Speak Out 4/16/07

Torment in Benton

I WAS glad to see that someone commented about the hoodlums in Benton. I had them block me one day when I was backing out of my driveway. I thought one child was mentally challenged, but after a few minutes I decided he might be on drugs. The sheriff's department or the local police can't seem to control these children. Their activities in the park and in the woods by the park late at night are horrible. This is going on right underneath the sheriff's department's nose. Please, officials, help the people of Benton who are being terrorized by these children. We've had our houses and cars egged. They're tormenting everyone.

McCain is best choice

FRED THOMPSON is not the best choice for president for 2008. John McCain is.

Best cleanser

I NOT only use baking soda for baking, but also as a cleanser. Baking soda and vinegar are the two cheapest cleansers there are, and they do a wonderful job. Leave it to the legislators to put baking soda behind the counter -- to make it more expensive probably.

Environmental straws

THE PERSON who accuses U.S. Sen. Kit Bond of not being up to date on his remarks about global warming shows his ignorance of history. The earth in our latitude has been warm and tropical. There are dinosaur bones around Glenallen and Marble Hill. And we've had an ice age. How in the world does any thinking person believe that the ice age disappeared without global warming? Let's quit reaching for straws that aren't there.

Another expert

HEAVEN HELP us. Now we have another expert on global warming by the name of Gary Rust.

Jail watch

AFTER READING the article concerning the bids for the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department surveillance system, one thing concerns me as a taxpayer. If the seven companies are bidding the same specs, why is the quote between $17,000 and $45,000? I'm in favor of having our public servants be good stewards of the resources, but if the jail is losing close to $1,000 a day, maybe officials need to look hard at the equipment installers. The last thing I want to see is someone being the low bidder and this is the company's first big project. I would hope the Southeast Missourian would continue to watch this closely.

Game over warming

WHAT'S REALLY sad is that people care more about who's going to win the next ball game than they do about global warming.

Dangerous trash

I WANT to thank the scumbag who threw out his trash on Route D outside of Jackson. The wind was blowing, and big piece of trash blew up on my car. It could have caused a wreck.

Potholes on bridge

THE MISSOURI Department of Transportation needs to fix the big potholes and the concrete that has broken on the bridge on the northbound side of Interstate 55 directly across from the airport. I have to travel over this bridge every day and have to almost go off the road to miss them because they're so deep.

Remember the utensils

FAST FOOD restaurants, listen up. There needs to be an improvement in your drive-through customer service. Please make sure that I receive the utensils that I need to eat my food. When I order biscuits and gravy, chili, Mexican rice or a salad, please make sure that the utensils are in my bag. It's a disappointment to smell the aroma from my food but not be able to eat it.

Library boundaries

THE FRONT-PAGE headline says, "Committee to review school boundaries." I wish somebody would form a committee and get through to Jefferson City that we need to change the library boundaries here in Cape Girardeau. It's ridiculous that so many areas are not included in the library boundaries but are in the city limits. It should be corrected before we get a new library.

Pleasant dreams

BARACK OBAMA has more charisma than JFK, RFK and Ronald Reagan combined. He is also a man of substance and integrity. Obama has ideas that will, if put into practice, address the problems that for so long have been neglected in America. If Obama is elected president (and he certainly has a chance), we may at last have an end to our long Clinton-Bush nightmare.

Who is he?

LT. GOV. Peter Kinder has endorsed Fred Thompson for president. I share Kinder's view that Thompson may be the best the Republicans have to offer, but to alleviate the inevitable (who's Fred Thompson?) onslaught of questions, I urge Kinder to convince Thompson to use the name he used on the wildly successful "Law and Order" TV program.