Speak Out 5/13/14

Summer sports

Offering sports as a supplement to summer school is a step in the right direction and will most assuredly increase attendance. However, it will be much more attractive and relevant to students if/when summer school becomes exclusively sports, as it should.

Worst president

I doubt we could find another person to be President of the United States of America who could do as poor a job as the present one!

Dog park fun

Thank you, thank you for the dog park. My dog and I visit every day. He loves it, and so do I. Thank you again.

Wage gap

Missouri's solution to the eye opening income gap between the rich and the rest? Widen it!

Subpoena Clinton

I'm a 50-year-old Republican, and I would like to know why are they subpoenaing John Kerry, the secretary of state. He wasn't in charge when Benghazi happened. It was Hillary Clinton. Will Hilary Clinton be subpoenaed? Please, Republicans, go after her.

'No' on taxes

The state offers tax credits and special exemptions. The county and municipal governments grant property tax exemptions. Municipal governments grant special taxing district authority to any group that forms a Community Improvement District or some other such political subdivision that reports only to itself. Everyone gets a break but the people who pay taxes. It seems that the only option left to taxpayers is to vote "no" when tax issues come before us.

DWIs, bars

I was just listening to the news about the sobriety checks around town. You know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, we've got a lot of DWIs out there that need to be issued to people. We've got a bar on every corner and new ones opening every day. Those people are not in those bars drinking iced tea. They're out on the roads driving, endangering our lives as well as their own. You know, so start with the problem first. Get rid of some bars in Cape Girardeau. We might have less DWIs issued out there.

Down hill

Could somebody please tell me why they're letting the United States of America go down hill? This used to be such a great country and now it's just going.

Birthday fun

I just want to say, I was at a birthday party for a 90-year-old lady recently. And it was marvelous. We were at the First Assembly of God Church in Chaffee. There was anywhere from 95 to 100 people there. We spent from 1 to 5 o'clock reminiscing and visiting with friends and neighbors. It was wonderful.

Phone addiction

In regard to the article in the news on the 5th of May about the people trying to be text-free for a week. There's no way people can do that, because it would be worse on those people than it would be on someone trying to quit smoking or drinking. A lot of them today, if they can't have a phone in their hand or electronic device in their hand, they are totally helpless, and they will go into withdrawal.

RR crossing

I would like to comment on the railroad crossing in Jackson by the Iron Mountain train station. That is the roughest crossing I've seen in my life. Why can't the highway department or the state fix that? I'm knocking my wheels out of alignment, jarring the guts out of my car and everything else. Why don't they fix that thing?

Long ceremony

I will be attending my fifth SEMO graduation in the last few years for grandchildren. The student I am coming for has already told me that the graduation is expected to last up to 2 hours and 45 minutes. I can't believe that SEMO cannot figure out how to make the graduation a little shorter and keep speeches to a minimum. That's an extremely long time for older people to sit through these, and they really like to attend for their family members. I've attended other colleges' and they're not nearly as long, and they can have just as many students graduating.

Sexting

Here we just spent all this money to give the kids at Central High School laptop computers, and now they are sexting? Huh? I can't even pay my taxes.

President's policies

We read in the Missourian that the wealthy are now enjoying jumbo mortgage rates that are below standard mortgage rates for the first time ever. This is just one more unforeseen consequence of President Obama's liberal agenda. While he loudly proclaims to be a champion for the middle class, he is actually destroying the middle class. The middle class used to have full-time jobs with benefits. Now they have part time jobs at the mall while their college graduate children continue to live at home because they can't find jobs either. This is the Obama legacy.

Pick it up

My son and I frequent the walking trails in both Jackson and Cape Girardeau several times each week, usually in the evenings. On nearly every visit we see many dog lovers out walking their pets along the trails, and on nearly every visit we see the animals being allowed to "No. 2" along the trail, and the owners leaving the "mess" along the trail. Love your dogs, but pick up after them. It's the responsible thing to do!