Speak Out 9/12/05

Parents: Grow up

IF YOU think college girls dress like prostitutes, you're missing the picture. The reason for that dress style is because more and more parents let their pre-teens dress provocatively. These "prostitots," as have been named, can be seen at movie theaters and malls any day of the week. When parents grow up and parent their child, we won't have these problems.

Stop blaming the feds

IT'S TIME for people to start reading more about Hurricane Katrina and about the lessons that should have been learned after Hurricane Ivan. Stop blaming the federal government for the state and local governments in Louisiana not doing things they should have done this past year to safeguard their citizens. Ask yourself why one of the evacuation plans included using school buses to take people with no transportation out of harm's way, but no one took the steps to do it. Ask yourself why they did not put the mandatory evacuation in place several days earlier? Please stop blaming the federal government for everything bad that happens.

Pay the price

I DON'T care what you wear to work. Why do you care what I wear to school? When you decide to pay my tuition, book fees, parking fees and housing fees I will gladly wear whatever you want me to.

Wasted education

I AM a senior in college, and I've been complaining about school since I was in the third grade. Education is a test to see how fast someone can memorize facts and spit them back to the professor. I really haven't learned anything in my 15-plus years of schooling except for one fact. If I get stuck and need help, I can go to a bookstore, library or the Internet and read about what I want or need to know. There is no reason to spend tens of thousands of dollars to show an employer that I can deal with anything he throws at me.

A blessing to help

I GO to First General Baptist Church in Jackson. A group from the church went to Mississippi to help clean up from the devastation of Katrina. They came home on such a spiritual high. They were excited that they were able to go do something for someone else for free. I wasn't able to go, but from what I heard when they got home they had such an awesome time. We will be praying for the Katrina victims. I hope we will be able to go back soon to help again.

Hurricane realities

OFFICIALS AND the public were not prepared for Hurricane Katrina. They blew it off. I live 60 to 70 miles inland from the South Carolina coast. I remember Hurricane Hugo. I understand that some people refuse to leave their homes because looters come out while the storm is hitting. The governor of Louisiana should have declared martial law immediately. These storms don't play around. It's a shame so many people lost everything, but that's what you have to expect if you live in an area like that. How many times does a person have to be flooded out before he gets the idea to build it further inland?

They turned their heads

WITH EVERY day that passes, the enormity of the devastation in New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina becomes clearer. What makes this horror even more shocking is the knowledge that the massive loss of life could have been prevented. State, local and federal authorities all knew that a hurricane of this magnitude was likely to strike the region. They knew that more than 100,000 people would be unable to evacuate. They knew the levees would not withstand the onslaught of a hurricane of this magnitude. They had the knowledge of the impending disaster. They had the ability to evacuate people. They simply chose to do nothing. They chose to turn their heads while thousands of people died, simply because these people were poor and black. And still they insist on more tax cuts for the richest Americans.