SPEAKOUT

Thankful for police protection

I HOPE police didn't say any bad words while a riot of people were throwing bottles and rocks at them. Let me take a moment to thank our police. I appreciate that you come out and risk your lives to serve and protect us. Thank you very much.

Why were they out there?

I SUPPORT our police department 100 percent. I also have a question for the supposedly law-abiding, tax-paying homeowners: What were you doing on the street at 1:30 in the morning throwing rocks at our police officers? Whom do you think you're kidding?

This is called race relations

ISN'T IT great what race relations have boiled down to? When the police attempt to apprehend some suspects in a crime, they're attacked by a mob and somehow the police are responsible for that. When the police attempt to focus a lot of law enforcement efforts on the Good Hope area, they're racist because they don't have a satellite at Capaha Park. They say people smoke marijuana down at Capaha Park. They do. People smoke crack, rob and attack people down on Good Hope. Which do you think is more dangerous? It reminds me of when I was on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. There was a big controversy there at one time brought on by the Association of Black Collegiates who were upset because their offices weren't as big as the student government offices. The state of racism and the state of race relations at that time was such that nobody had the guts to point out to the Association of Black Collegiates that the student government offices were bigger because student government represented all of the population of the university at that time, and Black Collegiates on campus represented 14 percent of the population at that time. But to point that out in public would have made anyone who pointed the fact out racist, and that's what race relations in this country have come to.

The war has really just begun

I WANT to talk about the war over there in Yugoslavia. They say we've won the war. Well, you can win when the other side can't shoot back. We could bomb above 15,000 feet, but we couldn't come down because we saw what happened to that one Stealth fighter that came down. They shot it down. Here's the question: What's going to keep Serb guerrilla units from fanning out throughout the countryside and mountains and, as our planes come in low now, shoot them down? We bombed them until they submitted. What if they shoot our planes down until we submit? It won't take much of that until America will get tired of it. But beyond that, there are coal mines and mineral mines in Kosovo. Now the American Mineral Co., one of Clinton supporters over there, is trying to buy those rights for the minerals. I don't think the Serbs are going to give those up. They're not going to give up those riches. But beyond that, even if this all breaks down and fighting starts again, how you going to bomb anymore with the Russians in there? You drop those bombs on those Russian troops, and you'll be in war. The war has not ended. It has just begun.

Using race as a crutch

THERE ARE good people and bad people of all races. I live off Lexington. I am a homeowner, which means I own my own home free and clear. I pay my taxes and bills on time. My husband is not on the street at 1:30 in the morning. Yes, I am white. Do you call it harassment when the police sit with their cars off of Lexington trying to get speeders? The black community needs to using their color as a crutch.

Why repair all the streets at once?

PLEASE TELL me why our city government waits until all the streets all over Cape need fixing and then tries to do all of them at the same time? Why don't they have the streets repaired as they need them? The traffic would flow much better, and the drivers would be in a better humor -- and the cost would be spread out over more time than one summer.

Nothing tops a father's love

CONGRATULATIONS TO the Notre Dame Bulldogs on a great baseball season. The hard work of the players and coaches really paid off. Coach Neff and Coach Graviette are to be commended. Some people may not realize that former Bulldogs Coach Gregg Muench also was instrumental in working with the team. His presence could especially be seen in the hitting ability of this great team. However, that is not really why the students and parents of Notre Dame are proud to say that Coach Muench has been such an important part of our sons' and daughters' lives. Two years ago, Coach Muench and his wife found out that their son is deaf. After much prayer and research, they decided that Braden should receive a cochlear implant. For their son to have the surgery, the Muench family had to endure many sacrifices. One of these sacrifices included leaving Notre Dame so that Coach Muench could take his son to a deaf school in St. Louis. His wife stayed in Cape to teach one more year. On the four days Coach Muench was in town, he spent countless hours coaching at the Notre Dame baseball field without pay. The real pay has been in the progress the Muenchs' son has made in his speech and hearing. As a parent, I want to say thank you to Coach Muench. You taught our sons so much more than how to hit a baseball. You taught them that your commitment to God and your family will always come first. I will never forget how upset my son was when you told the team you were leaving. I will never forget him saying to me that baseball is important, but not as important as a father's love for his son. Thank you!

Thanks to our crime stoppers

HOW MANY Cape County citizens would actually be willing to be crime stoppers? How many of us would be willing to step out of the safety of our work places, homes and cars and into the street to stop a crime in progress? Who would respond to a call as a backup to a fellow citizen who was already involved in a dangerous situation? The answer to each question: Very few of us. The few who have stepped forward have become law enforcement officers ,and they are willing to do the job of crime stoppers. Let's thank the Cape P.D. and the other officers from the area who are willing to back them up. Let's thank them for doing their jobs as crime stoppers even when faced with putting their own lives on the line. Thank you all.

A crime of omission

THE FOLLOWING poem expresses cynicism with Cape's apparent attempt to deal with problems on Good Hope Street in a less than serious way:

The city says we have permission

To hear from a toothless commission.

That's really no change of position.

Some say it's a crime of omission.

Questions for flower thief

I WOULD like to ask the flower thieves at Memorial Park who stole my red geraniums off my mother and father's grave: Why mine? Of all the beautiful flowers, do you take them by name, or are you just a bad thief who steals from the dead?

Licensing is too much government

YOU CONSERVATIVE Republicans cry "too much government." Well, the law we have in this state is extreme about licensing your car. You have to have your personal-property tax receipt and your insurance identification, you have to pay $7 to get the car inspected, then it takes a full day, at times, to get that all taken care of. You talk about too much government, that really is a honey of too much government. I think we ought to do what Illinois does. Just send the money in and buy the license when due. If Illinois and Tennessee and other states make out, certainly we can. We don't need that law, inspections, to buy your license. Too much government, if you want to get rid of that, start right there.

Not everyone thinks alike

I AM a black female college student and also a resident of Cape. It's pretty disturbing to know that comments are made in the newspaper about the incident that happened on Good Hope. It's very frightening to know that some of the residents of Cape Girardeau think that, because of this incident, all black people think under one mind. Two wrongs don't make a right. If something had happened, either way, action should be taken. But the majority of black people in Cape understand that hard work and making good, honest pay does not mean that most of the black people support what's going on right now. Two wrongs don't make a right. It's really frightening to know that this is being blown up for all the wrong reasons. In my opinion, I think this incident is giving a wrong impression about what civil rights and the NAACP purposes are. It's frightening to know that college students and other hard-working black people are confused about what's going on. So let us understand that this is not the purpose of the NAACP, and this is not the whole opinion of all the black people in residence in Cape.