Speak Out 5/7/08

Homeless shelter

I WISH Cape Girardeau could face reality like Sikeston and construct a homeless shelter.

Forced message?

IN A story published in the Southeast Missourian, President Bush was said to have been "nostalgic" and "reflective" in a lengthy question-and-answer session in St. Louis. According to the story, Bush said he considered America's most important future mission to be to spread democracy abroad. Is it safe to assume that the president means to spread it, if necessary, by force?

More ethanol, less fat

CONGRESS SHOULD pass legislation requiring all corn be used for making ethanol. That way we could start to make some serious inroads in the war against obesity.

Corn reality

SOME PEOPLE are saying that we are running out of corn. The United States is exporting about 140 billion pounds of corn this year to other countries. Corn is selling for about 10 cents a pound. You can buy all you want, and there is no shortage of 10-cent corn. If you want to feed 6-cent corn to cattle, there is a shortage of 6-cent corn.

Outstanding police

THERE USUALLY aren't good things said about the police department when it does well, but I am proud of the hard work the Jackson Police Department does to be recognized nationally as a top-notch police department. Instead of some of the crazy complaints I hear, people ought to be proud of the great police force we have in Jackson. The police are always helpful and professional every time I see or deal with them. Let's also not forget all the hard work they put in during the ice storm and the flooding. Keep up the outstanding work.

Teacher requirements

IT'S A sad commentary on Cape Girardeau's support for education that Gov. Matt Blunt came here to sign a bill reducing the requirements to become a teacher and, as a result, further dumbing down an already troubled system. Of course, in the governor's defense, destroying public education is part and parcel of the Missouri GOP agenda.

Hire teachers

THIS NEW teacher bill that Gov. Matt Blunt signed is not good for students. At the school my children go to there is a math teacher who graduated with an engineering degree. She knows her math, but she does not know how to explain it to the students. She doesn't grade homework because she has too much to do. Then why assign it? She didn't know the students could not do the work until they failed the tests, but then it was too late. Please, school districts, hire teachers.

Weak lobby

GOV. MATT Blunt's signing of a bill lowering teacher standards in Missouri illustrates many things. One of them is that Missouri's classroom teacher lobbies are weak. This is in part because one of the main groups is permeated with school administrators. Although they may publicly denounce the lowering of teacher certification standards, they do anything necessary to get a warm body to fill a vacancy and keep the children out of their hair.

Got my money back

UNLIKE SO many others, I am not an ingrate. I sincerely thank the federal government for the economic-stimulus rebate check, returning some of my money to me.

Holding the line

SINCE FARMERS are currently prospering, I would like to thank members of Congress for holding the line on farm welfare to a paltry $300 billion (give or take a few billion) in taxpayer money.

That's a big 'only'

ONLY 20,000 jobs were lost in April.

Tighten your belt

I SEE where Cape Girardeau officials are grumbling about tough finances because of the storms and increased gasoline prices. Welcome to the world the rest of us live in. Whatever you do, don't bring us another tax or fee increase anytime soon. We need a break. Tighten your belt just like we have to do. That includes firefighters, who have had more raises than we've seen for years.

Economic explanation

PEOPLE ARE trying the figure out why our economy no longer works. It is simple. The service industry is the biggest part of our economy, and manufacturing in our country is back to its 1850s level. With the recession, fewer people are buying things. So no money is going into the services industry. We are not manufacturing, so we have nothing to trade on a world market. Do the math.

Environmental model

IT WAS great to read that some faculty members at Southeast Missouri State University are urging the the university president endorse the President's Climate Commitment. If we cannot get the university, the center of rational thought, to work toward a carbon-neutral lifestyle, how can we expect corporate America to do it? The university should be a role model in this regard for the larger community of Southeast Missouri.

Free storytelling

THE ST. Louis storytelling festival was free and was attended by 20,000 people. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Cape Girardeau could have a free storytelling event? It would take some sponsorship, but just think how many more people could attend that event. That would be great.

Ways to cut back

WELL, WE'VE got a big food shortage coming up, and everybody can do a little bit to help. If you have three or four cats, get rid of all of them but one. If you have more than one dog, get rid of the rest of them. They eat a lot of pet food. If you have three or four horses, get rid of all but one and buy a calf, feed it the horse feed and you'll have enough meat for a whole year. There are a lot of little things a person can do. Instead of eating three big meals a day, cut out half a meal twice a day and have one full meal. You'll live just as long and won't gain weight. Cut your beer drinking in half, because it takes grain and sugar to make that beer.

Slow down, save gas

I NOTICED something interesting this morning driving to work. My cart gets 30 miles a gallon driving 65 mph on the interstate. Big vehicles getting the 15 to 17 miles per gallon are passing me like I'm sitting still. Everybody is crying about the price of gasoline, but it doesn't seem like anybody's trying to fix the problem. These motorists should slow down. The ones with the worst miles-per-gallon vehicle are the ones going the fastest.