Speak Out 3/24/06

A woman's choice

ONE WOMAN chose to keep her baby when she was raped. Another woman might never want anything to do with a child conceived during rape. America is a myriad of human experiences. But that's what choice is about.

Beautification teeth

I WATCHED the Cape Girardeau City Council discussing real estate signs and their effect on city beautification. Good grief. What about garage-sale signs that never get taken down? How about the lawn on Perry Avenue where there isn't a spot you can stack anything else? What about the unlicensed cars parked on streets for months and old couches and barbecue grills on front porches? You need teeth to clean up the city. Pigs have no idea of neatness and cleanliness. Beautification is only a dream if you don't get serious.

Movie distortion

ANY MOVIE, fiction or not, that distorts and misrepresents the life of my Savior and God's only Son should not be called a fun movie. Such remarks do not represent most Christians I know who understand the life of Jesus.

Sagging ratings

THE SOUTHEAST Missourian editorial board doesn't seem to know what the Democratic Party stands for. I can tell you what the Republican Party stands for: George Bush. And Bush's approval rating is at 37 percent in the pro-business Wall Street Journal. If a pro-Republican paper has his approval rating at 37 percent, it means roughly that 25 percent of the people who voted for Bush are admitting they made a mistake. By the time we get to fall with the mess he created in Iraq, it will be down to 27 percent. Our so-called allies, the British, are pulling troops out, and Bush is talking about adding more troops in Iraq.

Dripping noses

MY HUSBAND always said I have a weird sense of humor. I enjoy anything Callie and Bob Miller write. The only difference between Bob and me is I sleep with a box of tissues. If you have allergies and sinus problems, you understand the problem. The dog or cat in the house doesn't help. Sorry, Callie, got to go. My nose is dripping.

Spinning head

DAVID LIMBAUGH says the Democrats are making his head spin. He must be getting pretty dizzy by now trying to justify all of the Bush administration's actions.

The rabbit survives

AT THE on and off ramps at Scott City, the chugholes are deep. A rabbit ran in front of my vehicle. I thought I had run over it. As I drove by, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the rabbit jump out of a pothole. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it's a good thing for the rabbit because it didn't get killed, but it's sure bad on tires. Whoever's responsible, please take the rabbit story and try to do something about it.

Crazy spending

I JUST read in Human Events that there's $24.5 billion the federal government can't account for. The government knows it spent it, but it doesn't know who it spent it on, where it went, what program it went toward or how much of it was stolen. It looks to me like the Republicans, who are supposed to be conservative, don't know anything more about what's going on than the Democrats, who are liberal spenders. We've gone crazy with government spending. Someone's got to do something to get it back into some kind of perspective.

Use wood waste

BUILDING TWO corn-using ethanol plants in Southeast Missouri doesn't make sense. This is a grain-deficit area. Missouri doesn't produce a lot of corn compared to other states in the Midwest. These two plants will use approximately a fifth of the corn produced in Missouri. So they would change the whole state's production of livestock and require the importing of grain. If you want to do something worthwhile, let's build cellulosic ethanol plants where we have all this wood waste. Don't build corn plants, because that is not good economic sense.

A deadly flu

THE PROBLEM with bird flu is that the 91 people who have died are a high percentage of the people who have gotten the flu. When the bird flu comes here and starts to go from birds to people, a great many people who get it are going to die. It's not going to be like the flu you had in December.

Fix chugholes first

I WAS wondering why the highway department was spending money by putting up mile markers every two-tenths of a mile on I-55. Now, I know. After hitting one of the large chugholes on the highway and breaking a ball joint, I was able to tell the tow service exactly that I was at mile marker 102.2. That's nice, but I think fixing the chugholes in the highway should have been the first priority.

Double the license

WHEN YOU are issued new plates, you get two. Why do some people put one plate on the back of one car and the other plate on the back of another car? There are two vehicles with the same license plate. How do they get by with it? Some people will do anything as long as they don't get caught.

Thanks for the notice

THANK YOU, Biokyowa, for giving us a reasonable notice of the layoffs. My friend worked at another company for 15 years and was called during his vacation and told he no longer had a job. No one deserves that. So thank you for your thoughtfulness.

Trash at the junction

THE TRASH situation at Center Junction between Cape Girardeau and Jackson is deplorable. It looks like something I saw in East St. Louis not too long ago. It's pitiful how much trash has been thrown out at this intersection. There must be millions of cigarette butts. This looks awful.