SPEAKOUT

Senior and baby

I WOULD just like to make a comment regarding Monday's edition of the Southeast Missourian. The front page basically glamorized the fact that a high school senior had a 5-month-old child. I'm sorry, I'm a professional in this community but I am very much opposed to and resent the fact that the Missourian would put on the front page a high school senior with a child.

What about rotting food?

I CALLED the trash collection service today and asked them for help in removing my spoiled food from my side-by-side refrigerator-freezer compartments since our power was off for over 17 hours. I did have some spoilage. My garbage will not be picked up for another six days. Now I heard that the city trash collection was picking up limbs. You just put them out there. I'm not concerned about my downed limbs as much as my garbage that's going to be maggot infested and a health hazard in six days in this hot weather. I think the health department should be investigating this. This is the longest time in 25 years that our power has been off and I'm sure a lot of other people are in this same situation. I don't appreciate my city's response to my problem.

All the personnel of the public works department and other divisions are busy picking up an overwhelming number of limbs, said Doug Leslie, director of public works in Cape Girardeau.

In response to the spoiled food problem, the city will allow residents to put other two extra bags of spoiled food with their regular trash without additional charge.

A more immediate solution would be to take the spoiled food to the solid waste transfer station on South Sprigg, said Leslie. The transfer station is open from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Friday, and cost is less than two cents per pound.

Where's my power?

I live in Jackson and our power's been out over 25 hours now. I can't get an answer from UE. I even had to go by the main office. No response whatsoever. They play their little commercials about the guy that restored power to 29 city blocks and the April showers brings May flowers thing. This is ridiculous. If we had a natural disaster or a real one like went through Iowa or Oklahoma, it would be over a month before got service back. Before everybody starts patting them on the back and telling them what a great job they did, I think they were severely unmanned, under staffed, ill prepared to handle this. Who's going to pay for the $300 of defrosted beef in my freezer and my spoiled groceries upstairs, not to mention all the hassle that's associated with it?

Who will pay?

WHAT WAS the hold up is of electric power on Stoddard Street as we have been without power for 24 hours. If someone would have told me this could happen in Cape Girardeau, I would have said no way. Our produce, meat and leftovers have ruined. Who will pay?

Why that photo?

WHY IN the world would you put a picture of a senior girl with a 5-month-old baby graduating from high school on the front page of your newspaper?

A crying shame

THIS IS in reference to your graduation picture on the front of Monday's paper. I think it's a crying shame when the only picture of a high school senior you print is the presumably unwed mother and her baby. Sure it's cute but what does this say to other seniors? That you need a baby to get on the front of the newspaper. If there is to this than meets the eye, someone please enlighten me. Otherwise, I feel this is totally unfitting and morally reprehensible.

What happened to the roses?

TODAY I went by the Capaha rose garden and I wanted to take a couple of friends over there from out of state to see the beautiful gardens and the roses that we have in Cape Girardeau. Needless to say I was never so disappointed in my life. Half the roses that are there are either diseased or dying. It looks like no one is taking care of them. In years past it was absolutely beautiful but this year it was so disappointing, I wanted to cry.

Sitting in the dark

THIS IS ridiculous. AmerenUE is supposed to be a big company. What is wrong with them? Can't they call someone in that knows how to fix the lines? We're still sitting here in the dark.

Has AmerenUE downsized?

WE, ALONG with our neighbors, wonder if AmerenUE has downsized to the point where they can no longer handle an emergency. We live in the area north of Cape where most of us depend on deep wells for our water supply. We get the water from the wells by electric pumps. Try living three days without water. We can buy bottled water to drink and cook but we can't afford bottled water for showers and to flush the toilet. Also, numerous farmers in the area pump water for their livestock. Three days without power in a small area like Cape Girardeau and surrounding area is unjustified.

Don't glorify teen-age moms

AT DELTA'S graduation on your front page, rather than glorifying a teen-age pregnancy which is national problem, why wouldn't your newspaper feature a student who worked hard to achieve?

The wrong message

I'M CALLING to object to the May 17 front page picture from Delta High School's graduation. I do admire the young mother who graduated for her determination and effort that she undertook under adverse circumstances. However, this situation, children having children, should not be honored on the front page of our local paper. This type of journalism sends the wrong message to our young people. Please help build up moral behavior by not glorifying teenage pregnancy and parenthood.

Don't publicize immorality

OF ALL the thousands of students in this area that graduate from high school this year, why did the Southeast Missourian decide that the picture that they were going to run on page 1 was of a graduate with a 5-month-old son which means of course that she got pregnant when she was a junior in high school? An act of immorality should not be publicized and you saw fit to do it.

No electricity

I THINK it's terrible that Union Electric is letting this outage go on as long as it has. We have been without electricity for 44 hours. I don't see a Union Electric truck in our area, I've driven all around. Apparently, nobody's making any effort to get the power back on. I've never seen any company so careless in their operation. We've had a gas leak in front of our house for five weeks. They haven't fixed it yet. The company has no management. The Public Service Commission should do something about AmerenUE because they are not doing their job right.

Sad statement

I JUST wanted to say that I think it's a sad statement that when you has so many students graduate from Delta High that you chose to feature a single parent who had an illegitimate child on your front page instead of honoring some of the other 27 seniors that graduated who probably deserve their picture in the paper a lot more than a single mother with an illegitimate child.

The wrong message

I OPENED the newspaper this morning and saw a picture of a young mother with a young child graduating from high school. Although I think that your reporter and your photographer may have thought this to be cute, it seems to me that the message that we're sending may be the wrong message to our young people, that it's okay to have sex, have a baby and not even be out of high school. I think it was not tasteful for that picture to be on the front page of the newspaper.

An irresponsible act

I AM so disgusted that the Southeast Missourian promoted teenage pregnancy on it's front page issue May 17. I have two teen-agers that I hope will not graduate from high school with a baby in their arms. You irresponsibly contributed to the already tough job of being a parent.

Thumbs down to photo

MAYBE I'M old and prudish but I just have to voice my opinion concerning the front page graduation picture on Monday, May 17. Weren't there 26 other people graduating from Delta High School? Probably, they're the ones that followed the rules and did what's right and etc. Why didn't you show any of them? I hope that child didn't walk in the graduation line.