Speak Out B 07/30/03

PEOPLE IN Scott City who complain about train whistles are like the people who buy a house near an airport and then complain about the noise. The railroad has been in Scott City since 1904. Those who are complaining knew about the trains beforehand and moved here anyway.

Wrong country

THE OFFICIAL 9-11 investigation report has been released. Guess what? There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaida to 9-11. Meanwhile the 28 pages detailing Saudi involvement have been censored. Oops! Looks like we invaded the wrong country.

Inspirational story

IN RESPONSE to the article "Finding true love across the hall at the Chateau": This was a beautiful story showing that true love goes beyond what's on the outside to what is deep down inside. The story was definitely an inspiration. Thanks.

Pay the assistants

IT'S INTERESTING to see all the comments concerning school administrators' salaries, but one thing is not mentioned that needs to be. For every administrator, there are one or two assistants. These underpaid, hard-working individuals take all the guff and receive very little appreciation or respect. Pay the administrative assistants their fair wage or lose them. What happened to that $1.5 million shortfall? Seems like that has all but been forgotten. Or has it. See you at the polls.

Questionable data

IT WAS interesting to become aware of school administrative salaries. While educators must be supported as they help raise our future, it is irritating to see such an increase in salaries compared to the much smaller increase in student enrollment. After researching the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Web site, I was startled when viewing data for neighboring districts, including my hometown of Altenburg where the administrative salary has increased 81 percent between the 1997-98 and 2001-02 school years. According to DESE, the student enrollment has grown by 61 percent, having 221 students per administrator. Anyone familiar with Altenburg knows the district only serves grades K-8 and has around 100 students.

A positive image

I READ the article about SEMO changing its mascot. I graduated from SEMO some years ago and was always proud of the Indian. It was my feeling that we always made a serious attempt to present a positive image of American Indians. It may have been cartoonish, but was never intended to denigrate or insult. Even when I was a student there were the politically correct whiners who professed to be acting toward the greater good by suggesting such harmless irreverence was somehow contemptible. I am sorry to learn that my old school now appears to be run by people of this mindset.

Bunch of good actors

I AGREE wholeheartedly with David Limbaugh that it is morally outrageous to liken Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh to Adolf Hitler. The only thing they remotely have in common is that they would all be considered pretty good actors.

Corporate comparison

BASED ON recent news reports, your editorial view that there is a parallel in the job descriptions of public school administrators and corporate CEOs seems accurate. Their salaries skyrocket, and neither of them seem subject to much accountability.

Drug reimportation

KUDOS TO U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. Once again, she has proven herself to be a person of the people. Her sponsorship and support for reimportation of prescription drugs from foreign countries has passed the House. Senators, many of whom are hiding behind the red herring of safety, seems less supportive. The real reason some senators oppose the legislation is that they have been bought and paid for by the big pharmaceutical companies. Sen. Jim Talent seems quasi-committed to supporting the legislation but is engaging in a lot of political-speak. Sen. Christopher Bond may not be on board at all. Perhaps Talent needs to be reminded who played a major role in getting him elected. Bond would be well-served to note that if he opposes the bill, announced opponent Nancy Farmer may come out of nowhere and take his seat.

Some real issues

YOU'VE GOT to be joking. Our poor, financially strapped university is spending time (and, therefore, money) worrying about whether the team name is offensive to Indians. As your article pointed out, it's hard to find someone of American Indian heritage who really cares one way or the other. If Indians were offended by low staff morale, rising tuition and some real questions about the quality of education the students are receiving, would it help get something done about that?

Coming alive

CAPE'S DOWNTOWN is really coming alive. I love this town, and it's only going to get better in the future.

Wishing for Clinton, Gore

WHY IS George Bush's popularity in freefall? It's because the American people are finally catching on that he is a fraud and no better than anyone else. I bet people are wishing they could have Bill Clinton back, or at least Al Gore. I sure am. At least those two had some class.

Awesome descriptions

STEVE ROBERTSON'S auto column in your Friday paper has definitely got it going on. I bow down to his descriptions and offer full homage. They are awesome.

It's just not fair

SO JOE Sullivan's column is moving to Sunday. I'm going to miss his dose of humor on Fridays. Plus now I have to dish out a buck fifty to read his strange musings. Life ain't fair sometimes.

They had to die

I'M GLAD Saddam Hussein's sons are dead. After reading about the heinous atrocities they committed while alive, they deserved to die. The Bush administration and the American military deserve praise for saving the Iraqi people from such madmen.

Looking for an expert

SO SEMO'S looking for a new mascot. I'm assuming they'll follow the city's lead and pay someone in another state tens of thousands of dollars to come up with a symbol that best suits the region.

It isn't, but it is

SEMO OPERATIVE AlanZacharias was quoted as saying the university was not changing the name of the mascot for purposes of political correctness and then proceeded to explain it was changing the name for purposes of political correctness.

Big-spending Republicans

THE REPUBLICAN smaller-government figures are in. In the first three years of the Bush administration, government spending increased by, adjusted for inflation, 15.6 percent, compared to 3.3 percent in Bill Clinton's first three years. The Republicans just want to spend and spend more, creating the largest deficit spending ever.

Justice and history

I'M ALWAYS amazed at the discussions of sports team names. White people keep making pronouncements about what is or is not offensive. Only an American Indian could say whether the Indian name is offensive. If such a name is offensive to a significant number of American Indians, then don't use it. The assumption that it's up to privileged white people to decide this is a furtherance of the injustice that has been forced on American Indians by whites for centuries. None of this has anything to do with political correctness, which is a meaningless term used to rationalize doing whatever you want. It's all about justice, history and real respect for the feelings and rights of others.

In defense of fireworks

THEY'RE JUST fireworks. Get over it. People do a lot worse things for fun than fireworks. I'm sure you can stand a couple weeks of fireworks to celebrate our freedom. People died for this holiday. You might as well enjoy it and thank the men who gave their lives for it.

Train's speed limit

THE WOMAN who drives 35 mph (the speed limit) on Main Street in Scott City is doing what everyone should do. But she does not know anything about railroad rules and regulations. The whistle is for the safety of everyone. The speed for trains is 50 mph.

Limbaugh's views

WE APPRECIATE David Limbaugh's accurate insights concerning alleged similarities in the psyches of Adolf Hitler, Rush Limbaugh and Ronald Reagan. However, your readership may be much more interested in his views as to whether the American people should spend tax money and sacrifice American lives in order to pacify Iraq and to try to rebuild it in our image. Does Limbaugh think these objectives mesh with America's national interest in general and conservative political philosophy specifically?

He's an adulterer

WHY DID you write an editorial expressing the view that you hope Kobe Bryant didn't commit rape? I suspect we would have never read such words in the Southeast Missourian were Bryant not an NBA superstar. Does it not concern you that Bryant is already a self-confessed adulterer?

Impressive winners

CONGRATULATIONS TO the University of Missouri-Rolla's solar car team -- especially our local boys, Scott and Neal Essner -- on winning the American Solar Challenge in record-setting time. As a parent of two UMR students myself, I thoroughly enjoyed checking the American Solar Challenge Web site daily to check the progress and see daily photos. What an impressive job against top universities. Way to go, guys.

Keep team names

I THINK the Southeast Missouri State University's team names should stay the same: Indians and Otahkians. Can you imagine if they would come over here and stop Jackson from being the Jackson Indians?

Inappropriate name

TO THOSE who think we should keep the Indian as the SEMO mascot, consider this. We have almost no Indians who ever play on the team. However many African-Americans play on our teams. Why shouldn't we call ourselves the SEMO Negroes? See how inappropriate and silly that sounds?

Name game is rubbish

SCRAPPING THE Indian mascot is rubbish. I have Indian blood in me, and I'm not offended. This area has a rich Indian heritage with Trail of Tears and so forth. Who's next? Jackson? My high school had a full-blooded Indian football coach. Two of our players were full-blooded Indians. Our mascot was an Indian. Our pep rallies were bonfire pow-wows. No one complained. If SEMO wants to be more marketable, it should lower tuition and add classes where the students learn a little more about this country. Right now most of them don't have a clue.

We goofed on Iraq

THE OTHER day former U.S. senator and presidential contender Bob Dole said this war is about to liberate Iraq. Dole can't have it both ways. First, we went in there for weapons of mass destruction. Evidently, the Bush administration messed up miserably with egg on its face. Now, we went in there to liberate Iraq. Let's face it, we goofed on that war. Now the president trying to worm out and pass it off to CIA personnel and on down the line.

Degrading our country

MOST IRAQIS are happy the country is rebuilding. Of course there will be a few radicals out of millions of people who make trouble. We have many more killings in America every day than in Iraq. Our president and troops have done almost a miraculous job, but the power-hungry Democrats continue to trash their success, degrading our country to get votes the next election.

Inappropriate cartoon

THURSDAY'S POLITICAL cartoon calling our military forces in Iraq an army of whiners is way out of order. This cartoonist at his comfortable desk and in his air-conditioned room slammed the people who protect his way of life. Yes, they are volunteers, but without them we would not be safe as a country for 15 minutes. This cartoonist should be ashamed. So should the Southeast Missourian for printing it.

Chief says, 'Burn 'em!'

IT'S SO sad those other teams would say such vicious things about our Southeast Indians. It probably hurts our team's ego to think the other teams could be so mean. Just think, those other college teams are using lines from Disney's pre-politically corrected animated cartoon thriller, "Peter Pan," to intimidate our socially sensitive liberal arts state college athletes. You know that infamous line when Hook has stolen Tiger Lily and her father, the chief of the Indian tribe, falsely accuses Wendy's brothers and the Lost Boys of kidnapping her. It's at this point that the chief looks menacingly toward those poor, helpless little boys and says "Burn 'em at the stake." To the Speak Out editor: If you feel the need to censor that line, feel free to do so. I wouldn't want your newspaper to be embroiled in a politically correct liberal witch hunt. So let's get together and support a new nickname.

Easy to offend

I'M A Southeast alumnus. I really never cared for the Indian mascot. Maybe we could call them the Redhawks, because we have red-tailed hawks that fly over Cape Girardeau every day. This political correctness is stupid because it's only for the people who use those slang names behind closed doors but are prim and proper in public. I could say I'm offended by Swiss cheese because I'm part Swiss. I could say I'm offended because by sauerkraut because I'm part German. And I could say they'd better change the name of the Fighting Irish because I'm part Irish. And I'm a Native American. I was born in Pennsylvania.

Mascot pays tribute

I'M NEW to this area. I believed SEMO had the Indian mascot because it was paying respect to the Trail of Tears which crossed north of Cape Girardeau. It's unbelievable to think that anybody would not know the history of the Indian mascot at Southeast and not respect that we're paying homage to the great travesty of what happened.

In poor taste

I THOUGHT the political cartoon about the soldiers and the various reasons they want to come home was in poor taste. Who would blame the soldiers for not wanting to come home and avoid the chances of being picked off on a daily basis? I think George Bush was wrong when he declared the war over. The war's not over until every one of our young men and young women come home. The troops are not getting the acclaim they were before, even though they're still risking their lives.

Belongs in politics

ALAN ZACHARIAS belongs in politics. He was quoted in the Missourian as saying a recommendation to quit using American Indian symbols wasn't made because of political correctness. It has to be at least part political correctness, if not all. Perhaps someone needs to explain to the vice president of university advancement the definition of political correctness.

Team of manners

LET'S HOPE SEMO doesn't spend $42,000 for an idea of what to call themselves. Why don't we call them Gentlemen and Gentle Ladies? We won't tackle you hard, go after your quarterback or pull any trick plays. We will not applaud when our team makes the good play or scores on you. If one of our ladies hits a home run, we will see to it that she apologizes to your pitcher.

Cruelty to animal teams

I HAVE always respected our American Indians. I've reminded people that we stole this land from the American Indians. We were unfair to them. I've always been proud that I was a Jackson High School Indian. We will always have people that will yell something negative at athletic opponents such as scalp the Indian and burn it at the stake. How about kill that Tiger or kick the Bulldog? Next we will have the animal-rights people telling us we are cruel to animals.

Yellow lines

I'D LIKE to take this opportunity to thank MoDOT and Penzel Construction for painting the yellow lines on the Diversion Channel bridge. I really appreciate that. It's going to help out a lot.