Speak Out A 06/23/02

Cleaning up downtown

I AGREE wholeheartedly with the Speak Out comment about the need to spruce up downtown. They do need to do what that caller said. Plus, I want to add one thing for all the people who walk their dogs. They need to carry pooper-scoopers and a bag. I see this almost every time I walk downtown, and it's not a very pretty sight. People need to clean up after their dogs.

Spend it on salaries

THERE WAS someone calling Speak Out with a whole bunch of questions about the music department at SEMO, questioning why people in Cape Girardeau are against the River Campus. I've been to productions at SEMO University, where I work. My children attend the music program at SEMO University and have for four years. I am in the music building two days a week for over an hour. I agree the facilities are not adequate. However, I am not for the River Campus. Just because the existing facility isn't adequate does not mean we need a whole new campus across town. We need one building, just like they did with the Polytechnic Institute and other buildings. SEMO is raising tuition and cutting back on positions. Customer service is going to be worse. Yet the university is thinking about spending more money on a whole campus we don't need. I'd rather my tax dollars be spent on necessities such as better pay for firemen and police officers.

Story results in loss

IT NEVER ceases to amaze how the Southeast Missourian straddles the fence and is so two-faced in its editorials and reporting. How many times has your staff come out against any and every form of gambling, legal or otherwise? Yet, I pick up my newspaper and on the front page is the story of two 18-year-olds winning $25,000. The effect of that story has been devastating to at least one family: Ours. Our 17-year-old son withdrew $800 of his college savings and bought lottery tickets that returned 39 free tickets and only $102 in winnings, a net loss of $659. He should not have been able to buy the tickets, because he is under 18. Doesn't anyone check IDs anymore? He bought them in an attempt to win enough to buy a new car. He said the other kids in Jackson spent only $10 to win $25,000.

Crash report

GARY RUST'S column states that the investigation of the crash of Gov. Mel Carnahan's airplane could not determine where the two passengers were seated. He goes on to draw the conclusion that if Carnahan had been sitting in the co-pilot's seat, he would have been helpful during the bad weather conditions. But what is left out is that the report does not say Carnahan wasn't in that seat. It only states that investigators were unable to conclude where he was sitting.

Not like a business

I HAVE a comment that I would like to make about the city council meeting. I don't know Jay Purcell personally. I only know him from what I've seen while he's been on the city council and on TV. I would like to applaud Purcell for standing up and doing what's right for the taxpaying residents of this town. He is the only one who showed any fiscal common sense concerning the budget. I'm really disturbed at the fact that our newly elected mayor, Jay Knudtson, has already said he's going to have to go against the promises of his campaign. He said in his campaign that he was going to run the city like a business. Now he's already rescinded that promise on TV, saying he can't operate the city like it was a business. I will work hard against any tax proposal in Cape Girardeau that the city council proposes. When I mean hard, I will get out and go door to door if I have to.

Will isn't wrong

I HATE to tell Pamela Hearn this, but her harangue to the effect that heroic columnist George Will was wrong concerning his accurate insights pertaining to women's studies was woefully off the mark. In a nutshell, Will isn't wrong about anything.