Speak Out A 10/29/02

Against cigarette tax

I DON'T smoke, never have and never will. I am very much opposed to the totally outrageous Proposition A, otherwise known as the cigarette tax increase. Supporters of this proposal are once again trying to swindle Missourians into a $343 million increase in Missouri's budget, the revenue for which will soon evaporate because smokers will begin purchasing their cigarettes outside the state or through the Internet. We will already be committed to spending the $343 million, and the rest of us honest Missourians will be expected to pick up the tab. Missouri's budget has increased from $9.3 billion in 1992 to $19 billion in 2003. Enough is enough. Vote no on Proposition A.

Church with a blessing

THIS IS to the person who is looking for a church home that still respects our sacred traditions and the congregation isn't just out to entertain and be seen: I would like you to visit Zion United Methodist Church in Gordonville, Mo. I think you'll get a blessing.

Cracking down

IF I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. I was in the south part of Cape and saw that people were actually walking on the sidewalks instead of in the street. With the police issuing tickets, it has really made a difference. I want to commend the police department for that. Now if they'll just go after the drug trafficking.

Misleading information

IT'S VERY disappointing to listen to politicians and the news media talk about the surplus in our federal budget in the years past and the deficit now. Everybody who has any knowledge at all about what's going on knows that's a lie. The government been using Social Security funds to talk about the surplus. This is misleading. I say it is a lie that we've had surpluses. But nobody has any guts to tell that, and no politician has the guts to stop it.

Voting for life

IF YOU are pro-life, please, for your sake and for the sake of others, vote pro-life and don't let a politician describe what abortion is. Freedom of choice in America is great but not when it means taking a life. That's not what this country's freedoms are about.

Manual for life

THE BIBLE is a manual for life. If you sit down and you read it, you may understand a little bit of life. If you go to put a new stove in your house and you've never done it in your life and you hook it up without reading the manual, do you really think that you hooked everything up right? Do you really know if it's going to be turned on or off or if it's going to have a fire? Do you really know without reading the manual? The more you read it, the more you will understand.

Spending the money

I JUST saw an advertisement on TV to support the tax on cigarettes coming up in the election. I'm not a smoker, but I find it ridiculous to say that they'll use the money to keep the children from smoking. That's what they said about the national lawsuit on smoking. Now we find out that money's gone in many other different ways. Before you tax people who can't help the fact that they can't quit smoking, don't tax it even more. Taxes have gone up so much on those that it's ridiculous.

Smoke on Westwood

THANKFULLY, IT is raining today. We don't have to smell all the smoke from our neighbors on Westwood. They are the only ones in the neighborhood who burn all the time. They trim their trees and burn it with all kinds of trash. We cannot leave the kids out to play with all the smoke.

Get over Panama Canal

WHEN WILL the conservatives get over the Panama Canal issue? Have they never realized the fundamental truth that just because you dig a ditch through someone else's country, you don't automatically own the part of their country in which you dug the ditch, regardless of how much money you poured into it and regardless of what it's used for? What gives us to right to want to run everyone else? How would you feel if a city or county a thousand miles away dug up your property and then declared that it was theirs?

War is a failure

PRESIDENT BUSH wants to remove any job security in order to protect homeland security. He and John Ashcroft have already been successful, through the Patriot Act, at seriously eroding our rights to privacy and free speech. Bush is still blocking a thorough investigation of our lack of preparedness for Sept. 11. No one in any government agency got fired as a result of the oversights that resulted in 3,000 deaths. Our focus is no longer al-Qaida, and Bush has said that he doesn't know where Osama bin Laden is and doesn't care. This metaphorical war on terrorism has already become a huge failure.

For the aquatic center

TO THOSE of you who are against the proposed aquatic center: I took my children to the water park in Farmington, Mo., on several occasions this past summer. Every time I went it was full, and I always saw people I knew that lived in the Cape, Jackson and Scott City areas. Isn't it kind of crazy to continue letting our money go to another town because we refuse to grow in our area? I am the parent of three children and would love to see more places come into the area for teenagers to go and stay out of trouble as well as provide summer employment for some of the kids.

Democratic correction

IT IS true that the American economy moves in cycles. I have noticed, however, that when it is in a downturn, it is the Democrats who know more about correcting it.

Use covert effort

OBVIOUSLY WE have a war veteran who is disillusioned about the current situation. Start the draft? Ration gasoline? Lower the speed limit to conserve fuel? I guess he doesn't realize that cars don't guzzle gas at high speed like he feels they do. I get better mileage at 80 mph than at 60. These things do not have to be done to win the war. What needs to be done is a covert operation.

THERE IS plenty of evidence to attack Iraq. The Iraqis continue to disregard U.N. orders, and they are continuing their weapons programs. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis will not be bombed. The United States does not bomb civilians on purpose. Do you realize that Saddam used civilians as human shields during the Gulf War so we would not directly attack him? He does not care about his people. If he did, he would comply with U.N. resolutions. Then the sanctions that are starving his people would be lifted. I am a Methodist, and I support a regime change. So please do not speak for me. I can do that myself.

Good to see protest

IT REALLY was wonderful to see so many area residents lining Broadway to protest the Bush administration's Iraq war-mongering. I hope there are more protests so our politicians can see there are many local residents who reject the Bush drive to send Americans to kill and be killed for unsubstantiated security reasons and what appear to be purely personal, political and economic reasons.

CONGRATULATIONS TO Robert Polack for asking the key questions. More Southeast Missourians should be evaluating the propaganda supporting the president's war against Saddam. This adventure seems designed mainly to divert our attention from two years of failed domestic leadership and promote business for buddies in the oil industry.