SPEAK OUT

Wars not the same

ANYONE WITH the slightest flicker of intelligence knows you can't compare America's war with Nazi Germany with the War Between the States. Adolf Hitler was a tyrant who wanted to take over the world and exterminate the entire Jewish population. The War Between the States was about two different regions of the country having different ideas on how to govern themselves.

Inappropriate meetings

PERHAPS DAVID Limbaugh could ask a few more questions for us about the prayer meetings Attorney General John Ashcroft is holding in a federal building -- a building built and maintained with my tax dollars. Heaven knows our elected officials need some divine support, but is Ashcroft holding these meetings during work hours? Am I paying federal employees to attend prayer meetings on work time? Are my tax dollars being spent to heat and cool and light the meeting room and provide seating and janitorial services? If so, then I do not think the prayer meetings at work are appropriate. I can only hope that, in the interests of impartiality, Ashcroft has sent around a memo offering the same services to any employee of any faith or belief who would also like to hold prayer meetings at work with fellow believers. I am Christian and a Republican, but this situation is precisely why I cast my vote for Mel Carnahan. Ashcroft's personal beliefs do color his judgment. In retrospect, I would have voted for Ashcroft for U.S. Senate had I known that George Bush would appoint Ashcroft to the attorney general's office. Ashcroft can, and will, do more damage there.

Modern witch hunt

I HAVE just learned that someone has been fired for being a witch. This young person attended an Alternative Religions class at the university where Wicca was a topic. Attending a philosophy class doesn't make you Buddhist. Wicca is an old religion which makes respecting and caring for nature its main theme, not flying around on brooms and casting spells. Firing a person for religious beliefs is against the Constitution and punishable by law. Come on, Cape, do you really want to start the Salem witch hysteria all over again?

Placing the blame

I WISH these callers to Speak Out who are blaming George Bush and Dick Cheney for these high gasoline prices would stop and think about last year when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were in the White House. Did we not have high gasoline prices last year?

Alleviating pain

A GOD-created marijuana plant is not evil. If the plant is used to distort your brain, that is bad. If it is used to alleviate pain, that is good.

No free vacuuming

I WANT to share an experience I had with a vacuum cleaner company. They will call with a sales pitch of cleaning your carpet for free. They say this will help their salespeople to make points with their company. They also tell you that you will not be pressured into buying anything. What a laugh. They had one salesman who could sell ice to an Eskimo. When they learn you are not buying their product, they do not complete the job they promised. I wish I had not wasted my time with them. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Faith at work

I SAY yes, John Ashcroft should take his faith to work with him. It's right for him to have a prayer meeting anytime as long as he does his job. It's nobody else's business. Your faith is who you are. If I didn't take my faith to work with me when I was working, I probably would have knocked the hell out of somebody.

Sounds like a Democrat

GOV. BOB Holden is a true Democrat. He has lied about the money he got for his inauguration ball, saying one person gave $100,000. The man said he didn't give it but lent it to him. Another said he didn't give $2,000, but the governor said that he did. It's funny how we hear these different stories.

Street superintendent

THE CITY is spending all this money from the transportation tax fund on the west side of the city. The streets in the northeast section of Cape Girardeau are getting terrible. They repaired some of these streets like Broadway and all the manholes are two inches below the surface. This is very hard on cars. They also need to take a look at the bricks on Main and Spanish streets that they let the merchants put in a few years ago. The bricks are crumbling. Something needs to be done about this. They're trying to make this an Old Cape Town, but right now it's a town of potholes. Would you please fix these streets? North Main Street from Broadway to Park Street hasn't been resurfaced in I don't know how many years.

T-ball is better

SOMEONE CALLED in and said that having T-ball on the White House lawn was turning it into a circus. I'd much rather have George Bush and T-ball on the White House lawn than Bill Clinton and interns in the Oval Office.

Support the president

I WOULD like to know where all the Republicans are. In Speak Out there are many negative comments about the president, but there's not a single Republican comment. Come on, guys, let's get behind the president and support our government. They're doing a good job, so let's be vocal about it.

Logical excuse

A RECENT conversation occurred at our house, and I thought I would share it with you. A Speak Out caller complained about it taking four or five city workers to put in a street sign and two or three did the work while the other ones stood there. Someone else called back saying that when the roads were bad during the winter, the city workers are out in the middle of the night and that was supposed to justify the fact that they were doing nothing on the clock at a different time. My 13-year-old daughter said, "So if you catch me doing something wrong today and you're going to punish me, can I say, Yeah, but I was real good last week?'"

Scott City is great

I RECENTLY read the letter to the editor from the Scott City person and I totally agree. The Southeast Missourian seems to really pick up on the negativity in Scott City. Scott City is a wonderful place to live and raise your children and send them to school.