Speak Out 6/8/14

Longer days

People around here might pooh-pooh it, but Perryville Public School's decision to lengthen the school day is one of the most progressive and positive changes made in a long time, one that couldn't be made without an enthusiastic buy-in by the staff. Congratulations!

Minimum wage

I hereby formally move that the Cape Girardeau City Council follow the lead of Seattle and several other communities by raising the minimum wage to somewhere between $15 and $210 per hour.

Imperial decision

So, our outlaw president strikes again. He trades five of the very worst Taliban criminals for one deserter. Now those five murderers will be free to start killing again, and even if they don't kill Americans, does President Obama give a moment's thought to the poor innocent people that these maniacs will slaughter? Of course, he doesn't. He gives no more thought to them than he does to the millions of Americans who will now suffer the burden of Obamacare or of the millions of veterans who suffer the greed and incompetence of the VA hospitals. He openly violated a law that he himself passed when he agreed to this release without giving Congress 30 days notice.

Carbon issue

I admire President Obama for making very politically unpopular decisions on carbon emissions. It takes courage to go against the popular will, but the president, backed by sound science, is doing the right thing and historians will praise him for his willingness to take on the radically uninformed know-nothing populists.