Speak Out A 02/07/03

A facility for all

IT IS absolutely ridiculous to complain about the Osage Centre being rented to protesters. The Osage Centre is part of the City Parks and Recreation Department. The protesters pay their taxes too and are as entitled as anyone else to use it.

Students need books

THANK YOU so much for the woman at the Jackson eighth-grade orientation who asked the principal if the eighth grade was going to have enough textbooks for each student to take home. There is no reason any grade should have a textbook shortage. That is what we pay taxes for. Each student should have a book especially for reading, and math.

Textbook shortage

MY CHILD is in the seventh grade at Jackson. It has been a real struggle with language arts and math. It is even harder when your child is reaching out for help when there is no reference to look to. My child says there is only one set of math and language arts books, and students are not to take them home. We usually try to help the students. If they don't get the basics now, they are lost. We pay so much in taxes. Buy those students some textbooks, please.

Trash in county

IF YOU want to see trash, drive out most county roads. That is where people feel it is OK to throw out their beer boxes, bottles, cans, soda containers, food containers and other things not mentionable. If we were to return the favor, city residents would have a fit. We have to suffer for the ignorance of drivers who are too lazy to dispose of their trash properly.

Store will be missed

IT'S A sad day for me as well as a lot of other people. I'd like to say good luck to John Sanders with whatever his future holds. I'm really going to miss the hardware store. It was a convenience and had real people who helped,

Examples in the past

I'M NOT picking on the Jackson School District or the Southeast Missourian editorial staff, but I sincerely believe schools would be much better off if, instead of looking forward, they looked backward for good examples of education the way it ought to be.

Have some compassion

I WANT to say that we should not allow the media to focus on the grisly details of human remains from the explosion of Columbia. The astronauts were people too, and some of their families may not want such horrific details disclosed.

Bad rap in Jackson

IT APPEARS to me that Jackson teenagers are getting a bad rap. Jackson residents are people too, you know. Every time something bad happens in Jackson, the news media make a big deal about it. Don't tell me that the same things are not going on in Cape Girardeau and other surrounding cities, but we never hear about that, do we?

Use force for fear

I THINK the United States needs to send a message to the leaders of Iraq, North Korea and any other American-hating terrorists out there. If we reduce Baghdad to a smoldering pile of rubble and camel parts, they will get the message. Then those who seek to destroy us will back away out of fear for their own lives.

Lying to Congress

IN THE State of the Union address, President Bush stated, "The economy is improving." The very next statement that followed was, "Unemployment is rising." I can only conclude that he is either completely ignorant of how a healthy economy functions or was blatantly lying to a joint session of Congress. In either case he demonstrates that he is unfit for office. In the first case he is too stupid to be in charge. In the second case, just like President Clinton, he should be impeached for lying to Congress.

General is opposed

I NOTICED last week that Gen. Norman Swarzkopf has come out against the war. He's joined a whole group at the Pentagon who are against it. Shouldn't we pay attention to someone like that?

SECRETARY OF State Colin Powell didn't say anything new at the U.N. Security Council. He offered tidbits of phone calls and photos of increased traffic around a few buildings. Big deal. This does not prove Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

War is a necessity

IF PEOPLE think Saddam Hussein is just going to go away, they are mistaken. Saddam wants to control the Middle East oil. Am I saying that money and oil have nothing to do with this pending war? No. But I do feel that this war is a necessity because Saddam is an evil person. We cannot allow this person to continue his leadership of Iraq.

College expenses

GOV. BOB Holden has proposed cuts in higher-education funding. Since higher education is so important, why would that be one of the first things that you cut? He is taking away the future education of people. Soon many people will not be able to afford to go to college. When I started college in 1998, the price was roughly $95 a credit hour. Now it is about 50 percent more. If Holden cuts the funding again, the cost will probably go up. If he keeps it up, it soon will be cheaper to go to a private college.

Protesters' candles

PEACE PROTESTERS are not holding candles for politics. They are holding them so those of us born with a heart will keep in mind the thousands of innocent people who will die in a war with Iraq. No one needs to work on discrediting President Bush. He does that on his own.

It's not a card game

THE TRAGEDY of a child killed in foster care brought Gov. Bob Holden to full rage, but now reports are that several children have perished under the state's care in recent years. Only when the Springfield newspaper investigated a local death did this come to public light. Only then did Holden react. His reaction was to chastise the system he was in charge of, second-guessing and threatening those who could do the most to fix it. Now he dangles funding for public education to challenge Republicans, saying "put your cards on the table." It's not a card game. It's public education, and the Republicans apparently have been paying attention in class. Their proposal seems better both for education and the state's future.

Oil analogy

I HAVE a question for those who think this war is about oil. If this war is about oil, why don't we attack Mexico?