Speak Out A 06/03/02

Passion for his job

REGARDING TERRY Kitchen's commencement speech: I got chill bumps and tears to see a person as passionate about his school and work as Kitchen. I truly believe that if Kitchen could choose any job in the world, he would choose his job as athletic director of Central High School.

Come down to earth

I KEEP hearing that the FBI and other security agencies may have known about the attacks and that we could have shut down all air traffic to prevent an air strike. But that would have let the terrorists win without lifting a finger, because they would have paralyzed the United States. I think these people need to come down to earth with their thinking.

Relocation suggestion

WE ALL know that SEMO needs a new performing arts building. They are also in a budget crunch. Wouldn't it make more sense to build a place on campus so students could walk back and forth to classes? By having it on campus, it would be much cheaper, and the people who would be going to the plays would be more likely to go where it is a safer neighborhood.

Bypass is better

I THINK Jackson needs to hire Cape Girardeau's traffic engineers to show them how to build a bypass around the city. Instead of a bypass, Jackson would rather take peoples homes and businesses away. Most people on Highway 72 would love to see a bypass.

Grass in the streets

THERE IS a city ordinance on the books about putting grass clippings in the street. It just needs to be enforced.

No guns in cockpits

I DON'T feel pilots should be able to carry weapons in the cockpit. Every once in a while a pilot gets suicidal and feels the need to shoot himself. I feel fortified doors are a good thing to keep terrorists out, but I don't believe in weapons in cockpits.

Psychological help

THIS MAN, Samuel Farrow, who was convicted of molesting a child, needs psychological help. Putting him in prison and throwing away the key doesn't solve the problem. The next time some other sicko thinks he's going to get 50 years anyway, he'll probably just kill the child.

Government does it

I THINK that the much discussed local scam artist who said he didn't know that lying in order to get other people's money was a crime had a point. After all, what do you think government does?

Economic necessities

YOU GUYS can keep writing Pollyannaish pieces about local economic recovery, but things will never get better until the public is convinced that the Wall Street crooks have been purged and until we quit dancing to the tune of international terrorists.

Numbing minds

WHETHER proletarian or prestigious, known or unknown, is it not true that David Limbaugh received a degree from a university of some sort? If so, why does he give fuel to his growing legion of critics by claiming universities produce "thought numbing automatons"?

Military leadership

PRESIDENT Bush, who served as an F-102 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard, put a strong military leader, Colin Powell, as head of diplomacy but ignores his advice when he says our military objectives have problems. Bush swore we would capture Osama bin Laden and can't get it done. We've decimated al-Qaida so well that we have weekly warnings about imminent terrorist attacks. While we've beaten up on Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine go to war, both claiming the same basis for their war as we made for our invasion of Afghanistan. India and Pakistan are on the brink of nuclear fireworks, again both claiming the same basis for their aggression as we used to invade Afghanistan. We can't seem to accomplish anything to reduce tension in the Israel-Palestine and India-Pakistan -- for good reason.