Speak Out 3/13/05

Better streets cost more

CAPE GIRARDEAU'S roads are in bad condition because the city is faced with a major constraint: available tax dollars. We can afford only a certain amount of pavement. So either fork over more money or get used to the bumpy ride.

Wrong priorities

THE NEXT spending boondoggle at the university will be a new aquatic center. Translation: swimming pool. The university had two pools. It turned one into office space for administration and filled the other with concrete. Now it wants another pool to attract students. Meanwhile, staff members continue to get crumbs for raises and classrooms get ignored. This is an administration whose priorities are out of control.

Never out of date

HOW CAN anyone say the Ten Commandments are out of date? I find it hard to believe that a law against not killing is wrong. Yes, people still break these laws, but should we eliminate our country's laws just because people break them? Why is it wrong to have someone's God displayed, but it's OK to have a billboard advertising a gentlemen's club on every highway of America?

Working to get by

I RECEIVE some assistance. I have three children by two different men. Neither one pays court-ordered child support. I work 40 hours a week. My children are on Medicaid. We live in a poorly insulated house, which the landlord cares nothing about just as long as he gets his money. I have one car that doesn't work and one car that needs work, but I'm unable to get it fixed right now. My clothes are hand-me-downs from my mother, and my children don't wear name-brand clothes. I do the best I can. I'm not one of these "sit on your butt" welfare recipients. I work.

Right decision

I THINK the Supreme Court was right in outlawing death penalty for criminals under the age of 18. This is what differentiates us from Saddam Hussein. Justice will be served to wait until they are mature enough.

Shades of gray

A RIGIDLY interpreted Ten Commandments could serve as the exclusive basis for law in a backward nation that has not evolved to the point of seeing things in shades of gray and the value of moral relativism and siutuational ethics.

Too many neighbors

WHY ARE rural developers turning our farmland into subdivisions? There are many reasons that people move to the country, mainly to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city and to have a safe place to raise their children. Then someone buys a piece of land next to you and turns it into a subdivision that can hold 500 people. If people want to live that close together, they should live in town. Our farm was to be a place to grow old and to raise our children and their children. Now that will not happen, thanks to the money-hungry builders.

No junk food

MISSOURI NEEDS to follow the lead of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a half-dozen other states and ban junk food in schools.

The truly needy

I AM a 25-year-old single mother who is in college at Southeast Missouri State University with a grade-point average of 3.6. I eat right and exercise, yet I still get sick occasionally. If Medicaid were cut, what would happen to me and my child with no insurance? I do not like receiving aid, but I am trying to advance in life to where I do not have to depend on the government for food or insurance. I realize some people take advantage of this system, yet some of us truly need it.

Watch that pun

BECAUSE CAPE Girardeau residents trash the town so much, maybe we could deceive potential tourists by adopting the slogan "Come to Cape, home of the highest rate of litteracy."

Insurgent symbol

THERE ARE a few people who like to display the symbol of an insurgent group of terrorists and traitors to the United States. These insurgents and terrorists tore the country apart and caused a war that killed over 600,000 Americans. These miscreants think it is cute to ride around displaying the symbol of this horror: the Confederate flag.

Right on target

GOODBYE, DAN Rather. Millions of us Americans know you were right on target.

Emphasize academics

THERE IS only one Missouri state university, Truman State University, in Kirksville, that has labeled itself highly selective, which means 90 percent of its students must have a combined class rank and ACT/SAT score in the top 30 percent. Mizzou is selective, which is the top 40 percent, and Southeast Missouri State University has chosen to be a moderately selective school, meaning 90 percent of people admitted must be in the top 50 percent. The result of Truman's holding itself out as highly selective is that many of Southeast Missouri's top students choose to attend Truman because it is perceived as a better school. SEMO is a good school and has a lot to offer very bright students. Its programs in business, nursing and education among those I can think of which are top rate. I would like the regents to consider ways to slow this brain drain of our area's best students. It might be time to reclassify SEMO as a selective school. It certainly is time to put more focus back on academics rather than its Division I athletic program.

Need new bands

I AGREE. There are no good bands anymore. No Van Halen, CCR, BTO. Heck, even Elvis in his jumpsuit days was better than any of today's bands. We need some real rock 'n' roll bands. Until then, we will have to be content to listening to old LPs and what few cover bands there are.

For everyone

THE TEN Commandments are for everyone, not just Christians. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. These are bad things people are not supposed to do.

Bone crushing

KEEPING THE potholes at Doctors' Park could be a ploy by the orthopedic docs.

Good old days

ISN'T IT funny how life goes in circles? A person writes Speak Out bemoaning the state of music and cites Van Halen and Motley Crue as examples of the good old days. I started listening to blues and jazz during this era because these were the very bands I considered to be phonies who put appearance and style ahead of musical integrity, although I will admit that Eddie Van Halen is an excellent guitarist. The comment about today's artists not writing their own music has no validity whatsoever, both of these bands had several huge hits that were covers. The simple truth is the music scene today is the same as it has always been. There are some good bands and some bad ones, and the last generation always thinks its music was superior to the current music. I'll bet when they were banging their heads in the 1980s, these people never thought that 20 years later they would be clones of their own parents.