Speak Out 5/31/02

Open early, beat heat

WHEN CHRISTMAS sales were on, stores opened their doors early for shoppers. Why don't stores open early now to beat the heat, especially when so many stores are being stingy with their air conditioning?

Consider source

I BELIEVE that gun-control advocates quoting Bart Simpson in this column speak volumes about their views.

Street deals

CAN ANYTHING be done about the open drug dealing that's going on in the 900 and 1000 blocks of Jefferson?

End taxi coupons

IF THE city council of Cape really needs to trim some fat from its budget, I suggest doing away with a program that not only costs the taxpayers of this city over $400,000 annually, is filled with fraud and misuse and also may be illegal. City government is not supposed to administer welfare, yet the city council approves the taxi coupon program. The vast majority of us who pay taxes in this city do not use taxis. The vast majority of those who use this program pay no taxes at all. It's past time that taxpayers hold our elected officials accountable for this program, whose cost has increased each year with no end in sight. I'm tired of paying for alcoholics to be taken to bars or, worse, to have their alcohol delivered. Is this program supposed to help the truly needy with doctor appointments and grocery shopping?

More retailers needed

MY OPINION on the budget crisis that the city council is wrangling with at the moment: If the chamber of commerce would bring some retail businesses here, then there wouldn't be a shortfall in the tax. We need some decent retail stores, like Dillard's, Gap, the Limited, Old Navy. Then the people who drive elsewhere to shop would stay in Cape Girardeau and make up the sales tax difference.

Cost-cutting ideas

I HAVE a few suggestions for the city to save money. Get rid of the police substation. And it doesn't do any good to have the police riding around and watching people go through red lights. That's a waste of gas. Do away with paying for the fire department personnel to exercise at Osage Community Centre. Let them pay for it themselves.

Taxable hush money

FOR YEARS and years churches have been non-taxable entities in the United States, and we've been donating money to the church. When we do, we take it off our taxes as a donation. Now if the bishops of the Roman Catholic church have been giving away some of my donations as hush money. that's not really a donation. It's not really tax deductible. So who's going to pay the taxes on all the donations that have been made to the church that the bishops have secretly used the money as hush money?

Comparing losses

I HAVE sympathy for those who lost family in the World Trade Center attacks Sept. 11. While thousands lost lives, it still boils down to individual families. Their loss is no greater than a family losing a member in a tornado or car accident. When ships sink at sea and servicemen are lost in the jungle, their bodies are not recovered either. Families who lost members at the Murrah building in Oklahoma City received little tax-dollar help, and that was a federal building.

Slime in Delta

I'D LIKE To comment on the individuals who burned those cars in Delta. They're nothing but slime. They've got the same backbone as the people who attacked the World Trade Center in New York. They're pretty low.

Cause for traffic jam

EVERYONE, INCLUDING your editorial, says nothing about why there's a traffic jam in the middle of Jackson. It's the post office. If it would have been done right, there would not have been this traffic jam. They could eliminate a lot of it if they would condemn the property around the post office. Let an exit go out to each of the four streets against the edges and the corners of the post office. You would not have all of this traffic jam.