SPEAK OUT

Need debit payments WHEN IS Cape Girardeau going to get technologically literate enough to take utility-bill payments directly from checking accounts? The cable company does. The telephone does. AmerenUE can take it directly out of your checking account. What's wrong with the city?

Waiting for apology

HOW DARE the Japanese expect an apology from the U.S. Navy for accidentally sinking one of their ships. I'm 71 years old, and I've yet to hear the slightest hint of an apology when the Japanese bombed our Pearl Harbor when I was just a kid. That was a deliberate bombing. This was an accident. I won't hold my breath until our federal government makes the Japanese apologize to us.

Spoiled brat

SOME OF you said Bill Clinton was a spoiled brat. You Republicans put in office a spoiled brat. Clinton was raised poor. He worked his way 100 percent. He won that scholarship to Oxford University. He was on his own. He paid for his own law practice. He didn't have a millionaire oilman daddy to pay for his college tuition. I think you've got your wording wrong. The spoiled brat being pampered is the one who is in the White House right now.

Teacher concerns

I HAD some problems with the teachers' activities at Central High School in support of Randie Fidler. What kind of employee thinks he has a say on whether his boss gets fired?. The teacher who says she felt offended because her opinion wasn't considered about whether her boss was getting rehired is not living in the real world. And I want to know why teachers brought petitions to the classrooms for kids to sign. My child was put into a position of signing based on peer pressure when he should have been learning. We elected the Cape school board to make tough decisions like this. It's done. Now let's move on for the good of our children's education.

Time for refund

THE ROUNDABOUT on Silver Springs Road and Gordonville Road is too small, too narrow and a hazard for anybody trying to get to the hospital in a hurry. Being in the military for 20 years and using roundabouts in England, Louisiana and other places around the world, this is simply a joke. If my taxes were used for this, I want them back.

Give it a chance

FELLOW CITIZENS of Cape Girardeau: The rest of the world has been using the roundabout traffic-control concept since the dawn of the automobile age. Roundabouts, if properly implemented and used, are by far the most efficient means of traffic control at many busy intersections. I urge my fellow citizens and city council members to be patient with this new concept and not fire up the bulldozers before the pavement is even dry.

Abuse of privilege

I TOO am getting really tired of people using and abusing the handicapped parking stickers and license plates. I know a woman who has a handicap tag and uses handicapped parking all the time, yet she's able to do aerobics three times a week and she does all kinds of other activity.

Inappropriate activity

I JUST want to say how upset I am about the actions of the Central High School teachers. I want the board of education to take action against the teachers who organized that protest and put my child under pressure to sign a petition and wear an arm band. It is just so wrong to bring that into the classroom.

Support for board

I AM calling to give my support to the Cape Girardeau school board for letting Randie Fidler go. I have to say I admire the board. I hope that the school board will take interest in getting a new principal, but I hope this time they consider a strong academic person.

Stand up to teachers

AS A taxpayer, parent and public-school teacher, I am absolutely shocked by the picture on Page 3 of the March 3 paper of a library assistant tying a black arm band around a student's arm to show their protest against the firing of Randie Fidler. Yes, teachers can show that they're unhappy about something, but they should not get the students involved. I believe that teachers who participate in such activities to disrupt learning should be fired. It's time the school board had some guts to stand up to these teachers who are spoiled and think they run the place.

Greensferry radar

I'D LIKE to know why the Jackson police aren't running radar and catching these speeders on Greensferry Road that come from P&G. They come through here like a bat out of hell and run into farmers' fences and everything else. It's high time they run radar. It's getting to be very dangerous.