Speak Out A 04/05/02

Don't commit troops

REGARDING THE conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis: With all the talks going back through Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Clinton, we've accomplished nothing. The Jews and the Arabs have been fighting since well before Jesus Christ was born, and they're not going to quit because we have a summit. I don't think we need to commit any U.S. troops to this effort. Yasser Arafat seems to be a thug in control of a bunch of suicide bombers. The Israelis have had enough. If they want to go in there and take care of business, maybe they should.

MoDOT plan is best

CONCERNING THE widening of Highway 34-72 through Jackson: If you've been to the bigger cities with a lot of road traffic, you will see that MoDOT is right. The five lanes would be suicide, and the median would be the best way to go with breaks and traffic lights. The traffic moves smoothly, and if there is a business on the other side you want to get to, it's no problem at all. You go down to the next median break or signal and turn left and go back down that side of the road. It's just as simple as that. I know everybody hates change, but change is progress. I know from experience. I live here in Jackson, but I do not live on that highway.

Well-behaved pets

WHILE LOOKING through the rental ads, I noticed that most of the properties in Cape Girardeau and Jackson do not allow pets. My dog is 6 years old, has always been a house pet and is much cleaner than any child I know. This does not make sense to me. I understand that landlords do not want their property destroyed by irresponsible pet owners. However, there are people like myself who groom their animals and have trained them to behave. That's much more than I can say for some mothers I have spotted with their children running around like crazy in the stores with dirty clothes and faces.

Calling it terrorism

WHY DOES everyone rip on Yasser Arafat and call him a terrorist when Israel and Ariel Sharon basically do the same things? When Israelis kill Palestinian civilians, women and children included, it's all right because it's the Israeli military, which the United States is mostly responsible for building. When ragtag Palestinian military groups fight back, it's terrorism. I don't understand the difference, except that our government supports one group and not the other. It's just like when Osama bin Laden was fighting Soviets in the 1980s. He was a good guy then. Now he's a terrorist.