OpinionMay 10, 1999
SPEAKOUT
IT IS just past tax time. On purpose, during 1998, I earned less money than I did in 1997. You ask: What kind of idiot would try to earn less instead of more? Well, to this idiot, it was satisfying to have to pay less in taxes. I was able to escape a little bit of the never-ending appetite of the IRS, Congress and our president. ...
Isn't this tyranny?
IT IS just past tax time. On purpose, during 1998, I earned less money than I did in 1997. You ask: What kind of idiot would try to earn less instead of more? Well, to this idiot, it was satisfying to have to pay less in taxes. I was able to escape a little bit of the never-ending appetite of the IRS, Congress and our president. They love to give away our paychecks for their pet projects and use our money to buy votes with welfare checks and other so-called entitlements. Our state and federal governments no longer reward hard-working, clean-living folks. Yet everybody wonders why our country gets worse instead of better. How much longer will our remaining hard-working citizens put up with such a sorry situation, which amounts to unjust punishment? Isn't this what our Founding Fathers would have called tyranny?
The Bootheel project
WELL, HERE goes the university again with the university intelligence. Give the Bootheel what it wants. What about Cape? We pay tax after tax, and our kids can't afford to go to SEMO. And SEMO helps other states do this, from Illinois and everywhere. What about our students? What about us? Now a $40,000 year project in the Bootheel? It's a waste of time and money. And they wonder why we vote no on the River Campus project. Go figure.
False accusation
IN THE paper there's another Speak Out item by an uninformed Republican expressing hate in your paper. The congressional investigation of Clinton has found no evidence that he's already given the Chinese nuclear bombs and missiles that are now aimed at our children and grandchildren. That's strictly a false accusation and a real trashy one at that. Why did you print it?
It starts in the home
IT SAD to pick up the paper and see someone blaming Clinton for the violence that's taken place in the schools. Everybody knows this is coming from homes where hate is practiced. People who don't have their way or don't get their way or don't believe in the politics of the other party -- the children are hearing this in their home, they're hearing the hate. They're seeing it in videos, on the Internet and what have you. Mr. Clinton had nothing to do with this at all. He preaches compassion. Let's put the blame where it belongs. It starts in the home and the schools, and the schools have had their hands tied through years of what they can do and what they can't do. These punks need to be punished when they do something wrong. They've got no business going to the classroom with their hats on and their coats on. We've got heating, and we've got comfort in the classroom.
Different priorities
I WAS reading Speak Out about the reason for moral decline in our country. I think moral decline started in the middle '60s when mothers who did not have to work started working so the family could afford better luxuries. As a result, counselors were introduced into the school systems to replace parental leadership. Social, financial and marital problems developed. Adults and children began seeking advice from professional psychologists and still are. Now our society has developed a more expensive standard of living with different priorities than our grandparents. I've seen people who live in expensive houses, drive expensive cars, take expensive vacations and then complain about how they can't afford a good education for their children. These are the same parents who are often too tired from working to do things with their children and to attend church on Sunday.
Double up for prom dates
IF YOUR friend doesn't have a date for the prom, get your date to take both of you. You will all have a good time. Don't worry about it. All the kids are doing it.
No prayer in schools
ABOUT THE school shootings and the moral decay in the country: It's so simple. You know when it started. It all started when they took prayer out of schools and when they started abortions, mainly when they took prayer out of school. When I was a child, we had prayer in school, and we had nothing like this.
Jackson deserves praise
I HOPE that our newspaper will give the same praise to Jesse Jackson for getting those soldiers released as he would have if he had been a white man, because he deserves it. He did something the president didn't have the nerve enough to do.
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So-called experts
MOST OF your Speak Out opinions are interesting for intelligent people to read. But you still insist printing this hate mail from uninformed Republicans. Who does this person think he is to call in a long essay on the reasons for moral decay? Explain why they're qualified to make such assumptions to be printed in your paper. Why is this trash printed for all the rest of us to read?
Take responsibility
TO THE person who said the reason for moral decline is Bill Clinton: For the last six years, I'd like to know what they feel like he could have possibly done? Are they blaming Watergate on Bill too? They need to start taking responsibility for a lot of things they are involved in and not throw everything on Bill Clinton.
Put God back in classrooms
I AM a mother and a grandmother, I'm a disabled lady at that Not only me but a lot of other people get tired of hearing Bill Clinton run in the ground. I'm not a Democrat or a Republican, and we really don't care to hear about the ladies who can't sleep at night and Jo Ann Emerson's friend who is disappointed in her. You know, the reason that children are using guns and are shooting each other is because God was taken out of our schools. Our children don't hear anything about God. They can't salute the flag. They're not supposed to pray over their food. My three grandchildren, thank God, and my two sons and daughters-in-law are Christians. My grandchildren are taught to bless their food before they eat. They're taught that God comes first in their life, which it should have been all along. Whenever they took God out of our schools, there are no morals left. I mean, what can a kid do? Anything they want to do. You can't even spank a child anymore. Put God back in our schools, and then you will not have the morals that you have today. Give those teachers permission to do whatever. You shouldn't spare the rod and spoil the child.
Discipline or abuse?
THIS IS directed to the lady who just left the grocery store. I witnessed her slap her child in the middle of the aisle. I would like to explain to her that there's a fine line between discipline and abuse. I feel wholeheartedly that you need to discipline your children, but when a little 3-year-old is just crying in the store, there's no reason to slap him.
A home overlooking the river
REGARDING THE article about Dr. Nitzschke's home: He thinks the university needs an alumni center, and he just happens to have a house to give up for an alumni center. Do you smell a fish here? He just happens to be willing to move off campus if the university buys him a new house. Well, I've got a place in mind. It's way, way off campus, and the university already owns it. How about going down to the seminary and just living in the seminary? It would work out for everything.
Remodel Wildwood
I MUST say I laud President Nitzschke for finding creative ways to spend my money. I would much prefer for him to remodel his home to have a larger dining room at a lesser cost to the taxpayers.
Keep messy dogs away
I'M CALLING, regarding, this is to the lady on Woodbine Street who walks her dogs of a morning. Some of us take pride in our yard and would appreciate it if she would not let her dogs dispose of their waste in our yards around our flowers. Let them go to the bathroom in her yard. If she wants to walk them, that's fine. Walk in the street, but keep them out of our yards. We are going to say something the next time it happens.
Just get behind him
I WANT to comment about people who are questioning President Clinton's moral authority to wage war for the United States. You know, I think we all ought to get behind him now. Sure, he told us some stories. He maybe fibbed a little bit under oath there with Monica Lewinsky and then come back seven months later and told us that he did have an affair with her. So what if he cheated on his wife? Maybe he did sell weapons to the Chinese plus Whitewatergate and taking campaign funds. But we ought to get behind him. Let's put the past behind him. Even if he sold the Chinese these secrets, it doesn't rise to the level of impeachment or getting rid of him. I mean, so what if there are nuclear weapons aimed at the United States and our children and grandchildren now? But I think we should get behind him, and all of us should join up and go right over there, send our sons. Let's have faith in the president. After all, up until now, look at the job he's done as far as honesty and being truthful with the American public. I think we can trust him, at least this time anyway. Let's all get behind him and send our sons right on over.
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