Speak Out 5/20/05

The best crops

AGRIBUSINESSMEN should consider growing crops that maximize the amount of protein per acre per year. Take a look at alfalfa. It provides five to six cuttings per year and relatively high protein. Alfalfa also is a legume. It transfers nutrients to depleted top soil, lessening the need for fertilizer.

Post office location

REGARDING THE U.S. Postal Service's plan to put the main post office back in the same location: We have to agree with U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. We think the USPS is making a big mistake. It's a horrible location with no parking. It's just a shame that a place the size of Cape Girardeau cannot get a new facility that would benefit everyone.

Maintaining right-of-way

I READ the sad story regarding the pin oak and ash trees being cut down. The city tries to blame someone else. I have lived here around 25 years and want to know one thing: Since I've been seeding, fertilizing and mowing Cape Girardeau's right-of-way, where do I send the bill?

Not in my back yard

I'M HEARING and reading about the Pentagon's plan to close some military bases, and people are becoming upset. They think the government should eliminate some waste, but don't do it my back yard. That borders on the ridiculous. You have to accept that some of the things you say need to be done will be in your back yard.

Making a message

I READ Walter Williams' columns and usually find several points I can agree with. However, he -- like the majority of us -- is limited to understanding, caring and listing other realities of life's situations and conditions if they do not contribute to the point we are attempting to make. His topic about how not to be poor was very good. He went on about minimum-wage jobs. He did not mention these jobs do not have medical insurance, prescription coverage or disability income insurance. We're constantly finding ways to talk and write about people cheating on social programs to help the poor. We need to enforce the rules and penalize the ones who cheat.

Warning: Children

THIS IS concerning speeders around an area that is covered with children. We have speeders all the time. We need to let people know there are children playing on the side of the road. One of these days children are going to be a hood ornament, and it's going to be because of ignorance.

Heed the advice

ALL THE people who are talking about how hard it is to live and how bad they need help should read Walter Williams' column. They would find the answers right there. If they would heed the advice, there wouldn't be nearly so many needing to complain.

Need representatives

REASONING WINS over loudness of voice. Truth is respected more than chicanery. The present culture war is certainly disheartening. Politics today is plagued with injustice, demagogues, contortion of truth, strong-arming, illiterate and apathetic malcontents, educated and apathetic malcontents and division. How can one rely on a purely capitalistic economy to distribute wealth proportionately and promote general welfare while the entertainment, sports and corporate entities dominate politics and business? We need to elect representatives, not leaders.

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Abandoned cat

THIS IS for the two young women who were in a light brown SUV and stopped to throw a white cat into the street. I wish I could have gotten your license number. From now on I'll look at each SUV that I see, because I think I would recognize you. I hope you can sleep well after what you did to that cat.

We noticed

FOR YEARS I have admired the neatly mowed fence row on Greensferry Road. Now this year it isn't mowed. I miss that pretty sight. I just wanted people to know we do notice.

He's a jewel

HOW NEAT was the article on Logan Brennecke. I know him from Cape West Cine, and he is just a jewel. He brightens up my day each time I go in. Congratulations to Logan for perfect attendance.

Ike's thoughts

I THOUGHT I would pass along this quote from President Eisenhower, a true Republican, to his brother in 1954: "Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are [H.L. Hunt], a few [other] Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Not the same party

THE CURRENT administration has really lost me. I'm a lifelong Republican, but this Iraq war and the deficit has me upset. These are not Republicans by any measure I know. They've expanded the government and run up huge spending. They've gotten us into a big international mess, and I don't see any way out. I don't think we're one bit safer than we were two years ago. I won't vote for Democrats, but I doubt that I'll vote for more of this the next time around.

Relying on government

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY has gone down the drain along with values. Let the government take care of my health care and my retirement. Why don't we just give the government our paychecks and let those intellectual men and women that do so well at spending our money also decide how much money we need to live on each month?

Power of voting

I BELIEVE what the state government is doing to Medicaid is wrong. Having said that, if people didn't get out and vote to stop this from happening, they have no right to complain. If you don't vote, the politicians don't hear you. It is sad but true. I hope you remember this when the next elections come up.

Intolerant abuse

I'M ONE of the people who used to sometimes join the peace and justice group when it was having Thursday protests against the war. I was only there a few times, but I know what happened. We should all thank these people for having the courage to express what we can all now see is true. This war is a real disaster. I know my friends took a lot of abuse from intolerant people in Cape Girardeau. Most people here respect free speech, but there are some who will stop at nothing to shut down opposing views. If all the stories I have heard could be told, most people on the left and the right would be amazed and disgusted at the behavior of some of their fellow citizens.

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