Speak Out 8/7/07

Making money

WHEN I worked in a restaurant, I would have loved to see a 10-person table right at close. There is a guaranteed tip with a party of 10, and I could focus on giving them extra-good service to attract even more. When an owner puts employees in positions to run the store, he or she expects those employees to treat the place like it is their own. If you close your doors to business, you are losing money for the owner, which can decrease how much you could eventually make. An extra $200 a day equals $73,000 a year. Bring up to your owner or manager that you do not drive away late arriving customers and made him or her an additional $73,000 over the year. Then ask for a big raise. Grow the economy, stupid.

Junk from China

CONTAMINATED toothpaste, poisoned pet food, faulty tires and toys with leaded paint. All are recalled products imported from China. I plan to search diligently for U.S.-made products every time I shop. I am willing to pay a few cents more to stop this junk from China from taking over our lives.

Unwanted litter

I'D LIKE to thank the person who made the addition to my freshly mowed yard. The red and white creation was impossible to miss among the green. It stood out just as an ink spot does on a white sheet. The only problem is that it was so out of place, I had to dispose of it. Please find a trash can to throw away your fast-food bag.

Lack of discipline

SO KATHRYN Lopez writes about Democrats and school choice. The main trouble in failing public schools is the lack of discipline imposed by the administration and the powers that be. Lack of discipline has increased throughout the years. Lots of parents don't discipline their children. The politically incorrect truth is that rich, middle-class and poverty students alike must adhere to a code of discipline and conduct in school and society. That is what we fail to teach, and no amount of money thrown at the problem will help. Maybe Michael Moore could do a movie on the failure of schools to demand discipline. We would all be shocked. I am a retired teacher and substitute teacher with several relatives who are also teachers. We often discuss these shortcomings and hope for a solution.

Lack of control

WE TAXPAYERS paid for the bad roof on the new federal courthouse. It should be public record who did such a bad job. Where was the general contractor in all this? What else will go wrong in this new money pit? Do we really want this same government controlling our health care when it can't even control a roof?

Dumping yard debris

MY NEIGHBOR was dumping lawn clippings, tree limbs and other yard trash at the back of his property near an easement ditch, which fills with water when it rains. I called Cape Girardeau police twice, and they told him to remove the piles, which he did. The third time the police sent a nuisance abatement officer, who came to my door and said to quit complaining because the neighbor was "filling holes so children wouldn't fall in them." There were no holes in the area to my knowledge and no children where my neighbor lives. I also saw where Tim Metzger said in the Missourian that dumping of refuse of any kind would not be tolerated, even in a person's own yard. So my question is, why are some officers enforcing the laws and the department that should be enforcing the laws is not? Are the police selective about who they enforce the laws on? The trash keeps piling up.

Dubious honor

THE NEW federal courthouse has become such an albatross around our necks one wonders if Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr. would be honored by having this taxpayer-financed money pit named after him.

Bunker mentality

"MANY health-conscious Americans are applauding a new Illinois law that bans smoking in public places starting next Jan. 1," began a recent Southeast Missourian editorial. Your second paragraph, in apparent reference to the first began, "Equally onerous ... ." Equally onerous? The fact that the Southeast Missourian editorial considers onerous a public desire to legally stop smoking in public places reverses my belief that the board was exhibiting signs of progressivism and promotes one that sees the board as lapsing into a paranoid, Nixonian, bunker mentality.

Stalking horses

YOU'D NEVER hear it from National Review's Kathryn Lopez, but school choice, charter schools and the like are nothing but stalking horses for the abolition of public education.

Taxing tobacco

IN INSTITUTING statewide smoking bans, we are overlooking the fact that states as well as the federal government are continually attempting to raise cigarette taxes. What would a thinking person deduce about all this? That the governments want smokers to quit? Wrong. Governments want the additional tobacco-tax income. What they do not want us to realize is that when smoking bans are put into law, and when the taxes go up, they are looking at an unreliable source of tax income as smokers quit or cut back. This has become a serious problem for at least one Midwestern state, which has found itself in dire need of additional income because their tobacco tax increases have continually dwindled significantly.

Dangerous stroller

THIS IS for the woman who was letting her son push an empty stroller in J.C. Penney. While you weren't watching him I saw him come out from between two racks and trip an employee. She could have been hurt, and so could he. You should keep your stroller and child with you at all times instead of letting him wander by himself.

School supplies

DO YOU expect teachers to buy your child's school supplies? Each year, I spend my own money for classroom activities, rewards, treats and supplies for the students who don't have them and a multitude of other things. In 10 years of teaching, I can count on one hand how many thank-you's I have received. Please think about the hundreds of dollars your child's teachers have spent. Instead of complaining, you may want to thank them instead of being ungrateful for the high quality, inexpensive education your child is getting.

New list of R's

THE THREE R's that need to be implemented: 1. Raise taxes on the rich through the roof. 2. Repair infrastructure and provide universal health care. 3. Reduce the standard of living for the robber barons and superwealthy.

Bumper sticker

THE SINGLE most significant reason for the decline of academic achievement in America's schools is the woefully wrong-headed self-esteem movement. I love George Carlin's suggested bumper sticker: "We Are the Proud Parents of a Child Whose Self-Esteem Is Sufficient That He Doesn't Need Us Advertising His Minor Achievements on the Bumper of Our Car."

Apt metaphor

ARE YOU familiar with the song, "Sad but True?" It has relevance to Cape Girardeau. The new federal courthouse is an apt metaphor for the collapsing infrastructure of our community, state and nation, and it's not even completed.

Fast and loose

TALK ABOUT playing fast and loose with words. Columnist David Limbaugh accuses Democrats of not being verbally precise in their criticism of Republicans and then proceeds to accuse Democrats of treason.

Soldiers' comments

I'M GLAD to read the comments of our soldiers in your column. Thank you for letting their voices be heard.