Speak Out 4/25/07

Look with compassion

MANY PEOPLE are disturbed by NBC News and our local KFVS12's airing of the Virginia Tech shooter's pictures and videos on television. I hope people will view this with Christian compassion and an attempt to understand the suspect's suffering. We need to be our brother's keeper. Rather than slapping labels of "weirdo" or "nerd" or other rude comments, we should seek help for mentally ill people before it comes to violence. Laws need to be changed and help more readily available. Our students need to be safe. All schools should work hand in hand with mental health centers to help people who are suffering mental problems.

Foolish funding

PUBLIC SCHOOLS are compensated by the state based on average daily attendance. Thus the tremendous pressure to keep the bad seeds in school. The ones who pay for that crumby method of compensating public schools are the students who want to be in school and learn and those administrators who become scapegoats for the foolish school-funding system.

The gun argument

NEITHER THE NRA nor right-to-carry laws are responsible for the tragedy in Virginia. That mentally troubled student bought at least one of his guns legally, but he would have found a way, in his madness, to acquire weapons illegally if necessary. It must be human nature to take such a tragedy and turn it into a platform against certain laws or lack thereof.

Charges, inquiry?

SHOULDN'T THE two women who made the false charges against Chaffee police officer Daniel Ayers be charged with a crime? And shouldn't there be an investigation into whether someone put them up to filing those false charges?

Loss of service

I MISS the commercial airline service into St. Louis. It was so convenient, inexpensive and fast. This is a great loss for Cape Girardeau.

Respect on the road

WITH THE rise of motorcycle sales and the number of motorcycle drivers increasing on the road, I would like to ask that people become more aware of who is on the road with you. Please look several times before you pull out. We drivers will do our part to be safe and ask for the same respect.

Outstanding musical

I WANT to congratulate Notre Dame Regional High School once again on an outstanding spring musical. "My Fair Lady" is one of the best shows I've seen there since graduating. It's amazing to see the talent pour out of there. Congrats to the entire cast and crew, especially Cindy King.

Ambulance rage

I WOULD like to express my gratitude to the men and women who save lives every day by driving an ambulance. I appreciate what a luxury it is to have help speed to you whenever your life is in danger. That said, I would like to address the ambulance driver who was passing through the intersection of Kingshighway and Broadway at around 5 p.m. April 21. I stopped the second I noticed you. You had ample time and space to pass through the intersection without incident. Therefore, it was unnecessary and completely unprofessional to lean your face against the window and take the time to give me a rude hand gesture. Unfortunately, I was so shocked by your behavior that I did not catch what organization your ambulance was from, but I would hope that all ambulance services would understand why I think that a person with such blatant road rage should not be driving an ambulance. That is not the sort of person I would want in charge of saving my life.

Shocking opposition

THE LARGE opposition to selling off national-forest lands to raise money for rural schools must be quite a shock to those who support it. After all, the American tradition of using "It's for the children" has always been quite successful in the past.

Taxes and art

ART IS for suffering artists to produce and people with too much money to consume. It should have absolutely nothing to do with taxpayers' money. Why should someone earning a living by working at a job be forced to support artists who want to do neither? What happened to conservatism?

Sikeston's better

THOUGH CAPE Girardeau County scored much higher than Scott County on the quality-of-life index compiled by a Southeast Missouri State University professor, I'd take Sikeston (Scott County) over Cape Girardeau (Cape Girardeau County) any time. It's more exciting there, with a more diverse population, broader spectrum of political views, a socio-economic and cultural renaissance in progress and, of course, the No. 1 newspaper publisher in America, the always shoot-from-the-hip Standard Democrat publisher Michael Jensen.