OpinionSeptember 28, 2007
Speak Out 9/28/07
Marching Tigers; Ministry for all; Bigger complaints; Public schools; It's a condition; Oughta be a law
Marching Tigers
CENTRAL HIGH School's Marching Tigers did it again. The band took first place in its division of seven bands and also outstanding performance of percussion, color guard and drum major. That's great. Keep it up, Tigers.
Ministry for all
REGARDING THE Angel Foods Ministry: This program is for everyone, not just for low-income or elderly people. I purchase it for our family of four because it's a great bargain. By doing so, I am more able to extend hospitality to others who may not have any friends, much money or something along those lines. It's also a fantastic ministry to college students on limited funds. The Angel Foods Ministry causes no traffic problems, no loud noise or anything else that could possibly bother any reasonable person.
Bigger complaints
WE IN Southeast Missouri take a lot for granted. Most of us don't have to worry about going hungry, a roof over our heads, going out and not being killed and our children or grandchildren being safe. That said, the stoplights not working properly, who smokes where, if we should have a water park, dogs not allowed at the fair, why everyone should be strapped in and numerous other minor subjects associated with Speak Out are worth talking about, but we have bigger issues in this country. Let's start with the Iraq debacle. We are in a situation we can't get out of. It doesn't matter if you are for or against the war. We are in it together. It doesn't matter if it was started on a lie or an intelligence failure. We can't win. If we get the Iraqis democracy, they will elect someone we don't want. If we lose, they will have someone we don't want. The problems of health care, immigration, economy (good paying jobs), the devaluation of the dollar, our standing in the world, our dependency on oil and division along party lines are far more important than the minor complaints of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.
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Public schools
IT IS wonderful to hear from a teacher who is willing to speak up about the constant bashing public school teachers face. I too find that the vast majority of teachers are conservative, Republicans and Christian. They care about the students they teach. Public schools must take every student and educate him or her to the best of their ability. We don't have the choice of the parochial schools in deciding who we may or may not enroll. We also have the burden of mountains of red tape and regulations to follow. At least be decent enough to be fair when you make comparisons.
It's a condition
HOW INAPPROPRIATE. A Speak Out comment referred to public school teaching of learning-disabled students as "treatment." Learning disabilities are not diseases. They are conditions. The reference to learning-disabled students as receiving "treatment" in public schools makes one wonder if they have adopted some kind of bizarre Big Brotherish mind-control medical model to deal with the learning disabled.
Oughta be a law
PUTNAM COUNTY, N.Y., officials worried that it was unhealthy for people to eat the free doughnuts and desserts that were donated to senior centers, so they outlawed those donations. Think about things like this whenever you think "there should be a law" against anything you do not like for one reason or another. Eliminate alcohol? Restrict our caffeine? Ban hamburgers and fries? Mandatory exercise? No sunbathing? No smoking (but keep buying the cigarettes, because we need those tax dollars)? Government making laws restricting our freedoms should scare us all half to death.
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