Speak Out 6/5/06

Moved to anger

THE ARTICLE by Robert Hamblin angered me. My fiance was being trained to invade Japan. How many American boys would have been killed in that invasion? How many were killed in Southeast Asia, and who started the war? Or did he forget Pearl Harbor Day?

Thanks for food

I WANT to thank the people who donated to the food drive recently that was conducted by the postal carriers. Thanks also to the carriers who collected that food and brought it to the food pantries. In Scott City we got a big boost to our food pantry shelves, and we really do appreciate it.

Tell the story

DR. Robert Hamblin is truly a gifted writer. I wish he would use his talent to capture the horror and the inhumanity to men involved in the Bataan Death March.

Know the Constitution

A RECENT comment said omitting the word "bible" from a public-school musical was upholding the U.S. Constitution. I think the original writers of the Constitution would laugh at that comment. I challenge the author of that comment to find the phrase "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. What's next? Prohibiting priests and ministers from voting? I think the school should have left the word "bible" in the musical and quoted the right to free speech.

Immigration law

WE NEED an elementary civics lesson. U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson doesn't represent the nation. She represents one congressional district, and that district is in desperate need of guest workers. Missouri has the lowest percentage of illegal immigrants in the U.S. If Congress doesn't give President Bush some kind of immigration bill he can sign, it's all over for the GOP this fall. As a commonsense representative, Emerson recognizes this and will do what is best for her district.

Bible lesson

LUCAS PRESSON needs to read that Bible he's thumping so resoundingly. Sodom and Gommorah weren't destroyed because they were gay cities. God got angry when angels in disguise were nearly raped homosexually by a local mob of miscreants. Maybe if conservative Christians actually knew the Bible they wouldn't be so irritatingly opinionated. Jesus, the guy Presson claims to follow wholeheartedly, was about peace and love and mostly tolerance. Whereas a great many Christians seem to be about hate and intolerance. I know a few gays who are much closer to grasping Christ's message than many hetero Christians. But if you're going to spout off idiotic opinions, at least have the literature straight in your own head first. We won't all turn gay if gays are allowed to marry. I might add that marrying an animal never would have occurred to me. Where is the modern Christian mind hanging out to pick up such horrible ideas?

Full accountability

ATTORNEY GENERAL Jay Nixon has said what most average taxpayers have not realized: House Bill 1900, regarding contributions to politicians, is not a good thing. A few of us, in reading all the feel-good rhetoric, saw it for what it really is: a way for our politicians to rake in more money, have more power and never have to rationalize their good fortune later down the road. Every single thing our lawmakers do should be out in the open and accountable to us.

For the tax holiday

I THINK it would be prudent for Cape Girardeau families to call their city council members and remind them of how much you spend on school supplies each year. With the sales-tax holiday in effect, more families can afford to buy the colored pencils, crayons and notebooks that are needed in school. It would be a generous gesture by the city council to leave the sales-tax holiday in effect.

Searching for Hoffa

SOME OF us are surely wondering why our resources are being used to search for Jimmy Hoffa's remains. Basically, this is using taxpayer dollars to satisfy a sense of curiosity. That there may still be prosecutable defendants who are living does not justify the expense of these searches.

Like summer camp

REGARDING PEER restraints: I visited the Girardot Center as a student at Southeast Missouri State University. The atmosphere of the center was easy-going and like summer camp. I noticed just a couple of staff members on duty with 10 or 12 kids. As a father of two high school boys, I know that one or two staff members against 10 or 12 boys will not work.

Getting to the polls

I KEEP reading about older people who can't get a photo ID so they can vote. If they can't get an ID card, how can they get to the polls? Some politicians don't want the photo IDs because they keep the politicians from messing with the old people's vote. St. Louis is a good example of that.

Our offices

WHY WON'T diehard Republicans face the reality that their side can be corrupted as badly as they claim Democrats have been? Remember when the Republicans demanded that the White House and the Capitol belonged to us and they had every right to know what Bill Clinton did on our property? Now a whole bunch of Republicans are screaming about separation of powers. Republican leaders are arguing that the FBI should not be allowed to inspect their offices. Their offices are ours, too.

The other side

I READ with interest the article about fewer men in the teaching profession. I'd like to give you another side of that. Women are the majority in education, but it's rather disconcerting, when there are so few men that you still continue to see year after year the male teachers getting the priority. If there's any problem or crisis, administrators run to the male teacher. If there's a situation of wanting to encourage someone to take an administrative position, administrators run to the male teacher. If there's a situation of any great leadership needed at any particular time, administrator choose to run to the male teachers. Many female teachers are equally as capable and who also do so much in and out of the classroom daily, working with the students in our area. It is frustrating to see such an emphasis on the man. The article did point out that more men aren't in the profession because of a lack of money. Let's look at the opposite side of that. I earn more than my husband, and when you look at the low amount of wages paid to Missouri teachers, this is pathetic. We truly struggle.

Family pride

WITH GREAT joy, I attended the fantastic Southern Brothers concert at La Croix United Methodist Church. As they were singing, I looked over at their families sitting on the front row, and they all had such proud looks on their faces. But none outshone the beaming face of their mom. It was brighter than her red hair. What a family.

What's drug abuse?

OH, THE things we do in our children's names. All of us want children in our community to be healthy and safe. But saying that drug use by parents is a form of child abuse is absolute lunacy. Does this include martinis or prescription pain killers? Both are drugs that are abused. Why does the substance have to be illegal for people to consider its abuse bad? Marijuana is less addictive and less toxic than tobacco or alcohol, yet our broad definition of drugs often assumes that pot is a step away from crack cocaine. The DEA's Web site confirms that methamphetamine and marijuana are both readily available in our state. After 35 years of tax dollars invested in the war on drugs, when can we expect to see results? Anyone can say they care about sending the right message to children, but they'd better clean out their medicine cabinet before they say that all parental drug use is abuse. The system is broken, but locking up mom for a joint won't fix it.

War reporting

I WONDER how many people listening to the news recently have thought it unusual how many times the different networks have talked about the three CBS news correspondents involved in the attack with a roadside bomb and how few times the soldier and interpreter were mentioned. I wonder why the difference.