Speak Out 3/30/05

Takes the prize

IF YOU want to see the crowning glory of litter, drive down the Blodgett road south from Highway 77 east of Benton, Mo., and you'll be sickened at the sight. Someone needs to follow through with photos to show just what is out here along our highway. We thought I-55 was a mess. This takes the prize. We clean up beer cans, fast-food boxes and cups and all other kinds of litter from our road.

Support for SEMO

I HAVE been reading with interest about Southeast Missouri State University. As a taxpayer and SEMO graduate, I believe Three Rivers Community College has been draining money from SEMO students and all the counties SEMO serves for years. Naturally, TRCC is going to cry foul when it loses this gift money. But it is wrong to file a lawsuit and tie up thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to keep this gift coming. I sincerely believe each college needs to stand on its own financially and not drain money from another college. This money drain from the counties SEMO serves into TRCC is wrong. We must support, not hinder, SEMO in this effort to right this wrong.

Hiding the assets

ONE OF the most blatant and frequently used examples of Medicaid fraud is the planning of families to disperse property and money so that when it's time for a person to go into a nursing home, he or she will qualify for Medicaid to pick up what Medicare does not pay. I have seen this happen in at least six instances, all with assets totaling in the high six-figure range: Figuring out how to do it certainly isn't difficult. It's nice to think we could all leave our loved ones an inheritance. But taxpayers inherit the nursing home bills, and governments cut other Medicaid programs. Why would we allow this?

Different context

A RECENT comment said, "Many times when I have seen highway crews standing around and thought that those guys should be working. In reality they may be waiting for concrete to set up." It brought a laugh, remembering our construction-supervisory days, when a superintendent would walk up to his idle workers and ask, "What are you doing, waiting for the concrete to set up?" That usually told the worker to find something to do or go home.

Time for efficiency

IF YOU ever worked for a governmental agency -- city, county, state university -- you would have seen that most departments have too many employees for everyone to have enough to do to fill their eight-hour days. You would also have seen how department heads scramble to spend down their allotted budgets at the end of their fiscal years so they wouldn't lose that money in next year's budget. It's tough for some to work in government and have to spend hours a day roaming the offices asking if there is any work they could share or to see new office furniture, cell phones or laptop computers just because the money was there. What all these agencies need is to bring in what we used to call efficiency experts to cut out the waste and suggest more efficient ways to get things accomplished.

A rich story

IN RESPONSE to the story "Neighbor comes to return hat, saves elderly couple from fire": I saw the story on your Web site. Nowhere do I ever recall reading such an incredibly rich story. It also alluded to the culture of your area. Tell the writer thanks. Examples of that kind of journalism are hard to come by.

Floundering school

WHAT IS most revealing about the Three Rivers Community College-Southeast Missouri State University dispute is how little value locals attach to freshman and sophomore courses at SEMO. SEMO's effort to increase enrollment to 10,000 by 2000 with Division I sports, a new polytechnic school, a university studies program and a River Campus have all failed. As other campuses have hired new leadership and elevated their visibility, SEMO continues to flounder.

It hasn't worked

THROWING NEEDY people off of Medicaid or cutting their benefits and using whatever means it takes to see that only the people honestly eligible should be on Medicaid have already been tried. And it has not worked. All it has done is create a roadblock for those who need the aid for its intended purposes. If someone has an idea to decrease the fraud, tell us.

Creating a surplus

THE TAX cuts that supposedly only benefit the rich have created a robust economic recovery that benefits everyone. Unemployment is down. Personal income, production and consumer confidence are at the highest rates in decades. This is almost a miracle after the recession -- a result of the dot-com boom and bust, which created and then destroyed President Clinton's only economic success, and the attacks on 9-11. How did Clinton create that surplus? By closing military bases, downsizing the armed forces and gutting the intelligence services -- the very acts that led to the current world problems.

Rooting for terrorists?

TURN TO the Nation/World section in Saturday's paper. An AP headline reads, "Iraqi insurgents bounce back from recent losses." This is one of the most outrageous things I have ever read. What is this, a basketball game? It is almost as if the writer of this article is rooting for the terrorists.

Offender database

FOR INDIVIDUALS who are concerned about their children or grandchildren, you can go to the Web site http://www.criminalcheck.com/ and type in your ZIP Code to get a list of offenders who are registered in the area. It isn't perfect but it is available for your use.

Education solutions

HAVING BEEN educated in parochial schools all the way through high school but having my own children more-or-less educated in the public school system because there was no other options where we lived, I can certainly understand why concerned parents would send their children to private or parochial schools. I can also see where those parents could be helpful on the public school boards. Parochial schools spend much less per student, yet the education is far superior. If we ever figure out that throwing more and more money at our failing educational system is not working, maybe we will be able to revert to the things that used to work for America's education. It's about frivolous classes compared to basics, children who disrupt classes and don't want to learn, teachers who must spend precious teaching time with the discipline that parents have ignored and school administrators and board members who have no solutions but more money.

Batting average

I ENJOYED Marc Powers' article on the three tough issues facing the Missouri Legislature: balancing the budget, changing the school foundation formula and making substantial reform in Medicaid -- all without raising taxes. In baseball terms I predict the legislature will be 0 for 3. However, the collective spin doctorate (and that's what's important) will successfully create the impression that the Republican-controlled legislature and executive branches batted (on these three issues) a thousand, a batting average unprecedented in the annals of state government.

Unfair labeling

I HAVE a loved one who, as a teenager, dated another, only a year younger, who was still considered a minor. When the minor's parents found out the two were being promiscuous, the parents filed rape charges against the older teen. It has been more than 20 years, but this person will forever be labeled a sex offender. This person is no more a menace to society or a danger to your children than any of his neighbors, but he will forever be labeled as such because of this list everyone keeps talking about.

Boarded up eyesores

IN REGARD to the dirt and trash in Cape Girardeau, look at all of the boarded up houses with abandoned cars and trash on the property. Doesn't the city have housing codes to make landlords responsible for their property like Jackson does?