Speak Out 5/2/06

Identity caution

THAT WAS a good article on the front page about Social Security numbers. There are people who steal things from other people. Many people fall prey to identity theft. Be careful with your ID numbers, including credit-card numbers. I hope law enforcement gets tough on those people who steal.

Dealing with abuse

IN RESPONSE to the "He said/she said" column April 23, "Reliving her bad dream": Oh, how I wish you could shout this story to the rooftops. If it saved just one woman from the depression, guilt and pain that abuse causes, it would be a prayer answered. Even if abuse is part of a woman's history, it never goes away. And there are other forms of abuse not so evident. If a woman is prompted to ask the question, "Is this abuse?" she is being abused and needs help, support and encouragement. If you know a woman who has cautiously let you in on what is going on in her life, help without blame. Listen with encouragement and give her the emotional support she needs to get out of the situation. You will never be sorry you did.

Still hiding

I AM not surprised by the controversy surrounding the current production by Southeast Missouri State University's Department of Theater and Dance. My wife and I haven't been to the Rose Theatre in two years. We're still in hiding from "Full Tilt 2004."

Not my role models

DR. KENNETH L. Stilson, director of "Romeo and Juliet," at Southeast Missouri State University says the bawdiness in his interpretation of the play isn't much different than "the rows of frat boys who sit in their front yards on Sprigg Street in their lawn chairs with signs that say 'You honk, we drink.' This is what testosterone-driven boys do when they get bored. They drink. They show off. They talk about sex. They fight. They belch. They pass gas. They crash parties." That is why I don't take my students down Sprigg Street and present those same frat boys to them as role models as if I accept and condone their behavior or even think that it is cute. I don't. I want more for my students than that. There are plenty of positive enlightening experiences in this world. I don't have to choose to succumb to peer pressure, even when Stilson and I are peers.

Think on good things

I TAKE grave offense at the audacity of Marc Strauss of the Southeast Missouri State University Theater Department telling us that by not choosing to attend the university's production of "Romeo and Juliet" we "unthinkingly succumb to instinctual reactions" and that we are "discouraging our natural right to considered participation as intelligent, thoughtful and engaged human beings." It is because we are thinking that we don't attend. We choose to follow the advice given in Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Don't like it? Don't go

THE MOVIE "The Da Vinci Code" is just that: a movie. If you don't believe in what the movie is about, don't see it. That is the wonderful thing about living in a free country. Everyone has his own opinions and freedoms. No one makes you see or believe in everything.

Another campus

HOW ABOUT a new Southeast Missouri State University school across from the gentleman's club in East Cape Girardeau, Ill. Call it the Across-the-River Campus.

Two views, both true

WHEN IT comes to Southeast Missouri State University's controversial "Romeo and Juliet," Bell City and Woodland schools stand as representatives of the otherworldly medieval mentality when the human body was denigrated and most all human foibles were seen as sin. Proponents of allowing youngsters to see the play are more secular-minded, tend to glorify the human body and are most influenced by the European Renaissance of which Shakespeare was the pinnacle in England. In the multicultural world of today, even though the two views may seem at odds, both must be seen as true.

Great concert

I ATTENDED a benefit concert for the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence given by a local music group called Restless Spirit. I was literally blown away by the talent of this group and the heart that they have shown for this organization. It was such a worthy cause and one most people choose to ignore. I suggest to everyone to be sure not to miss the next concert given by this group.

Enlightening youths

IT SOUNDS like a local artistic work can't speak for itself. I don't need to hear any more from the enlightened theater instructors at Southeast Missouri State University about how every student around Cape Girardeau should be exposed to their play. I doubt that a SEMO theatrical production is the proper mode for enlightening Cape area youths. It seems like the theater department is more concerned with recruiting future theater majors than local viewer feedback.

Attracting students

IS THE sad person who is upset because tuition is going up at Southeast Missouri State University for science labs saying the science department is more important than the music department? Don't even go there. Have you taken a look at Brandt Music Hall? Its dilapidated condition is what is preventing potential students from coming to Southeast. I t really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the River Campus will bring in more students and money to the university.

Oil suggestions

IF OIL companies are making 9 cents profit on a gallon of gasoline and the federal government is taking 50 cents a gallon in taxes, which one is doing the gouging? Along with conservation, we should be drilling for oil off the Gulf Coast, California and in Alaska. Reduce the amount of blends the oil companies have to refine, and allow them to build more refineries.