Speak Out A 12/20/01

Response on tipping

TO THE server who presumes to lecture the customers of his or her establishment in the matter of tipping. The tip is not an obligation on the part of the customer. It is a gratuity. It is the customer who determines whether or not to tip, and how much. It is not some self-appointed authority on etiquette and not the owner of the establishment who determines the amount of the tip. Your salary obligations are the responsibility of your employer, not the customer. If that is not satisfactory, you have the privilege of seeking more lucrative employment elsewhere. Paying taxes does not confer special privilege or pity on you or anyone else. Most of the servers I encounter are worthy of a tip, and they get it from me. But I refuse to tip for poor service.

Well-trained military

ISN'T OUR military doing a fine job over in Afghanistan? I'm really proud of them. By the way, President Bush's budget and military training program for the armed services really hasn't kicked in yet. Our boys are doing their jobs from what they received under the Clinton administration, who supposedly hurt our military. It doesn't seem like they've been hurt at all. The Clinton administration trained them very well, it seems to me, and they have very good equipment to work with.

Send the bill

I THINK Carol Bullock has a lot of nerve. First, she tells the city her main goal is to save the Marquette Hotel for preservation. She keeps stalling, and the city repeatedly gives her more time to sell the condemned building. Now she has a serious offer from a developer from Jefferson City, but he doesn't know if he can come up with the half a million dollars she wants for a condemned building. Bullock has the nerve to say she knows the city won't tear down the building because it doesn't have the money to do it. If this deal falls through, I'd like to see the city tear down the Marquette Hotel and send Bullock the bill. Enough is enough.

Abandoning babies

I HAD to once again ponder the state that the United States is in right now after reading "Dear Abby" on Oct. 18. A woman from California was patting herself on the back because California passed a law in September that makes it a misdemeanor to dump animals and imposes a penalty up to six months in jail for abandoning animals. I don't advocate dumping animals on the side of the road, but it's hard for me to understand the passing of this law while there are states that are trying to pass and have passed laws that make it legal for mothers to abandon their newborn children at hospitals, no questions asked. I have to wonder about a society that places more importance on animals than human beings. Pitiful.

Emergency response

PLEASE, LET'S stop and focus on the problem at hand. The public feels Cape firefighters don't earn their keep. Lets give them ambulances and let them protect our city in more ways than one. They already are staffed with paramedics and emergency medical technicians. They respond to all the emergency ambulance calls anyway. Wouldn't we all benefit from all our emergencies being operated by one service ? Then they would have plenty to do.

Traffic hazards

HAS ANYONE experienced this problem? You are driving out to the mall and it is raining or dark. Or, worse yet, you are driving in that area when it is both dark and raining. One can hardly tell the right lane of traffic from the left lane, much less find the left turning lane. Isn't there some clear and effective way to mark the road system that runs from the mall, over the interstate and into the turning lanes that go to Wal-Mart, Target, Sam's and Lowes? Why aren't these lanes of traffic clearly visible in both the best and worst weather conditions? If it is difficult for Cape residents to drive over these roads, just try to imagine the confusion out-of-towners must feel.

A good decision

HURRAH FOR the court's decision to kick out the lawsuit filed to declare Gov. Bob Holden's executive order unconstitutional. What's unconstitutional is yet another attempt to strip away the right to union representation from American workers. I trust Peter Kinder will have the good judgment to take the court's decision and accept that this is in the best interest of our state workers.

Scurrilous screed

JIM TALENT is a real gem. I realize he may resent Missouri Republican operatives who may have strong-armed him into going to the well one more time in seeking political office. He has already achieved the status of retread, and if he loses this time and decides to run again another day, he will be facing the distinct possibility of becoming (Harold) Stassenized. Still, it's a classic symptom of misplaced aggression to take out all of his frustrations on Tom Eagleton. I thought he had enough control and restraint left not to attempt to pander to the readers of the Southeast Missourian by impugning the patriotism of Eagleton because he dissented from some of the views of the U.S. attorney general. Talent's scurrilous screed saddened me beyond words.

Lost a vote

I MUST have been out of my mind. Before reading Jim Talent's hysterical harangue assailing an anti-Ashcroftian, I was actually considering voting for him.

No battering

I JUST wanted to comment in support of Cheryl Robb-Welch's letter regarding the editorial on the domestic-violence law. She is 100 percent right. The attitude propagated by the editorial is a dangerous one. Batterers need to learn that their behavior is wholly unacceptable and that there are consequences for any type of battering behavior, even "a simple slap." It's never all right to hit someone you supposedly love, and batterers (as well as their victims) need to realize that. The Missourian really ought to rethink its stance on this issue.

Here's the answer

A SPEAK Out caller asked if any nation in the world was a "veritable Eden." Yes. Sweden.

Let's start over

I HEREBY formally ask Jim Talent to withdraw his request that Tom Eagleton withdraw his criticism of Attorney General John Ashcroft who should in turn withdraw his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee which should then withdraw its questioning of Ashcroft and so on and so forth so that we can withdraw all the way back to the Founding Fathers and start all over.

Economic policy

ONE CALLER claims that George W. Bush will not be so popular when those who "work for a living" see his economic policy -- simply because he is a Republican. How ignorant can we be to assume that one's political party automatically makes him unfit for the working man? I'll wager the same caller gives absolutely no credit to Ronald Reagan for the economic boom that he started with the Tax Reform Act of 1986 -- because he is a Republican too. And I despise the term "working man." Everyone who holds a job or owns a business works for a living. You don't have to do manual labor to earn a living in this country.

It's your job

EVERY CALLER criticizing President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations: Listen up. Send back your tax-refund check. Stop taking a paycheck from the company getting the corporate welfare, since you hate that your employer is getting a break, Go have one of your working-man buddies give you a job. Wait. They can't give you a job because they work for a rich man or corporation too. Not so rosy a picture, is it? Stop whining. If it were not for the rich and the corporations, you would be in a world of hurt.