Speak Out 6/12/06

Recess penalty

SUPPORT THE teacher who holds a child accountable. A child does learn something when he has to stay in during recess. It worked 30 years ago, and it will work now.

Bears and lions

FOR AT least 30 years people have been reporting black bears in our area. The Missouri Department of Conservation has dismissed the reports, saying people must have seen a large raccoon or a black dog. Now we see in the paper a picture of a black bear run over and killed by a couple of teenagers in Jackson. I'm sure glad we don't have bears in Missouri. We also have reports and pictures of mountain lions in the area. Not so, says the conservation department. Aren't you glad we don't have mountain lions?

More roses, fewer tales

I COULDN'T agree more with the comment regarding Cape Girardeau's new slogan "Where the river turns a thousand tales." This is a ridiculous slogan. It is obvious that those who came up with it didn't have a grasp for our city. Cape doesn't have many tales regarding the river. Its on the river, and the history of our town is based on the river. Do we have a thousand tales, or even a hundred? If so, let's hear all of them. Bring back the roses.

Golf-cart danger

GOLF CARTS and automobiles don't mix well on county roads. The police need to patrol the roads near the Jaycee Municipal Golf Course. Within the past two weeks I have had three golfers pull out in front of me on county roads. Isn't it illegal to run golf carts on public roads? Some of these individuals act like they have an exclusive right of way. A few tickets might persuade them to be more careful.

Comparing atrocities

Though he is correct in what he writes, it's sad to see David Limbaugh reduced to defending the Iraq war by accurately asserting that enemy atrocities are worse than ours.

Abortion money

PLANNED PARENTHOOD has just released its annual report. It had a record income of $882 million and a profit of $63 million for the year. Taxpayers granted them $272.7 million of that income. The rest came from corporate sponsors. Planned Parenthood performed 255,015 abortions in the United States. For every referral for adoption it performed 180 abortions. Since 1987 Planned Parenthood has killed 3.8 million babies in the U.S. and received $3.9 billion from taxpayers. And it is begging the government to increase its funding. Now we have the stem-cell initiative proponents also begging us to allow access to our taxes for their research. How many billions of our taxpayer money do they want?

Drug education

WHEN YOUR doctor is talking to a drug rep, he is not getting perks. Drug reps educate your doctor on the specifics of drugs. This includes side effects, drug interactions and case studies of how other patients responded to the use of the drugs. The reps must also obtain a signature for samples that are handed out to patients when possible. Doctors don't want to spend any more time with reps than is absolutely necessary. The length of time a patient has to wait is usually due to the patient who makes an appointment for a stuffy nose then has a list of ailments he wants checked.

Tourism slogan

NEXT YEAR, I suggest if Missouri is going to advertise to promote tourism that we use the slogan "SeeMO" -- see Missouri.

Veteran is hurt

LINDSEY CEMETERY at McClure, Ill., had a program on Memorial Day weekend. I belong to Post 900 in McClure, and we were not notified of the event. However, we were asked to put out 200 flags at the cemetery We've done that for the last several years. I'm one veteran who is upset about this. There wasn't one person who said thank you for putting the flags out.

Ethanol research

ANYBODY WITH a computer can find out that ethanol from corn is only an interim spit of salvation. In the future, cellulose from wood chips and things like that will be used. The volume of the things that are available are astounding once you start figuring it out. There are 34 million acres of land that have been in conservation reserve. All of this is usable for switch grass production. The average yield of that is five tons per acre, and the plantings last for 10 years. It needs little fertilization, and the five tons per acre will give you 500 gallons of ethanol per acre. By making ethanol from wood chips, you're talking at least a billion tons of year of wood chips available, yielding 80 gallons per ton. That's an awful lot of ethanol. Using corn to make ethanol is the waste of edible energy and is a short-term solution. In addition to all the sources of wood, there's all these trees along the ditches and the levees and they are just as good for making ethanol as anything else.

School money

I WAS shocked to the see the salaries being paid to some of the Cape Girardeau School District administrators, particularly the salary being paid to the new assistant superintendent who got an $18,000 pay raise to $89,000 a year. And the new assistant principal at the junior high school will get a $14,000 raise over what the previous principal made. Those differences in salaries would pay at least one classroom teacher, which would allow us to have smaller class sizes. The superintendent and board need to be closely examined on the decisions they've been making with taxpayers' money.

Roadside beauty

I REMEMBER the rose garden from Jackson to Cape Girardeau. We took a beautiful picture of our little girl years ago standing amid the beautiful roses. Do we have to destroy everything that is beautiful? Can't we replace it somewhere?

No more memorials

I hope the city doesn't allow any more memorials to be placed in the Courthouse Park. Memorials are fine, but not in parks. Once they begin, everyone wants a memorial for something. Soon the green area of the parks is gone and so are the open spaces and trees and reason for the park. We need nature and open spaces, not more memorials, no matter how good the intentions.

For the tourists

I was walking downtown recently when one of the riverboats was in town. A couple times I was stopped and asked by people getting off the boat where simple items like magazines and film could be purchased. I am sorry to say I could not find one place to tell them to go that was near. I think it is sad that a town as large as Cape Girardeau does not have a store downtown where tourists can buy simple everyday items. Why bring in tourists when all that is downtown is bars for night and antique stores for day? Maybe the city should push instead for a convenience store or drug store for the tourists.

Perturbed taxpayer

THE PATCHWORK on Broadway at the entrance to Southeast Missouri Hospital's beautiful building is ugly. Cape Girardeau is a beautiful town with beautiful people. Why can't we have nice streets to drive on? It's like you're driving on gravel roads in Cape Girardeau. When is Cape Girardeau going to fix the streets?

Harm's way

MY SON was in the Vietnam War. He came home to a family that loved him, but not one person was at the bus station to greet him. He is not the same son I saw walk into my home after boot camp in his uniform, so proud of this country. We are in another war as bad as Vietnam only to protect the interests of the rich. Our sons and daughters shouldn't be put in harm's way and accused of murder when they are only doing their job the best they can with an evil people who hide behind their children and their women. I hope America will wake up before it's too late and find our own country is in harm's way. It can happen.

Find Osama

I WAS happy to see that Abu Musab al-Zaqawi is dead in Iraq, but it makes me wonder: If we can finally get him after trying so many years, why can't we get Osama bin Laden? It seems there's some kind of snag that the administration doesn't really want to find bin Laden because of his Saudi ties. Politics play a big part in that. We need to show those people over there that we're not going to take it from him and they're not going to have to take it. But they're never going to believe it unless we can get bin Laden.

Disgusting comment

HOW DARE Speak Out put the comment in about "Bless the Guard"? How could you let anyone cut down our armed forces when they're laying their lives on the line so these people can talk like this in your paper? I will cancel my subscription of the newspaper. This is disgusting. Tell this to the families and the soldiers' mothers and fathers and the kids of the active-duty members who have been killed over there.

Running the lights

AS A driver of a big truck for a local company, I would like to respond to the recent Speak Out comment complaining about trucks running red lights on Southern Expressway. The reason this is occurring is because of the timing systems on the lights, which regulate the cycle of green through yellow to red. It is too fast. By the time a truck operator sees the light changing to yellow, there is not sufficient distance to allow for safe stopping. There's no longer sufficient time remaining on the yellow light for the truck to clear the intersection before the light changes to red. That leaves the driver two choices: Either do a panic stop or run the light. There are two ways to eliminate the problem. Either have Missouri Department of Transportation engineers lengthen the timing on the lights, or reduce the speed limit. As a professional driver, I would welcome either choice. By the way, I also see plenty of smaller vehicles running the lights. Until this situation is corrected, I will continue to run the lights when necessary simply because it is a matter of the laws of physics, especially the one which says a body in motion continues to stay in motion.

Ethanol caution

CAR AND Driver magazine had a recent article on ethanol. As it has been proven before, ethanol is about 30 percent less efficient than conventional gasoline. Granted, ethanol will assist local farmers as long as there is a plant nearby, because ethanol readily absorbs water and cannot be transported in large quantities through pipelines. Additionally, the vast majority of modern vehicles are not designed to run on ethanol, so hidden maintenance costs can result. Honestly, ethanol is a good idea, but it seems that the government is scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas instead of making amends for all that we have done to the oil-rich countries of this world.

Bill the doctors

PATIENTS SHOULD be able to send a doctor a bill for times when drug reps infringe on their appointment time. True emergencies are one thing, but most doctors don't see those people. They refer them to the ER. If we take off work, drive many miles to meet a prearranged appointment, then we should be seen within a 10-minute time frame of that appointment.

Money conflict

GOV. MATT Blunt has a problem with Attorney General Jay Nixon receiving donations from Ameren. To say that such contributions create a conflict of interest is understandable. However, this is true of the most and largest of campaign contributions. That is, unless anyone really believes that businesses contribute money to political parties with no expectations of gratitude from the elected politicians.