Speak Out 8/5/06

Cab communication

I TRIED to get a cab this morning. I called for about 45 minutes straight, and all I got was a recorded message. I think the transit authority should get this straightened out before it loses many customers.

Thanks for checking

I WANT to thank the woman who pulled over on Highway 74 to check on me and my daughter. You were kind to offer your help. Thanks again for caring enough to stop and check on us.

Switch to wood

THE IDEA of building three 100 million-gallon ethanol plants in Southeast Missouri is silly. At least one of the plants should be switched over to celluosic ethanol. If all three plants are operating in a poor crop year, those three plants could use a third of the corn produced in Missouri. A celluosic plant could use trees, scrap lumber, wood chips and sawdust produced around this area. Once the technology is here, it would be cheaper. You could harvest wood a lot of places, like along ditch banks. That would get rid of trees that are nothing but problems and eyesores. If you get the trees out of the ditches, you could replant them, and in a few years you'd have replacement trees. Then we could harvest them again.

Wasting gasoline

I'D LIKE to thank everybody who supports me. I've got 5,000 shares of Exxon stock. The way people like to drive around and waste gasoline, it does my heart good to see that you're helping me make more money. I've talked to gas-station attendants who work midnight shift. They say people in this town can't sleep. So they drive to buy a pack of cigarettes or get a soda. By the time they drive two or three miles across town, they've wasted about half a gallon of gas. Those people are all doing me a favor.

Unaffordable cab

THIS NEW cab system is for the birds. People can't afford it. I think it's about time we get a petition up to get them out of here.

Tossing litter

I JUST saw something that was pretty sad. I witnessed a man throwing out a large beverage cup the middle of the road. I would think he would maybe find a better way to discard his litter.

Hiring concerns

THE REASON given for rehiring the Jackson High School principal was that he had knowledge of the plans to construct school buildings. The retired principal will make almost $15,000 more than the newly hired assistant superintendent in the Cape Girardeau School District. Is this good management of the Jackson School District's money? Is it not current practice to hire an architect to take care of building projects? Did anybody notice our local architects and engineers were overlooked in favor of big-city ones? This practice of hiring retired administrators may have met the law, but is it ethical or moral?

Hospital smoking

HOORAY FOR Southeast Missouri Hospital's ban on smoking. Now I don't have to walk through smoke to get in. Come on, Saint Francis Medical Center, join the crowd.

Coffeepot power

THANK YOU for Sunday's front-page news concerning energy zappers in our homes. Another big culprit is the coffeepot that keeps the reservoir of water hot for 24 hours a day if left in the on mode. I turn mine off before I leave for work, and it extends the life of the pot and saves electricity.

Cotton welfare

FARM PRODUCTS are subject to the laws of supply and demand, at least when it comes to potatoes, almonds, peaches, asparagus and others. However, when it comes to cotton, farmers are supersubsidized by the taxpayers. If cotton were subjected to world supply and demand, imported cotton would be much cheaper than the price we're paying now. Cotton farmers are world-class welfare queens.

Fuel from sugar

America is ready to find new sources of energy. We need to explore for oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. We need to build new gasoline refineries. We also need to research the best methods of producing ethanol. LSU is researching a version of sugar cane that creates more ethanol. It's called "energycane." Several private companies are researching Midwestern sugar cane that could be grown in this area and processed into ethanol. Private companies are also researching corn that needs less nitrogen fertilizer. Please ask your senators and congresswoman to redirect federal research into breeding a midwestern energycane that uses nitrogen directly from the air. This will bring more money to the Midwest and less to the Mideast.

Experience counts

You can call what the Jackson School District is doing corruption if you want. However, whether or not it hurts the students is a whole different question. In fact, a good argument could be made that teachers with decades of experience (eligible for retirement, for example) are generally the best and are teachers whose students achieve the best results.

Futility over Iraq

David Limbaugh lambasted Democrats for criticizing everything we do in Iraq. One wonders if it has ever dawned on Limbaugh that Democrats and the American people have just about had it with doing anything at all in Iraq, have thrown their hands up in "We tried to give Iraq freedom" futility and favor bringing the troops home sooner rather than later.

High expectations

I suppose incumbents representing the voters in Cape Girardeau and Marble Hill must truly believe voters are uninformed. Rarely are contributions made to candidates from political action committees for any reason other than what the PACs can get from the individuals to whom they contribute.

Aging tattoos

The tattoo story reminded me of a discussion a friend and I had a few years ago. We were considering shocking our friends and spouses with a tattoo. What we could not figure out, though, is what our tattoos would look like in 10 years, when we were in our 70s. Where might they have slid to, and what shape would they be when the skin they were on gravitated toward our feet? We thought a fat cherub could end up being a really tall, skinny angel. We decided to forgo our tattoos.