OpinionMarch 14, 2007
Speak Out 3/14/07
Loss of morality; Good connections; Domestic flights only; Costly electricity; Costly mistake; Squabbling cat fight; Who's the Luddite?; Autism funding; Something to watch; Utility rates; Abyss of complacency; Too little to do; Leta Bahn will be missed; Choosing Cincinnati; Economic facts; Troop timetables; Better time idea; Smear campaign; Getting to the airport; Lunatic fringe; Reverse the decision; Busybody lawsuit; Excessive spending; Profit motives; Congressional action; Area policing
Loss of morality
AFTER READING the paper this morning, I am more than convinced that the Republicans are as dishonest as any group I have ever been. Newt Gingrich is the poster child for this dishonesty. How can a person like him show his face in public, let alone on television? I think the Moral Majority has lost most of its morals. This is just another example of the Republicans preaching and then doing the opposite.
Good connections
I HAD to laugh when I read the comment by the traveler suggesting that the new airline connection to Cincinnati would force him to go to Cincinnati, then fly through St. Louis or Chicago to get to his destination. The initial article about the proposed switch to Cincinnati as a hub clearly pointed out that there were nearly twice as many flights and destinations available through Cincinnati as compared to St. Louis. That translates to better connections and more available direct flights than St. Louis offers. With the collapse of TWA, Lambert Airport has become a ghost town. To consider the needs of any business such as Procter & Gamble, which could increase boardings at the airport by nearly 20 percent, is not favoritism. It's good business. I know it's hard to accept change, but sometimes we have to see things the way they are as opposed to the way they were or we wish they were.
Domestic flights only
JUST FOR the record, there are no scheduled international flights out of Lambert-St. Louis. After TWA was bought by American Airlines, American suspended all international flights because there is no market in the St. Louis area for direct international flights. To leave the country, you just have to fly from St. Louis to another hub such as Chicago or Dallas-Fort Worth.
Costly electricity
I HOPE our elected officials will look into the ever-increasing utility rates. As with most people in this area, my monthly rate has tripled in the last two and a half years. I have also been trying to conserve electricity to no avail.
Costly mistake
REGARDING THE $1 coins: There was a mistake made, and "In God We Trust" was not put on some coins. However, these coins are only fetching around $60 on the Internet.
Squabbling cat fight
AS A Jackson taxpayer, I fully expect the mayor to take however long he deems necessary to study anything that is brought before the city for approval. Three days is not long to wait on the gears of a municipality to move. I think developer Ron Clark thinks the city has wronged him in the past is grasping at straws. The Southeast Missourian is playing its part in a squabbling cat fight and perpetrating one-sided rumors and half-truths that Clark seems to be funneling to reporters.
Who's the Luddite?
WE MUST give David Limbaugh credit. He desperately wants climate change to be nothing more than a left-wing conspiracy, but he has to acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of scientists think it is real. Because he cannot find a single published scientist to justify his rejection of climate change, he has to vilify all science and all scientists. Even though Limbaugh thinks we "should be responsible stewards of the environment," he wants us to dismiss all scientists because of their purported godlessness. Regrettably, he also has to reject technological advances fueling the economies of nations that are addressing the problem. Exactly who is it who is the Luddite here?
Autism funding
THANK YOU, state Sen. Jason Crowell, Gov. Matt Blunt and other legislative leaders for proposing funds for an autism center in Cape Girardeau. Autism affects an unbelievable 1 in 150 newborn children.
Something to watch
I CAN'T wait for the Republican primary to get underway. This will be something to watch. The party of morals has a problem. Rudy Giuliani has been married three times. John McCain has been married two times. Newt Gingrich asked his first wife for a divorce while she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery. Now he has admitted to having extramarital affairs while married to his second wife. It should be fun to watch the right-wing conservatives fall all over themselves to defend these guys.
Utility rates
AN AMEREN representative says the company last increased natural-gas delivery rates in February 2004. How odd that last year we in Bollinger County read that Ameren had raised our rates. With all the proposed gas and electric increases, we apparently need to bite the bullet now: no more dishwashers, no clothes dryers, no air conditioning, furnaces set so low we need to wear gloves as well as sweaters and jackets in our homes. Many of us in Marble Hill have already seen our utility bills surpass the rents we pay. No wonder utility lobbyists fought decades ago against wind power, which many overseas countries have embraced.
Abyss of complacency
THIS COUNTRY is spiraling down into the abyss of complacency. Our government is no longer ours or for us. It is a monster that needs to be reformed. We sit back and complain. Complaining never solved anything. Revolutions do. Think about it.
Too little to do
HOW INTERESTING to discover that we have a bill in the Missouri Legislature proposing that the state acknowledge and atone for its role in the slavery of Africans. This is pure political drivel. It appears that our politicians, whom we pay very well, have too little to do than dream up something that is not only noxious but could lead to severe repercussions in the form of reparation demands in the future, insistence from other groups that we have harmed them and continuance of the racial division that politicians like to keep alive. Unfortunately, we are not taking the time to insist that our elected politicians (our employees) attend only to business that concerns the citizens (their employers) rather than to bills such as this that may produce more votes.
Leta Bahn will be missed
CAPE GIRARDEAU will miss Leta Bahn, who died March 5. She was a church and community leader and was largely responsible for starting Chateau Girardeau. More than that, she was a friend to many and was the loving wife to Dr. Larry Bahn, head of the department of chemistry at Southeast Missouri State University, who died 27 years earlier to the day, and the mother of Taylor and Willie. Job well done, Martha Leta Lewis Bahn.
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Choosing Cincinnati
AS A Procter & Gamble employee, I'm offended by the comments that somehow we are to blame for the change from St. Louis to Cincinnati as the hub from the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Almost 90 percent of our employees traveling to Cincinnati drive the six hours, which is faster than flying or driving from Cape to St. Louis and catching a flight to Cincinnati. Cincinnati is not the only place we travel to. Our plants are in California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia. Believe me, to get to any of them from St. Louis, you have to change planes in at least one more city.
Economic facts
TO SAY that the economy was better during the Clinton years than now requires one to completely ignore the facts. Homeownership, a key indicator in a strong economy, is the highest it's ever been. The national employment rate is 95.5 percent. Our trade debt is less than $60 billion dollars, which is incredibly low, especially during a time of war.
Troop timetables
HOW COME the Democrats aren't asking for a timetable for troop withdrawal in Bosnia, the Sinai Peninsula, South Korea, Germany, Japan, Afghanistan or South America?
Better time idea
INSTEAD OF messing with daylight-saving time twice a year, why don't we move our clocks a half-hour and leave them?
Smear campaign
HOW CAN anyone be upset at Ann Coulter because of her recent remarks when we regularly hear Democrats call our president Hitler and Democratic congressmen compare our soldiers to Nazis? Where was all the righteous indignation then? Democrats love to smear. but they will use all their power in the media to silence anyone who opposes their socialist views.
Getting to the airport
I WANT the community leaders to think about how lucky we are to have airline service from St. Louis. Yesterday I had my elderly mom flying into Cape Girardeau from St. Louis, and all the flights were canceled. She is wheelchair-bound and had no clue of what to do. It was only a short drive up to get her. It would have been a nightmare if I had to drive to the Cincinnati airport. Thank you, American Airlines, for the service you provide to this area.
Lunatic fringe
IN WAGING his attack on hundreds of thousands of climate scientists around the world, David Limbaugh has placed himself out on the lunatic fringe. I am reminded of the Joe McCarthy era. To Limbaugh, evidently you either agree with him or you are a godless pagan commie. There is no room for discussion with folks holding such extreme viewpoints. It is telling that Limbaugh could not find even one scientists to quote in his diatribe. It was all polemic, vitriol and rhetoric without a jot of supporting evidence.
Reverse the decision
THE COST of a round-trip ticket from Cincinnati to Dallas-Fort Worth is twice the amount as from St. Louis to Dallas-Fort Worth. This consideration to fly from Cape Girardeau to Cincinnati proves to be a one-sided decision. I hope the decision is reversed for the sake of all travelers in Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and western Kentucky.
Busybody lawsuit
ALL YOU busybodies in Cape Girardeau who want to get involved in everyone else's private affairs should be encouraged by a Swedish lawyer who is suing his neighbor for smoking in her own garden. This type of behavior is right up your alley.
Excessive spending
REGARDING THE new $50 million federal courthouse: "Many private businesses that build new buildings include exercise rooms and spaces for exercise equipment." True, but they are not using tax money to do it. We rail against providing health care to our citizens, but this kind of excessive spending is justified?
Profit motives
MOST INTELLIGENT people realize that the fiasco at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is exactly the opposite of national health care. The main job of the government workers who used to work there was to deliver services. The main job of the private contractors who now work there is to deliver profit to the contractors. It is exactly the selling off of government services to private contractors and the lack of oversight that has caused these types of problems throughout our society.
Congressional action
I AM tired of conservatives griping about Democrats. I am proud of our newly Democratic-led House and Senate. I feel they have done more in their first three months in office than the Republican's did in the last 12 years while in the majority. John McCain said it right: Republicans came to Washington in 1994 to change government, but government changed them.
Area policing
THERE ARE several party houses on Bellevue Street by the university that need to be policed. I go to church on that street, and our parking lot is filled on Sunday morning with broken beer bottles and cans.
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