Speak Out 6/13/16

Gas price spike

A day or so before the Memorial Day holiday weekend, gas prices in Cape Girardeau jumped up over 10 cents per gallon. This is a common occurrence, and we have no recourse but to simply not drive, thus not paying their increased prices over holidays. Thank goodness our grocery stores don't raise the price of food every holiday -- in fact they have sales -- but that's shows the difference between greed and offering consumers a good deal.

Rewards not needed

Students should not be given tickets to turn in for fun events and other rewards to manage their behavior. If high expectations and limitations are set, there is no need for such a system. Why would you give a student rewards for doing what they should be doing on a daily basis? What happened to simply following the rules? It's a sad day when you have to "buy" good behavior. It's a sadder day when schools are recognized for poor behavior control.

In an otherwise well-written and informative article about area racial disparities in stopping motorists, it was pointed out that a Cape Girardeau city councilwoman who commented on the story was black. What possible relevance did that have to the theme of the story? For example, the article did not state that either the police chief in Sikeston, Missouri or the Scott County sheriff was white, which each is.

Tweet study

I agree with Dr. Carlos Vargas Arbuto's inference that collegestats.org is a very suspect website and that its alleged study claiming Southeast Missouri State University students lead the nation in sending out hate-filled tweets. Collegestats.org seems to have its own agenda and publishing inaccurate studies about public colleges and universities appears to rank high on its list of priorities.

Convention funding

Pressure is mounting on businesses not to assist in funding for the Republican National Convention. That, my friends, is a very good thing.

Why the park?

Why in the world are we building a police station at the entrance to a major city park -- home of the SEMO District Fair, a historically low-crime, residential area? What are they thinking? Did they do an impact study or poll the residents? With all the available areas, this is the best they can do? Take the $11 million and make the one you already have better!

Cape Splash

I find it despairing that Cape Splash charges an adult full price, or any price for that matter, for that adult to stay and supervise their children. We hear how the city doesn't want to be the "babysitter" for people that just drop off their children and leave. Give us responsible parents and grandparents a break and cut the fee at least in half.