Speak Out A 07/13/02

Message from God

GOD HAS given Jackson a message: Stop the fireworks. Feed the poor with the money you would throw away and pollute the air. Read your Bible.

Too much fireworks

AS A resident, I found it very appalling the amount of fireworks discharged in Cape Girardeau. It sounded like a war zone in my neighborhood. Fireworks started at about 8 p.m. and ended up at midnight. People were shooting them horizontally, not vertically. They didn't care how close they got to other people's houses. This is part of our society's "I can do whatever I please" attitude. I really feel the city council needs to take a strong look at fireworks sold in the city by limiting the amount or by outright banning all fireworks except for designated areas that are done by professionals who know what they are doing.

Spending priorities

IT IS ludicrous that President Ken Dobbins and the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate Houck Stadium when faculty and staff are losing their jobs at the university. Travel money has been suspended. Offices can't purchase new computers. Countless other cuts have affected the lives of students and staff that work and live at the university.

Notch-year benefits

I'M CALLING about the notch years, those born between 1917 and 1926. We are not getting as much Social Security as others born before or after. Jo Ann Emerson said she is trying to get a bill passed to make up for all that was lost. What is the government going to do? Wait until everyone is dead before passing it? This isn't fair as most of these were World War II veterans.

Twisted principles

I AM responding to the July 6 letter writer who appears to be a conservative saying that his understanding of the United States is that it is a democracy governed by the majority vote. He doesn't see that happening in the current pledge controversy. Just recently the Missourian ran Walter E. Williams' column entitled "The tyranny of the majority," explaining why we are a representative republic and how that it is in the conservatives' best interest. It seems that the conservatives do not really stand on the principle involved, but rather twisted principles to fit the particular need at the time.

Same as littering

WHY CAN'T we keep the city pretty? The people who don't sweep their sidewalks after mowing and the people who mow their grass into the street are littering and should stop. On Bloomfield Road west of Kingshighway, they've made the road nice and covered the ditches on the north side. But the residents don't keep it nice. What a mess.

Generic bargain

ON THE senior prescription program in Missouri, it has to be generic drugs before they pay 40 percent on it.

Stocks will dive

I THINK it is immoral and even criminal for the press to keep printing stories about the economic recovery when they know full well that the Dow will be at 6,000 and the Nasdaq at 900 by the end of the year. Why can't they be honest about this?

Southwest raises

WHILE SEMO is cutting jobs and slashing health-care benefits for employees, Southwest Missouri State University gave faculty and staff a 2.5 percent raise. Wouldn't it be great if SEMO administrators had as much financial sense at the administrators at Southwest Missouri State?

Cleanup is in order

I DON'T know whose responsibility it is, but some people need to clean up where they're building the new bridge. From the old bridge all the way down through there, there's nothing but Johnson grass which is waist high or more and trash all over the place. I don't know if this is the city's right of way, the railroad's right of way or private property, but it certainly needs to be cleaned up. And they shouldn't wait until the bridge is finished.

We're all immigrants

I HAVE no idea why the media continues to say immigration is what America is all about. Has it ever occurred to anybody that immigration is what every country is all about? Everybody in the entire world is some kind of immigrant.

Humanitarian care

TO THE person who is trying to beat on the senior citizens about expecting welfare and the poor younger people who will have to pay: How do you know it's senior citizens who are calling in wanting national health care? How do you know it's not a person who is a humanitarian who cares about people who have no health insurance? I don't need it, but I'm for a strong, national health-care bill to help people who cannot afford health insurance. Senior citizens more than pay their way. If you don't want to care for the elderly when they're old, then why don't you exempt them from paying your school taxes and your bond issues? They have to pay for that, and it doesn't benefit them.

I-66 solution

EVERYBODY WHO'S followed the Interstate 66 project understands that it's supposed to go east and west at about the latitude of Springfield, Sikeston and Paducah. It just so happens that Springfield, Sikeston and Paducah are all on U.S. 60, and it just so happens that U.S. 60 is becoming 4-way all the way from Springfield to Sikeston and then it goes on Interstate 57 to Charleston. Why don't we just put up signs, and it will be I-66. That wouldn't cost Missouri anything. There's already a bridge at Cairo, Ill., and a highway from there could go toward Paducah, Ky. You don't need to go 40 miles north out of your way in order to make an east-west interstate.

Benefits to cities

IF THE highway tax known as Proposition B passes, the major beneficiaries would be St. Louis and Kansas City. The last highway tax was passed under Gov. John Ashcroft but was administered under Gov. Mel Carnahan. Whenever a Democrat is in power, he's going to take care of the areas that vote Democratic, namely St. Louis and Kansas City. We now have Democratic governor. Guess where this new tax money will go? Vote no on Proposition B.