Speak out 7/2

Self-esteem problems

I WOULD like to request that the Central Middle School, Central Junior High School and Central High School not select student council members by popular vote. I know of at least two elementary schools that chose not to have student council members selected by popular vote last school year. The fourth-graders were the upper-classmen in the elementary grades, and each fourth-grade class took a project to work on throughout the school year. Any extra activities such as hat day, twin day and pajama day were voted on by the entire fourth grade, which not only worked out wonderfully but was fair. Young children have so much pressure on them as it is without adding more self-esteem problems.

Fight graffiti with ...

I DO not believe the graffiti looks bad on the building on Broadway. However, if I were one of the doctors in that building, I'd be climbing up there with my own spray paint and to show the graffiti artists that someone has messed with their graffiti.

Is it needed?

I HAVE no problem with football being in the schools, nor do I have a problem with band. My problem is why is there an athletic director. Why isn't just a coach enough? Why do Jackson and Cape Girardeau find it necessary to have an athletic director?

Poor management

I'M HEARING a lot today about the school districts in Missouri and about how they're going to sue the state over the budget and how the budget is not adequate. I think if people would compare the amount of money being spent on education and the decline in education, they could say with quite a bit of honesty that money isn't the problem. The problem is a lack of management. They've put people in charge of dispensing money and seeing how it is spent based solely on political connections. It should be based on ability to manage and administrate, which they don't do.

The gay agenda

HEIDI HALL'S column about the gay agenda was an insult. She ridicules the concept that many of us have that there is a gay agenda, which they've used to get their beliefs shoved down other people's throats. She's wrong. There is a gay agenda. When I was in high school 20 years ago, I went to school with a boy who was gay. He often talked about his plans, which were to get into the entertainment industry and work to get gay characters into our movies and TV shows so that our kids would understand that being gay was an option for them. He did exactly that. Where did he learn all of this? He was in a gay activist group in the St. Louis area that had strategy meetings. Where is he now? He's dead. He had AIDS. When I worked for a publishing company in the city, there were gay people there who had an agenda to get more gay characters in books. Yes, there are many wonderful gay people in the community that I know and love, but don't tell me there's not a gay agenda.