SPEAKOUT

Doctors should take Medicare patients

I AGREE wholeheartedly with the caller who couldn't get a new doctor because he was on Medicare, even though the doctor was taking new patients. It's a crying, dirty shame. I have Medicare, but I also have insurance that pays first. I've had no trouble, but next year I'll be 65 and will lose my first-pay insurance. Medicare will be the first pay. Medicare patients usually have a longer wait than other patients in the waiting room. I've seen this myself. If a doctor won't take a Medicare patient, he shouldn't be allow to practice medicine in Cape Girardeau. Medicare patients should always be treated as others. If not, shame on the doctors who make money their No. 1 goal in life.

Put a woman in the Oval Office

I READ in the Missourian where Sen. Dole wants his wife, Elizabeth, to run for president. As a straight-ticket Democrat all my life, I would most certainly vote for Elizabeth Dole for president. I would like to see a woman in the office of president because the men, for my two cents worth, haven't really done too well, any of them. Give a woman a chance.

Oh, to be 70 again

YOUR SUPPLEMENT, The Best Years magazine, is a lot hooey. I'm here to tell you these aren't the best years. Years ago, we didn't have the aches and pains of arthritis and the infirmities of old age. Oh, to be 70 again.

Dignity, inspiration in TBY

I HOPE everyone read the article by Clarence Lee Smith in the TBY. There was such dignity and inspiration in what he had to say. I hope and pray that I can accept and meet life's changes with as good and positive an attitude as Mr. Smith. This affirms my belief it's not what happens to you in life that matters, but how you handle what happens to you.

Youth soccer is for the youngsters

I WOULD like to comment on what a valuable influence that CAYSA, the Cape Area Youth Soccer Association program, has on our community. My question is, is CAYSA for the children? As the parent of an all star, I have been appalled by the actions and attitudes of our coaches in our CAYSA program. I believe that CAYSA should be for the youth, as the name states, Cape Area Youth Soccer Association, not for those adults who only see win, win.

Hurry up with Broadway project

TO EASE the traffic around Franklin School, get Broadway widened done right away or start on it. That will ease some of it and there won't have to be no worry about stopping traffic.

Why do some work against growth?

IF THE city of Jackson is such a progressive community, I'd like to know why certain members of the city council seem to be against new development. It seems like they're doing everything they can to hinder development in Jackson instead of working with the people that are attempting to bring jobs.

Truth of abortion can be painful

TO THE person who says anti-abortion billboards are an eyesore: The truth hurts.

Oh, the good old days of protest

YOU KNOW, I read a Speak Out comment the other day and realized how far we have come from the old days of serious protest to today's complaints. I mean, 30 years ago it was "Freedom now." Today it's "WGN now."

No ads on the walls of rec center

IS SEMO University for sale? I understand that the rec center is going to allow advertisers to put signs up on the walls, and I think it's a real mistake. People go there to work out, relax, get away from the visible clutter of society, and I think they would be doing our community a big disservice by putting paid advertisement on the walls of the rec center.

We need WGN back on cable

I AGREE with the caller on WGN for our cable. We need WGN, and we it back now. The programs we have and the channels we have are very good this year.

Suggestions for controlling traffic

SOMETIME RECENTLY there was an article in the Post-Dispatch regarding slowing down traffic on residential streets. There were several suggestions that are used in other parts of the country. One is installing center islands in residential streets which are then planted with shrubbery and provide beauty to the neighborhood. Another one was to narrow the street to simply two lanes and, of course, not allow parking which effectively chokes the traffic and slow it down. And another were speed bumps, all of which were placed in residential neighborhoods where they're having trouble controlling the speed of automobiles. Additionally, in the Nov. 5 newspaper there's an article about the city of Peoria which put speed bumps in a residential area to control the speed of traffic. None of these have been tried in Cape Girardeau. Is it possible that I know more about controlling traffic on the streets than the city of Cape Girardeau does?

Why stock listings change

FIRST I want compliment the Missourian on your expanded stock and mutual fund report. Millionaires aren't the only people interested in checking the report. Average-income -- whatever that is -- Americans invest in both stocks and funds. However, I am curious in the management of the report. Granted, some stocks do have more people interested in them than others. I do not expect the report to list every one, nor do I expect you to list every little one I may be interested. What I do not understand is the inconsistency of a stock that is in and out. I'm not talking about it was listed for weeks or months and lost it's popularity. I'm wondering why a stock is listed on Tuesday, gone Wednesday, maybe it's back in Saturday, or it's gone for weeks, and back in one day and then it's gone again for days.

REPLY: Thanks for the compliment. As to your question, the stocks in bold are those of local interest, and there are published every day. The rest of the stocks are those that have been active in the previous days market, either by posting gains or losses or because of the volume of share traded in that company. Readers may have their stocks of local interest added to the list on a daily basis by calling us. Be sure to have the stock symbol too.

Nanny verdict was just

TO THOSE fine people whose tea we threw in the river about 300 years ago: Had the nanny case been over in England, more than likely they would have found her guilty, and those citizens would have said it was a just verdict. But it happened in this country. So now, it's biased. The verdict was just. I only wish that baby could have an appeal of the decision.

Reasons to brake at green light

TO THE person calling in about people who have on their brake lights when going through a green light. Sometimes I do this for several reasons. One, I don't trust the person in front of me not to come to a sudden stop. Two, I don't trust cross traffic not to run a red light. This happens a lot. Three, I need to slow down to look closer for emergency vehicles to yield to. Four, maybe the light reminded me to check my speed and I was going too fast.

No sympathy for sexual conduct

I WOULD like to make a comment about the gentleman who went up to that northeastern school and spread AIDS and gave it to as many as 100 people, as they're claiming. I don't even feel sorry for none of them, because that school was the type of school where you can't tell the kids don't have sex. They believe in handing out condoms. Well, I thought condoms were supposed to cure all this. Seems like condoms may be out of the question for some of these people. They deserve what they got. The school should have simply said it's OK not to have sex. But not in today's climate. They tell kids you can't say no to sex.

No leadership to face down Iraq

I WANT to comment about this Iraqi problem we've got with Saddam Hussein with this germ warfare. The government knew that the Russians have been breaking that germ-warfare treaty a long time, not just this president and this government. Bush and Reagan knew, and they were just going along and saying the Russians have been giving that information to the Iraqis, and Saddam has been building up this germ warfare. The problem we've got now is our military has been gutted. It's been demoralized. We've got gay rights and women in the military. We can't even keep jet aircraft in the air. We had five of them crash because we do not have good mechanics. We are in a serious situation here. We are leaderless, and the foreigners know this. They don't respect the president. How's he going to act tough? Now the United States and the U.N. are backing off in Iraq. They're going to have to back off because we do not have the military.

Get rid of the rich man's party

WELL, OUR buddy Trent Lott shot down a raise for union workers to upgrade Amtrak. This fellow lives off us. We pay his health insurance. He's very generous when it concerns him, but any time it comes to a working man, he's as tight as a drum. That's something for you union men in Cape Girardeau to think about when election comes. Let's get these Republicans. Let's get this rich man's party out of there. And take Jo Ann Emerson with them. If you're a good union member and you're a working man or you're a poor person, they are not your people. I hope you get wise this time. I hope you register, and I hope you vote.

Sitcoms should be taken off the air

I HAVE a choice of watching reruns of old sitcoms which aren't any good any longer on cable or to watch Murphy Brown smoke marijuana or Ellen kiss and make love to a girl. I think the FCC should be able to take away the broadcast license of both ABC and CBS. The sitcoms need to be taken off the air immediately.

Food handlers should wear gloves

THERE ARE increasing accounts of people contracting AIDS and hepatitis without a known source. It's hard to understand why the employees in a reliable fast-food restaurant do not wear plastic gloves while making up your sandwiches to avoid transmitting a disease. I see all kinds of hands handling my food before it's brought to me. In this day of health concern, why is this not a must for employees? An employer should be commended for using this kind of health protection for the public.

Why not pick our local teams?

I JUST wanted to call in and say that I think that Marty Mishow gets some sort of perverted enjoyment out of being against our home teams. He never seems to pick Missouri or Cape Central or the Rams. What a lucky pick he got last week against the Falcons.

Rat problem in the city

THIS IS the second time I've been taking my son to school in the morning and the second time that I have seen with my own eyes rats going across the street from the corner of Luce to Keller. Another time was the corner of Themis and Keller going from one yard to another and getting into the foliage. Our city has problems with rats. I think the one-time-a-week pickup for trash is one of the problems. I believe we need to go back to having trash picked up two times a week so that trash will not be easily accessible to the rats that are developing. This was in the daytime. so you can imagine what they're like in the night.

SEMO mascot flap is absurd

I WOULD just like to express my view of how truly absurd Southeast's efforts currently are to obtain a new mascot and ditch it's old Indian mascot. Of course, the root of the problem is that many Native Americans are apparently upset over having an Indian used, and they feel it is degrading. I have a lot of Cherokee Indian blood on both sides of my family, and I always was honored by the choice of Indians by teams because I always felt like the names of teams were chosen to symbolize the competitiveness and the fierceness of the players. Thus very few teams were ever named the Canaries or Kitty Cats. Finally, the Southeast choice of an eagle as a mascot is a poor one. One could refer to Benjamin Franklin's writings on the eagle in his efforts to get the turkey selected as America's symbol and his writings on the moral character of the American eagle to find why that's such a poor choice.