for the damage" from the post office on some, but the rest of them come like they've been opened by a letter opener. How do we know if any contents are missing? What business is it of the post office what we get from students? I don't understand. Has anyone else experienced damage to their mail coming from overseas?

Ask for less

THE REV. Farrahkan, the Rev. Sharpton and the Rev. Jackson are the spokespeople for the African American community. With all this spiritual leadership, why is there no demand for less abortion, less unmarried pregnancy, homosexuality, single families, drug and alcohol abuse and school dropouts and more help for African children against disease and poverty instead of running to every black crime to get on TV to claim racism?

Undisciplined child

MY SON, my husband and I were at a Jackson restaurant. At the next table there were two couples with a child around 7 or 8 years old. The whole time we were there, the little girl walked or ran around the table or bothered the other customers. The waiters had to really watch themselves because they were carrying hot food and they almost tripped over her. She was also permitted to go to the bathroom by herself. They never once disciplined her. What a disgrace.

Keeping the spotlight

I CAN'T help but laugh over the Republicans complaining that Clinton won't go away. He did go away. They're the ones who are keeping him in the news by all these charges they're making against him. As far as this Marc Rich thing is concerned, I don't know if the man is guilty or not. I don't care. There's nothing they can do about it. And the furniture business boy, that's something else too. You ought to let people know which end is up. I don't think the Republicans have figured that out yet.

Cleanup is needed

SCOTT CITY will certainly look much better when the junk vehicles and other trash gets cleaned up. If everyone cleaned up his own yard, it would make a world of difference. I believe the ditches do need a lot of cleaning out, especially that ditch in the 1300 block of Main Street. It looks like an abandoned elephant walk with the pink, gray, peach, black and white stucco splattered all over it. Maybe the man at the trailer court at Cape Girardeau could tell Scott City's public works department how to use old tires to shore up ditches to stop erosion on the sides. Please check into it, Scott City.

More time for hobbies

THE MOST valuable and important benefit television has given us is to make us even more ardent readers than we were before. We get our daily news from the Southeast Missourian newspaper, and we leave the propaganda television turned off. We have more time for other hobbies too. It's such a wonderful relief for individual initiative and personal interrelationships. It's just grand.

Banks: Open earlier

IF WE can get the schools to open up before we go to work, maybe we can get the banks to open up so we can make our deposits and stuff before we go to work. D o you think if we put enough in Speak Out that the banks will open up too?

Spelling lesson

THIS IS a serious inquiry over the use of two words: sit and set. I was always taught that inanimate objects set, but I notice in the newspaper you are using the word sit like "the car sits by the road." Can someone please tell the difference or explain the uses of these words?

"Sit" means to rest or recline, while "set" means to put or place. So a book can sit (rest or recline) on a table, but somebody set (placed or put) it there. Hope this helps.