Speak Out 7/7/08

Gasoline robbery

THE PRICE of gasoline going up so soon after oil prices go up is ridiculous, because there's no way that more expensive oil has been processed and made into these products, whether it be gasoline, diesel or whatever. Gas stations won't drop their prices immediately when oil prices go down. So they're getting two raises at the pump for each increase in the price of oil, which is robbery, isn't it?

Shooting fireworks

CHILDREN IN south Cape Girardeau are shooting fireworks at people's cars and porches. I think the city should ban fireworks. The children are going set somebody's house on fire. The police need to do something about it.

It's like Iraq

IN REGARD to comment about the house burning in south Cape Girardeau: I witnessed the night the fireworks set the house on fire across the street in the 1000 block of South Ellis Street, which is a firing zone. The children act like it's Iraq. I think it's a disgrace to Cape Girardeau to have this going on.

Gordonville speeders

I'VE BEEN driving through Gordonville for three years twice a day. It is amazing to me that every morning on our drive to Cape the people are flying through Gordonville, and the two police cars sit there in the parking lot. The same thing happens in the afternoon. They cops should be writing tickets and enforcing the laws.

Doing the right thing

I WANT to commend the parents for doing the right thing in steering their son in the right direction when he caused damage to the barbecue place in Jackson. That's what raising children is all about: steering them in the right direction. Not hiring a lawyer to get them out of a mess, but making them take responsibility for their actions and doing the right thing. God bless you.

Stoplight calibration

OVERALL, I find the calibration of the stoplights in Cape Girardeau to be remarkably efficient. There are, however, some intersections where the calibration is clearly off. One such intersection, the worst I use, is at Independence Street and West End Boulevard. It is clearly in need of calibration. I know there are others, and I think motorists should let the city know.

Summer homework

IT MAY be petty for a parent to complain about summer homework, but what if all the teachers got on the bandwagon and started handing out homework over the summer? It would ruin summer vacation. Most parents who are responsible have their children doing plenty during the summer. If all the teachers assigned homework in the summer, the children might as well be in year-round school, which I oppose.

Pumping our own oil

I'D LIKE to put my two cents' worth in about the oil crisis. If we had started drilling 10 years ago when Bill Clinton was president, we'd be pumping our oil right now out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Gulf of Mexico. I'm tired of liberals saying that it's not going to do us any good to pump our own oil. We should be pumping our own oil right now.

Vehicle accountability

I TAKE responsibility for my actions. My vehicle is my private property, parked in my private drive. That is my property, and I can carry anything I wish, as long as it's legal, in my vehicle. If a thief breaks in and takes something that is mine, he'd better be the one who's ready to take responsibility for his actions, because he will be the one held accountable.

Washington's words

IN GEORGE Washington's farewell address in 1796, he left us some immortal words that we should meditate this Fourth of July weekend. "Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government." Amen.

Waiting in the garage

THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS are happy now. We're all having to drive less and save gas. I bought a small car that gets good mileage. I run fewer errands. I mow my grass less often. What's that in my garage? It's my safe, comfortable, big sport utility vehicle, just waiting for my next weekend road trip, my next vacation and cheaper gas prices.

Depend on the U.S.

WAKE UP, America. Do you not remember the oil embargo in 1974 when we had to wait in lines to get fuel because OPEC countries decided they weren't going to send any oil to the U.S. to punish us? We did nothing -- no drilling for oil, no new refineries, no alternative energy. What happens when OPEC says no more oil for the U.S.? It's said there is more oil here in the U.S. than Saudi Arabia. Let's find it, build new refineries, conserve and let the U.S. depend on the U.S.

Pain of execution

I HAVE a problem with death-row inmates arguing that execution is too painful. It seems to me that it should be painful. They didn't care about their victims' pain. Whose rights are we looking at?