SPEAKOUT

Class sizes

I am calling about a Speak Out article that appeared Aug. 17 entitled bigger classes. As the number of students in a teacher's classroom increases the amount of individual attention for each child decreases. A lack of individual attention presents a variety of problems for our children. Common sense and an enormous collection of research studies support the assertion that decreased class size is directly correlated to increases in student learning. Do you want your kids to learn under optimum conditions or not?

Not his own man

So now Al Gore is saying he is his own man and he promises a better, fairer, more prosperous America. If Al Gore was really his own man, he would have promised us a more moral and a more decent America, but he didn't. That just goes to prove one of two things: Either what Bill Clinton did Gore doesn't think was wrong, or Gore really isn't his own man and doesn't have the guts still yet to stand up and say what has been going for the last eight years in that White House was wrong. He is not his own man. He is never going to be.

Retirement funding

I've worked for the same company over 20 years. Eight percent of my wages go into a private retirement fund. Fifteen percent of my wages go into Social Security. If I were to retire today, my monthly payment for my retirement fund would be greater than my Social Security check even though almost twice as much money went into Social Security. In fact, most people my age group won't live long enough to withdraw the entire amount they contributed to Social Security.

Recycle dishwater

TO AREA residents who are required to save water: You can save the water from washing dishes and bathing and use it on your yard plants. It won't harm your plants. In fact, it will help them.

Ready for the future

THE PERSON who replied to my comments about Dick Cheney completely ignored the fact that the Lexus is imported into the United States completely assembled. Then he tried to say that unless we have the internal combustion engine as we know it, we won't have any transportation. Get real. There are already hybrid driven cars on the market that get over 70 miles per gallon. And one of the Fords who is in the upper echelons of the Ford Motor Co. said recently that the company has made breakthroughs in fuel-cell technology that in the next few years will make the internal-combustion engine as we know it obsolete.

One at a time

IT'S GREAT that they're repairing Cape's streets, but they have too many irons in the fire. They have two or three or four going at the same time. The delivery truck drivers we depend on don't know what routes to take. Let's do maybe one street at time. It shouldn't take them this long.

Life in jeopardy

I JUST read where this shoplifter took a gun and held it to someone's head and commanded the driver to take off. He's been charged with unlawful use of a weapon. If I'd go in the city limits and shoot birds, I would get the charge of unlawful use of a weapon. And if I point a gun at somebody's head, would I get the same charge? Does that make sense? Shooting birds in town or putting a gun to someone's head -- both get the same charge? Shouldn't the punishment be a little harsher when someone's life has been threatened?

Real benefits

I CAN'T understand why people have so much trouble with worker's comp. The law was supposed to have been changed, but it doesn't benefit the people. It benefits the insurance companies and the lawyers.

Wrong location

THOUGH THE Speak Out caller was being facetious, I really do think we should construct a statue of SEMO's chancellor, Dr. Dale Nitzschke. However, rather than build it on SEMO's campus, I think it would be more appropriately displayed at the entrance to Synergy Field, home of the Cincinnati Reds.