Speak Out 5/19/07

Parking lot plea

I WOULD like to ask everyone who is driving through parking lots to please slow down. I was walking with my son last week and nearly was run over by someone trying to get a good parking place. Those places will still be there. Wait for the pedestrians, please, especially children. It would not be a bad thing to park in the back once in a while. It's good exercise.

Feeding the family

I WOULD like to say thank you to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. I am a single mom working six days a week to support my children and myself. I make around $1,200 a month to do so. I currently receive almost $300 in food stamps, and it's not enough. After buying meat and certain items for toddlers, there isn't much left for other needs. People may think that a food-stamp recipient is a lazy person, but I'm a hard-working mom who tries her hardest to support her family, and without the food stamps I couldn't make it. So, to the people who think this is a waste of taxpayers' money, remember that you are helping a family that can't make it on $6.50 an hour and helping to keep young children from starving.

Artistic disconnect

I FIND it interesting that a middle school or high school theater production is praised so often, yet the local university's endeavors to encourage these young performers and provide them with a state-of-the-art facility is so highly criticized.

Bill is superfluous

HOUSE BILL 366, the Special Committee on State Parks and Waterways bill to make it a more serious crime to distribute illegal substances near private or public parks, is essentially another of our legislators' feel-good, see-what-we're-doing-for-you bills. It will not deter drug dealers whatsoever.

No cameras

IF DOWNTOWN Cape Girardeau installs surveillance equipment, I will cease visiting it. I value freedom too much to allow myself to be watched like a criminal at every turn. What is wrong with us? Do we not see what is happening? We are turning into a police state. What's next?

Biased media

PICK ANY doctor's name out of the phone book and ask people in the area what they've heard or think about him. Some will think he walks on water. Others will say he shouldn't be practicing medicine. Ask area residents which hospital they prefer. You'll hear horror stories that will curl your hair about each one. The VA system is no different than any other medical entity. People are going to have strong views, some positive and some negative. I agree that people are targeting the VA because the media has latched on to it, along with bashing our involvement in Iraq and telling only one side. Some day we're going to look back and discover that we made too many decisions based not on what's right or wrong, but on blindly following a biased media.

Supply and demand

FOR THOSE, like me, who believe that Southeast Missouri State University's proposed tuition increase is a way to help pay for the River Campus, it is important to remember that we live in a free-market society dictated by supply and demand. If SEMO suddenly had 4,000 to 5,000 students cancel their fall enrollment, I would suspect that tuition would not increase next fall.

Classroom opinions

JUST BECAUSE you didn't have a professor who graded down for having a different viewpoint doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I'm willing to change my opinion if I am proven wrong, but don't expect me to change just because you think I should.

Food stamps

I JUST read the article on U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's experiment. Unfortunately, it shows how typically out of touch our representatives are. I worked in a grocery store in high school and never saw anyone on food stamps forced to choose a lesser item. Emerson should have used the average monthly allotment of food stamps if she wanted an accurate picture. If you want to make sure people on assistance eat healthy foods, do away food stamps and institute another program like WIC. Incidentally, I never saw anyone on food stamps look twice at an avocado.

Setting policies

MOBILE HOMES in Scott City need to be brought up to date. They are the first thing visitors and prospective business owners see when they come to town. I am disappointed that our council members are not business-oriented enough to recognize this in setting policies. Scott City is full of good people and good businesses and has a great economic potential. However, this potential cannot be realized unless the council votes accordingly. It's a sad situation for those working to bring a higher level of vitality to the area.

Outstanding reporter

TJ GREANEY is an outstanding reporter. He's so talented, and his columns display what a truly remarkable young man he is. The Missourian is lucky to have TJ.

Help with passport

REGARDING THE recent passport nightmare: God bless and many thanks to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and her staff in assisting my daughter to obtain her passport. She applied for it in mid-February for a university-sponsored class abroad May 16. When she still had not received it last week and got nowhere with the State Department hot line or Web site, we contacted Emerson's office in desperation. With their help, she received the passport May 15, the day before the trip. Representative Emerson and her staff truly do put people before politics. If only we had more such caring citizens in government, what a better place this country would be.

Better news

THOSE IN Scott City who are opposing growth and a potentially stable economic future should think about what it is you are against. I am a lifelong resident of Scott City and would love to see this city have something more in the news than the latest roundup of drug dealers and child abusers.

Safety concern

DIGITAL BILLBOARDS are cool. But, will they be worth the car crashes caused by drivers distracted by the billboards?

Superficial issues

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI State University plans to build two more fountains and a plaza next to Scully Hall. This further supports the belief that Southeast administrators are consumed with taking care of superficial issues. Go into some of the older buildings on campus such as Grauel Hall and look at the conditions of the rooms there. They haven't been painted in decades. The floors look as if they haven't been waxed in the same amount of time. And the blackboards are so old that the instructors have trouble writing on some of them and students have trouble reading what's written. And who is going to foot the bill for this project?

Teachers' pay

ABOUT FOUR years ago Cape Girardeau teachers got a cut in their health insurance, lost their life insurance and had their pay frozen. Now these loyal teachers who have taught in Cape for 8, 15, 20 or more years will get a 3 percent raise, while new teachers will get up to 18 percent under the plan being proposed. Explain to me why these loyal and experienced teachers should stay at Cape.

Living on food stamps

KUDOS TO U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson for calling attention to poverty by limiting herself to buying groceries that could be purchased through the maximum amount allowed to those who use food stamps. Emerson's personal commitment to the cause of lifting many of her constituents out of poverty specifically and the U.S. population in general is admirable.