Speak Out 3/2/05

Building community

MANY THANKS to our fine neighbors at the Islamic Center for their fund-raising meal Saturday night. The food was great. The crowd was large, convivial and fun. I hope the Islamic Center will hold many more meals that are open to the public. I think that it is a good way to build understanding and community in addition to helping the tsunami victims. Thanks again to our Muslim brothers and sisters in Cape Girardeau.

Sign of respect

TO STOP for a funeral while it passes is a sign of respect for the dead and their family. It is morally wrong to complain about it. The Cape Girardeau area is full of senior citizens. Chances are pretty good we are going to get stopped for a funeral from time to time.

Wrong-way decision

The Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission has decided to make Water Street go the wrong way. Leave Main Street alone. Have it go one way south, and have Water Street go north. That would make sense and would stop bottlenecks.

Cleanup idea for I-55

THERE'S NOTHING but junk and weeds along I-55. Get some county prisoners out there to clean it up those worse areas. Plant dogwoods and make the interstate look pretty.

Show of respect

I ATTENDED my best friend's father's funeral a couple of weeks ago. I was very happy to see people pulling off the road to respect that family.

Cemetery on the left

THINK ABOUT your own funeral and how it would make your family feel if people passed by and didn't pay any respect. The reason funeral processions drive in the left lane is because the cemetery is on the south side of the road.

Resourceful university

TOP YOU people who keep complaining about the new entry and spending money on Southeast Missouri State University, just remember: The more money that is spent on SEMO means more students, which brings in more revenue for Cape Girardeau. The university is extremely important to this town. My guess is if you look into other universities and how they spend their money, you would see that Southeast is better run and more resourceful.

Growing pains

TWO MONTHS ago I got a job in Jackson that ends at 3:30 p.m. I have started looking to go back to Cape Girardeau to work. It is next to impossible to get anywhere in Jackson in a timely manner after 3 on weekdays. Jackson needs to accept the fact that it is not such a small town anymore and address some of these bigger-town headaches.

School culture shock

THE ONLY thing that is ever going to change Cape Girardeau's public schools is to evenly distribute children of all races and economic backgrounds into the different elementary schools. Cape schools might as well be segregated the way they have them set up right now. It is totally unfair to the children. Then the students go to the middle school where all the children are put together for the first time. Some kids go into culture shock because they have only been around kids of one race or economic background.

Society's direction

SLOWING DOWN or pulling over for a funeral procession shows respect. It is sad the state had to make a law. It's really sad where our society is heading.

Part of democracy

THE DAY the Southeast Missourian stops printing the views of both conservatives and liberals in our community is the day democracy stops. Apparently some in our community would like the Missourian to be run like a Nazi propaganda machine. Hundreds of people are also sick of reading the predominantly conservative columnists in the Missourian, but we understand that is part of democracy.

No comparison

A RECENT comment claimed that rodeo animals are treated like athletes and that many more people are injured than animals. Do we have athletes forced into the ring? An animal does not choose to be in a rodeo. The comparison is ridiculous. No animals should be injured. It doesn't matter if the injury rate of people to animals is greater. If a person chooses to go into a rodeo and risk his life, that's his business. But when you take an animal against its will and subject it to torture, it is everyone's business.

Dangerous exposure

AS ONE of many proud liberals living in this area, I would like to say how much I appreciate the inclusion of liberal perspectives in the Missourian. Are conservatives so insecure in their views that they can't stand exposure to liberal perspectives?

Qualified administrators

I HAVE to laugh when Speak Out callers provide their advice for the university. I doubt that anyone who has commented on the school has any idea what he's talking about. University administrators work for years to become qualified to make those decisions.

Faculty contributions

THERE ARE many reasons the readership of the Missourian is fortunate that university faculty members editorialize in their town's newspaper. Of importance to me is that to be able to make well-informed decisions, we need a broad range of information which we might not get without learned faculty contributions.

Growing our food

TO THE person who is wondering how you would get food if it were not for a farmer, it is simple. People would have to produce their own food in gardens or truck patches, and they would do it without subsidies from the government. This is how it was done in the past. You may have to work a little and be creative on production methods, but it can still be done today.

Real-world views

I AM in the process of printing out letters to the editor and in Speak Out concerning the proposals for cutting Medicaid. I will be copying and sending these to the governor and our legislators. I cannot think of any other way to get our politicians to listen to us, since they are generally unaware of what it is like out here in the real world.