Speak Out 6/1/10

Healthy plan

AS I grow older, more and more of my friends are taking more and more pills and spend what seems to be a lot of money on prescriptions. They visit their doctors with increasing frequency, and their doctors seem to want to prescribe more pills. But the strange part is my friends don't seem to be any healthier. For over a decade, I've started my day with two tablespoons of local raw honey, two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and one teaspoon of cinnamon. These three ingredients are mixed into a large glass of warm water. I take this every day religiously. My blood sugar is stable, and all my other vital signs are good. I don't take any medication. Sometimes I wonder if we're not poisoning ourselves to death with all the pills we take, and for what little good these pills do, it seems we're flushing our money down the pharmaceutical toilet.

Party divide

ARE we not all Americans? Why must we be divided? Both political parties need to think outside their boxes. Both have good ideas, but neither side wants to hear different views. I hope someday we can do away with political parties and vote for the individual most suited for office. Stop voting and thinking along party lines just because you are loyal.

Fundamental role

I don't get it. Tea partiers and other opponents of expanded government are screaming for the taxpayers to bail out BP by paying for cleaning up the mess it created. Surely anti-Obama bias hasn't made them alter their fundamental philosophical position on the role of government in society.

Legislating freedom

GARY Rust recently and approvingly quoted some insipid intellectual who wrote in part, "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom." I guess that means Mr. Rust believes the enforcement of the Bill of Rights, the Civil War amendments ending slavery and the mid-1960s civil rights acts have been abject failures in expanding freedom for anyone who might be poor. For the most part these measures have succeeded in expanding freedom exponentially, I can only pray that Mr. Rust does not use his power to get these measures repealed.

Thanks, road crews

I would like to thank the road crews resurfacing Highway 177. I travel the road to Procter & Gamble each work day. The road has been hazardous for years, especially when it is wet. The crews have done a great job so far and should be proud of their work.

Long disputes

OF all the turf wars in the world, many would consider the never-ending Arab-Israeli one to be the worst. There are lots of others, some of which include India-Pakistan and Somalia, the Basque separatists in Spain and so on. However, based on recent news reports, I have come to believe the most serious and eventually longest lasting one will be between Southeast Missouri State University and Three Rivers Community College.

Blame the lenders

REGARDING the comment that indicated fault for the financial crisis lay in Wall Street. The facts are the crisis was initiated by the policies of our legislators which permitted the mismanaged Freddie Mac and Fannie May to guarantee loans to unqualified buyers with 5 percent and as low as zero percent down payment and even permitted buyers to borrow the down payment. The result was house-loan defaults by the millions. Wall Street was not blameless, but the primary reason for the crisis was our government policies on home lending.

Landmark cross

SHAME on the atheist for not wanting state money to go to the Bald Knob Cross. My parents took me there as a child. It's more than just something to see. I go to a church that doesn't use the cross because it was a form of execution. That's just the particular denomination I belong to. I believe in freedom of religion in America. My problem is with someone who's so intolerant that he opposes something that's important to other people. I'm not a big fan of crosses. But the Bald Knob Cross is no problem. It's a landmark.

Gambling is here

FOR all of you people who are against a casino coming to Cape Girardeau: Have you thought about what you want to do about the gambling going on now? A casino would bring in millions of dollars for our schools as well as the city.

Lots of cheating

THE person whose hypothetical son earned A's in class by cheating should know that everybody cheats. They've been doing it for years. That's why corporations can't make a profit and why this country's sinking.

You voted for him

SIX out of 10 Americans don't approve the direction the country's going, and many are concerned about their jobs. Anybody who voted for President Obama is getting what you voted for.