Speak out 6/24/08

Favorite sons

WHAT AN irony. Sikeston, Mo., has recently produced two national talents (Blake DeWitt in Major League Baseball and Neal Boyd in "America's Got Talent" as an opera singer). These are people who make us feel happy for them and good about ourselves, bring us together and unite us. On the other hand, Cape Girardeau gives us two nationally known media mavens who make much of their living off sowing the seeds of divisiveness.

Sports penalty

I DON'T think we need to overreact to the penalties doled out to Southeast Missouri State University for sports infractions. How about no more than a self-imposed sports hiatus?

Remember when?

I REMEMBER new American-made cars for under $2,000, new houses for under $15,000 that were nice brick homes, dime Cokes, quarter hamburgers, 35-cent movies and a date on Saturday night that might cost $3 if you went out to eat, bought some gas, went to a movie then out cruising later that evening. My, what a changed world today.

Wrong race

LET'S SEE: Jay Purcell of the Cape Girardeau County Commission has proposed Web casting of county commission meetings, has exposed and voted against an unethically and improperly obtained road easement, voted against Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle selling his books on the county's Web site, exposed and voted against county park ground being sold without citizens being involved and, most recently, is taking legal action at his own expense to force the county commission to follow the Sunshine Law and make everything public. It seems to me if Rock Finch wants to change county government for the better, maybe he should run against Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones.

Religion and science

THIS TIME, David Limbaugh's failed attempt to reconcile religious faith and science really scared me. He went way beyond Pope Urban II, who in 1095 called for the first of a series of Christian crusades to reconquer the Holy Land from the Islamic Seljuk Turks. A careful reading of Limbaugh's June 21 diatribe seemed to at the very least imply that it is time for a Christian crusade to conquer not only Muslims, but those he deemed "New Agers ... practitioners of Eastern religions." In addition, Limbaugh seemed to be poised with sword in hand to swiftly impose Christianity on the world's secular, skeptical scientists. In my view, virtually no non-Christian now seems safe from the coming wrath of Limbaugh-led Christian soldiers.

Energy policy

WILL THE Democrats admit that their energy policy has failed? Build refineries, drill off the coasts, use our oil shale and coal and drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Develop nuclear energy and reduce regulations on the oil companies. Nationalizing the oil industry is not the answer.