SPEAK OUT

Don't need China

IT REALLY irritates me to hear our politicians on television say we need China and China needs the U.S. This is ridiculous. We've already got a big trade deficit with China. Look what has happened to our shoe, apparel and electrical factories. Everything you seem to pick up in a store now is made in China. I don't think we need China, and I don't think China needs the United States. We got by without them before. Now it's the time to get by without them again. It may be true that the U.S. cannot keep companies from going to China and having China make their products, but they can sure put tariffs on them when the products come back into this country.

Police chief appreciated

I JUST wanted to call and thank Chief Rick Hetzel for his time here in Cape Girardeau and for all the wonderful programs he started. I think that he has done a wonderful job and appreciate all that he's done for this wonderful community.

Let them choose

WHAT RIGHT do some Americans have to dictate to others their beliefs and what symbols and heritage they can have? This is the land of the free, not a totalitarian country. If southerners want to honor their dead and what they fought for, that's their right. This attempt to desecrate Americans' freedom has got to stop. America has a democracy. This is not Russia.

Need enforcement

SOME COUNCIL members act as if they are unaware of the problems entrenched on Good Hope, William and Lorimier with drug deals, arrogance for the law, noise and vandalism that the decent residents in that area have to put up with. Most decent residents just lock their doors and put up with this because they financially can't move away. Somehow, these folks who live here need the same enforcement of law as the rest of the city. If this was going on in a councilman's neighborhood, I think a strong effort would be made to stop it, which would take the residents, churches and law enforcement all working together.

Learn the game first

I THINK before the taxpayers of Missouri are to be taxed by the owners of the St. Louis Cardinals for the new baseball complex, they should guarantee the taxpayers that the Cardinals will finally learn the fundamentals of how to play baseball.

Stay out of Cuba

CUBA WAS prohibited from voting or participating in the Organization of American States. But here we have Jo Ann Emerson dining with Fidel Castro in Cuba. What right does she have to defy the OAS? Isn't there some law or oversight committee to deal with this kind of behavior by politicians?

Beauty from spirit

BOTH IN manner of dress and in codes of conduct, the church is different from the world. That distinction is very pleasing to God. To God, our beauty is not in physical features, but rather in the spirit and the character of the inner man. How beautiful it is to have God's spirit radiating from our lives. He said he would beautify the meek with salvation.

Bible enlightenment

I'M RESPONDING to a Speak Out item that said people should listen to the Bible rather than scientists, because there are many verses condemning homosexuality. There are many verses in the Bible condemning eating pork, sleeping with women during their menstrual periods, cutting their hair, dressing in clothing that's usually more appropriate to the opposite gender and against gentiles. The Bible is also full of racism, fornication, adultery and sleeping with your wife's handmaiden or servant. I doubt that many wives today would like that. You can find any prohibition you want to find in the Bible. It's not meant to be a list of prohibitions. It's meant to be a guide to spiritual enlightenment.

Enforcement gusto

IN REGARD to Highway 74, I'd like to know how a nice four-lane highway can have a lower speed limit than that potholed mess called Southern Expressway. I don't care if the state sets the limit or the city or the man in the moon. That doesn't mean the city has to enforce the limit with such gusto.

Caring Democrats

THREE CHEERS for Jerry Ford's brilliant explanation of Missouri's Senate Bill 40. The malevolency of messing with it was clear and concise and cut to the chase. I remember the days when Jerry's dad was mayor of Cape. Later, Jerry was state representative. Those really were the good old days. Leaders like the Fords were commonsense, compassionate, conservative Democrats who truly cared for the people. There is a cadre of committed, conservative Democrats dedicated to legally overthrowing the current regime and restoring to power those in the Ford family tradition. It may take time, but we will prevail.

It isn't likely

IN A letter to the editor, David Smith asked that we contact Senators Bond and Carnahan and urge them to cooperate. Sure thing, though I think the odds of them doing so would be on a par with the chances of a rapprochement between Peter Kinder and Jay Nixon.

They're not homeless

ON HOW the liberals try to fix things to be politically correct. Instead of calling people homeless, why not change the name to urban outdoorsmen?

Public transportation

LOOKS LIKE the age-bias warriors are out again. There was the person complaining about someone "at least 80" driving too fast and wanting his parents to quit driving. That caller, I am sure, has not given a single thought to how anyone could get around this county if they do not drive. It is highly unlikely that they would be willing to give up their time to take a parent to see the doctor or to go shopping. However, capping the legal driving age might accomplish something good. A decent public transportation system might be created.

Traffic reality

TO ALL the people who are moaning and complaining about the roundabout and the new Mount Auburn expressway, I offer this thought: Why don't you face the fact that Mount Auburn Road is a four-lane street and the roundabout is here to stay (and, I hope, more to come). Do you want this city to end up like Branson and be so gridlocked that it takes two hours to get from one side of the city to the other?

No real substance

REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE stalwart Gary Rust seems bothered by the squabbling between Governor Holden and Senator Kinder concerning redistricting and the transportation proposal. I'm glad to see Rust and other members of the press are spilling so much ink over these disagreements, because that's a lot more interesting than stories about, say, the substance of the transportation bill itself.