SPEAKOUT

Spice Girls have enough fashion

I WANT to comment about the fashion guy, Mr. Blackwell, on his opinion that the Spice Girls don't have any fashion. Well, this is my opinion. I don't really like the way he said it. I one of their fans, and I don't think he had any room to speak about them.

First to complain, first to take advantage

I HAVE something that's been bothering me quite some time, and possibly some of your readers can answer this for me. I've noticed that those ultra-conservatives who decry all the social programs are the very first ones to take advantage of them. Isn't that interesting, or is it just more hypocrisy?

Smokers will make own decisions

I JUST want to say that I don't think the city of Cape Girardeau has any business trying to stop young people from smoking. I think it's a decision they make on their own, and I hope Cape Girardeau will stop trying to limit that. Young people are people too, and I'm tired of this prejudice.

Divorced parents equally responsible

I JUST read Frank West's "Divorce can produce child abuse" letter to the editor. I'm not sure what his point is here. It appears as though he's trying to blame the mother of the child for leaving or for the divorce to have occurred. In this case, he is equally responsible. People should consider these kinds of things before they bring children into the world.

Single parent made several choices

I'D LIKE to respond to "Single parent has to go to work." Although I can understand the frustrations that come with being a single parent, I'd like to remind her of some other choices she made. She chose to get pregnant. She chose not to put your child up for adoption. I'm not criticizing her choices, merely pointing out that abortion was not the only other alternative.

Taxpayers pay for government programs

I'VE GOT this to say to whoever keeps demanding national health insurance. All government programs are paid for by the taxpayer. There is no orchard in Washington, D.C., that grows money. So the next time you call Speak Out, instead of lambasting Jo Ann Emerson and your other ramblings, save yourself some time and the Southeast Missourian some print space by simply stating that you want the rest of us to pay for your health insurance.

Picture was too graphic for some readers

I'M CALLING on behalf of all of your squeamish readers out there. We really did not need to see the giant picture of the cut open knee while some of us were having breakfast. Some of you may find that nice, but the overwhelming majority of the people that I work with thought it was really disgusting, and some of us almost saw our breakfast again.

Let us choose doctor and pay for it

I'M CALLING in regard to the national health care issue. I think Congresswoman Emerson is doing a great job. I don't have insurance, and I don't want a national health care system. I want to choose my own doctor and pay for it on my own.

Try telling a wrestler he's just acting

TO THE person who said only stupid people believe TV wrestling is real and it's just glorified tumbling. Well, come to the Show Me Center on Feb. 4 and tell that to a 6-4 350-pound wrestler's face, and then you can tell the Cape area how it feels to be a human rag doll.

Clinton looking out for little people

HEADLINES AGAIN. Jo Ann Emerson writes Clinton asking him not to cancel the building of logging roads in our national forest. These roads may be important to her big-money friends in the logging business, but I'm sure most taxpayers would prefer the money be spent on more important projects. Please don't ax every idea of Mr. Clinton's. Some are in the best interest of us little people.

Let SEMO sink or swim on its own

WE READ with interest the article regarding Southeast Missouri State University's plans on how it will spend its fund-raising capital. Tuition keeps going up, and demands for money for more and more projects goes up too. The day will never come when the university says, "Oh, we have enough money." The university is supposed to be teaching, and that's supposed to be its main goal, the reason for its existence. It isn't supposed to worry about the cultural needs of the region, spend a fortune on athletics, worry about the needs of the region or have an inauguration just for a college president. Now is the time for Missouri to drop the state colleges and universities from their budget. Let the state colleges and universities start running like businesses in competition with other colleges and universities that are not supported by taxpayers. Let them sink or swim. If they sink, we didn't need them anyway. We taxpayers send people through high school free. We don't owe them college too.

Clinton has a lot to take credit for

THIS IS in regard to the full-page ad in the Missourian showing George Bush holding your Republican newspaper. The caption below the huge picture contained words referring to being competitive and taking the world by storm. When will you bunch of sore-tailed Republican losers ever get on with life and realize that George Bush lost the election and he is responsible for Desert Storm and it's failure? Why don't you publish a full-page ad showing Rhodes Scholar, Democratic President Bill Clinton who does not create storms? He is a peacemaker who resorts to force only when there is no alternative. President Clinton is also competitive in his life though he did not serve in the military because his number was not drawn at the time of the military lottery number drawings during the Vietnam era. This held true for a large number of American college boys regardless of where they attended school. Clinton is also competitive in public life. He beat George Bush to win the most important and most prestigious position in our country, and the economy is the best it's ever been.

Baby isn't a life, but rock is?

I WOULD like to make a comment on all the people who support abortion. Why is it you say that when a woman's pregnant that that isn't a living thing? But consider this rock that supposedly came from Mars. They say they found living fossils at one that were in it. How can they say it's not a baby, but they can find a rock and claim that it had living organisms in it?

Medicare plan would help some

I WOULD like to make a comment regarding the proposal that President Clinton has to allow us people over 55 to buy into Medicare. As one of the 40 million people uninsured in this country and also a senior citizen, I don't believe that there's been time by people who've called in to really read exactly what this is about. There are two problems regarding health care in this country. One is access, and the other is affordability. You can only tackle one problem at a time. The access will allow people through no fault of their own have not medical insurance and are unable to get it because of pre-existing conditions or their age or whatever the problem is. I cannot afford $300 a month to buy into this. However, it will help some people. So he's trying his level best to tackle the problems at the time. He's tried to take care of the children, and now he's trying to do something for the senior citizens. I think if people would just step back, they would realize that he is trying to do this. I think it's a good thing, even though I can't afford it. It's a start.

Even Missouri has strange rituals

I RECENTLY watched an annual Japanese ritual where 25 and 47 year old males, who are considered unlucky at that age, go through some very strange activities. They stand their position while being attacked by saki drinking men carrying flaming torches. There are so many events like this, the running of the bulls in Spain and others that seem so strange. However, we have one of our own that will begin on March 1 here in Missouri. People will gather shoulder to shoulder on both sides of a small stream, at the sound of a horn, to begin fishing for small trout that have been placed there the previous day.

Victims are entitled to some concern too

IT NEVER ceases to amaze me how much sympathy, empathy and concern there is for murderers and how little for the victims. My experience has been that those who express sympathy, empathy and concern for the criminals can seldom name the victim or victims.

All workers not entitled to same benefits

REGARDING NATIONAL health care: If two people have a job and one was because he worked hard in life and the other one is because he is just hanging around, why does one person deserve the same as another person has? Get real. Get a life.

Headed toward world government

IT IS often said that Clinton came into office having no idea how he wanted to conduct American affairs in the world and has subsequently stumbled his way from one big blunder to another. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, Bill Clinton has a very clear foreign policy: globalism. Virtually every foreign-policy decision he has made has moved our beloved country down the path toward world government. Clinton is every bit the utopian internationalist as he was as a student 30 years ago. But in 1969, when he was hiding out in Oxford, England, dodging the draft, the only way he could hurt this country was to lie to his draft board and organize anti-war rallies. Today Bill Clinton is commander-in-chief of the world's sole superpower and has the ability to damage American traditions of individual liberty and constitutional government are almost unbounded.

Farrow family still grieving too

I'M CALLING in reference to the so-called sainthood of Kenneth Stone. In the first place, Dan Farrow's brutal and senseless murder by Kenneth Stone was no mere incident, especially to his family that still grieves. Dan's family is are still suffering his loss inflicted by the late Kenneth Stone. I would just like to also mention that the Farrow family is also proud and strong. However, the fact still remains that a jury believed Kenneth Stone viciously and with forethought took Dan Farrow's rifle, put a pillow around the muzzle of that rifle and ended a wonderful, decent man's life -- a man who took Ken Stone in for shelter when no one, including his family, would. Where is the justice in that? I just do not feel that Kenneth Stone's family should be getting all of the sympathy here when it was their son who took a life in the first place.