SPEAK OUT

We need power

I SEE a lot of people are upset about a new power plant coming to the area. They say they don't want the noise or pollution. Keep in mind that Californians didn't want the noise or pollution, either. Consequently, no new power plants were built, and they are in the middle of an energy shortage. I think the power plant is a good idea.

Election forecasting

SO THERE is someone out there who thinks George W. Bush will be re-elected? I am willing to bet you said the same thing about his father's re-election too.

Approval rating

TO THE caller who said George W. Bush will be re-elected: If the next election is decided by the people, he will not be. Are you not aware of his approval rating?

Chew on this ...

Obvious answer

A VISITOR to Advance said ringing bells every hour on the hour "makes me want to leave town" and seemed to wonder why Advancians did this. Caller, this is a good example of where you don't seem to see it, but the answer is right there in front of you.

He can't relate

I'M ALWAYS amused when a man like Marcus Schaefer writes a letter to the editor and makes sweeping "How tragic for all women" statements to which he can't possibly relate and concerning matters about which he doesn't really know diddly-squat.

Beyond reason

IF HE was attempting to say that religious belief is a matter of faith and not amenable to mathematical, rational or scientific proof, then I am in wholehearted agreement with David Limbaugh. The truths of religion must be accepted as inaccessible to human reason, like the secular truths espoused in his column.

Costly and unfair

ONE CALLER asked why we get agitated about people changing political parties. It costs us taxpayers lots of money. Just watch the news and get all the facts. And it's not fair to the voters to change parties after they've been elected.

Industrial money

I SEE it all very clearly now. The wealthy Republicans need a lot more money because we need capital for re-tooling industry.

Need clearer plan

I WANT to say something about that county zoning plan that was voted down. First I want to say I voted for it, but I believe it was voted down because voters were told that all those rules and regulations could be changed as soon as it was voted in. So once again voters were forced to vote on a pig in a poke. I think we need a plan that would work more like a neighborhood watch so that neighbors including the cities within two or three miles of a proposed land-use change could have a voice in the change, and with a governing board that could issue or deny permits for any change. I think this would eliminate the need to try to anticipate what could be put in by making up a long list of regulations.

A race issue

IN REGARD to a comment made by a council member about the Taste Lounge: How dare he claim that the issue had no connection to race relations and say that injecting race into the issue was improper? If you believe the police have had a hard time dealing with some of the citizens on that side of Cape, you just wait until they start visiting your establishments.

Independent university

THERE WAS an article about the River Campus board being kept in the dark. Jerry Ford is complaining about the university not cooperating with the city. Anyone who's been in Cape very long knows the university does not cooperate with the city. They say what they need to say to get the money they need, and then the city is out of it. Go back and read the articles from the year the Show Me Center wanted to get donations from the city. After the city had donated, the university announced it had a location and there were to be no changes. The university has used the city and the residents to their liking.

Avoiding the board

IT LOOKS like Southeast Missouri State University officials are up to their old tricks again. They are keeping River Campus board members from the same things they were keeping the taxpayers from. They are going around about everything. Instead of letting the board members in on what they are up to, they left them out on the side the same way they did in trying to sneak around what the taxpayers voted out. And they decided that they didn't like it, so they went ahead.

State has a say

I WAS just reading in the Missourian where they were talking about planning and zoning. It said maybe if the people of Cape Girardeau County hadn't voted against the county zoning plan, they wouldn't have to worry about the utility company moving into their backyards. I wonder if they don't know that the county commissioners were all for that utility company coming in. They definitely would have had it had there been planning and zoning. By not having it, the state has the say.

Tortoise and hare

THIS MESSAGE goes out to the people who don't know how to drive. I was driving along Broadway, and an older couple was in a car in front of me going 10 mph. A college kid was driving behind me. He got so frustrated that he not only passed me, but the older couple in front of me as well. Hello. Can we say "illegal"? The point of this story: Go the speed limit or don't drive at all. Quit riding people's bumpers, and quit passing people just because you don't want to go the speed limit.