Speak Out A 01/21/03

Changing history

I'M ALL for what Martin Luther King stands for and what he accomplished. If you look around, you will still see violence and racial problems. I'm in my 30s, and my generation still has trouble with things that happened before my time. There will always be problems between all races just because of how people were all those years ago, which is wrong. In God's eyes, we are all equal. Let's act like it. Stop calling each other names. Stop bullying the other person around. Stop blaming others for something that history has caused. Things can be changed, and so can history.

Corporate taxes

GOV. BOB Holden says he is going to close loopholes on taxes for Missouri corporations. When the taxes are raised, those taxes become an additional cost of doing business. So the price of everything you buy must go up in order to cover those taxes. Corporations don't pay taxes. The consumers who buy their products and services do.

Social Security funds

I'M AN elderly widow on Social Security and very grateful to get it. My husband worked hard six days a week for over 50 years paying into Social Security so we could have money when he retired. It is only right and fair that the money taken out of his wages is being paid back. There would be plenty for all if the politicians would keep their hands off of it. If anyone sees me in a restaurant wearing sparkling diamonds, it's because my husband worked to pay for them and the 14-year-old Buick I drive.

Questionable illnesses

I AM concerned about the absenteeism in many area schools. Are we having some type of germ warfare? Could someone have dropped a flu bug at a large gathering of students? All these illnesses are similar, but to have so many cases at the same time makes me wonder.

Birds gone now

I WOULD like to thank the city workers who got rid of the birds in our neighborhood. They'd been there a month and caused a lot of trouble. I just wanted to express my appreciation for the good job that they did.

Turning conservative

THERE ARE a few -- but not many -- liberals who don't become conservatives when they get a little older and little wiser and begin to realize what is important in their lives and to their families, values, characters and decency. Letting everyone do their own thing doesn't seem so important when you don't have many days left.

A raise for officers

I JUST read in the Post-Dispatch where four St. Louis County police officers risked their lives to save some people in a burning building. There's no doubt in my mind that the officers in Cape Girardeau would do the same thing. Knowing this, how could anyone vote no for a raise for our police officers come election time? Think about that when you go vote.

Tax the drinkers too

THIS IS regarding Gov. Bob Holden's proposed tax increase. Why not tax the drunks in this area? I don't drink, so start taxing that. You can make a lot of a heck more money off the drinkers than you can smokers and gamblers.

Judge on merit

DR. MARTIN Luther King talked about having a society in which we didn't pay attention to the color of somebody's skin. Each person would be judged individually. That's what President Bush is asking the University of Michigan to do: judge each candidate for admission to the law school according to his own merit and not the color of his skin.

Belligerent North Korea

NO DOUBT North Korea, with silent partner China, has hatched this scheme that if Iraq is attacked, North Korea will enter the war against the United States and its allies. That's why North Korea is being so belligerent. North Korea also thinks its threats will deter the allies from confronting Saddam Hussein and Iraq in war.

Really not reality

THANK YOU for some straight facts about how few people actually watch these idiotic reality shows. I am appalled that networks even consider putting this type of programming on the air. I think I will invest in video-rental stock (and the public library).