SPEAKOUT

Judges should listen to children

THIS IS a news commentary, but maybe it's a something you ought to do a news story on. I have a 12-year-old son who ran away from home last night because he was court ordered to go to visitation with a man who had threatened to hunt him down and break his neck if he kept refusing to go to visitation. I don't know where my child is and thanks to this judge in this case, not believing my child, he's run off. How can our children ever have faith in a system that doesn't protect them? What will happen to him and the many other children in the future who go before a judge and learn that no matter what they say to them, they're not creditable. This is how come kids don't talk about abuse. I am so distraught, I can't tell you how distraught I am for my son being gone. If there's anybody out there that can do anything to change the way kids are believed in court, I wish they would.

Miss Lila was biochemistry professor

I'M CALLING in response to the interesting letter to the editor written by J. Hugh Smith concerning Miss Clara Drew Miller. Mr. Smith spoke fondly of Miss Clara, as he called her and identified himself as one of her pupils. I too was one of her pupils. But he also said that he was unfamiliar with Miss Lila Miller's vocation. Miss Lila Miller was Miss Clara's sister. Miss Lila was an extraordinary person no less than her sister, Miss Clara. Miss Lila, or rather Professor Lila Miller, was a full professor of biochemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School.

It's all about sex

I DO believe that President Clinton's problems are very much about sex. He represents a generation that wanted total and complete sexual freedom, the freedom to have sex freely and with no restrictions and, when that sex resulted in a pregnancy, to kill what had resulted before it was born or desert it, either by never accepting responsibility or divorcing and having no further responsibility for that child. It is about a generation that wanted the freedom to use the drug of choice without there being any consequences. Now they are looking for someone who will give them license to commit adultery, lie and subvert our laws and judicial system and tell them will be no consequences. Whether the story about the devil in Genesis is figurative or literal, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Still not worthy of leadership

ALL RIGHT, I finally accepted that our commander in chief is not going to be held to the same standards that the officers and enlisted men and women of the military he leads are required to adhere to, even though he's at the top of the chain. I accept it, but I don't like it. He has, however, made the correct response to our enemies who have publicly stated their objection to our existence as a nation. I hope we will be able to distinguish the difference between his very appropriate response to terrorism directed at our country and his admission of deceit and irresponsibility with a young White House intern, among others. How proper his decision to deal decisively with terrorism may be, he is clearly not worthy of the leadership of our country. Please don't let him get away with behavior that we would never accept of other leaders simply because he is the president. He is, after all, a citizen like you and me.

Meth user had his facts wrong

I'M CALLING about your article in Sunday's paper, Dwayne Kluesner on methamphetamines. Let me reiterate on your story a little bit. His number on how far he was behind child support is wrong. It wasn't $25,000. It was $32,000. He gave up his children long before he started using any kind of methamphetamines. Those are not his kids. He did not give up visitation rights. He gave the kids up legally, all rights.

Thanks for enforcing curfew

I WOULD like to compliment the Cape Girardeau Police Department for its crackdown on this curfew law. This is really appreciated. I think this should have been done a long time ago. These children have no business out during these hours at night, and I'm just glad that we have a police department that will see that it's enforced. So I say to the Cape P.D., you're doing a good job. Keep it up. We thank you for enforcing the curfew law.

Center would be good investment

IF THE taxpayers of Cape Girardeau would look around at Houck Stadium, the Show Me Center and the Osage Centre, I believe they would consider that the performing arts center would be a good investment. Down the road, they would look at it as a wise return on both their time, money and effort that would go into securing such a facility.

Chemicals not always dangerous

I AGREE there are dangerous chemicals that make methamphetamine, but there are also other dangerous chemicals that combine together, such as sodium, which explodes on contact with water, and chlorine, which everybody knows is a very poisonous gas, mixed together make sodium chloride, otherwise known as table salt. So just because something is dangerous beforehand -- and meth is certainly a dangerous drug -- doesn't mean that it's necessarily dangerous all the time.

Against negative campaign ads

I THINK it is low-level campaigning for a politician to run negative ads on TV about his opponent. It just shows he knows he is not man enough to beat his opponent.

WHILE YOU'LL get no argument from me that exposing methamphetamine practices, labs, the criminals involved, the seedy underbelly of it is very important to our understanding of what makes this particular drug so insidious and such a threat to life in Southeast Missouri, and while I appreciate no end the multipart story that the Southeast Missourian is doing on methamphetamine and its many evils, I can't help wonder if it's just a trifle careless to be throwing about the ingredients and the chemical properties of making methamphetamine just like it is common knowledge. You know, knowledge is power. I can see the point that anybody out there who wants to make meth is going to find out on his own. They're going to ask their friends or like-minded individuals how to do it. I have to wonder if it isn't just possible that by printing the ingredients -- you note some are left out -- might get some enterprising young mind on the road a little quicker, just a few steps closer to devising his own meth lab. I have to wonder if I, as an average citizen, need to know almost exactly what goes into the making of meth and just almost exactly how to make it.

REPLY: First, a list of ingredients is far from being a recipe. If given the ingredients for a prize-winning layer cake without any instructions regarding quantities and procedures, most folks would have a hard time baking anything edible. Second, it is important for readers to know what the ingredients are if they are to be alert to the possibility that someone they know -- family member, neighbors -- is making meth. By knowing the ingredients, they will be better able to detect meth labs that may be operating next door. Or they may be able to thwart the purchase of these ingredients in large quantities, thereby making it more difficult to produce meth. These are all important components in the overall efforts by the public to quash the meth epidemic. The public already feels frustrated by the overwhelming meth problem. Being armed with as much information as possible gives the public an opportunity to join the efforts to put an end to the problem instead of being helpless to do anything.

Fish seem to be missing from lake

EACH SUNDAY in the Missourian, I read the fishing news from the different lakes. Lake Girardeau reads all species slow most of the time. Fish that are not in the lake don't bite. When you cast for three hours for bass and maybe get a couple strikes or none, they are not there. As for the bluegill and red ear, the worms and crickets rot off you hook before you get a bite. They should rename the lake Muskie Lake or the Dead Sea. It's time for someone to wake up. This is not only my opinion. Ask other fishermen. The answers are the same: Where are the bass, crappie, perch and red ear?

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

I WOULD like to know what the city's going to do if they need to come up with another tax here in Cape. Are they going to raise the hotel-motel tax again? I cannot believe that this council would ask the taxpayers to pay for something for the college. This is getting to be ridiculous, the tax increases that they're asking for. And at the same time, the city fathers are trying to lure tourism into this town. If they keep raising the hotel-motel taxes and the food taxes on the restaurants, there's not going to be anybody stop in Cape. Seems to me like you're robbing Peter to pay Paul, because if you keep raising the hotel-motel tax, your tourism is going to go down the drain, and how many thousands of dollars a year are we spending on that now? I say if the college wanted this place, let them buy it. If they want to build on to it and remodel it, let the college pay for it, not the taxpayers of this town. And those sunset clauses are not worth the paper they're written on.

Forgiveness for Clinton's supporters

THE PRESIDENT'S supporters say forgive him for his lust and deception and I do. I also forgive the supporters for saying I am casting stones. I forgive the supporters for still wanting him in office. I forgive the supporters who looked the other way when their leader stooped so low. I forgive the supporters who praise a whoremonger and an adulterer. As far as judging someone, God will judge Mr. Clinton and me -- and maybe you.

Irresponsible journalism

I'D LIKE to congratulate the Southeast Missourian on its meth article of Aug. 24. The Southeast Missourian, in collaboration with the Regional Crime Lab and various law enforcement agencies, has managed to provide every curious kid in the area with a detailed list of ingredients needed to manufacture meth. Suggestions on where to steal hard-to-obtain ingredients will certainly be appreciated by budding young entrepreneurs as well as suggestions on multiple ways of ingesting the drug. I especially believe instructions on how to obtain variety of recipes was a brilliant example of responsible journalism. Your meth article of Aug. 24 has to rank as No. 1 of all irresponsible, ill-conceived, just totally stupid pieces of reporting I've ever seen in a daily newspaper.

Enjoyed Tipoff article on flag

I JUST read "A Flag for Cape Girardeau" by Jean Bell Mosley in the August Tipoff. She had so many interesting historical points in it, and I really enjoyed reading it.