Speak Out 6/29/04

Deserving of award

I SAW that Bob Reeves, the weatherman for KFVS12, had won a broadcasting award. I would just like to say he is very well deserving. He has done a very good job broadcasting the weather.

Doing OK at Wal-Mart

I WISH people would leave Wal-Mart alone. I happen to know a woman who works for Wal-Mart in a different state. After many years, she drives a Lexus. You're not hurting too bad if you're driving a Lexus. She's always been very satisfied with her job and found it very fulfilling.

Killing in the streets

I DON'T believe for a minute that the Iraqis will be safer if the United States leaves. Before this transfer of power is complete, I think there will be more revolutions in the streets as each group vies for power. More people will be killed than are being killed now.

Abandoned car

I WOULD Like to know how long a car can sit on the street and not have been driven for three months. There's a car on my street that has not moved since April. I figure it must be an abandoned car.

Junky neighbors

WHY IS it people always want to live in a nice, clean neighborhood but when they get there, they leave all kinds of junk on the curb and four cars parked in their yard? And when the police are called, they are mad.

Speed is a factor

IN THE 1970s, there was a slogan: "55 miles per an hour -- it's a law we can live with." Some time later, the powers that be changed it to 70 miles an hour. If a trooper steps out in front of a car, the car can't stop. The same is true when MoDOT workers are struck on the job. At that speed, if anything is on the highway like debris from tires or a big pothole, there is no stopping in time. So if 55 is a law we can live with, then 70 mph is a law we can die with. Think about it.

Secretive policies

THE SUPREME Court ruled that Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force records will remain private. The American people have lost yet another battle in our freedom of right to know how we are being governed. It is simply unbelievable that the conservative high court has ruled in support of this executive branch in allowing its secretive policies to prevail yet again.

We deserve better

WE HAVE a detective who was accused of nine different charges. He has been found guilty of one. How many times do the people who pay the police department's salaries have to put up with all this? I thought the police department was hired to protect us. They're not doing too good a job of it. I think it's time for people everywhere to wake up. It doesn't hurt for police officers to be just a little nicer to people when they stop them for a routine traffic check. We've got a lot of drugs and terrorists in this world that we need to be worried about. We don't need to be worried about the police department.

Better off now

A HUNDRED years ago, women and slaves were second-class citizens, we had children working for slave wages and government was much more corrupt than it is today. We value human life more today than ever. We still continue to uphold religious freedoms, and sexuality is much more understood, appreciated and accepted than it has been in the past. I'd say the last 40 years in America are a vast improvement on what we used to be. It is comforting that people who write tirades are in a minority.

Treated harshly

SHAME ON Judge Peter Statler for what he did to the woman who was organizing the walk for child abuse awareness. I have a friend who had the misfortune of going through his courtroom to try to get an ex parte order. She was treated harshly by Statler and ended up not receiving the ex parte order that was so desperately needed. She lives in fear, and so do her sons.

Musical wealth

THE RICHEST child is poor without musical knowledge.