SPEAKOUT

Lots of questions

My question: Why do so many citizens walk in the middle of well-traveled streets where there are good sidewalks on both sides? Why are so many unlicensed vehicles allowed to travel the streets day after day with no plates at all? Why are so many vehicles using only one plate for up to three years at a time? If that is permissible, why doesn't Missouri go to a one-time system for everyone when it saves the state a lot of money? And finally, why isn't there more police presence north of Broadway to Washington on Frederick, Middle and Fountain. Good Hope is not the only area with drug problems.

Not worth it

Television is so unfit to watch these days that I only turn on for the news, and that's all bad too. So cutting back to only basic TV service is really too much to pay for bad news. Charter's increase in cost is a big joke. It is not worth it.

It's a baby

To the person who said that wanting to protect an embryo was imposing religious beliefs on people: First of all, try telling any woman who has had a miscarriage or an ultrasound that what they were carrying was just an embryo, not a baby. This is not a religious issue. It is a human-life issue. Pro-choice people even quit using the argument that it is not a baby because everyone with common sense knew better.

Bridge toll plan

ABOUT THE new bridge: Since Illinois could not afford to build it and had to borrow from Missouri, I feel Illinois motorists should be let out of the gate one by one, and they should pay a $5 toll one way.

It was my fault

I would just like to thank the person at Main Street and Farmington who was paying attention. I certainly was not. It was real close to an accident. I'm always fussing about people who don't pay attention, and I was seriously in error and sure appreciate the person who was paying attention and avoided an accident.

A private matter

How people manage their private property is none of Alan Journet's business.

They had the helm

I want to comment about something I saw in a newspaper about the poor dental help for the Medicare patients. Where has Mel Carnahan been? I thought he wanted to act like he was so much for the people. He sounds like another Bill Clinton to me. He is the one who has been in charge of this. He could have changed it. It is just like all the stuff that Al Gore is saying is wrong with the country. Where have they been for eight years? They are the ones who have been in charge and the captain at the helm. The ship has hit an iceberg because of its mismanagement. The same here in Missouri with Carnahan, and he wants to be U.S. senator.

Turn on cameras

For the person who wants to put a video camera at stop signs: I'd like to see one at the stop lights myself. Too many people in Cape Girardeau break when they see a green light or choose not to drive when the light turns green.

Credit for Reagan

DEMOCRATS DON'T want to give Reagan credit for anything. Reagan put a stop to high inflation. Reagan gave a tax cut,and all you have to do is just check.This economy growth that we have now started when Reagan cut taxes and cut the red tape. Democrats won't give Reagan the right credit that he deserves. Remember when he told Mr. Gorbachev: Tear that wall down. They tore it down. The Russians listened then and believed Reagan, and he has saved us billions.

Go after the fathers

I'm calling in response to the mother who called about the HUD housing project and being forced to move. I have been a single parent for 14 years, have raised a daughter by myself and received child support regularly from her father. The only free money we have received is she qualified for the reduced-lunch program. Go out and get these deadbeat dads for their child support.

Monks or geeks?

Your editorial use of the insulting word "geek" to refer to my computer-genius friends could have dire consequences. Future Southeast Missourians may have to be printed on movable-type presses from the Gutenberg era or, if area computer wizards were extraordinarily offended, by hand. For your benefit as well as that of the readers, I hope that you employ a lot of monks.

Not easy to quit

The recent caller who wrote in that anyone can quit smoking doesn't know what he is talking about. The success rate for a long-term smoker is the same for a heroin addict. Just because the caller was successful in quitting, it is disgraceful to call others liars who were not successful in quitting. Everybody is different. I saw my father try with all of his heart and soul to quit the whole time I was growing up. He never succeeded, and I watched him die an early death from lung cancer.

Democrat memories

DEMOCRAT LIBERALS are always quick to place blame for all the world's past problems on the Reagan administration. Let me as a Republican place a little blame of my own by remembering some of the past. I can remember in 1950 during the Truman administration when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the president decided to involve the United States in a foreign civil war. Truman decided to call it a police action, even though 40,000 Americans and over 4 million Asians died. I also remember the early 1960s when two other presidents, Kennedy and Johnson, with both houses of Congress also controlled by the Democrats, involved the United States in another foreign civil war where over 58,000 Americans and 6 million Asians died. There was an earlier war also with the Democrats firmly in control in Washington. I would like to ask the Democrats two questions: What major U.S. wars over the past 60 years occurred under Democratic control? If the Democrats take control of Congress and Gore becomes president, is the United States again going to become involved in a major war? I think this is only fair to ask.