SPEAKOUT

Hiding behind lawyers

I WOULD like to comment on the situation involving the young man in Jackson. If the parents of the children who were involved in this prank truly believe that it was harmless, then why is the newspaper not printing the parents and the children's names? If there was no harm and they did nothing wrong, then why don't they want their names disclosed? They surely had no problems humiliating this young man in school and community. They want to hide behind lawyers. They know what they did was wrong, and they don't want the community to know who and what they really are.

Poor paving job on Route A

TALK ABOUT a tax payer rip-off. The state paved Route A from Dutchtown to Whitewater. I get mad to think that the taxpayers paid for the lousy job. They didn't even put enough on it to cover the old pavement. It's rough, unsafe and worse thatn before. I find it hard to believer they plan to leave it in this condition.

Compliment for Delta's band

JUST WANTED to compliment the Delta Marching Band on what a find job it did and how nice the band members looked in the fair parade. Keep up the good work, students.

Put the event in context

CAN THERE truly be people who are so unaware or uninformed that they do not realize that, in light of what has previously happened across the country, the Venable son had every right to believe that he was going to die that night? That there can still be people who don't realize how horrible his situation was that evening is beyond human understanding.

SEMO needs a parking garage

I COULDN'T agree more with the people who want to tear down Houck Stadium and build a parking garage. We really need a parking garage for SEMO. A parking garage would do a heck of a lot more for the majority of students than the football team or any of the other athletic teams have ever done. Parking gets worse every single year, and it didn't start out very good. Occasionally I break down and call the department of public safety. They generally laugh at me and say, "Well, things will probably get better sometime in the future." Probably after I'm dead and gone.

Fair judge's standards questioned

MY SON showed his steer in the FFA steer judging at the fair. I'd like to ask the judge, if the steer had a rope halter on and not a fancy leather halter, why he didn't even consider the steer. My child worked part-time jobs to pay for his steer. He didn't have money to buy a leather halter, and the judge said that's the only reason he wouldn't consider the steer. I think the fair board needs to re-evaluate the judges. I'm not a sore loser, but my son worked his fanny off for that steer. It was wrong for a judge to stand up there and say "I'm sorry, son, because you don't have a fancy leather halter, I"m not going to give you showmanship." I don't play ball that way, and it isn't fair. I think the fair board needs to address that.

Use your clout at ballot box

THIS IS the person living in Alexander County, Ill. If you are tired of the taxes climbing and nothing being done about the corruption in Alexander County, I'll tell you what you could do about it. Quit voting the same people to office.

Cheers for Notre Dame students

THREE CHEERS for Notre Dame High School and its senior students. It's so great to see students go to Jeff City, learn about the legislative process and push to see that their bills are passed. I'm glad that you have convictions and you think that it's wrong to kill babies after they're halfway born. I'm glad that you're ready to get up and do something about it.

Extra credit is customary

IN REGARD to the Jackson back-to-school night conflicting with the parents attending the board meeting, back-to-school night has always been where the teachers have offered extra credit to try to encourage parents to attend. It had nothing to do with the board meeting.

Where's the compassion for lost jobs?

I WOULD like to comment on the closing of Florsheim shoe company. I am not an employee of Florsheim, and if any of my comments are incorrect, I apologize in advance. An individual has two important elements in their lives that they should be able to depend on: the church and the community. However, I have not seen nor heard Cape Girardeau nor individual churches console these individuals who are losing their livelihood, some who have worked at Florsheim for many, many years. Construction in Cape Girardeau is booming, and in many cases so are the churches. I feel that individuals are much more important. James 2:14-26 is a good reference. Come on Cape and clergy and others, consider the individual's needs as a priority over larger churches and church buildings and other unneeded projects. After all, our Lord was born in housing for animals.

We bought those foreign shoes

IN RESPONSE to the caller that says most shoes are made in foreign countries, true. Who's fault is this? Probably the fault of people who bought these foreign shoes from day one starting in the late '50s and early '60s. Maybe they didn't realize what they were doing: putting their fellow Americans out of work. Then the American shoe companies moved to smaller towns from big cities to save wages and beat the unions. Then they got greedier so they started opening factories in foreign countries. Fools like us bought those foreign-made products. That's why there's more foreign shoes than American-made shoes in this country. This area was once the shoe kingdom of the world.

Praise for parade units

ABOUT THE Southeast Missouri District Fair parade: I want to praise all the marching bands, the churches that were spreading Christ's message and also the most beautiful ever team of eight camels pulling the wagon.

No more tomahawk chop

AS A parent who was appalled after watching the video of the young man who was the victim of the crime in Jackson: Big deal that the perpetrator only got suspended from one game. Jackson fans, you should be aware that the other boys were involved as well, and as they hung the boy on the cross they did the Indian tomahawk chop. I think we should refrain from doing this at any further games.

You can't rewrite history

I'D LIKE to comment about the people who are worried about Bill Clinton's legacy. In 20 years the only thing people are going to remember about Clinton is Monica Lewinsky and Waco. And if you think you can rewrite history, how are you going to rewrite it after he gets out office? He can still be charged with perjury and other stuff.

Let free enterprise succeed

IN THURSDAY'S Speak Out, one of the callers was talking about fund raising and called the Republicans hypocrites and said they see no problem with unlimited fund raising from their constituency. They represent the elitist of big business. I think it's real interesting that if this caller would read something other than Speak Out, he might find something different in the same paper. On the backside of the Speak Out page, the following appears: "With control of the House up for grabs, business groups that overwhelmingly favored Republicans during the Gingrich years have begun spreading more political money to Democratic candidates. Eight of the 10 biggest corporate political actions committees have anteed up a larger-than-usual share of their donations to Democrats in 1999." To which I would comment that business groups have become politically correct in this socialistic society and will lead to their own destruction as with so many of the worldwide welfare-oriented countries that we are now supporting with our various foreign aid. God help this country and its private-enterprise business operations to succeed and to reverse this pattern of support under Democratic socialistic culture that's here.

Put a ban on firing workers

I SEE in today's news that there's been a horrible shooting in Texas. I wholeheartedly support efforts to ban guns in this country. I understand that the man had recently been fired from his job and was despondent about being jobless. In addition to our ongoing efforts to prosecute gun manufacturers for supplying guns to these murderers, I think we should go against the employer who fired this man. If this man had never been fired, he would never have gotten so upset as to shoot people. We ought to make it a law in this country that employers have to employ everyone. No one can ever be put out the door for poor performance or what have you. Because a lot of the time that's what causes this guys to go out and shoot people. Everybody ought to be kept on the job no matter their talent level, just the way that people ought to have their guns taken away from them no matter how careful or innocent their plans for using that gun.

Telemarketers keeps the most

I WAS just a solicited by a telemarketing firm for the Special Olympics. But I was very surprised to learn that the telemarketing firm gets 65 percent of any proceeds, whereas only 35 percent of it actually goes to the Special Olympics. I wonder how many other people know this and are aware of the division of what actually goes to the cause when they are solicited by a telemarketing firm.