SPEAKOUT

Question asked -- and answered

A SPEAK Out caller recently asked what the city of Cape had accomplished by installing street lights in the east end of town. The caller then observed that the lights put out very little light and give a person a headache. This is a good example of a Speak Out caller raising and answering his or her own question.

Don't misjudge the teachers

THIS IS a response to the people and also the Southeast Missourian for blasting the teachers in Cape for having two prep periods a day. Most teachers I know use this time to plan for the next day or the week ahead and also to tutor students. Maybe you should walk in their shoes before you judge. Also, I think you're work should require you to work an extra hour a day without any additional pay, and maybe this would be something you would think a little more about.

Gore calls them fees

I HOPE in the year 2000 when Al Gore runs for president everyone remembers that he believes in taxation and no representation. He thinks if you don't call them taxes, then you can get away with it. He likes to call them fees. If you have any doubt, look at your phone bill. Support John Ashcroft for president. He is trying to get rid of the Gore tax.

Blown all out of proportion

I'M CALLING about the news about some woman in New York getting sick because she thinks the hamburger she ate caused that. They are going to have a nationwide recall. How stupid can people get? What about everybody who gets sick driving in a car? Are they going to recall all the cars? There is no proof that it happened. And if one woman out of the whole United States got sick from eating a hamburger that's probably not any different from eating anything else you can mention. This is blown out of proportion. There is no common sense in it, and it is totally stupid. Thank you.

Short cut at pool is welcome

WAY TO go, Capaha Pool, for constructing the short-cut ramp from the large pool to the baby pool. We have waited years for this. You deserve a round of applause.

Taxpayers foot the travel bill

TO THE media that report that 1,200 accompanied Clinton on his China safari. That's right, 1,200. Why does our president need such a bodyguard? What branches of government are represented? Who selected the chosen? How will this benefit the nation? Who pays the cost? Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, of course. These people deserve an answer to these fair and simple questions.

Traffic light needed at Mount Auburn

I WOULD like to know if anyone knows if there is a proposal to have a stop light put in at the intersection of Independence and Mount Auburn. I would just like to voice my opinion, having to go through there rush hour morning and night, that it's really needed. I hope someone will do a study and see how many cars go through it each day. There is so much more traffic on Mount Auburn because of Lexington opening up and because of a lot more business down on Siemers Drive being able to get there from Bloomfield. There are people cutting through the bank in order to beat all the traffic in front of them. I just want someone to do a study of it and see if a light is possible. Thank you.

Comments on the medical situation

FIRST IT was all the talk of merging the hospitals at the same time the additional surgery centers were proposed, which is nothing more than the doctors in Cape skimming the cream off the sick people in this town and leaving the hospitals with the poor people and Medicaid. We'll be lucky, if this goes through, if the hospitals don't go broke whether or not they merge. Then we have doctors growing tobacco for money with federal subsidies, no less, that cover the taxpayers pockets. The doctors must think the city of Cape Girardeau is as greedy as they are. I think it's about time we stop thinking of them as God. Thank you.

Linda Tripp has dirty hands

IT IS my understanding that you must come into a legal confrontation with legally clean hands. Linda Tripp and her Goldberg lady were trying to promote a book deal against Bill Clinton. Tripp was a Republican appointee with a political agenda. Tripp illegally tape recorded a young woman who she viciously led around by suckering her into thinking she was a dear friend. With friends like Linda, who needs enemies? Tripp now has a Web page on the Internet were she is pushing her agenda. Her hands are dirtier than a kid making mud pies. She better be careful, or they'll put her in jail where she belongs.

Problem with counting money

I WANT to comment about the school board's sudden finding of a million dollars, when they were a half a million dollars in debt. This is why the kids can't learn to count, multiply or subtract, because the teachers and school board can't. Cut these big salaries down and give that money back to the taxpayers. It's not their money. It's our money. Thank you.

It must be those Republicans

WHEN I heard about so many Southeast Missourians being stolen from the paper dispensers, I thought it must be thieving Republicans, because what Democrat would want to steal such a biased paper?

Not a good baseball example

THIS IS to the father who stormed off the baseball field at Capaha Park with his 9-year-old son in the middle of the third inning because he was upset that his child hadn't been put in the game yet. Who do you think set the better example for their son, a coach who allowed kids with maybe lesser ability to play or the father who was upset that his supposedly superior son was sitting the bench and pulled him from the game in front of 50 parents and 20 kids?

Government has caused school mess

WHAT A mess we are in now because we allowed to let our government to mess around with our school system. I guess now we'll have to have federally funded and federally run separate schools for atheists, Jews, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Buddhists and what have you. At least then our teachers will know what to teach and who they are teaching.

Enough money to restore salary

IF CAPE school district has found so much money, they should be able to restore the athletic director's salary, which they had cut.

Give fireworks money to the needy

I JUST wanted to comment. I hope I'm wrong, but I was told that there was over $7,000 worth of fireworks blown up in Jackson over the Fourth of July. My gracious, why can't these people use their head and not their feet to help the poor and needy with that money? What do they gain by disturbing everybody in the neighborhood and blowing it up in smoke? Please, people, don't be so selfish.

Masking tape on window looks tacky

WE HAVE neighbors in an upper-middle-class neighborhood who have masking tape on their window. Does anybody think this is tacky besides me? These people are professional people. It's been there for over a year now. If they need to get together a contribution to get a new glass put in their window, I think they should let the neighbors know.

Ruining the morals of our country

I APOLOGIZE for saying president Roosevelt died at Hot Springs. We had visited the house in Warm Springs, Ga., were he died with his mistress at his side. It was a very small and humble place. But the fact remains, President Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and other presidents have certainly helped ruin the morals of our country.

Questions about Jackson money

WHO KEEPS records for the Jackson School District, and where did this million dollars come from after contracts and raises were given? If Superintendent Jones is for spending money on things instead of people, then why is he making $97,000 a year? Does the district think the taxpayers are made out of money? Do the school board members think this is all fair?

Don't waste vote on Big Government

THE CALLER in Speak Out who said Libertarians who don't want to waste their vote should vote Republican: Most of us Libertarians used to be Republicans before it became the party of national socialism. We still believe Big Government is not the cure, but the problem. So voting anything but Libertarian is a wasted vote.