Speak Out 6/30/05

Teaching a child

CHILDREN ARE taught at home about prejudice. Some are taught hatred. Children should be taught the truth about hatred. It eats away at your inner being and is more destructive then any force in the world. It creates wars and takes lives, including robbing that child of a childhood. The best thing you can do for your child is to teach him pity and mercy for those filled with hatred.

A child's innocence

TO THE mother of the "brown boy": Please know that a small child is the most unprejudiced being on this earth. When a young child sees someone with a different skin color, he states the obvious. It is not the parents "teaching them something bad." It is an honest observation made by a child who is learning about the world around him.

Big cat advice

TO THE person from the conservation department who wrote that we should collect conclusive evidence of big cats: When you see a big cat, please take off running in the opposite direction while praying the cat doesn't attack you. Then run through your house frantically looking for your camera, hoping you have film in it and batteries. Run back outside and maybe, just maybe, the animal will still be there in the exact same place. Do us all a huge favor. Drink some coffee and wake up.

Limited information

THIS IS in response to the caller who said he was capable of making a distinction between supporting our troops but not supporting our policy in Iraq. I believe anyone is incapable of making that distinction unless you have served in that theater of operations. The American public is being done a great disservice by the news media, which consistently report body counts, yet fail to report infrastructure improvements and the multiple daily success stories that I see with my eyes every day. You are incapable of being objective and making an informed decision or establishing an educated opinion because you are only privy to a small amount of the overall picture. And that is what is truly sad.

Justice appointments

REGARDING THE comment about the "liberal" Supreme Court justices allowing public seizure of private property: Three of the five who voted in favor of that decision were appointed by Republican presidents. Only two of the current justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, were appointed by a Democrat. If you want to blame the Supreme Court for something, please recognize the makeup of the court.

University logic

IT'S GREAT to see that the logic that is making Southeast Missouri State University famous is alive and well. First it was "We want more students so we'll increase their activity fees." Now the university is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to increase the coverage area of the campus radio station, mostly with federal dollars. And what if the government decides to cut the funding? We're told, "That's OK -- the school will make up for it by cutting programming." In other words, "We may sound bad, but look how far people can hear it." Amazing.

Not so long

BIG DEAL. Twelve more years in Iraq is a mere blink of an eye compared to the Hundred Years War of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Innocent comment

MY GRANDSON is 5 years old and just beginning to notice that there is a difference in skin colors. This includes his, which is pale. He notices tans, freckles and all variants. We are enjoying this time with him, letting him learn the differences and, at the same time, learn that we aren't different inside. It upsets me that anyone would jump to the conclusion that a child who calls another child "brown" was a home-taught racist. It sounds like a innocent comment my little guy would make.