Speak Out 5/25/06

Assault on faith

ANTI-CHRISTIAN bias in movies, books, plays, art and in our universities is flourishing because Christians are too scared to complain or defend their God and their Christianity. Do you think God is hurt? The Associated Students of University of Oregon has refused to apologize for the anti-Christian assault in The Insurgent, the campus newspaper. They ran graphics depicting Jesus as a homosexual naked on the cross, and another with Jesus naked kissing another man. It is time that Christians speak out and say that we won't stand for these assaults on our God and our faith.

Based on love

TO QUOTE 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful." If you have love, you will "bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things." In short, "faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." I hold to those of you who are enjoying marriage and hold love in your hearts. Do not deny these loving people the right to rejoice in this joining of two hearts into one. Tell your senators to vote against the Marriage Protection Amendment. It doesn't protect marriage. It destroys it. After all, the basis of marriage is love.

Memorial for students

I WOULD like to thank the teacher responsible for creating the memorial garden at the Alternative School. Several students from the school have lost their lives, and this teacher let us know that our kids were loved and will not be forgotten.

Street repairs

THANK YOU to the city for filling in the wells around the manhole covers on West End Boulevard between Broadway and Independence Street. Now I can drive on West End again without going out of my way to get to work.

Group's agenda

DAVID LIMBAUGH again shows his bigotry. People like him have always feared any group that isn't white, male and Christian gaining rights in America. Now we can add "straight" to that list. These same people were afraid of women in the 1920s and blacks in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't think anyone can claim now that these groups were pushing an agenda. Any constitutional amendment that denies rights to any group would be a huge step backward for this country, and people should think twice about what kind of precedent that would set.

Need skilled workers

IF THERE is a good time for the labor unions to bounce back here in America, it is now. Trade unions provide skilled labor that has been properly trained. They also provide proper representation for the employee and a good livable wage and benefits upon completion of the training, something we are lacking in our work force today. We have so many people working in low-end jobs without benefits and proper training. The leadership talks about the huge job creation recently, but you never hear them say what these jobs pay, because majority of them are unskilled jobs such as we have here in Southeast Missouri.

Collecting the tax

THE CAPE Girardeau City Council opting out of the sales-tax holiday shows the council members do not care about taxpayers. If the city lost $88,000 in sales-tax revenue over six days in the past two years, just think how much it collected the other 724 days. Shame on every council member.

What's lost?

A COMMENT said, "Religious liberties will be lost if homosexual-marriage advocates have their way." What religious liberties will be lost? The right to control the law in such a way as to exclude the people you don't like?

A good deal

HAVING PRISONERS mow grass has two positives: The grass gets cut, and the prisoners are less tense because they get to go outside. Additionally, prisoners work for free, whereas taxpaying citizens pay the Missouri Department of Transportation salaries. Citizens are getting a good deal.

Don't be fooled

DO NOT be fooled by self-serving comments referring to studies proving the effectiveness of a comprehensive preschool program. The correlation between a comprehensive preschool experience and long-range academic success in school is statistically insignificant.

It's not the economy

WHY GIVE the GOP credit for the booming economy? GOP operatives wouldn't give President Clinton credit for unprecedented economic growth. It doesn't matter. It's not the economy, stupid. It's Iraq.

Free baby-sitting

A COMMENT saying parents may not have the money for expensive day care reflected my thought for years about preschool programs: taxpayers paying for baby-sitting. We are ignoring what Germany did before World War II when children as young as 3 or 4 were forced into schools. Isn't it odd how great a country we became, with all our inventions and progress, even though we started school at 5 or 6? Kindergarten was only half a day, but we started first grade knowing our numbers, alphabet and basic reading skills. If officials and parents want free baby-sitting, just say so. Don't pass it all off as education.

Ask the dropouts

PERHAPS COMMITTEES searching for solutions to the school dropout rate should consider asking adults why they dropped out of school. The answers could give them more help than all the second-guessing they have been doing over the years. I dropped out in my junior year over 30 years ago for several reasons. I am what is known as a night owl, and my school did not offer many of the courses I was interested in. My brightest son dropped out from boredom. Perhaps there is something to be said about trying to gear class times and class content to the students. I earned my GED and went on to a junior college. America must find a way to keep the brighter students interested so we don't continue sliding down the scale worldwide.