SPEAKOUT

Poem about new doctors union

THE FOLLOWING poem speaks to the difficulty I'm having convincing people that physicians have voted to unionize. I worry that someday they'll go on strike just when I need one. The Doctor Is Out

My docs joined organized labor.

It's got me in a funk.

I told my next door neighbor.

He thinks I'm full of bunk.

We need to fix our medical system

NOW THAT the doctors are starting the steps to form a union, it is time to get the charges of the medical industry in proper perspective. We are paying by far the highest percentage of gross national product of any major industrial country in the world. With this we have approximately 40 million people not covered, and our lifespan is less than the top countries. To get our medical costs in line, we would have to cut the incomes of our doctors by about $1,000 per week, and we would have to cut all medical costs by about the same percentage. Most of the doctors I have met seem to think that the M.D. behind their names means medical deity. Somehow we have got to cut these people down to size and bring our medical costs in line with the rest of the world. It looks to me like now is the time to institute a system like Canada has. Our system needs to be fixed and our medical deities brought down to Earth.

Civilization on the decline

DAVID LIMBAUGH recently seemed to say it's OK for George W. Bush to use Clinton-like tactics in order to get elected president. If Limbaugh really believes that, then our civilization is not only in decline, it has fallen.

Time to fix city streets

I'D LIKE to know when Cape Girardeau is going to start repairing our streets here in this town. There is no wonder that people's cars are shook to pieces. I think it's time that you repair our streets. Independence and Pacific are good examples. Some city councilmen need to drive by there and take a look. See if blacktop could be put in the holes.

Just let police do their job

THE IDEA that this town needs a committee to oversee its police force doing its job is ludicrous. The police force just needs to keep doing its job and put everybody in jail that needs to be put in jail.

Burn ours and we'll burn yours

I WANT to make a comment about the flag-burning controversy. I believe if these groups actually want to burn the American flag, we ought to be able to burn the AIDS quilt when they have it up in Washington.

Let God take care of the judging

TO THE person who said look at Al Gore's family values: Homosexuals are people. God is the only one who can stop that. How do you know that Gore, when he has just announced that he's going to be running for president, is going to hand our contraceptives in our schools, going to let homosexuals in the military and going to teach our children it's OK to have two mommies and daddies? Where are you coming from? Are you God? It's only God who's going to judge us, and we will pay for what we do on this earth. I was taught family values, but I was taught not to judge other people also. I'm a Christian, and if you are one, you should not be judging other people unless you are God.

Spiritual clowning works

THANK YOU so much for including the article "Clowns garner laugh but convey spiritual message." This is a very important subject because a lot of people don't believe clowns belong in churches. I should know because I am a professional clown. I just moved to the area, and I do a lot of secular events. But my main focus is spiritual clowning and caring clowns. Caring clowns is where you go into nursing homes or to a hospital and visit patients. I want to say thank you so much for including this in the paper. It will become a permanent fixture in all of my portfolios to show people how clowning can become very important. I am also going to the Show Me Clowns for Jesus convention at Lake of the Ozarks in February.

Thanks for the daily prayer

OUR SINCERE thanks to the person or persons responsible for the daily prayer. It adds an extra bright light to each day.

Church has good Bible school

I'D JUST like to comment on the Bible school at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. I think it was really fabulous, and I think everybody involved did a terrific job. They really had a nice program.

What about Show Me Center traffic?

A ROUNDABOUT on Sprigg Street may be a good idea and may be cost effective, but I think one should consider events at the Show Me Center. There's already trouble getting people in and out. That can only slow it down.

Government decides who gets rights

TALK ABOUT justice run amuck. It happened in Virginia. A member of the Ku Klux Klan and his buddies got together on private land with the owner's consent to burn a cross. He also made a comment to a deputy about white people being pushed around by minorities. For those two things, he now could get up to five years in prison. It sounds like his civil rights were denied him. Whether you agree or not with what he did shouldn't matter. He is protected by the Constitution on lawful assembly. He is also protected on expressing his opinion by the First Amendment on free speech. The jury that took 25 minutes to reach a verdict sounds like it had reached a conclusion beforehand just like in the O.J. Simpson trial. I think the case should be thrown out of court or the citizens of this country are in serious trouble of losing our rights and freedoms. It seems like the government and the powers that be decide who to give rights to and who to deny them to.

Roundabout would be a thorn

MY HUSBAND and I have read with interest the articles in the Missourian about the proposed roundabout on Sprigg and Normal. We lived in a community that had a roundabout for several years, and it was a joke. It was not a safe situation. Teen-age drivers and college drivers, because it was a college town, would drive around the circle on Friday night and thought it was a great place to try to race around and play games, play hide and seek on the circle and so on. Considering the fact that immature drivers or less mature drivers such as university students are going to be primary target in this area, I don't think this will be a good idea. Furthermore, Cape has tried supposedly innovative things before. Remember making Broadway one way, and it had to be corrected? How hard is it going to be to correct a roundabout? Who's going to pay for traffic lights then? Will SEMO be willing to pay half of it once they've already put in a roundabout at half of their expense? People in this town are conservative. Let's admit it. We don't handle change very well. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Put in traffic lights, which we know what they are. We're comfortable with them. Let us deal with something we already know. Get the university to pay half of it, take their money, do it and be done. But you put in this roundabout, and you're going to be building something that is a continual problem and a continual thorn in the community's side.