SPEAK OUT

List the contributors

I WOULD be very interested in seeing a list of the contributors that Dale Nitzsche has raised. We are continually hearing about the money he has collected, but no mention of contributors. Do all contributors wish to remain anonymous? Post the list and grand totals, and let the taxpayers decide.

Competition works

GIVING BUSH credit for the gasoline prices going down is a lot of baloney. Let's give the man who has Basic Fuel filling station the credit. He was the one who kept Jackson gas prices down for several years. Now that he's over here, the other boys will have to come down too.

Bird's-eye view

IT APPEARS our city fathers do not know what a roundabout is supposed to look like. They should go to Chaffee, Mo., or Jonesboro, Ill. There are two great roundabouts. Maybe the governor could take them out in his airplane and fly them down there.

Liberal screwball

WHAT A liberal screwball we have for governor, pushing the $100 million bailout of the St. Louis Cardinals owners and their millionaire ball players. Signing an executive order to force state workers to pay dues to unions that promised to pay off his inaugural party. Another wonderful liberal Democrat. Where do they scrape up this trash to run for political office?

Top-level problems

THIS IS in regard to the person saying we are greedy and backwards toward funding of education: Do you ever think about why we have so many assistant superintendents with secretaries? We already have principals in each of the schools. So why do the superintendents need assistants? They talk about cutbacks involving full loads of dishes. Those dishes are only in the washer for two minutes. How much money is being saved by doing this? We need a new high school. We don't need billboards thanking us for maintaining the mission and to pay $50,000 to engineers to look at the old high school to see if it needs new lights and air. The greed is in the upper management, and the public is getting tired of it.

Roundabout dream

JACKSON HAS an opportunity to fulfill an engineer's dream: an ideal spot to successfully test a roundabout located at the soon-to-be-revised Farmington Road and Highway D intersection. All types of vehicles use this area. As a bonus, the state will help pay for it.

Fix manhole covers

I'M SURE the money the city spent on the useless fireworks could have fixed some of the manhole covers here in town. It's ridiculous that motorists have to drive to dodge these manholes. Some are two inches below the surface.

So he can spend more

SKY-HIGH Bob Holden has cut funding for education, women's safe houses and Caring Community funding. I guess he had to cut somewhere to fund his huge spending increase.

Freedom to switch

I VOTED for George W. Bush, Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush. I have no problem with Jim Jeffords' changing parties. It seems to me that in Revolutionary War days not everybody supported the revolutionary cause. Perhaps almost every day someone was changing his mind whether to stay a loyalist or to join the revolution. America forged that freedom, the freedom to choose what party you join. I do not think it matters when you decide to switch over.

Take it back

THE NAACP should look out for the welfare of the black Americans instead of being the voter-registration group for the Democratic Party. What about promoting two-parent families, reducing teen pregnancy, education, getting the filth out of our entertainment industry and the rise of AIDS in the black community? No, the NAACP just stirs racism and worships politicians with their handouts. When will responsible, God-fearing blacks take their organization back?

Make it convenient

I AM a graduate of a university that has in excess of 30,000 students. My disapproval of the River Campus is based on the fact that it is not close to the other campus and would cause students who had classes on both campuses to have to arrive late or leave early to be on time for classes. If new buildings are needed, they should be close to the main campus. Anyone who has had to travel from one end of a campus to another knows the River Campus is a bad idea that is trying to make use of obsolete buildings that should be torn down because they are not efficient and are outdated.

Preserving history

TO THE liberal who says, "It's our history too and it's not just reserved for conservatives." It should be reserved for conservatives. They are committed to preserving history so we don't keep making the same stupid mistakes. Liberals are bent on trashing or at best revising history in their futile quest of a global socialist utopia. Haven't they learned yet that socialism is a failed, flawed, ideology? By the way, did you know that one of the first notable environmentalists in America was a conservative Republican? Teddy Roosevelt.

It could be taxed

IF THE church owns that 53 acres in the city, you must remember the city and county get no taxes from it. If it's sold as a subdivision, the city and county both get tax dollars. I vote against the church.

When is it human?

IF ONE does not believe that a deliberate abortion is murder, can someone explain to me what is unethical about stem-cell research? Until the baby can think on its own and the breath of life has been breathed into that child, it is not a human being. I know when it is and when it isn't.

Teacher still concerned

AS A teacher of 20-plus years in Southeast Missouri, I wonder if any of my former students know what a thrill I get from reading what they're doing these days. I eagerly read the wedding announcements and the birth announcements. It always gives me a lot of pleasure as a teacher. It helps you realize that the quiet or perhaps boisterous student in the class years ago has been successful. That makes you feel good as an educator. You also read about a young man in a ninth-grade classroom years ago who recently was convicted of second-degree murder. In your caring and concern, you anguish over that and your impact on that person's life. To all of you in Southeast Missouri who have former teachers in the area, we're still keeping up with you. We want to know what's going on with your life. We share your successes, and we rejoice and sorrow with you. This is part of what it means to be a teacher.

It could be worse

TO THE residents along Old Hopper Road: Why are you complaining about a church being built in your neighborhood and the increase of traffic it would lead to? How would you like to have bought a nice home along Mount Auburn Road years before the Lexington extension was completed, increasing traffic in front of my house tenfold or more. You can't imagine the noise we put up with. We can't even entertain guests in our homes because the four lanes have eliminated parking on the street in front of our homes. Even getting the mail is life-threatening, because you could stumble off the curb and get run over by a car. Try backing onto Mount Auburn from your driveway and watch motorists speed up to intimidate you. We all told the police we were opposed to four lanes. Why did the city even waste taxes to pay an officer to conduct the survey? So if you think you will have it bad if the church has services a couple of times a week, just feel lucky you didn't choose to buy a home on Mount Auburn 20 years ago. The only good thing about living here is if you are a race fan, you have a front-row seat.

It takes one ...

I STRONGLY disagree with the Speak Out caller who characterized David Limbaugh as hypocritical and hateful. I would say the caller has the same traits.