Speak Out 6/26/08

Need new faces

THIS IS a voting year. Let's get some new faces in our government. These inexperienced people will be welcome. The old legislators and ideas are not working, except for themselves. Come on, people, let's get out and vote. What happened to a government for the people and by the people?

School torn down

SHAME ON you, Oak Ridge School District administration, for not letting the public know that the old Oak Ridge High School was being torn down. We could have taken pictures. The news media should have been notified.

Short-term view

THE ARGUMENT that we need to drill for more oil and develop nuclear plants illustrates the problem with a "short-term profits at the expense of future generations" mentality. The Faustian bargain, a pact with the devil for a few more years of pleasure, has long been attractive. Unfortunately, we still know not what to do with nuclear waste, which is toxic for thousands of years, and oil companies are showing us on a weekly basis that they cannot drill and transport oil without causing environmental disaster. It is clear U.S. Sen. Kit Bond has no ability for long-term vision.

Here's why

YOUR EDITORIAL cartoon June 24 asked why we have a 500-year flood every 15 years. The answer is easy: It's the levees, stupid. If you squeeze a two-mile-wide river into a half-mile-wide channel it's bound to run higher. Clear all the forests upstream and you have a man-made disaster waiting to happen. Then you build outside the levee and you'll be flooded out.

Jackson burning

ANOTHER NICE evening ruined by someone burning trash. It's bad enough in the fall with everyone burning leaves, but having to put up with it all summer is wrong. It is time that Jackson stopped being a hick town and banned burning.

Downtown flowers

OK, OLD Town Cape, the huge flower pots on Main Street are looking pretty bad. Some have no flowers, and some have weeds. Can't downtown merchants at least water them and do a little routine maintenance? It's a good thing Libertyfest will not be down there.

Egregious editorial

YOUR STORIES about Sprigg Street were scintillating, but your follow-up editorial was an egregious disappointment. There's a Sprigg Street in every community. It reflects the de facto socio-economic and, to some extent, racial segregation that is common to communities across America. Instead of issuing a rousing clarion call for an end to this apartheid, your editorial seemed to gloss it over by simply saying that's the way it is and will, by implication, always be.

Making a choice

AM I missing something? People voluntarily choose to purchase property in rural areas with gravel or dirt roads and then go on a campaign complaining about the dust and blame the county commission for not paving their road. What did they expect? Go figure.

Treatment of pets

I AM horrified at the treatment of pets in Missouri. You would think people would be ashamed that Missouri leads the U.S. in the number of puppy mills and dogfighting. Everyone knows this and apparently chooses to ignore it. Until laws are made stricter against puppy mills and dogfighting, the abuse will continue. Until people demand change, whether with drunken drivers or animals or children, it will all stay the same.