Speak Out 8/10/07

Roll back taxes

SINCE THE Cape Girardeau School District is awash in money, it must be time to roll back property taxes.

Ready for TRCC

I'M HAPPY Three Rivers Community College is opening a campus in Cape Girardeau. Both my children went to a community college before moving up to a larger university. A lot of children need that opportunity.

Less sun energy

A RECENT Speak Out comment ridiculed "An Inconvenient Truth" by stating: "The energy output of our sun has been increasing for several decades. Real scientists know this." This person needs to see the BBC report that just came out from "real scientists" proving that the energy output of our sun has been decreasing for 20 years. Those who don't see that climate-change is real use made-up arguments, which is why Al Gore's film is so aptly titled.

Space defense

NASA IS a joke. NASA is a place where we can cut the budget. The benefits of space should be under the auspices of the Department of Defense. If space exploration is profitable, free enterprise would be more involved in it.

Good old school days

RETIRED TEACHERS always think schooling was better in the good old days when they first began teaching or even better when they were in school themselves or, best of all in, the 1950s and earlier when many schools districts practiced de facto or de jure racial segregation.

One size fits all

NOW LET me get this straight. Cape Girardeau is only big enough for one college. Following that logic you would only need one bank.

They're taking over

COLD WAR anti-communists tried to convince us that the communists would undermine and take over from within our country rather than attacking us. Have they, decades later, had their heretofore discredited theory proven correct as a result of tainted Doras, Elmos, jewelry, toothpaste and Lord knows what else, all coming from China?

Taking our rights

A RECENT comment either misread or misinterpreted the editorial on the smoking bans in Illinois. The "equally onerous" did not refer to smoking, but to the fact that our governments are taking away the rights of individuals and businesses. For those who agree the government should control such things, consider how you might feel when the government, for our "protection," makes laws banning some of the things you believe should be individual choice. Can't think of anything? Think again.

Bleeding hearts

ONE OF the Speak Out bloggers, commenting on Project Hope, noted a co-worker in construction who is undergoing chemo treatments for cancer while his family is trying to survive on mainly the wife's income. This is why so many of us feel the bleeding-heart syndrome in America is way off base. We offer little or no help for those who are hard-working but through no fault of their own are struggling to make ends meet. With a little assistance, this particular family might make it, but they will get no help until they are out on the streets, totally destitute, and even then help will be questionable. How shameful that rewards generally only go to those who could have done better with a little effort on their part. I assume this blogger was speaking of my youngest son, who has worked hard since he was a teenager and who worries more about his three children having to suffer than about his own suffering. God bless this country, which ignores the tragedies of such people while accepting accolades for helping "the poor." We need the blessings, for sure.

Comparing costs

I THINK the real story is how SIU is okay with John A Logan Community College right down the road, but Southeast Missouri State University has a fit whenever anyone even brings the topic up. Shawnee Community College tuition is $100 per credit hour, Mineral Area College is $103 per credit hour, SEMO is about $170 per credit hour. No rocket science needed there.

Paying for mistakes

LET ME get this straight. Our taxes paid for a new courthouse, and now our taxes are paying for the mistakes made by the people who came up with the concept, designed the building and then built it? Here's a better idea: Tear the thing down and give the taxpayers who paid for the ridiculous thing a refund. We need a new courthouse like our humidity needs a boost. Who's dumb idea was this?

Affordable art

THOSE WHO think we need high-priced artwork at the new federal courthouse can pay for it out of they own pockets. People will be talking more about the mistakes made in its construction. If you really want art, hang frames that can rotate art work from local schoolchildren. Give them their moment to shine and teach them not to live beyond their budget.

Book discussion

SOUTHEAST Missourian blogger Julia Jorgensen has chosen the book "And God Answered" by the late Jean Bell Mosley for an online book discussion over the next several weeks. Mrs. Mosley was raised on a farm in the Lead Belt region of Missouri. Rural life, writing, the humorous, serious and sometimes tragic aspects of her life, discussion of important historical events and the serenity resulting from a never wavering religious belief are some of the many themes of Mrs. Mosley's memoir. Log on and join the discussion.