Speak Out A 12/12/01

Somebody has to pay

JARED BROWN'S letter about the proposed new St. Louis baseball stadium states: "There would be no tax abatements for the building of the new stadium." If this is correct, then what are the taxpayers being asked to pay for? I read in these very pages in months past that tax abatements were being asked for. Someone is wrong. Brown says that "five of the nation's leading financial analysts" have determined that this is a win-win situation for Missouri taxpayers. Seven thousand new jobs are projected. Doing what? You can have only so many hot-dog and beer vendors. This is simply feel-good, pie-in-the-sky economic theory.

Extreme pursuit

BARRY GOLDWATER'S dictum, "Extremism in the defense of liberty," seems to ring particularly true in this time of combating international terrorism. But Morley Swingle's apparent belief that extremism in pursuit of a teen-age girl whose unintentional car accident took the life of her sister has Lady Justice weeping crocodile tears.

Drop the charges

MORLEY SWINGLE said the criminal charge he filed against April McDonald will not be tried in the media. Technically, it will not. But practically speaking I expect an outpouring of public opinion of overwhelming proportions. I hope and pray that public sentiment will be such that the elected prosecuting attorney will re-examine his wrongheaded decision, do the right thing and drop these despicable charges.

Corporate welfare

WELFARE HELPING the needy? Please. If someone having children in or out of wedlock to secure more benefits is defined as needy, then the Republicans stand corrected. Don't use my tax dollars to subsidize the people who make welfare a lifestyle. Use my tax dollars to subsidize tax breaks for companies that may be providing the jobs. If that is corporate welfare, then I hope every company signs up to get on the roll.

Heart in right place

ELI FISHMAN, owner of Cape Shoe Co., recently had a column published in the Southeast Missourian. Whether intended or not, Fishman deconstructed in devastating fashion Dr. Michael Devaney's pro-globalization propaganda piece published previously. As an added plus, Fishman did so without the excessive use of intellectualese. Fishman is a man who has his head and his heart in the right place.

Economic nationalism

IN ONE column Eli Fishman eviscerated the errant pro-globalization gnomes and enlightened us that economic nationalism holds the key to the revitalization of the American economy. So much for the multinational corporations and their multitudinous minions who do their bidding in Washington.

Not sure yet

I'M NOT so sure George Bush is a great president. I'm a little concerned about him. On "20/20," he said when he first heard the World Trade Center was bombed, he knew that meant war. He might not have had all the facts but seemed willing to jump into war right away. I get the feeling his wife, Laura, is brighter than he is. I think it's too early to say that George W. Bush is a great president.

Send firefighters home

I KNOW how the city can save money. Put our fire departments on call and leave most of them at home. Your family doctor doesn't stay at the hospital 24 hours a day, but some of them are on call. You have maybe one or two ER physicians there the whole time. So why not cut back on the fire department too? You usually don't get but two or three calls a day, and some of those are false alarms. They even have fire personnel riding with paramedics when there are no fires or accidents. Then there's the hour and a half they spend working at the Osage Centre while on duty. And when they have a fire next to a fire station, you can't even wake them up. Quit wasting our money.

Forget the candy

WHEN DID this habit of giving out candy at parades begin anyway? The parades are wonderful. The floats are tremendous. And the bands are outstanding. Why do they need to hand out candy?

Help the people

IT'S SHEER stupidity to send billions of dollars into space and not accomplish anything I can see when there are so many people just struggling to survive. That money could be used to help the people.