Speak Out 7/24/05

Seeking the truth

JOAN RYAN'S July 20 column asks just the right rhetorical question of her colleagues in journalism: "Why protect a manipulative politician who leaks classified information in order to put a positive spin on a pack of lies?" However, two Speak Out comments on the same page miss the fact that reporters are getting into hot water over all this by losing jobs and going to jail. More importantly, our press has traditionally been free to try to tell us what is going on -- protected, and not under constraints like the National Secrets Act, as Rove was. Finally, the important thing is to recall that the Bush administration seems to have lied about the war agenda. Good journalists sometimes risk, if not life, then livelihood, in probing for truth.

Hot classrooms

AS WE feel the heat outside, one can only look at the calendar and wonder why the Cape Girardeau School District is starting school again on Aug. 15. The air -conditioning systems in the schools barely work, but school officials still send the kids out for recess and PE in the heat. Why on earth does school begin earlier every year? It should be the way it used to be: Memorial day to Labor Day for summer. I hope the new superintendent does something other than give the excuse that we have to do this because that is the only way the semester can end in December. District officials should spend some of these hot days in the classrooms.

Stop auto inspections

IT SEEMS like all the surrounding states have stopped state auto inspections. I wonder why Missouri doesn't drop them too. Governor Blunt, we need to stop this.

Breeding fanatics

MONA CHAREN'S July 20 column reads almost like she's becoming a progressive as she admits that religious fanaticism endangers civilization. But her final focus -- Evil and scary = Islamism, nice = Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu -- does not fully address the potential for fanaticism in all religion. How does George W. Bush's Christian fundamentalism meld with his penchant for war and support of the death penalty? How about the new pope's assessment of a Protestant's place in heaven? How about the Zen Buddhist priests who blessed Japanese bombers in World War II? How about Christian bombers of women's health clinics and the Christian assassins of doctors who perform abortions? Some people remember the Ku Klux Klan with fondness. Maybe we should all recall its connections to Christianity. Maybe Muslim schools in Pakistan deserve to be scrutinized from without to find out what fanatics might be gestating within. Maybe Islam is currently the cradle of most of the fanaticism on the planet, but in order to accomplish the death of religious fanaticism, as Ms. Charen seems to want, then the same examination must be done to all religious schools everywhere. Mankind needs to grow past the myth and magic, literalism and fundamentalism, that breeds fanaticism in all contemporary religion.

Have a heart

THE PERSON who said a 30 year old widow and her children should only receive Social Security benefits until the contributions made by the deceased spouse and his employer are gone is naive and obviously has been blessed with good health and good fortune. I know of a situation where three children were left orphaned as a drunken driver. The parents were only in their mid-30s at the time of their death. Those three children, all in grade school and high school, needed the Social Security their parents paid in and then some to be raised by another family. When they turned 18 and began college, they were on their own. All three have attended college and are doing well, but thank heaven for Social Security above and beyond what their parents paid in. Have a heart and consider those who are less fortunate and be glad that Social Security, paid in by you and me, can help those who are in a situation where a spouse or parents die young.

National concern

IT'S SAD that today our country is talking about how a CIA agent's name was leaked to a reporter when China is building a huge military. China just unveiled war ships with systems stolen from the United States. What we should be talking about is how China was in a position to gather this information and why Chinese officials donated to Bill Clinton's campaign and legal defense. What is more important? One person, or our entire country?

Get up-close look

IN REGARD to the article about Missouri lawmakers being irritated by unwanted phone calls from angry Medicaid clients: Cry me a river. I think Gov. Matt Blunt and every lawmaker who voted for the Medicaid cuts should have to spend one day in a caseworkers chair and see firsthand the devastation they have caused.

Searching for truth

A SPEAK Out caller said religion always separates people into factions and thereby promotes contention and violence. This is clearly true for those religions which try to dictate what all individuals must believe, such as traditional Christianity and Islam. But this is not the case with all religions. Locally, for example, Unitarian Universalist churches in Cape Girardeau and Carbondale advocate for the right of each individual to search freely and responsibly for truth and meaning. Conformity to a creed is replaced by the right of conscience, together with encouragement of all members' spiritual growth. It seems to me that this world could use a lot more Unitarians.

Dog investigation

I'D LIKE to thank Mayor Jay Knudtson for trying to help me with a problem I have. The police came out and took my statement again. But I still have not been informed of the status of the investigation concerning the dog I suspect was used for fighting.

Boot camp needed

I THINK there needs to be a boot camp for troubled teens here. It could offer discipline and military training. Kids seem to think if they get in trouble, they will do a few weeks in a nice facility where they goof off all day and eat nice meals. By putting them in a place like that, they don't learn anything, and they don't mind to go back. If they are sent to a boot camp where they are worked hard all day and do school work, they would learn to not repeat whatever it was that put them there in the first place. They would be better people for all they learned. Maybe it would inspire them to join the military when they get old enough.

Fighting honesty

AS THE mother of a soldier in Iraq, I have a barely controlled desire to slap the highly educated person who, having no soldier friends or family, once explained to me that mistakes happen in all wars, that casualties are not really all that high and that I really shouldn't get exercised about them. What the parent in me expects from our leaders is simply the truth, an end to happy talk and denials of error and a seriousness equal to that of the men and women our country sends into the fight.

One field is enough

IT WOULD be a waste of public money for the Cape Girardeau School District to spend $1 million for a football field for Central High School when a great field at Southeast Missouri State University is available.

Matter of safety

REGARDING THE elderly woman who couldn't get her driver's license: There are stronger policies these days to prevent terror here in the U.S. This woman may not be a terrorist, but we have to look at everyone as if he or she were a terrorist. That's the era that we live in now.