Speak Out A 12/07/01

God's schedule

ROBERT LUCAS recently asked how long it takes God to make a human being. Choosing to work through the evolutionary process, God allowed for the appearance of man-like creatures after about 5 billion years of evolutionary history. God then allowed the process to continue so that modern man, homo sapiens, appeared about 350,000 years ago. Thus, many would say that it took a long, long time for modern man to appear on the scene and that, looked at through the lens of evolutionary history, we have only been around for an extremely short period of time. Whether we will last much longer God only knows.

Comrade buddies

IT'S THE Democrats who resort to name calling? Please, can you say "dense"? I am most pleased that the confused caller switched parties too. He will fit in perfectly with his new comrades.

Reading accessibility

I THINK it's a wonderful idea for the citywide book reading of the John Grisham book. I belong to a book club, and it's a fun and beautiful way to get to know others. Of course, I have one suggestion to the organizers. I am handicapped. Therefore, there is no way I can go to the discussion meetings at the River City Yacht Club. Is there anyway you could go somewhere to accommodate the handicapped people in the area? I and many others would hate to be left out of this wonderful experience. Thank you in advance for considering this suggestion.

Driving under limit

ALL I want to say is that if you are going to drive under the speed limit, move over to the right lane so others can pass you. I just hope many of you don't drive often in big cities or you would be the prime target for a justified case of road rage. If it were up to me, people would retake their driving test every five years.

Going to see the lights

I WAS a Cape Girardeau resident for 21 years. Now that I am not there anymore, I have to say that I miss the lights in Cape County Park. I can't wait to bring my daughter there this Christmas and show her the lights that I used to see. I think that she will appreciate them also.

A suggestion

IF SEMO can't use "Indians," then I suggest, in the name of diversity, SEMO will now be known as the Tokens.

Some disagreement

DR. MICHAEL Devaney's diatribe seemingly calling for nothing short of a neo-imperialistic return to the days of Western-style colonialism left me cold and extremely concerned that his mind-set permeates institutions of higher learning across the land. His not too thinly veiled hint that all non-Western ways are anti-Western is a dangerous misreading of the Taliban aberration and must not lead the rest of us to adopt his ultraradical, pro-Western nationalism cloaked in the innocuous sounding verbiage of trendy international economic integration.

Don't overreact

I WOULD like to remind everyone of the relocation camps of World War II and President Hoover's hearings on communism. We have either not learned or easily forgotten the lessons of overreacting to serious threats against our nation. Let us remember these things as we decide whether or not to support national ID cards, military tribunals and the extended detention of those who overstay their visas.

Think again

DR. MICHAEL Devaney is a brilliant man and a contemporary political and economic essayist in a class with Niccolo Machiavelli, the 17th century founder of modern day political science. For example, his recently published provocative piece began with the eye-opening, "The economic collapse of the 1990s had a lot to do with the collapse of communism." For those of you who thought the 1990s were a time of unprecedented economic prosperity instead of collapse caused in part by the collapse of communism, think again.