Speak Out A 01/27/02

Too many clocks

EVERYWHERE I look nowadays, I see nothing but clocks. Everyone is so obsessed with keeping track of time that we have lost the true meaning of being alive: to have fun. If we would all just kick back and take a breath to enjoy life, this world would be a lot better off and with many fewer problems.

Better gene pool

REGARDING MEXICAN Poker, where people sit in a rodeo ring playing cards while an unhappy bull is trying to get into the game: I really question whether you should suggest we interfere with people who are attempting in their own limited fashion to improve the world's gene pool. In fact, they may qualify for a Darwin Award, which commemorates "the remains of individuals who contribute to the improvement of our gene pool by removing themselves from it in really stupid ways."

Time for safety net

WELFARE REFORM worked well when times were great. Now that we've fallen on hard times, it's time to bring back the safety net.

Elite assumption

PRE-NAZI GERMANY was the Germany of Bach, Beethoven, Duhrer, the brothers Grimm, Kant, Nietzsche, Wagner and numerous other cultural giants. This rich cultural heritage did nothing to stave off the terrible if short-lived triumph of Nazism and may have in some instances (Nietzsche and Wagner) contributed to it. Art and culture may serve a purpose, but that they are "vital to a thriving society" as a Speak Out caller said is an unwarranted assumption endemic to the upper-class elite.

Time for a rewrite

THOUGH YOU wrote that a state constitutional convention is unnecessary, I strongly disagree. Something must be done to preserve a proper balance of power between the three branches of state government so that it does not tilt so heavily in favor of the legislative branch, the General Assembly. For example, something must be done to stop the paralysis that pervades the executive branch caused by excessive litigation against the governor. Perhaps we need a provision limiting the number of times the governor may be sued by a member of the Missouri Senate.

Can't cut nothing

I'M AN independent voter. Both parties have misled us on many issues. I have questions about the president's tax cut. I don't hate President Bush. These corporations like Enron that don't pay any taxes -- I wonder how you would cut their taxes.

Drivers in a hurry

I WONDER who teaches some of the drivers out there. They run right up on your bumper and can't wait until they can pass you. You're going the speed limit, and they want to go faster. What is wrong with people?

Bullies attack snowmen

SHAME ON the bullies who went around knocking over snowmen. My 3-year-old grandson had built two snowmen and wanted Mommy to see them today, but they got smashed.

Narrow viewpoint

FOLKS WHO are seriously ill can reject the evidence and diagnosis of the experts and risk their own lives, but they do so at their peril. Those who express minority views may feel happy in their acceptance and perpetuation of half-truths and concocted evidence as they attempt to deny the wealth of evidence and expert opinion on climate change, but they pose a threat to more than just themselves. These proponents of short-term profit and corporate America risk our health and the health of the planet we all inhabit when they deny global warming and reject proposals to remedy this disease. Presumably they also think the Bush administration's acknowledgment of the problem indicates that, like the National Academy of Science and the International Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is populated by liberal environmentalists.