SPEAKOUT

The enemies of Social Security

THE SO-called people that want to save Social Security, whom I call the enemies of Social Security, bring out the fact that people are living longer, and that's presenting a problem. Well, we senior citizens are awfully sorry that we're living longer. So now they want to punish us for that and have us work until we're 70 or maybe 75 on hard-labor jobs some of us are used to like construction work and for outside industrial painting which I'm used to. No way a 70-year-old man could do that hard outside labor. It's hard, strenuous work. Or be a prison guard or policeman or fireman. I think they've got rocks in their heads. I think they'd better get up early in the morning and turn the clocks back and have us work until we're 70 just because they want save their rich buddies some money. That's all it amounts to. And destroy Social Security. They've been against it since Franklin Roosevelt brought it out. No way, Jose.

Airport would be damaged in earthquake

I WOULD like to comment on the city fathers saying that an emergency generator would be helpful for the airport runway in the event of an earthquake. Has it occurred to anybody that the runway would probably be unusable? It is several feet thick of concrete and would probably crack and be so broken as to be unusable. Also, has it occurred to them that the runway lights themselves would probably not survive since there are miles and miles of underground wires and they would likely be broken?

Just send my Social Security check to city

MY REAL estate taxes went up over $400. The utility bill went up 18 percent. Now the water and trash are going up again. This town is nothing but a rich man's town. I wish my Social Security would go up as much as all these services go up. I guess I should send my Social Security check to the city council and see if they can take care of me.

Weeds growing in Red Star area

I WOULD just like to have you put something in the paper regarding the property the city has purchased in the Red Star district. They are taking the houses down, but they are not maintaining the lawns. They are three and four feet high.

Let's restore trust in America

I FINALLY figured out what's wrong with America, and I just had to share it with all the Speak Out readers. It's trust. We don't have any trust in America anymore. Our coins say "In God we trust," but people are trying to get that taken off. Neighbors don't trust each other anymore. Husbands don't trust wives and vice versa. And I guess kids don't trust anyone. They're told from the time they're little, don't trust anyone. We need to get the trust back in America. Trust, it's got U.S. in the middle, and that's what the United States needs, trust.

Cape's downtown has lots of potential

I WANT to agree with the person who called into Speak Out about Columbia having an impressive downtown and what they've done to it. Cape could do this also. Go to Paducah and see what they've done to their downtown. They've worked hard to get restaurants downtown and different types of specialty shops. They cater to the people who will come downtown. They have and still are in the process of getting very impressive, historic murals put on their floodwall downtown.

Some advice for motorists

THE READERS' Digest has it right, don't drive like you own the road. Drive like you own the car. Remember, the inside lane on multi-lane highways is not your personal lane.

The cure is as bad as the bite

IT'S BEYOND me how some people can be so against smoking a cigarette yet be for Nicoban, the chewing gum that's supposed to stop you smoking, and the patches that are supposed to help stop smoking. They all have nicotine in them. If one will kill you, the other certainly will. The whole thing just shows me how uninformed the general public is.

Don't dump trash in the street

THIS IS to the rude teen-agers on Bertling Street who decided to dump their trash in the street from their car. The group of girls was loud and very rude. I would appreciate it in the future that you would take your trash home instead of dumping it out in the middle of the street.

Nothing worse than being called kid

I READ with interest in Speak Out the response to my comment about stop calling children kids. The caller wonders if I have kids. As a matter of fact, no, I don't. I will never have children because I'm not physically able to. Maybe that has something to do with why I don't call children kids. My mother is one of 11 kids, and I don't know that her mother and daddy called them kids, but I know that she doesn't call me kid. She calls me her child or her girl. I'm almost 29 years old, and my daddy has been gone my whole life. My mother is elderly, and she never refers to me as her kid. I can think of nothing worse I'd like to be called.

Ward 1 has plenty of trash, weeds

THIS IS to all City Council members. If you like barking dogs, pups squealing, high weeds and garbage cans all over the front yard from Monday trash day to next Monday trash day, come on out and visit Ward 1. You can see it all.