SPEAKOUT

I'd like to share this poem that has a lot to say about the recent school violence:

God Not Allowed in School

All over the grounds of the school the bodies of students lay

and parents and students everywhere were starting to pray.

Now our God is allowed back on the campus of school,

but not any other time for you see it is against the Federal rule.

The Supreme Court said we must not allow prayer by students,

or allow on the walls of our schools the Ten Commandments.

They said "If they read them they may think, and become reflective

and could possibly obey them, and this is not a permissible objective."

We replaced God with Humanism and the Religion of Evolution,

and placed in the mind of our students the elements of confusion.

We tell them not to kill others, yet teach the toughest will survive.

Get what you want in life, it's justified as long as you can stay alive.

We have tried to make our schools safe by putting in metal detectors,

but guns and knives are not the problem, it is simply the social reflectors.

For if all weapons were kept out, it would not give students purpose or love,

a change in the heart is needed, and that's best done with help from above.

Remember when we had prayer, and God's commandments were read,

and chewing gun and being tardy was the worst problem that we had.

Now murder, drugs, assault, teen pregnancy and survival of the fittest rule,

but guns and knives were never a problem, till we kicked God out of school.

Put the cart back

I AM calling about these people who push their carts out into the parking lot and just leave them. This is so irritating. I was just inside Wal-Mart pushing my cart back. I got up to the container and here are all these carts backed out into the lane where people can't drive through. Nobody has tried to set their cart right and I'm pushing them in there and you can tell I'm not an employee. I am in shorts, a T-shirt, my hair looks like yesterday's news and some lady walks up and just leaves her cart. She looks right at me and what I'm doing and instead of just pushing her cart around to where I could even reach it, she just leaves it. What is wrong with people? We just had Random Acts of Kindness week and everybody was going out of their way to do for other people. So why not take 60 seconds to do something that would be nice for the employees of the store you're shopping at, not to mention it would benefit you.

No one can be trusted

WHAT AN impasse. Here you've got Milosevic who can't be trusted. You've got Clinton who lies and can't be trust and you've got NATO, a defensive North American Treaty Organization that's turned aggressive and betrayed its original charter. So we're dealing with three violators of international peace and not even consulting the United Nations. So we've got raging, waging warmongerers on the loose, none of whom can be trusted.

Think about it

I WOULD like to make a comment on these polls where they're claiming we need to send troops into Bosnia. I would like to ask if there's anyone here in Cape that's in that poll. The simple question, if I blow up your house and kill your kids with a bomb and I show up at your door a week later and say well, I'm here to help you get over your problems, are you going to be so kind and eager to welcome me in? We've been killing these people's kids and stuff. Are we going to be able to say, we tried to help? Think about it.

Outage frustration

I LIVE just north of Cape, about two miles, and I'm surprised at the slow process to regain power. It's been three days and we've yet to receive or even see a AmerenUE truck. Not only do we not have power but no well for water. Our kids are missing school and are going to have to make it up and I think our priority should be to get our kids back in school. I would hate to think of how long AmerenUE's response would be if we had an actual tornado. Maybe my response to pay the next electric bill will be slow also.

Thanks to Schnucks

A BIG thank you to Schnucks for rescuing us folks that had frozen food and would have gone bad if it not have been for you folks. We really appreciate your offer to take in our frozen food and keep it for us until our power was restored. Thank you so much.

Why the raise in cable rates?

HOW IN the world has our local cable company got the nerve to raise our rates when we haven't had cable TV off and on for the last two or three days? And don't talk to me about the storm. It's the same all the time. We have poor cable TV.

Jackson graduation should be at Show Me Center

I WAS reading in the Jackson paper where the school officials are planning on holding graduation ceremonies at the Show Me Center this year in case of bad weather and I was hoping that the school officials would consider having graduation there whether there's bad weather or not. First of all, the Show Me Center is a lot more pleasant. It's air conditioned and there's more seating. Last year at graduation at Jackson High School, it was held on the football field and it was so hot and humid, there were two elderly people sitting behind us who passed out. I'm sure the students were miserable sitting there in their long gowns. So it would be very beneficial. I think more elderly people, grandparents would come if they wouldn't have to climb the bleachers and sit on the hard seats and could have some air-conditioned weather. So, Jackson officials, please consider this.

Let's honor Thomas Edison

AFTER WHAT we've been through this week in Cape Girardeau, I think we should petition for a national holiday to honor Thomas Edison.

Thanks for the water

THANK YOU to the city of Cape Girardeau for keeping the water running during our power outage. In our modern homes, it's hard to live without electricity but without electricity or water, it would be pretty stinky.

School shootings and Waco

I WOULD like to make a comment about these recent school shootings. Why is it that when one happens, most of the first people there are counselors and psychologists to help the teen-agers get over it? The problem I have with that, why wasn't there any of this after Waco? I mean, there was 86 people killed right there by FBI and the ATF and yet no relief was given to them families that lost their loved ones.

Triggerlocks won't help

THIS IS to everyone who is supporting the gun control act that Congress is putting into place because they want to get their name down as doing something. People who follow rules don't shoot other people. People who break the law shoot other people. Those people aren't going to pay any attention to those rules about the triggerlocks. Triggerlocks are useless against criminals because the criminals won't have the triggerlocks on their guns. Do something else. This isn't working.

Thanks for the concert

I WOULD like to express my appreciation for the Army band band concert Sunday afternoon. It was obviously enjoyed by a full house. Thanks to the sponsors of this enjoyable event.