SPEAK OUT

Dr. Rawlins is missed

DR. FRED Rawlins will be truly missed. He was never impatient but always reassuring his patients everything was going to be just fine. Our welfare and safety were his utmost concern. I'd like to thank his family for sharing him.

Outstanding concert

ON SUNDAY evening we attended a concert by the SEMO faculty and some students at St. Vincent's Church. It was outstanding. We are so fortunate to have talented musicians like that in Cape Girardeau. We look forward to many more concerts like that in the future.

Just wait and see

ISN'T IT a shame they are blaming Gore for what happened down there in Florida? It wasn't Gore. It was Jeb Bush, the governor. Now we know what his brother is going to do when he gets in, don't we? You watch Social Security. He will do just like his daddy under the Reagan administration. He will take money out and give it to somebody else. That is the reason I changed from Republican and voted Democrat this year.

Two commandments

THE BIBLE says we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus gave us two commandments to go by, not the 10 Commandments you see out there in yards: Love thy neighbor as yourself, and have no other gods before me. You people are putting stuff in Speak Out about Gore and Bush and everybody that you can name. It is a shame, and I feel sorry for you on Judgment Day because every word you say, even what you think, God knows before you even utter it. You are going to stand before him and be judged on that. I know a man who has the commandments in his front yard. He gives his renters hell and talks to them like they are dogs. He calls himself a Christian. He is a hypocrite. He wants people to think he is a Christian, but he is not. Back to the election. You didn't vote Gore or Bush in. God put him into office. He puts into office whom he wants in. I think you should get on your knees and pray and ask for forgiveness.

Waiting for headlines

THINK OF the time and money Florida could have saved if they would have subscribed to our own trusty Missourian, which proclaimed in banner headlines weeks ago "Bush wins." Now will our plucky paper properly predict partisan politics as pledged Electoral College electors from Bush states provoke panic by pressing for a Gore defection? I can barely wait for my next issue of the Missourian.

When will they learn?

WHAT PART of "no" don't Al Spradling and the city council and city manager understand? The voters rejected the River Campus, but the city went ahead with the funding until Jim Drury stopped it in court. Now Spradling and the city manager plan to overrule the voter's rejection of county planning and zoning by restriction of a two-mile radius should we reach 35,000 population. When will the politicians learn to abide by the people and stop finding loopholes to suit their own interests? When will they learn they are not God?

School financial crunch

THE NEWSPAPER reported that the school district was experiencing a rough financial period. It also reported that the board of education president, Dr. Ferrell Ervin, hinted at a vote on an operating-tax levy increase as early as next April. As I drove around town I noticed two large billboards sponsored by the Cape school district thanking the citizens of Cape. That is using thousands of dollars per month of the taxpayers' money. That certainly isn't very responsible, even if you didn't have a financial problem. The point is that the board needs to look within to find a better way to get a better bang for our tax dollars.

Execution isn't murder

OF COURSE the death penalty is not murder, because the person who has been put to death by means of the death penalty has had a chance to live in the United States and obey the laws that we have set in place. If an unborn child is aborted, that child is innocent and has no choice whatsoever in its death. The person who commits murder and is put to death, like the Bible says, an eye for an eye.

It's not democracy

CONCERNING THE recount for the votes in Florida: It is not democracy. It is idiocracy.

Time to fight back

THE DEMOCRATIC Party is attempting to steal a national election in broad daylight where everybody is watching. Where are the objections from the national media, the large newspapers and the TV networks? Instead we are forced to watch the slime put out by the trial lawyers, Jesse Jackson and selected Democratic politicians. I don't know why I am surprised. Democrats have used this process for over 100 years, but never in broad daylight. Fight back, Republicans!

Plague of high interest

IT IS deplorable and disgusting that this state and the Southeast Missouri area has come to allow leeches, threats and extortion by high-interest loan companies to invade this area like locusts so as to bleed the impoverished poor people who have difficult times getting loans. It is absolutely disgusting that this newspaper cannot step up and try to do something to stop this or intervene to the point that something worthwhile can develop so as to cure such a plague.

Poor mail delivery

I LIVE in the south part of town, and we have had terrible mail service all summer. Now that it is wintertime and the darkness is setting in early, we don't get mail at all. What is happening to us here in Cape Girardeau? During the summer we got our mail as late as 6:30 p.m. on South Hanover.

Demonizing tactics

THE DEMS are at it again. If they don't get their way, they demonize the person who is standing in their way. This time it seems to be Katherine Harris, the secretary of state in Florida. No one in Florida has had any kind of a complaint against her, but let Al Gore's lawyers roll into the state and she becomes a political hack. People, wake up. The Democrats will demonize anybody in their way and ruin their lives, their reputations and everything else. Bush is our president, and I hope soon we can all say that and get rid of the trash in the White House.

Terrible hypocrisy

AL GORE said he wanted every vote to count. Now it appears he doesn't want to count the votes of our men and women in uniform who are stationed overseas. This seems like terrible hypocrisy to me.

Then it will be fair

AT WHAT point will Gore say it is enough? My guess is the Democrats simply want to keep counting until they have stolen the White House. At which time they will say the election was fair.

Speak Out rhyme time

THIS COUNTRY of ours can take no more

Of the evil manipulations of Albert Gore.

His personality changes, and all of his lies

Are perhaps the result of his former drug ties.

And now in Florida, as he tries to steal votes,

He sends out his cronies to give counters notes

On how to read minds any way is OK

As long as the chads go Al Gore's way.

Surely, good people, we can stop this atrocity.

Otherwise we will lose our republic democracy.

Kansas land grab

REGARDING THE Speak Out comment about the oceanfront property in Kansas: I would like to buy all of it.