Speak Out 6/3/10

Spending too much?

IT costs California $52,000 a year to keep a prisoner. The government is wasting too much money to keep killers like Charles Manson. The government should use the death sentence. If they know they will die, that might stop a lot of people from killing somebody.

Peeping Toms

IT's summertime again at the Jackson City Pool. How can I tell? The peeping Toms are there photographing and watching your children with binoculars again. As a daily user of the Jackson tennis courts, I have a clear view over most of the park and city pool. I have witnessed men photographing the children. Parents, please keep an eye out.

Tunes trouble

FRIDAY evening my husband and I and our dog on a leash were walking on the sidewalk at Tunes at Twilight when an unleashed pit bull came out of the crowd to attack my dog. Several people from the crowd came to our aid, but the owner never came forward. I'm concerned that this might have turned into a dangerous situation with the large crowd and many small children.

Enforce the law

SOME police officials say that by enforcing federal immigration laws, crime will increase in Arizona. Not enforcing laws leads to public safety and no crime? How novel. Should we use this as a model for other kinds of crime?

Thanks for paying

I would like to say thank you to the gentleman who paid for my and my mother's early lunch at Bob Evans May 26, which caught me totally off guard. Your kindness could not have came at a better time. Mom had been in and out of the hospital for the past week, and we had just come from the doctor. She was admitted to the hospital later that same day. I will try to pay it forward as often as I can. Thank you for blessing our lives that day.

Constitutional nation

STEVE Francis's screed was a not-too-thinly veiled argument that we're a Christian nation guided by the Bible. We're not. We're a secular society guided by the Constitution, a document that in part allows one to believe in any religion, Christian or otherwise or no religion.

Backyard drilling

GUESS who conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer blames for the BP oil spill. The EPA. Krauthammer tries to make a convincing argument that BP wouldn't have had to drill so deep if it weren't for environmental restrictions and that we would be better off if we could more or less drill for oil in everyone's backyard. They can drill in mine. If they find oil, I'll take off for Beverly Hills.

Inconvenient truth

If Cape Girardeau doesn't get a casino, those who gamble will continue to take their money somewhere else.

Tempting food

PLEASE be considerate of your co-workers who are trying to lose weight. I did not have a weight problem until my co-workers starting bringing in pies and cakes. Then I developed high cholesterol and became a candidate for diabetes and a heart attack. Those cakes and pies were too convenient. Should I have asked the boss to talk to them about refraining from putting this temptation in front of me?