OpinionMay 5, 1999
SPEAKOUT
RIGHT IS right, and wrong is wrong. This is what we have been taught all our lives. So tell me what is right about city and county prosecutors who choose to ignore and drop assault charges consisting of bodily injuries, ex parte orders in full force being broken with police present and with knowledge of such and with witnesses present. ...
Looking for justice
RIGHT IS right, and wrong is wrong. This is what we have been taught all our lives. So tell me what is right about city and county prosecutors who choose to ignore and drop assault charges consisting of bodily injuries, ex parte orders in full force being broken with police present and with knowledge of such and with witnesses present. In addition, property was damaged and broken into with no-trespassing signs posted while ex parte orders were in force. Prosecutors won't allow you to speak with them to answer why nothing is being done. The law has been broken over and over by the same perpetrators, yet the law is not the law. I don't believe this would happen in Cape or Cape County, so why is this allowed in a community and county south of Cape? I call it a conspiracy and abating justice by our so-called law officers and officials. What would you do if these types of unlawful things happened to you? Would you feel safe? Would you feel there is justice? Where are the morals? Is this corruption? You tell me, is this right or wrong? We are taught to obey the law, take proper procedures and the law will protect you. I believed in justice. Now I feel it's a joke. What do you think?
It's against the law
I SEE where Bill Clinton wants to pass another gun law. Why doesn't he push for a law that says it's against the law to break the law?
Name school for Jesse Harris
I WOULD like to make a suggestion on what to name the new Jackson school. And brother, it's long, overdue. I would name it the Jesse Harris School. That lady taught me, my mother and father. She taught three generations of Jackson folks.
Teacher takes it out on students
I JUST want to comment on the bomb threat of April 19 at the Jackson school. School officials said the children could go home with their parents, and no punishment would be directed at children who went home that day. On Monday a certain teacher was upset with the children because they did not go look him up to get their folders. This was during the bomb threat. What is on a parents' and their child's mind is just getting out of there. And this teacher is upset because they did not take time to get their folders. As a result, he decided to make those kids do without recess and be the last ones in the lunch line. When I contacted the principal about what was happening and why, he said "No, there should be no punishment," and he said he would take care of it. But when my child got home from school, the punishment had gone on, and the teacher made the comment that he had been in trouble before and that he could deal with it again if he had to. Frankly, I'm sick of parents' being concerned about their children and then teachers' taking their own anger out on our children. This teaches children that if they do as their parents tell them, then they just get punished in the long run. This is just one very upset parent from the Jackson School District.
Unconvincing justice
I'D LIKE to comment on the article concerning the rural Thebes men convicted of federal drug charges. First of all, I sat through that whole so-called trial and heard all of the evidence against the two men that the jurors heard and still came out of the courtroom not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of their guilt. The only witnesses the government had were some of those previously arrested who testified in order to get their sentence lightened. The war on drugs and the method used to fight it is a travesty of justice. Hearsay evidence, the conspiracy law and mandatory minimum sentences have taken away our constitutional rights. We're filling our prisons with nonviolent persons costing the taxpayers enormous amounts of money and still not solving the drug problem. Can you imagine being sentenced to 10 years to life in prison on a charge only corroborated by these witnesses? This is not justice.
Follow the moral compass
A LOT has been said about who is culpable in the Littleton slayings as well as those in other schools around the country. This time, more attention is being fixed on the parents of the murderers in Colorado. The warning signs were certainly there, and from what I've seen in the media, I believe the parents could have taken a more active role and mitigated the tragedy that eventually was brought upon the community of Littleton. If we want to hold the parents criminally responsible, however, should we not also look at the atrocious behavior of some elected officials and the example they are setting for children such as the Colorado murderers? Should we say that some immoral acts are intolerable while others are not? I don't think so and neither do most of the folks I speak with. Personally, I think it's outrageous to think badly of a parent who would not protect against immoral actions by their children at school. We don't hold national role models to the same standards. What the nation is saying in all the polls I've seen is that right and wrong are negotiable, depending upon who and what is at stake. Let's set standards that we expect from everyone and hold everyone to those standards. Otherwise, we deserve the behavior we get from folks who adhere to no moral code such as our president, and we can expect further unthinkable acts by children who have, as he has, no moral compass.
Showing a lack of respect
I FELT I had to call in and respond to the picture on the front page of your paper on April 27 which showed a toddler in the Cape Girardeau Public Library. I'm sure your point was to illustrate that toddlers are using the library and so on and so forth, but what it actually illustrated was a complete lack of respect for someone else's property. I cannot imagine any parent allowing a child to climb up on book shelves and stand on books in their own home. So why would they allow a child to do that in the public library? I am a teacher in this town, and I showed this picture to my students throughout the day and did not make any comment. I just put it up on the bulletin board and said, OK, I want you all to look at it and respond to this picture that was in the Missourian. Overwhelmingly, my students were appalled at the behavior of this child and that any parent would allow a child to behave this way. Parents, this library has limited resources, and we go in there routinely and see kids of all ages running around, tearing things up, talking loudly, being rude. What is the responsibility of the parent? How many children are being dropped at the library doors and their parents go off and take care of their own personal business and they have no idea what their child is doing in the library, how they're behaving, who they're meeting, the type of language which they're using and the type of behavior they're exhibiting? This is not a baby sitter. It's a library.
Try it at home
HEY, DAVID Limbaugh is right. We all need to live ethics, morality and religion in the home.
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!
Using scare tactics
JO ANN Emerson says she wants to make sure that the voices of rural Americans are heard. Well, I've got a voice for her to hear. Stop opposing the Kyoto environmental treaty. Farm income is going to drop much more than 50 percent if global warming continues at its current pace. It is really sad when a member of Congress has to resort to using scare tactics in a letter to the editor to try to get something done.
Depends on who's killing
I HEARD a while ago on television where they killed some more people over in Yugoslavia or Kosovo. Seems like Clinton and NATO are killing a lot of people over there, and he gets after people over here for having guns. Somebody ought to take the weapons away from that son of a buck. He's not fit to run this country, and we ought to get him out of there.
No power to punish
IN THINKING about the school shootings and troubles, I am wondering if some of this was caused when we took away the authority of school teachers to correct pupils. They have no power to punish pupils who do things wrong. I remember when teachers used to take pupils to the cloakroom and teach them a lesson with a paddle. Now pupils can stand up and tell the teacher, You can't make me do this or that. You can't even touch me. That's too much power for the pupil. Also, the power to correct children has been taken away from the parents. They can't correct them or punish them because they would be charged with child abuse, not only physically but orally. Kids can do anything they want to and get by with it. Maybe some of these things should be changed.
No place to pay utility bills
AS OF April 23, AmerenUE does not furnish its customers a place to pay their bills. You either have to mail your bill in or pay at this store. Since this other grocery store is going out, we only have one place in Cape where we can pay our utilities and now there's going to be a service charge on paying your bill. If these companies cannot furnish an office for these people to pay their utilities, then we should not have them as our supplier. I wish we had more competition for utilities and telephone service. This is getting ridiculous, no place to pay your bills instead of having to mail them in. That 33 cents may not seem a lot to some people, but to senior citizens on a fixed income, it means a whole lot. It means that your phone bill has gone up another 25 cents (the grocery store's service charge) a month.
Why is Hillary running?
WHY IS the first lady running for the Senate of New York instead of Arkansas? Is it because it's a big liberal state? What gives Hillary Clinton all of the qualifications? Is it being married to a sex pervert, being jilted by a person with no moral character? Is she a victim? To me she has little character trying to cash in on her dedication to this no-president we have now. We have a sick nation, a sick public and sicker politicians.
Satan's playground
I WANT to say thank you, Mr. Limbaugh, I liked your column. I just wanted to say why doesn't President Clinton stop using the Columbine human death tragedy to promote gun control? This is really low-down. Trench coats don't kill people. Punk rock makeup doesn't kill people. And, once again, guns don't kill people. People who don't know precious love and have evil in their hearts and who are possessed by Satan and his followers are the ones capable of tragedies like Columbine High. They may have pulled the trigger, but long ago they were filled with Satan's evil. Then, and only then, was Satan's deed carried out. Don't you know the school ground is just another playground for Satan? After all, we created it. We kicked Jesus out a long time ago. We took God out of school, and we took parenting away from the parents. And we even took away pride and country when we took the pledge of allegiance out of the school. This society we have created is a total disaster, but nobody wants to do anything about it. Does this surprise you? If we don't want our kids, we just kill them at conception or even birth.
Some we agree on
FINALLY I agree with Hillary on something. Hillary thinks it's time to stop the evil and violence in movies and videos and music. I agree with her. Give glory to God.
Just wanted to say thanks
I JUST mailed back my survey to state Rep. David Schwab on my concerns of how he can better represent us in Jefferson City. I don't have too many complaints, but I did want to add one thing and tell him that I thank him for representing us. So, thank you, David.
Story Tags
Advertisement
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.
Related
Advertisement
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!
