SPEAKOUT

System is messed up

AFTER READING Speak Out, I want to speak out about the Thebes man who was busted for meth. You were right about the judicial system being messed up. Kevin McCain would have gotten less time if he had murdered a person, sexually abused or raped someone. He would at least been able to get parole after a few years. On a federal charge there are no paroles. Driving while intoxicated is the charge that should carry a tougher punishment. People drive drunk and kill innocent people. They get slapped on the wrist, get their license taken away and then continue to drive drunk without a license. The system is messed up.

Covered wagons and horse whips

I READ with great interest the additional space requirements of the university as it looks to the future. When will the university recognize that it is producing some products for which there is no market? Many SEMO graduates are unable to find employment that utilizes their four to five years of college training. There are many history and English majors working as retail clerks at minimum wages. The Missourian reported that statewide there are four times as many applicants for teaching jobs, yet there are innumerable vacancies. The schools are turning out wagons and whips when the market is calling for computers and VCRs. Why not scale back the programs in declining areas and let the areas of growth expand into the vacated areas? The recent $5.6 million state appropriation for a technical building should free up more space. I realize these adjustments might cause tenured faculty to seek other gainful employment.

Wrong to publish comments

I AGREE the Southeast Missourian could have selected a more appropriate graduate on its front page. However, I believe your paper publication of all the comments of readers critical of your choice was unnecessary. In fact, I find it reprehensible. Why don't all these self-righteous, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou hypocrites run down to Delta and sew some kind of huge, scarlet letter to the front of the young woman's graduation gown? There is no need for your newspaper to assist zealots in the community to humiliate the young woman. Your newspaper is making the young woman suffer for your lack of good judgment. Why didn't your paper just publish a simple statement that your photo selection had received criticism and you were duly considering the criticism of your readers? All I've got to say to the young woman is: Keep you head up.

It happens every day

YOU KNOW, I think it's pretty sad that everybody in this city has nothing better to do than sit around and call Speak Out about the picture on the front page of the newspaper. This is the 1990s. Grow up a little. It happens every day.

Hats off to you

IN REFERENCE to the senior holding her child on the front page, when I first saw it, I thought how hard this young woman must have had to work to make this accomplishment, how loving, caring, devoted and proud her parents must be and how it reflected our times. I was a teen-age mother 25 years ago, so I know the struggle, and I was shunned by many. But it surprises me all the negativity it conjured up. If you can't say something nice and positive to our youths, perhaps you shouldn't speak out at all. To the young mother and recently graduated woman from Delta: You go, girl. Hats off to you.