SPEAK OUT

Watch the elections

RANDIE FIDLER is old news, opined a Speak Out caller. The truth of that statement will be put to the test at future board elections.

Other needs too

I AM a 57-year-old resident of Jackson. I will continue to educate myself on ballot issues and cast my vote in private for what I feel is best for my community. If it is OK with those upset about the failure of the school tax levy increase, I'm choosing to save my support and money for a new senior-citizen center, a civic center for Jackson, a modern library, an additional fire station and improvements at the water plant. There is only so much money in this community. Will you allow us to save some for ourselves?

Wrong kind of help

I ALMOST fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard when I read that Gov. Bob Holden said Peter Kinder wasn't for the working people of Missouri. Excuse me, Governor. Who recently put a freeze on state employees' salaries because it's a tight budget year, gave his chief of staff a $13,000-a-year raise, then forced state employees to join unions with an executive order that is going to take extra dollars out of their paychecks? If Holden is the champion of the working persons' causes, please stay home in the mansion and don't bother going to work. I don't need your kind of help.

Naming the bridge

I TOTALLY disagree with Pete Kerr's letter suggesting that we include Gov. Mel Carnahan's name on the Mississippi River bridge or selling the naming rights to the bridge. The bridge already has a name: Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. Why does it have this name? Bill Emerson secured the federal funding for it. With all due respect to the late governor, he doesn't deserve a memorial in connection with the bridge. As far as selling the naming rights to it, I think our current governor already has enough people he owes favors to decide who should get their name on the bridge.

Lame excuses

THOSE OF you who voted for George W. Bush because of his promise to increase military spending are probably making excuses now for his recent actions to reduce military spending. You will find lame excuses for whatever he does. The most tragic part is that you will also believe them.

Farming subsidies

MIKE SHREWSBERRY said in a stinging criticism of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson that the federal government should get out of the farm-subsidy business. Are you kidding me? Farmers would be driven out of business in droves if it were not for government subsidies. The government does need to occasionally change the name of the law providing farmers with subsidies so taxpayers will think they're trying a new approach, but that's about it.

Unfair media coverage

I'VE BEEN reading all the comments about President Bush's daughters and their underage drinking. Yes, it happens, and it happens in this community every weekend with the college kids. But what bothers me the most is this blatant media bias toward the Clintons and the Gores. Chelsea Clinton wasn't pure as the driven snow, but we never heard anything about her. Why? According to the news media, there was some kind of unwritten pact between Clinton and the media not to print things about Chelsea, to leave her alone. What about Gore's children? One of his daughters was caught at least twice with an open container when she was underage, and his son was arrested for driving 97 mph, and that never made the major media. It was buried on the back pages. These are documented incidents. But the Missourian never plastered it on the front of your paper, and none of the rest of the media made much of a fuss. But now that there's a Republican in the White House, all we're hearing about are the Bush daughters. I think it's unfair. The media needs to get off these kids' backs.