SPEAK OUT

Handicapped parking

IN ILLINOIS they're starting to crack down on the handicapped stickers. I think this is something Missouri is way past due on. People get one of those tags to hang on their mirror when there isn't a thing wrong with them. They carry a handicap person with them occasionally so they get to park there all the time.

Saving is fine. but ...

AFTER READING Gary Rust's recently quoted rumination on the estate tax, I am reminded of Winston Churchill's riveting observation that saving is a very fine thing, especially when your parents have done it for you.

No one else

I LOVED Elvis Presley and the talent and gifts he was given from the good Lord in way of his music and entertainment. I loved Dale Earnhardt, and I'm a big Nascar racing fan. But there's a big difference in loving them and respecting them for their God-given talent and worshiping and idolizing human beings, which we all are. My Lord is my Savior and my King of Kings no one else.

Too icy for school

I LIVE in the Jackson School District, and I am absolutely appalled that we had school the day after the ice storm. This is the second time this winter that our superintendent has not called school off. I wish he would have to go out and ride a bus with his children on these roads. I live out in the county, and we were ice-covered. This is ridiculous, and I am very angry.

Sheer folly

I KNOW where the tobacco money should go. It should go back to the companies and to the farmers it was stolen from in the first place. To say that anyone did not know the dangers of smoking is sheer folly. I can remember in the 1960s when my grandfather smoked. My parents would roll down the car windows. They knew it wasn't good. I just think it is wrong how this money has been stolen from a business from which people willingly bought. It disgusts me when I have to pick up my paper and read how they're going to redistribute the wealth.

Deny, deny, deny

I HOPE Democrats rally around our former president who once again is the target of a vast right-wing conspiracy. The controversy centers on presidential pardons to various felons who contributed huge sums to the Democratic Party and gave Hillary's brother, Hugh Rodham, hundreds of thousands of dollars to represent them before America's royal couple. On the pardons involving Hugh Rodham, our official line will be, "Dump on Rodham and deny, deny, deny." That line has worked before.

Keep it honorable

PROPER ETIQUETTE is that you refer to a congressperson and the president as "honorable," especially when you write letters. Unless they have a reason to prove themselves otherwise, it is wonderful to think of your president as decent and honorable, and these should be traits that we cherish.

Middle-class relief

SEEMS TO me the people who talk about taxes have forgotten some things. Taxes were initiated in the United States to raise money for the war effort. They were aimed mainly at rich people with tax relief for the poor and little relief for the middle-class. As time passed, social activity has maintained relief for the poor. Wealthy people have found ways to get tax shelters. As a result, the tax burden shifted from the rich to the middle class. If anybody needs tax relief, it's the middle class.

This is art?

I WONDER if they counted viewership after 9:55 p.m. when Eminem came in and started singing his song. They had to bleep all the comments. When is that art?

Where's the parking?

THIS IS to the group of students working on behalf of the Marquette Hotel. I have not read anywhere of particulars for parking for all those guests. I would like to see this before I make up my mind.

Playing in the street

I'M HOPING something can be done and some kids can avoid getting hurt. Almost every day on my way home from work between 3:45 and 4:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of Kingsway, there are a couple of boys who are riding their skateboards out in the street. They dart into the street from a driveway. I'm not sure exactly where they live. Sometimes they don't get out of the street when cars are coming, and cars have to stop for them. Their parents need to do something about them. I realize a lot of kids say they have no place to ride their skateboards, but right on the same block between Kingsway and Kingshighway is a skateboarding area.