Speak Out AA 04/18/04

Great street lighting

I WAS calling about the lights that were put up in Jackson on Main Street. I think they look wonderful. They provide bright lighting so you can see the street and the surroundings at night. To whoever was in charge of that, disregard all the negative responses you have received, because it looks absolutely wonderful.

Farmington's example

IF JACKSON is so great, why is it always looking to Farmington? How do you win a state wrestling title? Ask Farmington. We don't have a community center. Let's go look at Farmington's. We don't have a skate park. Let's go see Farmington's. Why build what the skate boarders have said they will not use? I know, we're Jackson, and we're better than anybody else. We're so good that we can do things halfway, never get past second place and convince ourselves that Jackson is the jewel of Southeast Missouri. Just don't look north.

Save the Indian

MANY THINK the Southeast Missouri State University Indian mascot has definitely been retired. It has not. A few people would like you to think it has so you will not complain about the change. Call or e-mail the school and give your opinion if you want to save the Indian. It's not too late.

Strong in fine arts

CENTRAL HIGH School puts on the best productions in the area. I am so thankful I send my children to a school that has more than just one area of fine arts to brag about. Music, art, theater and dance are top-notch in the Cape Girardeau School District. Thank you to all of those teachers that have dedicated their time to supporting and building an outstanding fine arts program throughout the district.

Get out, government

WE DO not need national health care. We need just the opposite. We need government out of health care. Government is the main reason health-care costs have gone up for the rest of us, thanks to the bureaucracy and waste. Why is it we have not learned from history? Why do we continue to edge closer and closer to socialism in this country? We allow our freedoms to be eroded so we can allow the government to take care of us. That has been tried and for the most part has failed. My guess is our current high school grads have no idea about this.

Despicable status

JASON CROWELL'S recent appalling gestures and acts in the legislature have confirmed that the status of American politics is simply despicable. And the public really has no idea what really goes on up there in the legislative session.

Look for donations

HERE'S AN idea to raise the money for concrete ramps for the new skate park in Jackson: Ask some of the local businesses to donate a little. I'm sure some of them would donate just to keep the kids out of their parking lots. Put up donation cans at stores and gas stations. You'd be surprised how much those cans can hold. Come on, Jackson, help these kids out.

A matter of pride

I DISAGREE with the "Save the Indian" comment. We have to have a mascot and a nickname that the student body can embrace and identify with and feel connected with. It's just too bad that over the past 10 to 15 years Southeast Missouri State University athletes and the student body have been Indians in name only. They've not been able to cheer "Let's go, Indians!" at games. Indians are not printed on T-shirts or any material at the bookstore. So how can you have any allegiance or feeling of an identity with the Indian? Alumni from years ago could say that they were Indians. We need to address this issue for our current student body and let them have an identity with a mascot they can be proud of and yell about and have printed on their T-shirts. It's a huge issue, and for people to think that we need to save the Indian are truly out of touch with everything that's involved.

Guessing at speed

I WAS wondering how many people who travel through Jackson have been issued speeding tickets without being clocked with a radar and told they were going 10 mph over the speed limit. Recently a young man was traveling down Bainbridge. A police officer passed him, turned around and gave him a speeding ticket and told him that he could not get him clocked on radar but knew he was going faster than the speed limit. I was wondering how many other people have had the same experience.

Save highway money

INTERSTATE 66 should be an almost straight east-west interstate going from Springfield, Mo., to Sikeston, Mo. We already have a four-lane road built from Springfield to Sikeston. It's called U.S. 60. All we have to do it upgrade U.S. 60 a little bit. We already have the I-57 bridge over the Mississippi River to Illinois. Make a new road from Interstate 57 across Southern Illinois to the bridge at Paducah, and you're done. This would save a lot of money.

Fear of tort reform

OF COURSE the local lawyers are going to be bashing our local state representative. He's a Republican who supports court reform. They're ambulance-chasing lawyers, and court reform is something they fear.

U.N. is undependable

I WANT to comment about the idea that we need these foreign countries to back us up before we take any action and we should go to the United Nations. How are you going to these foreign countries who have a vested interest, especially France and its oil deals. Remember the last time we waited and cooperated with the United Nations? It resulted in the Somalia betrayal where our boys didn't get weapons to fight with. They waited for the United Nations to do it. If we have to go to the United Nations to defend ourselves, heaven help the United States.

Moon isn't for sale

When I read the article "Selling parts of the moon," I thought, "Oh, no, that moon belongs to our three children." When they each became 6 years old, their daddy would show them to the full moon and say, "I give you that moon. It is yours to keep." Now somebody wants to sell it without their permission. Sorry, but my children own it. You'll have to sell something else.