Speak Out A 09/17/01

Expensive fort

FOUR MILLION dollars for Massac County to renovate the fort there. One has to wonder if Illinois Gov. George Ryan had a real good time on the riverboat and that's why he gave that kind of money.

Recycled adage

I HOPE the Jackson people who are calling Speak Out and saying they're too lazy to rinse out a milk jug will remember the old adage: There are none so blind as those who will not see.

It looks good

SINCE ST. Francis Medical Center took care of the roundabout, it sure looks beautiful. It looks better than when the city took care of it.

New police chief

CONGRATULATIONS TO Steve Strong. He's worked since 1975 at the Cape Girardeau Police Department. The FBI doesn't need you, Steve. We need you here. I'm glad you became the chief of police. Now you need to hit up the city council and get new police cars with computers and all the latest equipment. Tell the city it's time for them to forget about all their silly projects and put the money where it's needed:- more bulletproof vests, more Glocks, different computer system in the police department, better equipment and add incentives to keep police officers. They do a heck of a good job and deserve a raise.

Send it back

TO THE callers complaining about the tax refund not stimulating the economy. If you don't like it, send your tax refund back.

Wonderful flag

I'D LIKE to thank St. Francis Medical Center for the beautiful flowers that were planted in the roundabout. The new flag looks wonderful.

Impossible figure

I AM going to tell you about the attendance at SEMO games. There is no way that you can get 10,000 people in that stadium, unless you have somebody sit in somebody's lap. I guess the same person who counts the football attendance is the same one who counts the baseball attendance.

Parade safety

I WAS so upset when I attended the fair parade. There were so many kids with parents who were allowing them to stand in the middle of the street as the parade passed by. I guess the kids were trying to make sure they got candy, but they were disrupting the bands and the floats in the parade plus the other people trying to watch the parade who could not see because they were literally at times were all the way out to the center line just standing and watching. I think if this continues, the police are going to have to do something to keep the people watching the parade, especially children, on the curb or else someone will end up getting hurt accidentally.

National insult

THE TERRORIST acts should not be tolerated. Immediate, decisive action against all known terrorist groups should be taken by the United States. This is an insult.

Avenging the dead

MY PRAYERS go out to those who lost families in the terrorist attacks. I hope and pray that their lives will be avenged and their souls saved.

Time to strike back

IF WE do not mount a swift and deadly military attack, this is only the beginning. We cannot continue to be so naive. They have declared war on us as specifically as the attack on Pearl Harbor. We showed the world then that we stand together when you go after any one of us. Have we mellowed so much in 50-plus years that we will continue to roll over for more? The backbone of the American people that I know cannot and will not. We have never been wimps. Maybe the world has forgotten what happens when you wake up a sleeping giant by punching him. So it's time to make them remember. God bless all the people who were killed and injured for doing nothing but their jobs and helping support this wonderful country of ours. America, we have to unite against this senseless death and destruction.

Noisy derby

IT'S 11:35 p.m. Monday night of the week of the SEMO District Fair, and I can't get to sleep because of the stupid demolition derby going on at the fair. It's not the cars so much as it is the obnoxious loudspeaker system that's keeping me awake. I have been ill, and it's very difficult to sleep with that racket going on. I live probably a mile away. It's time they do something about this. Quit having this on a week night, or move it to a venue outside the city limits. We are within a residential area here, and I don't appreciate being kept awake by that kind of junk.