Speak Out 7/14/08

Eyesore weeds

IS CAPE Girardeau becoming the city of weeds? Have you noticed the median on Kingshighway and everywhere else in Cape Girardeau where the weeds and grass are growing two feet high in some places? That's a big eyesore.

Set them straight

ATTENTION, DAVID Limbaugh. The Southeast Missourian recently editorialized that the wording of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was "stilted" and "comma laden." This is heresy. You must take the Southeast Missourian editorial board to task for writing that the Founding Fathers were not infallible in the sense that their original wording of the Second Amendment (right to keep and bear arms) was anything other than what they and God correctly intended.

Twain or Rush?

I WOULD like some input from professors and other experts in the humanities on this one. Time magazine's July 14 cover story is all about Mark Twain, and it is excellent. However, in the long run (say 200 years or more from now) I wonder if historians might consider Hannibal, Mo.'s Mark Twain to have been superseded in influence by Cape Girardeau's Rush Limbaugh.

City priorities

HERE WE go again. The parks and recreation department spent nearly $150,000 on golf carts. What's happening with the storm-water project? The city promised to make that one of the main priorities. It's the same old parks department, same old city council.

Lower food prices

I WENT to a produce stand and could not believe the prices. Corn was $4 a dozen, and small watermelons were $5. That's way too high. Our economy will not allow us to pay these prices. I was at supermarket where the woman in produce was having to cull out the spoiled produce. Maybe if merchants would lower their prices they could sell more, and the produce would not spoil. Come on, merchants. Help the consumer to be able to put produce on our tables.

Glamorous piracy

I'M WATCHING the History Channel about the piracy in the Caribbean. People want to glamorize pirates, but they were wicked people. I wish producers would not make a funny show about something that was so serious back then. Kids are getting the wrong ideas. We're teaching them the bad and the good, but mostly the good. I wish parents would watch what they're children are watching.

Positive assets

REGARDING THE comment about positive assets. Responsible adults are starting to get it. Education should take place at home, at school and the religious community. The more positive assets are built in for our youths, the more likely that the youths will become healthy, caring and responsible adults. Our community needs to get on the same page. I'm glad somebody besides myself firmly believes this, and I hope everyone reads it, particularly all the working moms and dads who don't have time for their kids.

Memories of Korea

THERE WAS an article about Central High School's 1950s reunion. It said that in the 1950s everything was so stable, there were no wars going on and most of the boys in the military were in the reserves. If there were no wars going on, what was I doing being shot at in Korea and spending most of my time in a freezing foxhole? Why were thousands of men being killed in this war? I can't estimate all the Central High School boys who died in this conflict.