SPEAKOUT

Stop dumping animals in the country

I LIVE out in the country, and there is a problem in Cape Girardeau with people dumping their unwanted pets out in the country for other people to have to take care of and feed. It would be much nicer if people would just take their unwanted animals to the Humane Society instead of dumping them off on society to take care of.

President Clinton record on drugs

PRESIDENT CLINTON is a drug warrior. Let's reflect on that a little bit. He said as a young man he tried pot once but didn't inhale. Now he says he tried it more than once. As governor of Arkansas he pardoned a convicted drug dealer for the express purpose of allowing that drug dealer to own firearms legally. On MTV as a candidate, when asked by the MTV people about his pot smoking, he laughed and said he wished he had inhaled. That is a real good example for the young people. He thinks it's funny and wishes he had inhaled. When he took office, some White House staffers by the White House's own definition had drug habits, and some of them couldn't pass security clearances and had to wait for quite some time to dry up. As president he cut interdiction efforts by 85 percent. And now we literally have tractor trailer loads of drugs coming across the Mexican border into the united states. He also had a notorious drug dealer to the white house for coffee. Yes, with our hard-charging commander in chief taking the point in the war on drugs, I feel much better.

Send tea-bag message to Gore

IF YOU'VE gotten your phone bill and don't like the Gore Tax that is on it, I would encourage you to send Vice President Al Gore a tea bag. Yes, tea is the message, just like it was back when the British were unfairly taxing the Americans. Gore is unfairly taxing us. No taxation without representation. Send him a tea bag.

Doctor is most caring physician in town

I'VE HAD just about all I can take of people bashing Dr. Stan Sides. I first met him about 18 years ago when I was sick. He became my physician. You cannot find a more caring, knowledgeable doctor in this town, in this area, in this state. He was wonderful. He helped me obtain a cure for the cancer I had, and I have enjoyed great rapport with him both as a nurse that works with him and as a friend. He is an excellent physician, and I am tired of seeing him trashed in the newspaper for allowing a sharecropper to grow tobacco on his land. Too bad most of the people who call in bashing him haven't had any contact with him. If they had, they would never think of trashing him.

Keep up the Speak Out criticism

A SPEAK Out caller recently criticized comments critical of teachers and doctors. I fall into one of those two categories, and I have to say comments criticizing my profession have motivated my to try harder. I actually believe Speak Out criticism makes me better at what I do. It is in that spirit that I ask Speak Out callers to keep pouring it on. I owe my success to Speak Out.

PETER KINDER recently implied that it takes great courage to carry forward the conservative torch in the face of so called "elite media liberal critics" and, surprisingly, Speak Out callers. I am unclear about something. Does Kinder see Speak Out as part of the liberal media or separate from it? I have come to see it of part and parcel of a vast left-wing conspiracy. Speak Out has become an irritating albatross around the neck of those who have created it.