Speak Out 6/25/07

Smart decision

I APPLAUD the mayor and other public officials for considering the benefits of creating a water park and covering the Central Municipal Pool with a permanent structure. This city needs more options for children and adults to exercise. Just look at the number of overweight people around us. If the price for better health and more entertainment options is a slight increase in taxes, then so be it. I'm willing to pay. Farmington and Perryville, among others, have already made this smart decision, and they don't regret it.

In the know

TRENT LOTT says that talk radio is running the country. Sorry, Trent, but thanks to the Internet, cable TV and talk radio, the people know what's going on and are determined to defend our nation's sovereignty from politicians who are blinded by greed or ambition.

Traffic stops

WITH A total black population in Cape Girardeau of about 4 percent, doesn't it seem odd that 25 percent of those stopped for traffic violations are black? Police chief Carl Kinnison says no, they must be commuters. Why not call this what it is? Black drivers know why they are pulled over: driving while black.

Two-way street

IF ALL our jobs are going to Mexico, and all the Mexicans want to come to the United States, what is going to happen?

Too many taxes

IF OUR city government keeps raising taxes, residents will leave the city behind. Remember Cairo, Ill.? The same thing happened there. I used to work for the Pulaski County assessor's office as an assistant and saw the same thing happen in that county.

Preaching hatred

THIS COUNTRY'S so-called racial division will never be resolved until our government can be convinced to do away with all racially motivated laws, research and studies. This cannot happen as long as we have people like Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton continually telling us that blacks cannot be treated equally, and until we start listening to people like the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson (look him up on Snopes). The racial divisions in this country are mostly artificially created by blacks who financially and politically benefit from continuing to preach hatred.

Destroying lives

REGARDING stem-cell research, President Bush said, "Destroying human life in hopes of saving human life is not ethical." President Bush by his own standards is unethical. A lot of innocent Iraqis have died in our attempt to free them from a dictator.

Service-dog reception

MY SON received a service dog in February. I was a little concerned about taking him out, as Cape Girardeau is not used to service dogs. I want to let all of the businesses know how much my family appreciates you for not only complying with federal law, but being so kind to our family when we come in with our son and his dog. Many people ask questions and welcome us. Some even remember our names. Thanks for not making our already difficult trips out in public even more difficult.

No weather issue

FARMERS HAVEN'T been slow to acknowledge climate change, because farmers know there isn't an issue. Most farmers have been in the business for six to eight generations. They know from their own family history that weather is cyclical. This has been going on forever with the local family farms. It's not something that is man-made.

Two-tier college

REGARDING THE two-tiered education option: Missouri has tried this successfully with the A-Plus program. The main intent was to focus students on either a four-year college track or a two-year college/technical track. Good attendance and grades and volunteering allowed students in these schools to get two years of a community college paid for within the state. Classes that were fluff and not academic were to be eliminated. Many smaller schools got this designation and continue quite successfully. Others, like Cape Girardeau, took the money, got the designation and currently only give the A-Plus program lip service and then moan about the drop-out rate. This is sad. Students coming out of community college/technical schools are earning substantial salaries, while four-year program graduates are iffy as to job market and salaries.

Reasonable cost

A COMMUNITY college in Cape Girardeau would be of great value. I attended Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, acquiring an automated office certificate in a year. I had checked with Metro Business College, and its price was way more than Three Rivers and its courses were not transferable. I got my certificate for a fraction of the price it would have cost me at Metro. This is only one of the reasons there needs to be a community college. I think that getting an education at a decent price is important, given the cost of living and gasoline these days.

Farmer's response

IT IS an outrage that someone would blame farmers and rural residents for the theoretical global warming and the unsubstantiated reduction in the ozone layer. The Speak Out caller who made these biased claims ought to analyze his own lifestyle, I am he operates a fossil fuel-burning vehicle go to the store to buy plastic items. There are by far more city folks polluting the planet than country types who are the caretakers of the environment. We live by maintaining agricultural conservation practices, whereas those posing as concerned environmentalists do so only for political benefit. It is time to practice what you are trying to preach rather than repeat those inaccurate statements made by all the network-TV talking heads.

Longer headline

INSTEAD OF the headline "Area wins $5 million jobs grant" you should have run the following headline: "Area wins $5 million of U.S. taxpayer money which is supposed to be spent only on projects that benefit the entire nation but has evolved into pork-barrel spending for local projects that would have horrified the Founding Fathers."

Road holdouts

I WANT to tell all the holdouts who won't sign road-construction easements so the county can improve the roads for those of us who live on these roads that I am sick and tired of the blackmail. We will not pay you anymore. My wife and I are tired of the dust after 35 years. We looked at nice houses in Cape Girardeau and Jackson this weekend. You don't have to worry about your taxes going up any more, because they are going to go down along with the value of your property. Thanks to the lack of planning and zoning, you will see for-sale signs on our farms shortly. We are going to sell off trailer lots. You can have the dust, low taxes and the trailer people. We've had it. Paved streets, here we come.

Enforce the law

WHAT IS wrong with this country? Rather than enforce the laws we make, we cater to special-interest groups and lawbreakers. Stepping across our borders is a felony, but do we arrest illegal immigrants? No. It's easier to give them what they want no matter how much it costs. That's what the American people pay taxes for.

Something's wrong

SINCLAIR LEWIS was right on the money when he said, "The only thing wrong with this country is that there are too many people who think there's something wrong with this country."

Grow the economy

EVERY ELECTED official in Cape Girardeau County should sign a pledge to never raise tax rates for the rest of their lives. They should work hard to grow the local economy so that tax revenue increases with the same tax rates. Growing the economy raises tax revenue automatically.

College choice

THIS AREA desperately needs a community college. So many students drop out of Southeast Missouri State University. They need another choice. And some students do not get into Southeast. To improve their future, they need the choice of a community college.

Attendance matters

WHEN AN organization publicly states that the lack of attendance at a sporting event didn't matter because the success of the event was measured by other factors, one thing is for sure. Attendance mattered.