OpinionSeptember 17, 2007
Speak Out 9/17/07
Kids not in school; Money is important; Trust and respect; School bullying; Prudent turns; Out of the district; Not surprised; Caring for pets; Long-distance mail; Jackson's marquees; Cherished grandkids; Show us how; Dog mess in park; Excellent concert; Tone it down; Proper procedure; Better sanitation; In good shape; Support limits; Serious misconduct; Finger on the pulse; Drive-through respect; Need stoplight; Bad behavior; Why not do both?; Bad example; Fate worse than death; Funny column; Planes are no mystery; Psychics in Congress
Kids not in school
I AM seeing way too many high school-age kids running around when they should be in school. And it's not just this week because of the fair. It's every week. Parents and teachers need to work together to communicate if a child is missing school. And parents: If you are letting your child skip school, you are not only taking him away from his education, you are teaching him to be irresponsible.
Money is important
WHEN I was a young man, I thought money was the most important thing in life. Now that I'm a lot older and, I hope, much wiser, I'm certain that it is.
Trust and respect
I READ complaints about the taxi service. If the transit authority would treat its employees better instead of treating them like kids, we might have better service. Employees need trust and respect, too.
School bullying
COULD SOMEONE please do something about the bullying situation at Central Junior High School? It is not the students we have to worry about, but the teachers. One teacher told students if they sneezed by her desk they would get detention. The resource officer screams at the kids. Even if they're going down the stairs and their flip-flops are too loud, he screams at them. If you complain to the principal, he denies it.
Prudent turns
IF YOU have been using the center turn lane as an acceleration lane, consider this: Turn right, proceed to an intersection and make a legal left turn. This may take a little more time, but it costs less than increased insurance rates, body shop bills and broken lives.
Out of the district
SCOTT CITY School District needs to look into the fact that students not living in the district are attending school in Scott City. We have students who are traveling as far as from Sikeston to attend school. This is not right and needs to be corrected.
Not surprised
I WAS interested but not a bit surprised to see the Southeast Missourian reporting that over 36 percent of the people who graduate from Missouri's high schools and enroll in a Missouri college have to take remedial courses. I'm surprised it's not higher than that. It's another sign of the downgraded expectations in our society and the problem of grade inflation. Where I work, I sometimes have to deal with people who have their master's degrees, some of whom cannot spell worth a darn and cannot put together a grammatical sentence or express themselves logically at all.
Caring for pets
WE HAD to put our dog to sleep. He was 16 years old and in bad health and in pain. It is so sad to see so many dogs and cats in the paper to be given away. If you don't want the responsibility of a pet, don't get one. Please have your pets spayed or neutered. When you give your pets away, you don't know if they will get good care or be mistreated.
Long-distance mail
WHEN YOU mail a letter in Cape Girardeau that has to go across town, why does it have to go all the way to St. Louis and back before it is delivered? It puzzles me. How about you?
Jackson's marquees
IF JACKSON wants to educate drivers, it would put the marquee sign at the railroad tracks at Jackson Boulevard and Hope Street and tell drives to merge onto Hope. There's no stop or yield sign there. There's a merge lane that goes to Sonic. The police department needs to increase its efforts on serious crimes and quit the foolishness about turning lanes.
Cherished grandkids
THANK YOU, Rod Perkin, for talking about the joys of being a grandparent. Grandkids are crowns. They're jewels. They're wonderful. They're to be cherished. They're the light of my life, and I love them very much.
Show us how
I PULLED out from Burger King to turn left onto East Jackson Boulevard and sat there for five minutes waiting until traffic cleared both ways to not have to get in the center lane. It is virtually impossible. If the police chief is smart enough to do it, I wish he could show us how. You have to make a right turn and come back.
Dog mess in park
I LIVE across the street from Dennis Scivally Park. It is a shame the way people walk their dogs, let them potty in the park and never pick it up. Kids play and get it on their shoes.
Excellent concert
THE CONCERT in Jackson by the Saxy Jazz Transition was excellent. The talented musicians and singers gave a great performance. What a great way to spend an evening in the beautiful Jackson Park.
Tone it down
FRIDAY NIGHT football at Jackson is special, but in recent years the PA system has been out of control. It blasts as the band approaches and enters the stadium, even while the band is playing. Enough is enough.
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Proper procedure
I'M CONCERNED about the traffic laws in Jackson. I would like for the police to please print the proper use of the center turn lane. I think I know, but I would like to see it in print.
Better sanitation
I'M ALL for a water park for Cape Girardeau. One reason I would be inclined to use it is the more swimming parks there are, the cleaner the water probably is. Sometimes, especially at the end of the year, when the bubble's put back on the Central pool, I don't get the feeling that the pool is that sanitary. Maybe it's me, but I would feel better if there were more pools.
In good shape
ALL THIS flap over Britney Spears is ridiculous. The same papers that would tell us the horror stories of young women being anorexic or having bulimia shoot down Britney Spears. Most of us would love to look like Britney. Good for her that she's not ashamed of her body and that she's still proud of it.
Support limits
THANK GOD for the change in the law on the maximum age requiring child support. I would like to know the percentage of noncustodial mothers ordered to pay child support who are delinquent, and of those I would like to know the percentage prosecuted opposed to the percentage of men who are prosecuted. I am continuing to help a grown daughter. I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is being forced to support someone who can live as an adult and do whatever she wishes. Why should a child of divorced parents have it better than when the parents were together? I wish Missouri would join the 38 states that cut support at age 18.
Serious misconduct
IN REFERENCE to the juveniles cited for sexual conduct: The quote "during a locker room incident" will automatically make some readers feel this was just boys playing around. The sexual conduct occurred in a classroom and is very serious. Sexual misconduct in students this age is extremely inappropriate. I hope school officials react strongly to protect the students threatened.
Finger on the pulse
PRETTY CUTE on the pseudo-Speak Out, Joe Sullivan. Now, could someone at the Missourian set up a blog for 9-11 conspiracy theories instead of having the Speak Out comments section filled with hate, venom, personal attacks and long-winded drivel? And, Joe, Speak Out selection might be tedious to you, but in many ways, this column has its finger on the pulse of Southeast Missouri.
Drive-through respect
I WORK a drive-through window at a convenience store. The people who are throwing trash on the ground are some of the same people who park so far away and won't reach out to get their order and expect us to hang our whole bodies out the window to reach to them. Usually these are the same individuals who get mad at us for asking them to turn their windshield wipers off before we open the window when it's raining heavy. Where does the water go when the wipers are on? If you're in my drive-through it goes in my face, Please have some respect for us, and keep your trash to yourself.
Need stoplight
CITY COUNCIL, please don't remove the stoplight at Pacific and Independence streets. There are schools in both blocks on Pacific, and removing the stoplight would create a terribly unsafe situation, not to mention a lot of traffic congestion. Trinity School does not have school buses, and traffic has been backing up to Broadway because of the blinking lights.
Bad behavior
WHAT HAS this world come to? My husband is in his 50s and was mowing our ditch in Chaffee when three teenage girls walked by and threw a soda can in front of him. He asked one of the girls to pick it up. She said, "Hope you have a heart attack" and walked away. Is this how we are raising our young adults?
Why not do both?
JOE SULLIVAN'S bylined Speak Out column was so good I think he should continue to write it on a daily basis as well as deal with the delightful task of sorting through traditional Speak Out commentary.
Bad example
AS A retired law enforcement officer, I am embarrassed by the actions of the police officer in the video from St. George, Mo. As if it wasn't bad enough on its own, that officer was a sergeant, a police officer in a supervisory role. I would not want to share a patrol car with him, nor would I want to serve on a police department that condoned his actions. Cops like him make it harder for all the other good police officers.
Fate worse than death
FOR JOE SULLIVAN to write that it is "better" to publish his own "mish-mash" than to go to extraordinary lengths to recover on time to publish the lost Sept. 12 Speak Out comments was an egregious insult to the Speak Out community. Must Joe go? No. Instead, Joe must be forever condemned (in this and the next life) to the daily opening, sorting and editing of what has become a Pandora's Box of Speak Out pontifications.
Funny column
JOE SULLIVAN, you are hilarious. That was a funny Speak Out column.
Planes are no mystery
I DON'T join the blogs associated with this or any other column. They are mostly nut cases at worst, hate-filled and argumentative at best. But one post needs an answer. A conspiracy nut is claiming that some mysterious white plane with a bubble on top was seen flying around Washington, D.C., implying this plane was directing the 9-11 attacks for our government. There were such planes also around New York and at least one on the West Coast. They're called AWACS, and their mission was to search the skies for additional attacks and direct tactical aircraft patrolling our air space.
Psychics in Congress
CONGRESSIONAL Democrats and some lost Republicans do not believe Gen. David Petraeus' testimony and do not think his plan is acceptable. If you watched their opening remarks, you know they had already determined this before they ever read his report, heard his testimony or heard his plan for troop reductions. Amazing people. They are obviously blessed with psychic insight. I don't know why they even bothered to have him testify. They knew it all along, and they could have saved their time and our money.
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