SPEAKOUT

Runners were road hogs

I THINK exercise is great and runners are great, but the runners I saw, even if they were doing it for a worthy cause, should have been in church praying for rain. All the way into town, for six miles, it was covered with runners. Instead of being in one lane, where cars could pass in the other, they were all over the road and would not move. I had to weave in and out of the runners and thank God I didn't slip or make a miscalculation or one of them would be dead. Can't somebody do something about this?

There's always a way to kill

IT IS the person who kills another, not the tool the individual chooses to use. If a certain weapon or killing tool is taken away, how long would it take a bad person to reinvent another way to kill? People are quite resourceful. Let us all be armed to protect our families. Peace through superior firepower.

Way too many programs in place

AN ARTICLE on the front page by Mark Bliss talks of the university Bootheel Initiative Program with 27 programs to assist people. That is the problem with American government. The running of those programs probably eats up the funds available for them. It's ridiculous to have that many programs. If they can't do it with two, three or four programs, they aren't capable. Everyone has to have his own little organization to get more salary. I can't imagine the thinking that goes into this type of thing.

Thanks for paving street

THANKS TO those responsible for the great job of paving the small strip of road from North Street to the post office parking lot. Can never remember it being anything except potholes.

Favoritism has a long history

SOME PERSON in Speak Out complained about the Notre Dame students and their yearbook and the fact that friends of the yearbook staff get preference on their photos published. It's been more than 50 years since I graduated from high school, and favoritism occurred back then. So where have these people been all this time? It's been going on forever.

Bradley has fresh ideas

CLINTON AND Gore's 1996 campaign promise was to strengthen America's families. Well, they haven't done that. Also, they said they'd take back our streets from crime, gangs and drugs. Well, they haven't done that. And they said they'd make government work better and cost less. They haven't done that either. We sure don't need more of Gore. We need fresh ideas and actions, which Bill Bradley will bring to the presidency.

Enforce laws instead of banning weapons

A RECENT caller to Speak Out took exception to a prior caller's comments in which the prior caller asked for a total ban on LP gas tanks and pipe bombs because these objects had been used in the killing of people. The second caller asked, "When callers make these kinds of statements, do they miss the point as badly as it seems, or are they attempting to intentionally mislead us?" I doubt that the first caller was trying to intentionally mislead anyone, although in a humorous way the caller was trying to point out to people that inanimate objects do not kill people. People kill people. The government has numerous strict laws in place and that should be enforced for people who kill others with firearms. These laws are not being enforced by the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration is using its usual ploy of just creating more laws so that it appears they are taking action and drawing voter approval. I'm not silly enough to think that LP gas tanks are as big a problem as guns, but I'm also not silly enough to think that guns do the killing. I know that wacko people do the killing, and those same wacko people are not going to be stopped from killing when there's a total ban on guns. They'll use cars, knives or illegally obtained guns. A lot of things in this country are already illegal. Heroin. Suicide. If people are desperate enough to use heroin or commit suicide, they're going to do it despite the laws. It's ludicrous to legally owned guns from people because other people use them for killing. I don't particularly care to have my name registered with the government as a gun owner, because I know things can happen very quickly, and I want my gun to protect myself. If you'd gone into the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and told a citizen that he would not be under communist rule in a few years, he'd have had you committed. That's an example of how quickly things can happen in a country.

Halloween decorations stolen

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. This is for the persons taking the lighted Halloween decorations and yard ornaments from my front yard in Lakeview Estates. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. There is only one person who knows you all did this. God bless you.

Let representatives know your feelings

CALLING ABOUT an article about a Appalachian money not always spent on neediest, that the richest counties in the area getting the money and poor counties are not getting any. This is typical of pork-barrel stuff in Washington. I think every voter and every taxpayer should be writing his representatives protesting this type of thing and demanding that people involved in this type of misappropriation should never be allowed to receive any federal money again and not work for the federal government in any capacity.

Yearbook problems in other schools

A CALLER last week was talking about the little clique groups at Notre Dame and the pictures of these clique members dominating their yearbook. Well. that's not the only school with this problem. I visited some friends at Oran and looked through their yearbook, and the same thing is happening there. You see pictures and pictures of the same people and cliques, and only one or two photos of others. Where are the teachers who are supposed to oversee this before it goes to print? The yearbook is for all students, and all should be treated equally, not just a few dominating it.

In favor of more police training

I'D LIKE to comment on the article about more rigorous training for police officers. I think that's much needed in the area, and I'm glad they're getting more rigorous training. We had an incident where several things were stolen, including a car phone, and when we asked the police to investigate the numbers whoever stole the phone was calling on the car phone, they said that they weren't able to do that. I think they need more vigorous training in being detectives, because surely that's something a detective ought to be able to do. I think the additional training for the police officers is something very needed by the community. The community ought to financially support this better training of our officers for less crime on the streets.

God is shaking the earth

RECENTLY A poll was taken on CNN on the question, Do you believe all of these disasters across our nation are from God? One-third answered it was a message from God, the others said it was just nature. One hundred percent believe earthquakes are increasing. There have been 25 major earthquakes in 1999. Jesus says in Matthew 24:7-8, there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. These are the beginning of sorrows. I believe we are living in the day when God is shaking the earth terribly, as stated in Isaiah 2:19.

Rules at Blanchard are questioned

I'D LIKE to know how the principal at Blanchard Elementary School is permitted to allow students only one recess a day, while all other students in the Cape Girardeau School District get to enjoy two or three recesses daily. This is especially hard on the kindergartners. In addition, I believe that the practice at Blanchard to punish a child for talking during lunch by sending the kid to a separate table and force it to eat standing up is cruel. How is it possible that at one of our schools the principal is allowed to get away with this? I think children at this end of town are already punished enough by having to wait unreasonably long to move into their new school building.

A participant or a bystander?

TO THE person who encouraged our pastors to stay the course, even though they will not be praised or loved -- now what kind of advice is that? It's as if you were saying, "Sic 'em, Preach!" When you ask him to stay the course and fight the good fight, are you going to be a participant in this battle for our God or just a bystander?

Politicians should save the jobs

WE HEARD it again. Another factory closing because of foreign imports. That's two factories in the last two weeks in the immediate area that have announced they are closing. It is time for these politicians to get off of their duffs and save these people's jobs by putting tariffs on this stuff imported from these foreign countries. These workers need more than job training. They already have a job, and it's up to the politicians to keep their jobs in this country. Put tariffs on the imports. Save American jobs before it's too late. What is the United States going to wind up as, just a service country with only service jobs and no factory jobs? Wake up, politicians, do what you were elected to do.

Are Democrats happy about jobs now?

WITH THE close of Florsheim and now the Huffy plants, I sure hope you Democrats are really pulling for your president who passed the NAFTA program so all those jobs could be shipped overseas. Boy, those Democrats sure do help the working man, don't they?

A thought to ponder ...

A LITTLE boy wrote a letter to God and he said, "God, why are you letting such terrible things happen in our schools?" The answer was, "Not me. I'm not allowed in the schools."

Surely Congress can do something

I WONDER why Jo Ann Emerson and John Ashcroft and Christopher Bond do not get together and see what they can do to keep these factories in Missouri. Huffy in Farmington is leaving. Florsheim at Cape is leaving. Surely there's some tax breaks or write-offs we could give these people to hold these factories in place. We can give money overseas, but we can't help our own people.

Parking fee is exploitation

I JUST purchased two tickets to go see Sesame Street with my precious five-year-old son. This show means a lot to my child and to me. They teach you educational and moral values such as friendship and sharing. I was told after I purchased the tickets there would be a $3 parking charge. It is not the Show Me Center's fault. It is the fault of the promoter of the show. His way of thinking, according to the ticket taker, is that people are going to bring their children anyway, so why not charge extra? The promoter is exploiting our children, his audience, for a profit. What a bunch of hypocrites. I say let's not pay the parking charge at all.

True colors of the Republicans

THE SOUTHEAST Missourian shows the true colors of the Republican Party. The Republicans claimed for years when we had a Democratic Congress that Democrats were tax and spend. Now we have the Republicans with the majority in Congress, and they control the purse strings. What do they do? First, they are now violating their own set spending limits. Second, and most shockingly, they are using accounting tricks to try to mislead us that they are not using Social Security surpluses to pay for federal spending.

Advice to yearbook complainers

I'D LIKE to address the yearbook complaints that I've seen in Speak Out. Parents, those of you who complain about the school yearbooks and how many times your child's picture is printed, my best advice to you is to get a life. Most yearbook pages are activity pages.

To save jobs, buy U.S. products

I WAS just wondering how many of the people who are crying about losing their jobs at the shoe factory drive imports or wear foreign-made clothing. A lot of people now realize how important it is to buy things made in the U.S.A. For years and years I've done this and put up with people asking me why bother and funny looks from people in stores when I ask if a product was made in the U.S.A. But it's always been important to me, because I know the only way to keep our jobs here is to only buy things that were made here. Not just automobiles and clothing, but everything. There is no electronic stuff left that's made in the U.S.A. Why is that? Because people continue to buy the foreign-made stuff. Until people take it to heart and buy made-in-the-U.S.A., this trend is going to continue. We're going to keep losing jobs to the foreign markets. Remember, buy "Made in the U.S.A."

Disgusted with River Campus plans

I AM totally disgusted about the constant reports on the proposed River Campus that was voted down by the taxpayers over a year ago. Why doesn't the university and the politicians pushing this tell the people the truth? Also, explain how Dale Nitzschke is being paid as a chancellor for something that doesn't exist. Or does it, and we the people just don't know? Or care? And, how you get a tax credit for a tax-exempt organization. The people need to be told the truth now before this thing goes any further.