Speak Out A 02/21/02

Sounds familiar

WILL THE real President Bush please stand up. Within a span of a couple of weeks, the president has gone from speaking of the evil axis to saber rattling to brinkmanship to toning down the rhetoric to virtual appeasement. I hate to say it, but this sounds Clintonian.

Aid to North Koreans

TO THE person who spoke of our ruined progress in relations with North Korea: I'm glad President Bush had the guts to speak up about the axis. The past administration was responsible for providing nuclear information to the North Koreans. Why wouldn't they be cooperative, when we share information to help them destroy us? Forget the impeachment. Clinton and his crew should be charged with treason.

They'll spend it all

THOUGH WE all know nothing is for certain, the insecure Southeast Missourian editorial staff keeps insisting on some kind of guarantee as to how tax money will be spent. Just go with the flow and trust our elected officials to find some way to spend it.

Stop the littering

TAKE A look around Cape Girardeau. Trash is everywhere. It looks so tacky. I am embarrassed for anyone to visit. I want to feel proud of my city. I just don't understand how people can not feel bad when they roll down the car window and throw out their trash. Not a day goes by, that I don't see several people throwing out their cigarettes. Do they think this is not littering?? I am disappointed in the citizens of our town and the adjacent towns. Don't you know better, or do you just not care? I don't know the answer, but I wish everyone would work together on this problem.

It's free speech

IN THE name of free speech, I support the appearance of Jerry Falwell and the fanatics at the Show Me Center. Similarly, I would also advocate an appearance by the acerbic Al Sharpton and the racist Louis Farakahn.

Thanks to handlers

THIS IS to the caller who claimed Al Gore said George Bush was some kind of idiot. One of God's commandments tells us not to bear false witness against our neighbor, and that's what you're doing. Gore didn't say Bush was some kind of idiot. As far as Bush doing a good job running the country no thanks to Ted Turner and Gore, you're right. The thanks go to Cheney, Rice, Rove and all of Bush's handlers who tell him what to say and do.

It's all relative

IF A caller is correct, firebrand Jerry Falwell implied that all born before Jesus would go to hell because they could not, by definition, be Christians. However, according to Einstein and others, time somehow folds in on itself. So it could be that in a scientific sense those we think were born before Jesus really weren't and will, therefore, go to heaven after all.

Enough is enough

WE TEACH our children that a child who doesn't play fair, loses and then takes the ball home with him is a crybaby. A rich crybaby is someone who doesn't play fair, loses and then files lawsuit after lawsuit to try to get his way by force or coercion. Enough is enough. Let the River Campus begin.

What we've become

I WANT to say something about the Olympics and the controversy about the Canadians who were maybe gypped out of a gold medal for a while by the French judge. This is just something people have to get used to. Lying and cheating are part of America, especially America nowadays -- and, I guess, the whole world. Look at the president we just got rid of. A lot of people accepted what he did. A lot of people said as long as he's doing a good job, never mind that he's so dishonest. Even Dan Rather thinks Clinton is a very honest person. So there you are. That's what we've come to in the world. I'm surprised people are upset when they see it reflected in others.

Not as a team

NO THANKS. Electing the governor and lieutenant governor as a team in Missouri is an atrocious idea. It might give a faceless and unqualified nobody an opportunity to ride the coattails of a popular pol into office and unfairly position him to be more easily propelled into the governor's mansion.

Awesome, realistic

I THOUGHT Colin Powell was cool when he appeared on MTV. He was absolutely awesome in encouraging abstinence in premarital sex and reasonably realistic in urging the use of condoms for those who fail to resist.

An acknowledgment

THOUGH HIS suggestions for compliance are cockeyed, I applaud President Bush for at least going beyond multitudes of head-in-the-sand Speak Out mullahs and acknowledging the existence of global warming.

They're doing it too

TO ALL the people who are expressing their opinions about Jerry Falwell's visit to Cape and how bad he is: Our prime example is of what they themselves are doing. What they're accusing of him doing is exactly what they're doing.

Outstanding concert

THANK YOU, Southeast Missouri State University music faculty and chamber orchestra, for the outstanding concert at Old St. Vincent's. It was a jewel of a concert in a jewel of a setting. We are blessed to have such extraordinary musical talent in Cape Girardeau.

A matter of choice

JUST BECAUSE you're against Jerry Falwell coming would not mean you'd necessarily want Jesse Jackson coming. There is a middle of the road -- someone like Billy Graham, for instance. I couldn't care less who comes to town, because I don't have to go see them if I don't want to.

Setting an example

ONCE AGAIN the Olympic competition is embroiled in controversy. It find it unconscionable that judges are being bought and the games manipulated for power and money. What kind of example are we setting for our youths? I applaud the Canadian skaters for the grace and dignity they displayed during this fiasco. They acted in a way that reflects well for our other young people. It must be heartbreaking for the youths of all countries to see their dreams dashed that they worked all of their lives to achieve because of the greed of their elders. From now on, before we condemn our youths for their actions of defiance and bitterness or depression, we should look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves if we're being the example that youths look to us for. After all, young people are the reflection of adults, molded by their words and their actions.

Just ignore him

I SEE there's a lot of talk in Speak Out about the Dr. Jerry Falwell coming to Cape Girardeau. Many, many, many, many young men and old men have fought and lost their lives to protect this country and guarantee us the right of free speech and freedom. So if you don't like what Falwell has to say, don't listen to him. Don't try to push your views onto someone else. Yes, he's trying to push his views on to people too, but listen to the man if you want. If you don't, leave it alone and quit putting a bunch of garbage in the paper.

Looking for justice

I'D LIKE to comment on the River Campus and this 7-0 ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court against Jim Drury and the voters. It seems like the city and the university are in bed with the members of the court. Strange bedfellows indeed. How else could a court come to this unanimous decision? This reminds me of the decision the U.S. Supreme Court handed down to President Bush a little over a year ago. We knew that decision was pure politics. They wanted Al Gore to win. Well, he didn't. President Bush finally received justice by the highest court in the land. I just wish the voters in Cape could receive the same kind of justice.

He won! Really!

I WOULD like your paper to answer, once and for all, these people who keep calling and saying that George W. Bush wasn't elected by a majority of the people. He was. As a matter of fact, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Miami Herald sponsored recounts that showed Bush won the majority of the votes in Florida. Bush is a majority president, whereby Bill Clinton never carried the majority of the American public. Bush got the majority of the people's votes, and now he's carrying a 92 percent approval rating in the polls. People who didn't vote for him realize what a great president he is. It's been in all the major news media. Even The New York Times admitted that Bush won.