OpinionJuly 9, 2001
SPEAK OUT
CONCERNING THE photograph of Joe Burton on the front page of the Southeast Missourian and his frustration over the reassessment of his property on Lexington Avenue: He might as well get used to it. The county assessor and the county commission love this arrangement. ...
Taxing scheme
CONCERNING THE photograph of Joe Burton on the front page of the Southeast Missourian and his frustration over the reassessment of his property on Lexington Avenue: He might as well get used to it. The county assessor and the county commission love this arrangement. They've transferred the responsibility of this to Jefferson City, which is like cutting your thumb off. They can hide behind the state law and continue to jack up the assessments every two years. You won't recognize property taxes in five or 10 years. It's a killer.
Backing our farmers
I HOPE everybody read the Opinion-page column by Jeff Sutton. He's the senior vice president of the First National Bank in Sikeston. He made a great play for the farmers in the elimination of federal competition for farmers. I hope all farmers read this and take help and joy from it. It's absolutely wonderful.
No more recycling
SINCE THE city believes it's necessary to increase our trash and water fees every year, I will no longer recycle anything. I have no incentive to recycle. They raise the rates on water and trash every year. I'm tired of it. I'm not going to use my water to rinse the stuff out with that I would ordinarily recycle. You can count one recycler off your list. I will not recycle any more. They can't prove to me that these increases are necessary. The increases may be small, but small increases every year make a big bill.
Long nursing shifts
TO THE person who called Speak Out about nurses: I hope when you become ill, you have a desk-sitting, doughnut-eating nurse take care of you. That's the kind you deserve. You obviously do not know what you're talking about. Nurses don't volunteer to work 16-hour shifts. They do it because of staffing issues. They do it to take care of their patients because they care. Nurses work 12-hour shifts and do accumulate an extra day or two off by doing so. I say if a nurse gets a chance to eat a doughnut and read the newspaper, you go, girl, because you're probably not going to get lunch.
Hard work, low pay
IN RESPONSE to the "It's good pay" comment: Unless you're a nurse in this area, you do not know how much we make. I've been an LPN for five years, and I don't make near $15 an hour. I bust my butt day in and day out. It's a heartbreaking job. We don't sit behind the desk and read the paper. You have no clue what you're talking about.
Keep it on campus
THANK YOU to the newspaper for taking the first step in calling for a new election on the River Campus. Now that you're calling for a new election, it's time to take the second step. It's time to ask people to vote against funding the River Campus with city money. Obviously, everybody understands the difficulty in using city money to fund a university when we're not using city money to fund a new high school or air conditioning at what's going to be the new junior high. But more importantly, let's think about the students. If students are taking a class in performing arts, they ought to be able to walk from their literature class to their performing arts class. If the performing arts class is at the River Campus and the literature class is at the SEMO campus, there's no way they can walk there. If we need a performing arts center, it should be built on campus where students can use it. It would be better for the university and for the students.
Need more support
I'M A single mom and working two jobs. I have two kids. The father is paying child support, but he's not paying much. I want to know how the courts can make him pay more. He's staying with a woman who has three kids, none of them his. How can he pay bills for her and her children, but can't pay child support for his own kids? They need to get these deadbeat dads and jail them or take them to court.
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Don't vote again
I DON'T understand your thinking there at the Southeast Missourian. Your editorial states that we need to vote again on the River Campus issue. We don't need to vote again. We voted. We spoke. Why is it when somebody like the university doesn't get things their way, all of a sudden we need to revote? Sounds like Florida and the Democrats, doesn't it? Just keep voting until you can twist and turn it your way and finally get it passed. We don't want to fund the River Campus. I'm a SEMO graduate in my late 30s. I'm not some old fogey. I realize what goes on at SEMO. They don't take care of the departments they have. They don't keep the promises they make now. Look at all the promises they made to this community when we built the Show Me Center. See for yourself all the promises the university made about widening streets and putting in lights and much more. None of it has been done. Now they're telling us things that'll happen at the River Campus. Do you think they've been honest with us? Yet you want us to give them money? I don't think so. The community was smart enough to see through it and voted down the River Campus. But you want us to vote again. Leave the vote as it stands.
Get rid of kudzu
I THINK it's everyone's patriotic duty to get rid of kudzu on their property. There could only be one reason that you wouldn't, and that would be if there's a hardship clause. Let's say the farmer is a widower and he's still trying to farm and can hardly keep up. Then the government could provide some assistance. But I'd think you wouldn't want this stuff growing on your property. At the first signs of it you'd make every effort to get rid of it. I noticed it between Fruitland and Jackson. It would be great if whoever owns the property would eliminate the kudzu. It's already taken over the treetops. One should keep one's eyes open and make every effort to get rid of the kudzu. I think it's an obligation to your neighbors.
Not too much stress
THIS IS to the person who said if you have over three kids, you have too many at home and you're going to get stressed out. My mother had nine kids over a span of 12 years, and she never drowned us.
Both had to pass
I'M READING the editorial about the River Campus and the votes for the tax plus the bonds, and they have a short title as an excuse for why the judges ruled against it. It seems like the paper still refuses to say that the voters were told that the tax plus the bonds being issued had to pass before either one of them was effective. That's what we were told through this paper. I don't understand why they're afraid to say what they said in the paper earlier about this when they wanted to get votes for it.
Residential fireworks
I THINK shooting off fireworks should be outlawed in residential areas where the houses are close together. The city should set aside a place for the kids to shoot off their fireworks out of the residential areas.
Now let them pay
I READ in the paper that they're trying to decide whether to have another vote on the River Campus project. As I recall, Jim Drury offered to save the taxpayers money and pay for a new election some time ago. However, the university and the city, thinking they would win, didn't take him up on it. If they want an election, the college and the city fathers should pay for it, not the taxpayers.
Creating anxiety
CALIFORNIA JUST put two new power plants on online, and they have another plant that's ready to go online in a few days. Why hasn't the news media reported this before? It was just a short time ago they were telling the public that there was no relief in sight as far as generation of power because of the laws in California. They said producers had stopped adding or enlarging plants. Now they've just added two. The news media is helping to create the hype and causing anxiety in people, which is uncalled-for.
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