Speak Out 9/30/05

Crazy taxation

WHY SHOULD smokers have to pay a higher tax? I don't smoke, but charging smokers a higher tax to help the state's medical problem is plain discrimination. Why should the state stop there? Let's tax fat people $1 for every bag of chips or an extra $2 for fast food. There are more fat people in this state than there are smokers. Maybe we should tax each teenager $5 for listening to loud music. In a few years they will have hearing problems, and that will burden the health system. Let's add a dollar of tax to every five minutes you're on a cell phone. Does this all sound crazy? It's all the same.

Education is a must

THE ONLY answer to poverty is education. Throwing more money at people not willing to work or get an education doesn't benefit anyone. To those who are whining about living on minimum wage: Go back to school. Stop having children you cannot afford. Learn a new skill. Minimum-wage jobs are for the uneducated.

Sound-bite protests

DID YOU see the photos of Cindy Sheehan being carried away in front of the White House? This is a woman who has forgotten why she is where she is today: her deceased son. She was laughing as the police carried her away. Too bad there is more frenzy than meaning in her so-called war protest. Protesting used to stir debate about an issue. Now it amounts to sound bites.

Shades of Fonda

IT NEVER surprises me to hear of how over-inflated the numbers are from the anti-war movement. Having lived through the Vietnam horrors for the soldiers, only those who have forgotten history could contribute to the enemy by reliving it. Shades of Jane Fonda. When will they make a trip to hug Osama?

Ethanol fallacies

THANKS TO Russ Kullberg for pointing out the fallacy of ethanol. It is no solution, except to line the pockets of agribusiness companies. Why do our elected Republican politicians always try as hard as they can to screw the American people? Is it because GOP campaign contributions come from agribusiness corporations and their representatives in the Farm Bureau?

Parking woes

CAPE GIRARDEAU needs public transportation. I went to shop Saturday. I could not get down Main Street to find a parking place because of something happening on the waterfront.

Fantastic photo

I'M LOOKING at your Sept. 25 edition with the marvelous photograph by Diane Wilson illustrating the story "A Wild Life." This fantastic photo captures the magnificent animals and their size with the child. It's absolutely wonderful. Keep up the good work.

Here's the reason

I WORK at a cell-phone company. The reason cell phones cannot be used on an aircraft is the same reason they can't be used in a hospital. They work at a very high radio frequency, which can have an effect on equipment on the aircraft. It could cause a crash.

Raised with love

I HAVE a dog. She's almost seven. I got her when she was 6 weeks old. She's been raised with love since we've had her, and she's never shown the slightest sign of viciousness. People are not predestined to criminal activity by the race they are born into. It comes from abuse, neglect and poverty. Dogs are no different. Our prisons are full of people who were abused and neglected as children. Dogs are the same. If they are abused, neglected and starved, when they grow up they're likely to retaliate. Unfortunately that retaliation isn't always directed at the one who did the abuse. It's often directed at an innocent bystander. We need to stop finger pointing at certain breeds and instead look to the people who are creating these dogs.