Speak Out 7/25/13

Editor's note: The Speak Out comment regarding the PolyOne plant closing connected comments made by someone else in a recent Southeast Missourian story with John Mehner. This is inaccurate.

Obama's views

I'm an impartial person on parties in the political system. But I see our president on TV telling us we need to take a "reality check" on race and saying that if Trayvon Martin had been a white kid the outcome would have been different. I really don't believe that, and this has been made into something bigger than it is.

Plant closing

I just read about the PolyOne plant closing. I was amazed by the comments of Mr. Mehner who sounds like a typical politician when he said that the area won't be harmed. He doesn't equate statistics with flesh-and-blood human beings who will be out of a job and without income. Just like a politician.

Computer illiterates?

I want to make a comment on the computers in high schools. Does this mean they are not going to teach them how to write their names on paper? With a computer, you won't need an ink pen.

Race matters

Only in the U.S. can a Hispanic shoot an African-American and a white person gets blamed.

Kudos to Lyons

I'm calling about the Gene Lyons column in Monday's Southeast Missourian. I want to compliment Lyons and the Missourian for publishing such a positive article as his "Tragic but correct verdict in Zimmerman trial." I don't always agree with Lyons and his thoughts, but I do compliment him for having the courage to write an article that was so positive about something that has been so badly misused.

Ragan's story

Erin Ragan's excellent elaboration on the worthiness of providing tax incentives of one kind or another establishes Ragan as a top tier newspaper reporter and one whose future in journalism knows no bounds.