Speak Out 7/2/06

Ban on signs

THE BAN on the garage-sale signs is ridiculous. We all need to call the city manager, mayor or your city council member. We need to put a stop to this. How are customers going to find my garage sale if I can't put a sign up?

Foolish spending

I AM way past disgusted and quite concerned over how Mayor Jay Knudtson and city manager Doug Leslie portray their spending-fool syndrome disease. From the $70,000 welcome garden to the $40,000 trip to California, they both need an immediate antidote. How about using that money to attract decent-paying industry to Cape Girardeau so that college graduates like me don't have to work for peanuts?

Some questions

ACCORDING TO my interpretation of the new sign ordinance in Cape Girardeau, the police have no right to remove your sign without proper notice and procedure. Article II, Section D-8 states: "If any sign shall be unlawfully installed, erected or maintained in violation of any of the provisions of this ordinance, the owner thereof or the person or firm using same shall, upon written notice by the code official forthwith in the case of immediate danger, and in any other case within not more than ten (10) days, make such sign conform to the provisions of this ordinance, or shall remove it. If within ten (10) days the order is not complied with, the code official shall be permitted to remove or cause such sign to be removed at the expense of the owner and/or the user of the sign." Therefore, it is my opinion that if an officer removes your sign without proper notice, your due-process rights have been violated. The nuisance/abatement officer came to my business and told me to remove a banner sign. However, he was unable to tell me what ordinance I was violating. Neither could the station commander at the police department or planning and zoning. Our city council needs to have some direction for the police department on the interpretation of the code before officers are sent to enforce something about which they are clueless.

Find own heroes

THERE THE Republicans go again. They want to compare President Bush with President Truman. That is like comparing oranges to apples. Trying to compare Harry Truman to George Bush is an insult. Why don't the Republicans leave our heroes alone?! Why don't they compare him with President Nixon or the first President Bush? Leave our heroes alone. Find your own.

Tough love

I WISH the woman who feeds the birds with a loaf of bread would stop. The birds eat and then fly to my house and peck my car, house and driveway. It is summer. The birds can find their own food.

Restaurant rudeness

I WOULD like to make a comment to people who are rude to parents who bring children to restaurants for dinner. We went to a restaurant in Cape Girardeau. We were embarrassed by a woman who was sitting beside us and wanted to move because our 2-year-old was being a 2-year-old and she couldn't handle sitting by him. It was tacky and rude of her.

Real criminals

CRIMESTOPPERS IS a waste of time and money. All it is a snitch program to find people for fraud and insufficient-funds checks and non-payment of child support. These people don't deserve to have their pictures put in the paper like some burglar or rapist or murderer. Can we get some real criminals on the page?

Double standards

THIS IDEA that America is supposed to represent some shining light for democracy to other nations is and will remain tainted as long as our own preconceived notions and stereotypes persist. We hold hundreds of people in a prison without charge, and we Americans proclaim they are guilty until proven innocent. The soldiers at Haditha, however, are upstanding citizens who are afforded the privilege of being innocent until proven guilty. As long as double standards like this stand, the U.S. really should keep its nose out of the business of others.

Making our own

THE UNITED States is importing more than 12 million barrels of oil a day. At $70 a barrel that's $840 million a day we are sending out of the country to Arabs. On top of that we had to start a war and have had 2,500 troops killed. We have about 20,000 soldiers who will never work productively again. And we have spent over $400 billion. If this is the way you want to be, fine. But I want ethanol.

Illegal aliens

IN SPITE of what you have heard, there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant. Immigrants are foreign nationals who obey the world's most generous immigration laws and come here legally. Illegal aliens are foreign nationals who have skipped all those pesky legal steps.