Speak Out 3/26/05

Rural dumping

GIVE A hoot. Don't pollute. To all the residents of Jackson and Cape Girardeau who are complaining about litter and trash, stop bringing your trash out to the county. We're tired of the city folks dumping their old sofas, tires and junk on the roadside and in our front yards and fields. How would you like it if a truck backed up to your front lawn in town and dumped trash onto your property?

Bring back cleanup

IF CAPE Girardeau is truly committed to reducing litter, the city should bring back spring cleanup. Since last year's final cleanup, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of old appliances, furniture and other bulky items dumped along public roads, especially just outside the city limits.

All about appearances

NO MATTER what the reason is for school board members to send their children to a private school, the fact is that you can defend yourself till you are blue in the face, but it will always appear that you pulled your child from a poor learning environment to be placed in a better one.

Justice for rednecks

AS LONG as there is a segment of our society who don't give a rip, the rest of us responsible people will have to pick up their trash. I know some redneck bums who think it is funny to drop their beer cans and burger bags though the hole rusted in the floorboard of their trucks. When you are driving and see bums throw out their trash, get their license number and make a complaint. Judges need to stick it to them so the word gets around that it will cost you the price of six months worth of beer and burgers if you trash the highways.

School support

AS I read an article about another Cape Girardeau school advocate sending children to other schools, I am infuriated. As I see Cape schools losing at every turn, from teachers to monetary benefits, I think changes need to take place in our hiring policies. If this district is not good enough for you to send your own children to, apply elsewhere. How many administrators, teachers and others gladly accept their paychecks here yet support other schools because it is where their own children attend?

No smiles

I RECENTLY attended a two-day field trip with my son. One of the teachers who was chaperoning did not smile the entire trip. Please, educators, if you don't like children or what you are doing, get out of the business. Do not put in a few more years so you can retire with more pay. Our children would reap the benefits of your leaving.

Surplus squandered

IN HIS 1999 State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed personal savings accounts for Social Security. Why isn't the GOP using Clinton's own words to sell their plan for private accounts? First, under Clinton's plan these private accounts would go side by side with traditional Social Security. Second, unlike President Bush and the Republicans, Clinton told everyone how he was going to pay for it: with the budget surplus. He proposed taking surplus money to not only set up these accounts, but also to make traditional Social Security solvent for 75 years as well as pay down much of our federal debt. Instead of doing this, Bush squandered the surplus on tax cuts that mainly benefited rich people.

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Cut the waste

BESIDES REMODELING, computers and telephones, it would be interesting if we could all know everything our state spends money on. What programs that benefit a small minority of the citizens -- beautification spending like planting flowers, travel expenses for well-paid politicians -- could be eliminated in order to keep the ones who truly help the taxpayers of this state -- programs that educate our children and keep us healthy and alive.

Protect the victims

JESSICA LUNSFORD and so many other children have suffered and are suffering daily and we turn our heads. What if it is your child? Where would you turn? Who would you approach to save your child? The laws need to change. Protect the victims.

School choices

I JUST heard of yet another Cape Girardeau school administrator who is sending his fourth-grader to private school next year. How many Cape administrators send their children elsewhere? I've lost count. The number of teachers who do the same is at least double that. Shame on you. I bet the local private schools are loving the additional revenue. I respect teachers and administrators in our district who support the hand that feeds them and, good or bad, send their own children to our schools.

Discipline at home

AT WHAT point will parents begin to take some responsibility for the behavior of their children? You can sit back and accuse the schools of poor discipline and say the schools aren't doing their jobs. But the schools are not enough. When I was a child, if you got in trouble at school, you were also in trouble at home. We were taught responsibility for our actions and not taught to find someone else to blame. We are teaching our children to look outside themselves for fault instead of looking at their own faults. It is time for homes to reinforce the policies of schools.

New leadership

A BI-DIRECTIONAL regional school like Southeast Missouri State University is in desperate need of new leadership if it is going to compete against Missouri State University, Truman State University and the University of Central Missouri.

Bad attitudes

I AM a 2003 graduate of Central High School. All the years I've been in school, I've had to see what most of my teachers had to deal with -- not only disrespect by classmates who chose not to do the work and let their future run down the drain, but also backtalk where classmates would get into a yelling argument with the teacher on rare occasions. Teachers don't get paid enough to put up with my generation's bad attitudes and the same goes with subs. Whether they're a regular teacher or a substitute, they still have to put up with laziness and attitude.

No-work paradise

WORKERS' COMPENSATION laws became a relative paradise for many employees to get paid for not working, even sometimes when they were not hurt on the job, and for attorneys to help them fight to continue receiving money for not wanting to work. You'd have to be in management to know all the fraud that takes place. Incidentally, unless it has changed over the past four to five years, the injured employees have the right to request a doctor of their own choosing if they disagree with the workers' comp doctor.

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