Speak Out 4/5/06

Can't pay in jail

THE COMMENT about not having enough jail space for deadbeat dads makes no sense. If a man fails to support the children he produced, how will incarcerating him do any good? In jail, he has no income and no way to support his children. It's a no-win situation for children. But how does issuing summonses to prevent underage drinking overfill the jail?

Preventing carnage

THERE ARE some who would rather the police spend time picking up the pieces of underage drinkers at scenes of fatalities then to prevent carnage by ticketing suppliers. They would be the same individuals who will scream the loudest at the lack of prevention when their loved ones become the victims of such carnage. The police department wouldn't have to do this if servers did their job by carding.

Things to do

INSTEAD OF asking government officials to spend time thinking of ways to entertain youths, why not ask parents to take responsibility for their children? I didn't vote for my local, state or federal officials to spend my tax dollars providing irresponsible parents with free baby-sitting.

Sentencing outrage

IN RESPONSE to the story "Vote fraud sentence includes meditation": Where is the outrage? Hindu transcendental meditation? If the judge had ordered Bible study, he would have been swarmed with threats of impeachment. Why does the Left get away with this, especially the judicial Left?

Car-seat enforcement

A COMMENT about car seats demands freedom to choose. It seems most people who don't want to restrain their children in cars don't have control of them well enough to get them to stay in their seats. Will they be the ones complaining about police writing speeding tickets near the schools in a few years? The police should enforce current laws and sit out in front of day cares randomly to catch the freethinkers who don't care enough for their children to buckle them in.

More interference

I SUPPORT keeping 8-year-olds in booster seats. While we're at it, let's also eliminate other risks to precious human life and insurance-company profits such as skydiving, ballooning, riding a motorcycle, watching TV more than an hour a day and kids playing sports. And everyone should wear helmets when they ride bicycles -- no, that is too risky. Bicycles should be outlawed, and people allowing their children to ride bicycles should be prosecuted. The intrusion of government into our lives is obscene and the biggest danger we face today. People see a heart-wrenching story about something bad that happened to someone, and they want to enact laws that affect millions of people and give government and police even more control over our lives. Is America the home of the brave, or of the sheep?

Time for action

CITIZENS OF Cape Girar-deau County seem to agree that the purchase of the cab company by the county is a bad idea. We citizens need to agree on a time and place to meet so we can file a lawsuit against the county to open the files about the deal and expose the scam.

Serving the voters

THE ANSWER to dealing with the secret cab company purchase by the county is to vote out the county officials who negotiated the deal and refuse to reveal details. The next group will know that they serve the voters of the county.

The Job I Do

You can't understand the job I do.

So what's different, you ask, of me than you?

You see the beauty of life each day

And take for granted the part I play.

You can go home and leave your troubles behind,

But I am who I am, no matter the time.

To carry a gun and not to abuse it,

And praying to God I won't have to use it.

Every day to be willing to risk my life,

Wondering if, again, I'll see my children and my wife.

In Blue or Green I'm still easy to see.

So there's really never a safe place to be.

When you see danger, you can run and hide,

But I have ethics that I must abide.

To go to work knowing this could be the day

When some crazed lunatic might blow me away.

To care for the injured, to deal with the dead,

Is always the part I truly dread.

So what's different, you ask, of you than me?

I am willing to give my life for you.

Will you for me?

Good documentation

ALL EMPLOYERS have been required to fill out a form I-9 for each employee since 1986. This form verifies that an employee is eligible to work in the U.S. If the federal government would require all businesses to send a copy of the form I-9 to the Social Security Administration, businesses would not hire illegal aliens. The I-9 could be printed on the same page as the W-4 and sent in together.

Too many laws

I THOUGHT the Republicans were the ones who advocated less government intervention in our personal, business and professional lives. I don't know about your life, but there is certainly much more government intervention these days in mine. Whenever I read Speak Out, one of the common comments from callers is the request for a new law to govern this or that.

Care for downtrodden

IN THE lengthy article regarding allocation of funds for River Campus, one paragraph should not be overlooked: State Sen. Chuck Gross intends to reduce proposed spending for some health-care items in the bill, including funding for health centers serving mainly Medicare and Medicaid patients (presumably the life-saving Cross Trails Centers). This is yet another outrage directed at low-income, elderly and disabled citizens. My fellow Republicans just can't learn that the majority of voters regardless of party believe that health care for the downtrodden are important.

Three things

PAY AN illegal? I don't think so. Its time for three thing: 1. Illegals to not receive any benefits from my tax dollars. 2. The government to spend my tax dollars wisely. 3. For those who can work and are using my tax dollars to live on to earn their own money. Many in society want to live high on the backs of others. Some business want a bigger profit, so they hire the cheapest labor. Some people want to keep their money, so they hire cheap labor. Some people who claim they can't work do it so they can live off others. In a perfect world, we would all be out there working together to make society better. Instead, the taxpayer is in the middle being pulled three ways by individuals wanting to help you spend your money. Pay an illegal? Think again.

Whiny Christians

THE RECENT War on Christians conference, attended by several key political figures, signifies a new level of paranoia by the Christian right. While Christians are being murdered and imprisoned in China and Sudan, well-to-do evangelicals come together at a classy hotel to whine to each other about how hard it is to be Christian in America, where 90 percent of the population is Christian. Get over yourselves, and maybe you'll find the time and energy to help Christians truly in need.

Bus potential

I GREW up in East St. Louis. We had buses. Big deal. I really do not believe there are enough people willing to ride the buses daily that would support the expense of a bus system in Cape Girardeau. Prove me wrong.