Speak Out A 06/14/02

Win-win suggestion

HOW ABOUT some common sense. If the university and the city really do have a budget crunch, then we can kill two birds with one stone. The university should sell some of its property and buildings in the city. These properties would be bought by the private sector, which would start paying city taxes on them. The university would shrink in size a little during these hard times and have more liquid assets such as cash. And the city's tax base would grow some.

Trash bags are better

TO THE person who is upset about trash containers in Jackson: If you are so worried about the cleanliness of your neighborhood, put your bagged trash out the morning of the trash pickup. This step of using trash bags instead of trash cans could save Jackson many man-hours by making the jobs of sanitation workers safer, easier and quicker. Help our local sanitation department and cooperate, please.

Are kids our enemies?

BECAUSE OF the apparently broadened definition, would underage kids who play violent video games be subject to detention as enemy combatants?

A snake story

THANK YOU, Jim! Jim recently came to our house and rescued me from what seemed to me, when I first saw it, to be a 6-foot-long slithering snake. I phoned my wife and asked her to come home and get rid of it, but she said she couldn't because she was working. Can you believe that? She needs to get her priorities straight. However, she did get someone to come: Jim. When Jim came into the house, I proudly told him I had corralled the snake under a wastebasket. Bravely, Jim lifted up the wastebasket and grabbed it. Though at a considerable distance, I still jumped back, particularly when I heard it hissing. It got away from him twice, but he recaptured it, took it far from the house and let it go. As he was leaving he said, "This house is a haven for these things." I also thought I heard him chuckle -- because the 6-foot snake turned out to be a 6-inch lizard. I don't care. We're still moving.