Speak out 4/3/08

Response on ethanol

I READ Mike Kasten's op-ed column and felt compelled to respond. I, too, raise cattle for a living, but I will admit that I have enjoyed the benefits of feeding cheap, government-subsidized corn all of these years. I think there are a lot of fallacies in Mike's column, but the main one is that ethanol has to be mandated by the government to use or the big oil companies would not use it. Why would the oil companies buy and support their competition? And ethanol is their only real and viable competition at this time. If there were only a few big and greedy electric power companies in the United States, and they refused to buy the electricity generated from the windmill farms, that would have to be mandated by the government also.

Time to stop

AMERICANS HAVE been devastated the last eight years by fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, rains, floods, ice storms and the loss of property and life in our United States. Have we stopped to think about the people in Iraq who have lost homes, lives from bombs and mortar fire and who live in terror day by day without everyday items to survive? It's time to put God in our lives and bring home our brave soldiers.

Not very logical

I'M VERY much for the water park proposed in Cape Girardeau. Regarding the person who would drive to St. Louis and waste gas money, I think it shows selfishness not to improve our city. If someone wants to put money into St. Louis, and deprive their own city while wasting taxes and making more pollution, I think this says something about the logic of trying to save 2 percent.

Backing the tax

REGARDING THE park and storm-water tax: I saw the comment that someone is willing to spend $25 to $50 per trip in gas to shop in St. Louis. This is so he can save 50 cents in taxes per $100 in purchases. And what does that tax go for? To provide facilities for wholesome, healthful activities and jobs and to reduce flooding problems in our city. This comment reminds me of people who shop on the Internet to keep from paying sales tax. Then they complain because their teen can't find a part-time job in a hometown store. I will gladly vote yes for the park and storm-water tax and feel the city and area will be an even better place to live when it passes.

Minority vote

SADLY ONCE again, the minority of the citizens of Cape Girardeau who have the most to gain will vote to increase local taxes, and the additional taxes will be paid mainly by families who are already struggling to make it from payday to payday or even facing foreclosure. And what is even sadder is that those who will be the most negatively affected by the additional tax will not bother to go vote against it.

Way too hot

I'D LIKE to complain about the increasing number of dishes you get in which there's way too many hot peppers and hot chilies and things like that. I got some chicken appetizers a couple of weeks ago. I had to throw them out. They were inedible. I got some chicken at another place, and it was hard to even taste it because of all the hot stuff on it. At a chili cook-off I went to this winter, you couldn't taste the chili. It was just like somebody had poured hot sauce on your tongue. Some of us don't like all this heat all the time. We'd like a little warning. Back off a little bit, guys, would you please?

Tax math

HOW MUCH money do you have to spend in St. Louis to save on sales taxes for the fuel it takes to get up there? Do the math.