Speak Out 7/29/13

Food stamps

About 47 million Americans received food stamps last year, but only a relative few are required to work or look for a job as a condition of receiving the aid. Now, House Republicans are considering whether the work requirement should be strengthened as they seek cuts to the $80 billion-a-year program, which has doubled in cost over the last five years. That is what the American people should demand of the Congress. Work to earn their money. They do nothing. Campaign, go on vacations. They are the most useless bunch that has ever been there.

Fewer representatives

I missed the opportunity to go to a meeting and tell State Rep. Paul Curtman my idea as to where to start downsizing state government. Anyway, I would have told him a good beginning was right under his nose, and a wonderful start would be to reduce our unnecessarily large number of state representatives by consolidating legislative districts. For our meager population, Missouri has so many representatives in state government, it is a ridiculous waste of revenue to pay for such a surplus of lawmakers, particularly in light of their non- accomplishments.

Radical opinion

Taking a page right out of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," a right-wing extremist recently wrote a column published in the Southeast Missourian. In the column, the author in essence claimed Cape Girardeau would be much better off without a water park and numerous other recreational facilities, both current and planned. To me, the column was a classic example of overreach, dictated by rigid political ideology and having nothing to do with the health and well-being of our local citizenry. The author's implication that Cape would become a ghost town if we don't follow his advice was well beyond foolish and will be rejected by common-sense citizens who see through his divide-and-conquer philosophy.

Caps, restrooms

Congratulations to the Capahas baseball team for another great season, in spite of the city locking the restrooms and forcing players and guests to use the "hot" port-a-potties and providing no concessions on the grounds.

Greedy politics

The U.S. Congress is set to vote on an amendment in the Defense Appropriations Bill that would underfund a controversial part of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program. I would rather the government keep up the surveillance than stop it. I would rather them find someone that was about to blow up a lot of people than to protect the people who are doing things that they don't want the government to know about, like avoiding paying their fair share of taxes, etc. The politicians are some of the ones who don't want anyone to know anything about them, as they are more crooked than a barrel of snakes.