SPEAKOUT

The scariest callers

A SPEAK Out caller recently waxed indignant over those who refused to judge others as God might. To me, this caller typifies the most serious problem in America today. Writer Edmund White puts it best. In the December issue of Harper's magazine, White warns against "hysterical evangelism with its red-necked bigotry, its we're saved and your damned certainties." Thus it is likely that the most self-righteous Speak Out callers are the scariest.

Messy leaf aftermath

CAPE GIRARDEAU has the poorest leaf pickup program I have ever seen in my life. I wish city officials would come to our street after they've picked the leaves up and see what kind of a mess was left in the street. Now, this is not to downgrade the employees, because they can only do what they've got equipment to do with. Cape Girardeau cannot afford machines to suck these leaves up, but we can help SEMO University build buildings and tax taxpayers. If this town cannot afford four or five leaf pickup trucks with suction on them, then it's a pretty poor state of affairs. But I do see one improvement they've made this year by putting covers over the dump trucks that they haul the leaves in. But when they pick these leaves up with a front-end loader, it's nothing but a mess. I would just as soon you not pick my leaves up as to leave a mess like was left here last week.

Advice to smokers

REGARDING THE recent increase in tobacco prices: I would say the tobacco companies are doing the smokers a favor by raising their prices. As an ex-smoker, I can tell you one thing. It's your privilege to smoke if you wish, but here's one ex-smoker who wishes he had never picked up one cigarette. The huge increase is a good example to use and a good reason to quit. You can quit if you set your mind to it, and I would suggest that all smokers stop and think what they're doing to their bodies when they smoke these cigarettes and cigars. They taste good now, but you will regret it in the future. This is coming from a person who knows firsthand. The medicine I have to take now is very expensive, and it's every day. Sooner or later, it's going to be oxygen, and who wants to trade a pack of cigarettes for an oxygen tank to carry around? That's what you're gambling with.

Running red lights

I WAS just wondering if there had been a law passed that I didn't know about saying that it's OK for people to run red lights if they're in a really big hurry. That seems to be the case in Cape and especially Scott City, and I just would like to tell those people that they need to stop and think that they are endangering their life and the lives of other innocent people.

Ozone hole is growing

CRITICS OF Alan Journet take note. Documented evidence shows that the size of the ozone hole over Antarctica is up 37 percent since last year. The hole exceeds the size of North America by 1,129,000 square miles.

Sound the alarm

MANY OF the 1960s generation no longer believe in the principles of the Founders and have sought to replace them with an alien order. Instead of individual rights, we now have group rights based on race, ethnicity, gender and sexual preference. In this politically correct environment, in the schools for instance, the curriculum that was instilled in generations of Americans -- an understanding of a common cultural and political heritage -- has been replaced by a smorgasbord of politically correct studies. In our courts, irreverence for common law even handily applied has replaced by political judges who feel free to order a law as they see fit in order to advance their own agendas. Unfortunately, many patriotic Americans don't even realize that this battle is going on. We should start an attempt to sound the alarm before it's too late.

Looking for control

A LETTER Nov. 27 about global warming doesn't go quite far enough. It indicates a difference of opinion between people who think we're having global warming and people that think we do not. I agree with Mr. Crader that there's no such thing as global warming, but it occurred to me that this is a power struggle where the United States could lose power controlling our own country. We have to dig in deeper into the people who are pushing global warming, because some of the real smart minds behind it are looking for a power of control. We better very careful that we don't get caught in this.

No summer mail?

I WOULD like to thank the Speak Out caller who suggested that we postal workers have every day off that the schoolchildren have. That would mean that we would have the day after Thanksgiving, a week or two around Christmas and, of course, all that time in the summer. Instead of that though, maybe we'll just have our Columbus Day and our Veterans Day, because I think everybody would get really, really tired of waiting for their mail for three months in the summertime. Thanks for the offer, but we'll keep working like people instead of working like children.

Complaining about leaves

I AM calling in to Speak Out to complain about neighbors who don't clean up their leaves when they have the opportunity to get rid of them. These leaves are continually stuffing the sewers and the lots of other people who are trying to keep things clean. What type of a citizen are you?