Speak Out 8/13/05

From sodas to riches

I'M GLAD the cost of sodas in restaurants is so high. This should have some effect on those who are ordering them. Children have no business drinking sodas anyway. Teach your kids good habits. I used to drink at least one soda a day. That kept an extra 10 pounds on me each year. I broke the habit two years ago and have never looked back. Order a glass of water. It has health benefits, and you can't beat the price. Invest the saved money in an interest-bearing account, and you'll be amazed at how rich you'll be down the road.

Impact on Oran

THE TACTICS of the new Oran police chief will not attract potential new residents. The town already has been deserted by the railroad and major industry. Why not finish Oran off by driving away its last resource, the young people?

Water is healthy

INSTEAD OF drinking sodas, drink water with a lemon twist. It's healthier for you. Soda consumption by youths contributes to tooth decay and obesity.

Exploited plight

I BOYCOTTED the sales-tax shopping holiday, because I think that if we sacrifice state revenue at the expense of Medicaid recipients, it's immoral to exploit their plight.

Watchdogs at work

IT'S NOT surprising that your article on the Corps of Engineers and the New Madrid Floodway Project missed the point. The fact is that the corps produced a fraudulent environmental impact statement with bogus data to support its cost-benefit analysis. Our Missouri agencies -- Department of Conservation and Department of Natural Resources -- failed to discover these bogus data. Fortunately, the nongovernmental watchdog environmental organizations did their homework and revealed the corps to be engaged in fraud. Now the corps claims it was just a matter of interpretation and semantics. It was not. The corps now recognizes it needs three times as much forested wetland as it claimed. Costs will soar, and the cost-benefit analysis, already precariously balanced, will tip against the project.

Plenty of pork

I WOULD suggest that U.S. Sen. Kit Bond look up the definition of "pork barrel" before he makes a public statement that it isn't pork-barrel spending just because something is needed. My dictionary defines "pork barrel" as a government project or appropriation yielding benefits to a political district and its political representatives. It says nothing about whether or not it's needed. Another question for Bond: How many billion dollars did he support for other states' pork barreling in order to get the votes for his own?

North to south

THIS IS concerning Main Street and Water Street going from north to south. Make Water Street going south to north. It would be so much easier. Otherwise, you have to travel around two blocks before you can ever get anywhere.