Speak Out 8/26/05

Pretty far behind

I'VE BEEN reading about the local sting operation. It's a crying shame when law enforcement lets a guy get $5,000 behind on child support before it does anything about it. Why let it go that far?

Itching for a fight

WHEN IS all this going to stop? It's 9 p.m. Saturday, and there are 40 to 50 juveniles on Jefferson Avenue and Hanover Street looking for a gang fight. Are officials going to wait until one of these youngsters kills somebody before they do something? Why don't we try what Sikeston did and get this mess over with? Folks from Sikeston say the chief there is too tough, so the hoodlums are coming to Cape Girardeau.

Sensible taxation

THE BOOK on the FairTax is now the No. 1 best seller on the New York Times book list. It is a great book. It's short and sweet and tells the story of a short-and-sweet tax proposal that can replace all of the income tax in the United States -- all the employment taxes, the FICA tax, the Medicaid tax, the unemployment tax -- with just one tax. The FairTax would give rebates to poor people. It would take care of everybody in one simple tax without any loopholes. This makes sense, and it would make the economy of the United States better.

Cell-phone danger?

I'VE HEARD you should not talk on a cell phone when you're filling up at the gas station, but in Monday's paper there's a man talking on the cell phone and filling up his tank. I've asked people to not talk on the cell phone when I'm at the pump, because I don't want to be blown up. So what is the truth on that?

Take it slow in Oran

IT WAS nice to hear a good comment about Oran. This has been a good town to live in all these years. The new police chief is getting a lot more credit than he deserves, but he is doing some nice things with the children and trying to straighten life up a little bit on some of the abuses. He's doing a good job with what he's started, but let's don't get too big too fast. Let's take it slow, because it needs to be done correctly.

Personal grief

UNTIL YOU lose a son in the war in Iraq, do not judge Cindy Sheehan based on your personal support of President Bush. The loss of a child has got to be the most devastating experience of a lifetime. How could you know or guess the thoughts and emotions of a grieving mother?

Defeating reporting

IN HIS memoirs, a top North Vietnamese official wrote that his country was ready to negotiate a peace following disastrous defeat during the Tet offensive. However, the North Vietnamese quickly changed their minds when the American news media falsely described Tet as an American defeat. The North Vietnamese felt that if public support for the war continued to decline, they might be able to hang on and win, which of course they did. As a Vietnam War veteran, I've always felt the main reason we lost was the losers who wrote, reported and even fabricated events about the war. Does anyone feel a sense of deja vu?

Better location

ON MY way back from St. Louis, I made a special effort to look for the new Cape Girardeau billboards. The General Grant and the Lewis and Clark billboards really stood out and looked great. However, I nearly missed the Mark Twain billboard because it's in a horrible location. Who decided where to put these things? What's the point of spending money if the billboards are where people can't see them?

Out of the closet

SO PAT Robertson and the self-styled Christian Right are now fully out of the closet. In addition to supporting the sacrifice of American troops and Iraqi civilians in a fruitless war that is promoting terrorism, they endorse the assassination of foreign leaders of whom they disapprove. So much for their support of democracy. So much for their right-to-life claims.

Scott City traffic

THE RAMSEY Creek bridge project will definitely help with congestion at Scott City's Interstate 55 interchange in the case of a wreck at that interchange, but it's not really going to solve the real problem that exists Monday through Friday during the months of August through May. Parents drive their children to school every day rather than using the buses, so those parents go through the stoplights heading west, then back again heading east, then north to get onto I-55. The proposed bridge will not help this group of people. During June and July, when school is out, the I-55 interchange is not problematic. The real issue is the traffic that goes west on Route M in the mornings, and then back east to get onto I-55 during school months. The Ramsey Creek bridge would only make it harder for city administrators to convince the Missouri Department of Transportation that the interchange is still a problem. The entire interchange is the real issue.

Greedy criminals

I CAN'T believe someone used Speak Out to praise criminals for avoiding arrest and berating the Jackson Police Department for wasting tax dollars by setting up a sting operation. What should amuse law-abiding citizens is that this is one of the oldest tricks in the law enforcement book. Police departments across the nation have used it for decades and always publish the results. Yet greedy criminals always fall for it.

Free speech

PLEASE KEEP Speak Out alive and well. People in this area are usually slow to express their true feelings about an issue, but Speak Out gives them that tool. Whether the comments are good, bad or outrageous, they are thought-provoking and ultimately lead to good. It is the gift of free speech in action.