Speak Out A 02/09/03

Use common sense

WE DON'T need judges in small-claims court. We need mediators, people with common sense. They could do a much better job.

No interference

FOR THE home to be effective, the school should not interfere in the home. School time is school time, and school property is school property. If someone's misbehaving at school, the school is free to keep that student from going to a school function. But what happens off the school grounds is hardly the school's business. There are the exceptions to the rule, but the most important thing is that we stay as free as we can of institutions interfering in our home lives.

Phone problems

IN RESPONSE to SBC's decision to drop the Local Plus calling plan, I want everyone to know there are alternatives. There are a few phone companies you can choose as your service provider both for local and long-distance service. All of these companies lease their lines from SBC, Inevitably, some of your money will go to them. Here in the Altenburg-Frohna area of Perry County, we can call almost nowhere. Most of us work in Perryville, Cape Girardeau or Jackson and do most of our business there, but we can't make a phone call there without long-distance charges. We can't even call where our children attend high school. The worst part is our cell phones barely work here either, so that is not a viable option.

Need an explanation

I'D LIKE to address a comment to our city manager and the assistant city manager and the assistant to the assistant and so on down the line, plus our mayor and council members. I read in the Southeast Missourian that you're going to get your tax-increase show on the road. I'd just like to say that you won't get any curtain calls or yes votes from this senior citizen unless you explain to me why we need a $6.5 million swimming pool.

Start with bureaucrats

MISSOURI IS experiencing a budget dilemma. My suggestion is to start at the child-support enforcement division in Cape Girardeau. We had no problems until it became a state issue. When we dealt with the county, we had results. Now we talk to women who might be there Thursday not Friday. When you contact them, they can't give you the results that you need to be able to put food on the table. We have no one else to go to, but they are not doing their job adequately. If we need to start cutting the budget, start with the child support enforcement employees. Then people will wake up, and maybe we'll get some results.

Show Me Center trash

I WOULD like to know who is in charge of keeping the trash picked up outside the Show Me Center. I could not believe the trash there the other day when we went to the basketball game. It was a mess. Please keep trash picked up.

Australian fuels

A FEW days ago, I was talking to my brother who had just come from a visit to Australia. He said gasoline there is 98 cents a liter. That is over $3.70 a gallon. He also said he saw several articles in Australian papers about the development of fuel-cell technology, and all of them advocated the use of methanol or sugar water and discounted the use of hydrogen because it had to be handled under extreme pressure and could be dangerous. Sugar water would be entirely safe, and methanol would be safer than gasoline. It seems the Australians have more interest than we do in developing renewable fuels and to moving away from the reliance on petroleum supplies. Maybe their officials are not tied to the petroleum industry like many of ours are.

Use one building

IN REGARD to the possible cuts to our National Guard units: My solution would be to combine the Guard and Reserve units here in Cape Girardeau to work out of the same building. This would save a lot of money.

The right idea

THE REPUBLICAN legislature has the right idea for Missouri. Let's fund our schools, cut the fat and borrow as little money as possible.