SEMO standards
FOR THE Speak Out writer who wondered if SEMO would become a no-standards university, it already is. Leadership establishes the organizational culture, and the leadership at SEMO has made a conscious decision to disregard academic quality in favor of maximizing revenue. Change the leadership and the culture can change.
Work sacrifices
IF BUSINESS owners want to cut down on employee turnover, maybe they should hire people according to when they can work. It's obvious that mothers need to work daytime hours because their kids are in school, and kids need to be supervised in the evening hours. You have all kinds of single people and teenagers and college-aged people who are willing to work other hours. I think that is the main reason why most cashiers in this area look like they hate their jobs. In order to work in this area you have to sacrifice your family.
All the news that's fit
MISSOURI MADE the New York Times. I'm not kidding. Columnist Paul Krugman mentioned that Missouri was poised to abolish Medicaid by 2008.
Good and evil
LEONARD KUEHNERT'S letters continue to amaze me. Most people kill people because they made a poor decision in a split second, or because they have a mental deficiency that prevents them from knowing right from wrong or even caring about what they are doing. People are not "good" or "evil," they're just people. And let's not get started on the countless reasons why laws should not be based on the Bible, especially Kuehnert's fundamentalist interpretations.
Corporate threats
THE CURRENT threat to our freedom is not Big Government but huge corporations that are not democratically based. They are consolidating control of every aspect of the economy, including such unlikely things as fresh water and food. Traditional conservatives are rightly skeptical about bloated government, but the truth is that these corporations are now the real threat. They mediate virtually every aspect of our lives and, truth be told, the government and the media, too. Please learn to see the real threat.
Out of touch
SOMETIMES PEOPLE avoid those with mental illness because they have an uncomfortable suspicion that those allegedly out of touch with reality may be more attuned to it.
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All the people
THOUGH IT might be an inconvenience, in order to accommodate all of the people perhaps Jackson should consider moving its graduation ceremony to St. Louis's 70,000-seat TWA Dome.
Entitlement, not welfare
IF THE Bush administration succeeds in stigmatizing Social Security as a welfare instead of an entitlement program, then I'll have no choice but to refuse my Social Security check because I don't want to be perceived as a welfare bum and do want to keep my dignity intact.
More 'Annie'
THE SOUTHEAST Missourian went out of its way to cover in great depth the local public school play "Annie," and you get a Speak Out comment denouncing you for not doing enough. What an ingrate.
Art snobbery
I AGREE with professor Clayton that Cape doesn't need another riverboat mural, but I also think Cape doesn't need a River Campus to put it in. To say Mr. Lucy is not an artist is the height of elitist art snobbery! To hope to compare the River Campus to one of the major private universities in the nation or a large city's art museum is ludicrous. Get your nose out of the air, professor Clayton. It's the rainy season in Southeast Missouri and you might drown.
'Corn pone parochialism'
SEMO ART professor Ronald Clayton recently claimed the new mural commissioned by Southeast Missouri State University "is not a mural at all," and exemplifies "corn pone parochialism." He said his view is universally shared by SEMO's art department. I have a vast general knowledge of art, all the way from paintings appearing in prehistoric caves to postmodern art fashionable in the art community until very recently. I prefer the works of the Old Masters of the Renaissance and the Impressionists. To some extent, I admire the works of Klee, Kandinsky and even the Pop Art epitomized by the works of Andy Warhol. What stuns me about the arts profs at SEMO is their apparent lack of knowledge of current trends in the art world. If Mr. Clayton reflects the views of the entire art department, these folks just aren't up to speed. The prestigious Encyclopedia of Modern Art devotes four chapters to the most avant-garde and sophisticated movement in the arts -- corn pone parochialism.
Art critic
RONALD V. Clayton's comments concerning Gary Lucy and the commissioned mural are out of line and ridiculous. The only positive comments in Clayton's statements indicate that he is close to retirement. Thank goodness.
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