Speak Out A 09/10/02

Iraqi verses

Attack Iraq

And don't look back.

We've cut Saddam

Way too much slack.

Trials, tribulations

AS WITH all communities, the history of Cape Girardeau can be explained by an examination of its economic institutions and the ongoing struggle between the haves and the have-nots. To read about this in nonfiction form can be repetitive and dull. However, to read a novel about the specific trials and tribulations endured by Cape's oppressed classes is another thing altogether. That's why I can't wait to read Morley Swingle's book.

Keeping up with CEOs

WOE IS the working poor. If the minimum wage had risen as fast as the rate of corporate CEO salaries in recent years, it would be over $22 an hour. Sorry. Now back to the salt mine.

Ready to strike

JUST WHEN I thought Jack Stapleton was an inerrant sage, he writes that the effort to rid the world of Saddam Hussein must be a multilateral one. How ludicrous. The United States is in the unique position of being able to make a unilateral, pre-emptive strike against Iraq.

Keep us in our place

JIM DRURY is right. We don't need no high falutin' art and music and junk. All we need is mud wrestling, rodeos and demolition derbies. Why waste the taxpayers' money with stuff we don't need? We could save a bunch of money if we closed the public libraries and sold the books, 'cause we don't read no books. Heck, the only thing people read around here is Speak Out and TV Guide, and all you need for that is fourth-grade learnin'. We all know that the only thing good about the university and the high schools is football. Let's fire the teachers and keep the coaches. That would save the taxpayers a bundle. Yee-haw! Keep fightin' the good fight, Jim. Keep Cape where we belong. Ignorant and proud.

Oil prices

SEVERAL DAYS ago TV news reported that the cost of a barrel of oil had been cut sharply. Did anybody notice the price of gas going down? Not one penny. Yet at the mere mention of a possible increase in the price, that same day the price of gas will go up 10 cents a gallon. People complain about a lot of things, but everyone turns a deaf ear to the oil companies and their extortion.

Beholder's eye

IT SIMPLY cannot be established in any objective way that Michaelangelo's "Moses" is superior to mud wrestling or that a concerto written by Bach is somehow artistically better than a monster truck competition, or that a Picasso painting is in any way superior to the performances of pro rodeo riders. On this point Jim Drury correctly concludes that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

Single language

WE REQUIRE a common language to form an electorate that is on guard against elected and appointed leaders who have forgotten whom they serve. We require a common language to share the better parts of our differing cultures. That is why those who founded this country gave up their multiple native languages in favor of a single language.

Country trash

COUNTRY ROADS are becoming cesspools of litter. If those of us who live on country roads were to pick up all the trash and return it to the fast-food places or bars and dump it at their front door, a hue and cry of all sorts would be heard all over the place. Because we live in a sparsely populated area and no one can see you, that doesn't make throwing trash out the window acceptable. The next time we find someone's name on a piece of paper, it is going to the police. We did not choose to live where we do to pick up everyone else's trash as they travel from town to town.

Mud wrestling too

I SUGGEST this compromise with Jim Drury: The university will set aside a portion of land at the River Campus for mud wrestling, demolition derbys and tractor pulls.