SPEAK OUT

Paid for attendance

THIS IS in response to the comment about the school attendance policy. A mother wanted to know why the children get credit for being at school-sponsored event. It all boils down to money. If the student is at a school sponsored event, the state pays the school money just as if the child were in class. The concern is not for the child learning. It's for dollars coming to our district. If your child goes to a funeral, your child's not at a school sponsored event. The district doesn't get paid by the state, and we lose money on that. That's the motivation behind the attendance policy. Take it to the board.

Southeast Missourian Jr.

I WOULD just like to congratulate the Southeast Missourian on the newspaper for kids. My kids just love it and they really look forward to it and feel real special when they get to read stuff directed just to them. Congratulations to the newspaper.

Look in the mirror

I WATCH with amusement the TV interviews of whining Californians complaining about electrical blackouts and rising utility bills. These people are getting just what they asked for. The energy policies of Gov. Gray Davis and the Democratic legislature have come home to roost. If California voters are looking for someone to blame, they need only go to the nearest mirror.

Music has changed

I WATCHED the country music awards. Whatever happened to real country music? Enough is enough. It's hippie country now.

Defining a person

I AM pro-life. I believe life begins at conception. I firmly believe the intentional harming of a fetus in any way is criminal. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade that an unborn fetus is not a person with constitutional rights and that a right to privacy inherent in the 14th Amendment's due-process guarantee of personal liberty protects a woman's decision to have an abortion. Apparently the courts define a person much differently than I do. While in the womb: an unborn fetus can sense light, hear voices and even suck its thumb. When you read about the various abortion procedures, you wonder how a sane human being could perform any of them.

Logic over emotion

THIS LEGAL issue over harming a fetus does what the pro-choice crowd desperately wants to avoid. It logically examines the potential rights of an unborn child. It reins in the emotion used to support abortion. I'm old enough to remember the two issues used to help push the abortion issue through originally: rape and incest. It troubles me greatly to admit I was one of the masses conned into believing that there were literally thousands of victims of rape and incest each year. The truth is there are several thousand victims of abortion every day. I was never told that abortion would become a form of birth control for those unwilling to take responsibility for their private lives. I would never have supported abortion under those terms. If the elements of abortion are argued on a logical basis devoid of emotion, the pro-choice gang loses.

Does not compute

CAPE DOESN'T need change? Right. An airplane doesn't need wings either.

Can't do it all

BUSH DOESN'T have a magic wand? How interesting. Let's face it: Bush doesn't have anything but rhetoric, and it's poor at best. I thought Republicans could do everything, remedy all problems, set spiritual examples for all of us, even walk on water.

Nuclear waste

BOY, NUCLEAR power sure sounds great. It's cheap and clean and environmentally friendly when there aren't any explosions. But were do we put that 40,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste from the first thousand plants? It'll only be around for about a quarter-million years or so. Any ideas?

Pay a fair share

WHEN WILL the people of the United States realize that when you contribute to 26 percent of the world's pollutants, you deserve to pay more? We are a rich nation, and we're asking for help from foreign nations like we're starving to death from famine. If you can't afford gas, then buy a bike.

Intangible assets

I AGREE with the caller who criticized corporate welfare. However, when it comes to helping the St. Louis Cardinals, we're talking about history, tradition and a host of intangibles which transcend typical corporate welfare. State Sen. Peter Kinder recognizes that the Cards are so tied to the Show Me State that to try to sever that relationship would be an abdication of responsibility.