OpinionJune 18, 2001
SPEAK OUT
YES I think I can offer a perspective on the people who are arguing about whose job is more dangerous the police officers or the farmers. I'm a farmer myself. My brother's a police officer. I don't think there is any question about whose job is more dangerous. ...
Officer's brother
YES I think I can offer a perspective on the people who are arguing about whose job is more dangerous the police officers or the farmers. I'm a farmer myself. My brother's a police officer. I don't think there is any question about whose job is more dangerous. That's my brother's. The big difference is that if I make a decision to get a little too close to the creek with the tractor and roll it, that's a choice I make that was wrong. If I try to carry a big round bale of hay a little bit too high or on too much of a slope and roll the tractor, that's my fault. If I get to close to a moving power take-off shaft with loose clothing, that's a decision I made that caused harm to me. However, it's not necessarily my brother's decision that could put him six feet underground. Especially now with the increase in strung-out dopers that we see on the street, some of which can be arrested by him and out of jail thanks to some slick attorney before he's finished writing the report. I pretty much control the safety of my job due to my decisions. My brother's safety doesn't always depend on his decisions.
Guaranteed attraction
I AM firmly convinced that there are three professions in this world that are absolutely and unequivocally the most hardworking and underpaid and worse beaten down group of people in American occupations. Those are farmers, cops and school teachers. We have a police officer's wife going against a farmer's wife. Each one is trying to convince us which one has the worse profession. The only way we can possibly make this fight any worse would be to somehow bring a schoolteacher in to take on the cop and the farmer's wife. Maybe we could find who these people are and get them into a ring at the Show Me Center and charge admission for the benefit of the River Campus.
Deserving of care
I WAS at the dentist's office and agreed to the terms that if I missed or was late for one appointment I would not be seen there again. I signed this form because I am a Medicaid patient. I thought it was demeaning, yet I thought it was not unreasonable because of the reputation of Medicaid patients. I realize I am discriminated against all the time because doctors don't want to mess with me. I've made mistakes in my life. I'm not an idiot, I'm not rude, crude, trashy or uneducated. It is not my lifelong goal to have other people paying my bills, and I was not raised this way. I'm just a person struggling, and I deserve good health care.
State action available
THERE'S BEEN quite a bit recently in the paper about illegal dumping of waste products along different roads and places, and in the June issue of Missouri Conservationist there is a short article about the dumping. There are things in Missouri that can be done without the county being involved.
Critical of both
TO THE farmer's wife: Yes, your husband does a fine job for his country, but it's nothing else but a job, employment to feed your family. You do not deserve nor should you get my taxpayer dollars to subsidize you choice of profession. So quit whining at the police officer's wife. Police officer's wife, your husband also has a job. It is a fine one, but it is no more dangerous than the farmer's job. More accidents happen in agriculture than in the line of duty in the police force. So quit your whining. You need to attend to your own business instead of your husband's.
Don't dump dogs
PLEASE DON'T dump your dogs out in the country. We can't take care of them. We either have to dispose of them or take them to the Humane Society. They are your responsibility. You take care of them the way you should. Just don't dump them on us.
More property tax
OUR PROPERTY-tax assessment went up 22 percent, and our house is 44 years old. We are old seniors. It's a burden for old people. Now the school wants more tax. People, vote it out or you will be paying more on property tax.
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They can really help
I SPENT my vacation doing ministry work in Africa. I was disheartened with the filth, disease and poor living standards. It was horrible, and my heart goes out to the children and those in despair. Citizens of this country don't know how great they have it, but still they moan and groan. If Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, Al Sharpton and the Black Caucus want to help, these people are really hurting. And if they really want to help, they'll stop their racist agenda and turn in their limousines and bodyguards and rich lifestyles and quit their two-faced whining.
Who's embarrassing?
I GUESS I'm no role model, just an old gray-haired senior citizen wearing a ball cap while eating at these high-class fast-food restaurants. Some of us even have old military emblems on our hats. I guess we're not showing any respect to our young folk. By the way, have you ever observed our young folks with ear rings in their ears, noses, tongues and eyebrows? Green and blue hair? Clothes four sizes too big? And language that would even make an owl blush? I sure hope we don't embarrass you and your family and children too much.
Baby boomer responds
REGARDING THE letter about the selfish baby boomers: I am so sick of hearing about the selfish baby-boomer generation. I assume this letter was written by someone older. First of all, I really hate it when you lump people into a generalization such as this. Let me point out a few things about our generation. It was our generation that gave our lives in Vietnam, fought for civil rights and fought for equal rights for women and all minorities. Yes we rebelled against the sexual, racial and small-mindedness of the previous generations. I thank God that those times have passed.
Education flaws
I WILL vote no for increasing school taxes, and here's why. Most of us don't get three months off in the summer, plus Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring vacation, three-day weekends, snow days and usually off before 4 p.m. We don't average $25,000 to $30,000 per year in income. I'm the one sitting at home teaching my son to read because the school thought he was slow and immature. His final grade in reading was an A. You said he needed speech therapy, and I disagreed. We had him tested, and he got a perfect score. He's shy, and the other kids made fun of him. But how would you know? You're inside while two people are watching about 110 kids. I know, because I was there and helped out. You call yourselves teachers?
Where's P&Z?
MAYBE IF the people out in Cape Girardeau County hadn't voted against the county zoning plan, they wouldn't have to worry about a utility company moving into their backyards.
Oil in Alaska
THE COMPETITIVE Enterprise Institute notes that the Arctic Wildlife Refuge which President Bush supposedly desires to despoil isn't pristine wilderness where polar bear and caribou roam, but includes settlements and military installations. Proposed oil production would be confined to less than 6,000 of the reserve's 19 million acres. That's how much caribou ground would be disturbed to get an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil, equal to 30 years of imports from Saudi Arabia out of the ground. Oil production in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay hasn't caused any major environmental problems.
Paying nurses
I KNOW very few nurses who are making $17.31 an hour, or $36,000 a year. They make quite a bit less than that. If nurses made $36,000 for a 40-hour workweek without overtime, they would not have to seek jobs elsewhere to support their families. We ought to be paid a decent wage for our education and for taking care of our society and our community. I'd like medical facilities to begin appreciating their nursing staffs.
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