Speak Out 6/20/11

MoDOT woes

I travel throughout the Midwest on a weekly basis for my job but live in Cape Girardeau. I'm absolutely disgusted at how inept the Missouri Department of Transportation is. Interstate 55 is routinely down to one lane for 10 or more miles. I-270 is a veritable money pit and is under construction literally year round. But the worst situation is I-70 between St. Charles and just on the other side of Columbia. This is, according to MODOT is the most-traveled highway in the state, yet it is two lanes each way. The road is hilly from St. Charles out for awhile and often clogged with trucks. No wonder, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, I-70 is also the site of most highway accidents in the entire Midwest. I-70 should be a minimum of three lanes in each direction. You may think this doesn't affect you, but if even one friend or family member is a student at Mizzou, they are at significantly higher risk of a serious accident and even death every time they travel on I-70 than they are on any other road in the Midwest. MODOT is doing a horrible job. The laborers do the best they can, but the guys at the top are failing us.

Watch your pets

I'D just like to ask all animal owners to watch their animals please. It's Tuesday morning about 7:30 and I'm on East Main Street heading out toward the interstate, and there's a dog right out in the middle of the road. Everybody's having to stop and not hit it. The poor thing looks scared to death. I don't know what to do for it. I just hope it lives. People, when you have an animal, it's your responsibility, just like a child, to watch and make sure they're taken care of; they can't take care of themselves. I'm an animal lover, yeah, but poor dog, I hope he makes it through the day. People are stopping right and left trying to avoid hitting him.

Traffic words

PLEASE, please do something about the lights at North Sprigg Street and Normal Avenue. The north and south corners have to sit too long for the lights to change with no traffic east and west. School is out and Highway 177 traffic builds up on Sprigg. Besides that, I have to wear ear plugs because my husband uses words not to be heard.

Where's the family?

IN my trailer park, there's an old man that lives right behind me and I'm not trying to be mean but I'm he's got Alzheimer's. He's out there at 3:00 in the morning, revving up his chain saw or revving up his weed whacker or revving up something and I'm trying to sleep. His yard is so piled up that he can't even get into his trailer. His yard looks like a filthy mess. It makes me feel pitiful for the old man. I think there's favoritism. Everybody else's yard is pretty and kept clean and kept nice. He's got junk all over the place and that's not right. That's a health hazard. I know people get old and I understand that and I'm sure he probably has Alzheimer's but why doesn't his family take care of him or do something about the mess?

Teens, be confident

IN the response to the teenager that's looking for work, do your homework and learn about the business that you're applying for, dress well, stand up straight, shake people's hands with a nice, firm hand shake, look them in the eye and be respectful. It's confidence that gets you a job, not your resume. A resume is important but it's ultimately your confidence and people's confidence in you that will get you whatever job you're looking for. Good luck.

Obesity

I'M just calling to say I was in Walmart and really saw something that kind of disturbed me after hearing the news today that another school district has banned chocolate milk in the classroom due to obesity. I saw a mother in Walmart with two children with her and they were begging for their mom to buy them a half gallon of chocolate milk. She informed them that she couldn't afford that chocolate milk however in her grocery cart she had a 12 pack of beer, four 12-packs of soda, several bags of potato chips, half a dozen Tombstone pizzas and other non-healthy stuff. OK, if we're going to ban chocolate milk in the schools because supposedly it causes childhood obesity, that's one eight-ounce serving of chocolate milk a day, which is approximately 180 calories, but then the children are going home and sitting there and drinking two or three sodas, which are not diet, eating potato chips, eating frozen pizzas. We're going to have to change lifestyles.

Put a shirt on

THIS Speak Out is directed at the people who live on West End Boulevard close to William Street who never wear T-shirts when they sit on their front porch. Please put on a shirt. Nobody wants to see that.

Jobs and automation

IT was almost hilariously on Sunday morning TV when you have the serious news talk and to hear someone talk about how corporate America, how they can get corporate America to put people to work. Corporate America is never going to put people to work because it's like when before there were tractors and all these machines now, they no longer need field hands for the most part because everything's automated. The same with factories. What used to take three or four employees to do, now it can be done with one employee and the rest machine. Who knows, maybe that figure is too modest, maybe someone in the know can call in. But the point is they can't create jobs because unless you can coax some of these factories to come to America and still they're going to be highly automated, there's just not going to be jobs like there were during the '70s and '60s and '50s.

Divorce and safety

LESSON to be learned. If you are a female and newly separated, getting ready to file for divorce, if you have a violent mate, it will only get worse. Be on the safe side and keep yourself and your children safe.

Tough charity choices

I somewhat understand what the caller meant about community allowing the Family Resource Center to close when as a community we raise so much money for Africa. The fact is, we have enough to help both. We give less than one percent to others, of our time and our money. I will also say though, if our money was limited, giving to children who are dying would be my choice over an after-school program in Cape Girardeau.

Help Obama

IT took a long time to recover from the Great Depression. While we didn't go into a Great Depression, we came very close to one. Recovering from this is going to take a long time. Most of all, remember, President Obama inherited this mess he didn't cause. So don't blame him, help him.

Congrats to Rhymer

CONGRATULATIONS to Carol Rhymer on being chosen one of five finalists National Teacher Hall of Fame. However, I would like to add, she was not a first-grade teacher. She was a teacher of the first grade.

Wanted: Pitching coach

THIS pertains to the St. Louis Cardinals. They've got too many Triple AAA ball players on their team. They can't hit nothing and they need a new pitching coach.