Speak Out A 11/23/01

Sounds like a gang

IN REFERENCE to the recent Speak Out comment about gang members: I also believe they were probably not gang members. I'm sure they were just good young men on their way to Sunday School class when they decided to stop and shoot and rob somebody. Gang members? You bet.

Amusing response

THIS IS to "Don't be anonymous." I didn't see your name in the paper. Speak Out is a never-ending source of amusement to me.

Reward productivity

WHAT I find sad about teachers simply giving high grades or making the work easy enough so all students can earn high grades is that it fails to recognize the achievement of those who have truly earned the grade through hard work and mastery of the subject. It is the same with paying industrial workers the same whether or not they are competent or actually producing anything. In making this statement, I realize that there are people today who believe and support people being paid the same whether or not they are competent or actually productive workers.

Privacy preference

I'M CALLING about your item on the VA action for veterans. I worked at the VA for many years as a claims examiner. Let me tell you about the vets who do not file for VA benefits. They will not reveal their total income and net worth. They prefer to forgo the pension.

It's all for the wealthy

THE CUTTING of the prime rate to the lowest in over 40 years, which is being foisted off on us as a universal panacea, is in truth a transfer of wealth to the wealthy who own stocks and borrow money. It's being done at the expense of people who have maturing CDs and other fixed-rate securities. I'd like to tell Alan Greenspan how much I hate him. He's looking out for his rich friends and trying to tell the public he's doing something good for them.

Hogging the trail

YOUR PHOTO of a couple on skates holding hands with a dog on a leash typifies the La Croix trail. As usual, I'm on grass or mud. They're smiling, but I have to wear a frown.

Cheerful roses

I'D LIKE to thank the young lady who came to St. Francis Medical Center's heart wing. She came around last Thursday carrying roses and gave roses out to every person on the heart wing. She gave no name, just a smile and said, "Choose what you want." That was a really nice thing for her to do. It cheered up a lot of people.

Good place to work

I AM an employee of Dana Corp, and I am firmly against the union movement that is currently going on in our plant. The Southeast Missourian has been very wise in the editorials it has written concerning the disruptive behavior that is going on. It is very possible Dana will close our plant if it becomes organized. It would make us less flexible to meet the changing demands of our market. It would also increase costs. We already have decent wages, hours and working conditions. I'm sorry the self-serving few believe they deserve so much more for the work they do. Dana is a good place to work, and if these people can't appreciate it, maybe they should try to find something better.

Using kid gloves

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft's actions aimed at innumerable Arab-American residents make it seem like kid gloves were used in the case of Elian Gonzalez.

Brazen by definition

I WILL accept your editorial exegesis that the Philadelphia experiment with for-profit schools is "audacious" if you will accept a Random House Dictionary definition of the word "audacious" as "insolent or brazen."

Magic is fiction

I DON'T think people are concerned with the personality of Harry Potter. I think it is more about the use of witchcraft and sorcery in the movie. Many Christians feel power such as this comes from Satan, and the Bible backs up this hypothesis. However, most important is that we teach our children that Harry Potter is fiction, and that this kind of magic is not real.

Don't know for sure

IT'S A mystery. None of us know for sure. Therefore, as a quasi-defense of Barb Dirnberger, a take-no-prisoners critic of Harry Potter, defenders of Potter have no more idea than does Dirnberger whether or not aficionados of Harry's wizardry will or will not spend the afterlife over an open fire, roasting.

No projects in Cape

IN RESPONSE to "Push for growth": I very much enjoy living in Cape Girardeau because of the not-too-big, not-too-small size of the city. There are plenty of recreational, shopping and dining choices in this town. What we do not need in Cape, however, is a big population growth. The idea of building more dense, less affordable housing is about as attractive as seeing trashed-out projects. I'm from the city, and many of the dense, inexpensive housing areas are the worst in the city. The police and fire departments spend their time in these areas because they are such violent and crime-filled areas. Cape is a nice town and very family-oriented. There are already plenty of apartment buildings with rental signs outside. If people want to move here, they will. We don't need projects in Cape though.