OpinionMarch 8, 2007
Speak Out 3/8/07
Grade-level reading; Big cleanup job; Big-city schmoozer; Deplorable conditions; Same caseload; Living in a bubble; Expensive fares; Turning on Bush; Speeding litterers; Wrong direction; Requested music; City of fountains
Grade-level reading
I'M NOT sure if I understand the school district in saying that only 45 percent of fourth-graders read at grade level in the fall, but 79 percent did in the spring. What would be more newsworthy to the taxpayers is how students read from third grade though eighth grade. Why would they choose to tell us just this grade level? If there is a fourth-grade slump, would it not show up fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades? Let the district tell us how many are reading at grade level at those grades. As a secondary school teacher in the Cape Girardeau School District, if I could be assured of 45 percent of my students were reading at grade level, I would be thrilled. When students do not keep the reading levels we have been assured they have, we need to look at the teachers and administrators.
Big cleanup job
I AM trying to get a group of people together to go clean up Highway 25 on the first weekend of April. It is such a dirty mess. Meet us there at 8 a.m. to clean the entire highway up.
Big-city schmoozer
THE COUNTY hired some big shot to teach rural property owners a lesson on how big-city folks do business. We don't need some fancy big-city schmoozer to come knocking on our door and swindle us out of what is rightfully ours in the first place. This isn't the 18th century.
Deplorable conditions
I THINK it is despicable that President Bush and his cronies have labeled many Democrats as "unpatriotic," especially since his administration has known about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for years. Even though I am opposed to the war, I am fully supportive of our soldiers' receiving proper war gear and medical treatment. What an atrocity this administration has been and an embarrassment to the United States as a whole. Is this really a surprise, given the way the Bush administration negligently delayed Katrina relief and made executive decisions without regard to the constitution? I'm afraid to ask what's next?
Same caseload
WITH ALL the whining about low salaries for public defenders, I have to wonder who's sticking up for the public. The prosecutors who put criminals in jail are paid just as poorly and carry just as many cases. Why isn't the bar association crying for increased dollars for prosecutors?
Living in a bubble
I WISH I lived in the same bubble as some folks in Southeast Missouri State University do, a bubble where an Iraq war wasn't a lie and didn't distract from catching the people who actually attacked us, where an executive branch isn't acting like a Nixon remix, and where supporting reckless use of our military and endangering our troops are somehow seen as supporting them.
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Expensive fares
I CAN'T believe the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport will not have a flight to St. Louis. American Airlines has the least expensive fares. Delta has expensive fares. Who wants to fly out of Ohio?
Turning on Bush
HOW CAN there possibly still be Bush supporters out there? Every Republican I know has turned his back on the president. Even soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are speaking out about the utter waste those wars have been. I'm sure the diehards will call them unpatriotic as well. Apparently, all it takes to be a patriot these days is sit at home and talk about how great things are.
Speeding litterers
TO THE people driving down Shawnee Boulevard in Jackson: Slow down and stop throwing your trash in my yard.
Wrong direction
ONCE AGAIN, Scott City is going in the wrong direction. The council is changing an ordinance to allow mobile homes 23 years old to be brought into the city. If you ask me, the fear of retaliation from certain citizens is why the council doesn't consider the result of changing the 10-year limit. Take a look at the rental and mobile homes that are neglected by the owners.
Requested music
I'VE REQUESTED the John D. Hale Band on two of our Cape Girardeau radio stations. They both told me they don't have the CD. Can they get it? I have been listening to the band on other radio stations that aren't based in Cape. I think it's sad that our local stations don't take the time to find out where to get their music.
City of fountains
THANK YOU to the gas station on Kingshighway for putting in a beautiful fountain. I go past it a couple times a day and really enjoy it. That glimpse of flowing water is such a treat. It's a little corner of heaven. I hope other businesses follow suit. We could be the city of fountains.
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