OpinionDecember 21, 1997
SPEAKOUT
I'M FROM out of town and just moved to the area. I've lived in other areas of the country, and this is the most silly thing I've ever heard, not being able to use model homes for sales offices. This a common practice done in the real estate industry. ...
Model homes and sales offices
I'M FROM out of town and just moved to the area. I've lived in other areas of the country, and this is the most silly thing I've ever heard, not being able to use model homes for sales offices. This a common practice done in the real estate industry. It's done everywhere. But here in you are in Cape Girardeau, Cape County, you've got the idea that you're going to play by a different set of rules. Why do you think a lot of industry doesn't want to come in when they see that the real estate industry is standing around, throwing up walls against real estate sales? Who wants any part of this place? You've got to get up with the rest of the world, boys.
A thought-provoking column
WHAT A thought-provoking opinion piece, "Sin and forgiveness" by Dennis Quaker. Wow! I instinctively knew there was a conflict between the good Christians in Paducah trying to forgive Michael and be inclusive with the Carneal family in all the funerals and religious events they had afterwards. Sometime before the trial, everybody is going to be vindictive, and things are going to be different. This man in the column says that it is wrong to forgive somebody like Michael before he repents and asks for forgiveness. That's something we need to think about. I'm not sure that I'm going to take my Christian teaching from a newspaper article, but it certainly is thought provoking, and he may be right.
Scott City schools are safe
I WOULD like to comment on the Scott City mother who is getting petition signatures to hire a security guard at school. My mom, dad, brothers, sisters, husband, we all graduated from Scott City. Now all our children attend the school, and we definitely feel we have a safe school. If we didn't, our children would be transferred elsewhere. Our kids are supervised by school personnel while at recess. Certainly our hearts go out to the Heath High School families, but in our community of Scott City, aren't you making a mountain our of a molehill?
Accountability at national cemeteries
I'M GLAD someone is monitoring the burial of nonveterans in Arlington. Someone needs to be monitoring the Jefferson Barracks Memorial Cemetery. They have interred nonveterans too.
Use money to pay veterans bonus
I HAVE been reading quite a few articles in the paper recently about the excess state income tax money our Gov. Mel Carnahan collected from us and promised to refund. But like other things, he never kept his promise and is trying to use our refund for other things. Why doesn't he use this money to pay our World War II veterans our state bonus that we were supposed to get after World War II and never received? Missouri is one of few states, maybe the only one, that didn't pay the veterans bonus after World War II. Let's get some more support on this.
Send message with death-row inmates
CLEAR OUT death row. Do justice where justice is due. This would eliminate all of this senseless killing if you let people know that they will be paid an eye for an eye, or tooth for a tooth where God or any human being that's got common sense needs to know to be done. Clear our death row.
No one dies for his country
I AM so sick of hearing people involved in the federal government saying "He died for his country." Nobody dies for his country. People in the military die because politicians send them off to die, and people in the military get paid very well for choosing that way of life or death.
Replace lights in decorations
I'M CALLING about the Christmas decorations at Broadway and Main. They really are pretty, but it would look much better if the lights were all lit. There are a lot of lights that are out, and they've been out for weeks. Is anyone going to have these things together or is the city going to have lights put in and replaced before Christmas gets here? It really looks kind of tacky on a lot of the wreaths.
Work is good for children
YOUNG WORKERS. In the last few days you're paper has been running several articles on children working whether it be on farms or in sweat shops. I'm curious if you ever looked back at the United States 15 to 20 years ago, because I know when I was growing up I helped pick cotton and helped pull the stuff out between the cotton plants. I worked on the farm. In fact, I worked on several construction jobs when I was 13 and 14 years old until the government made it illegal to do that. There are several people who are above the age of 40 at the present time who can still remember as children working on the farm or working around the place doing different stuff. I don't think it hurt us a bit. I think we are trying to make too much out of it. I believe we need to stop and think about the good that children working does for the family and for their work ethic before we try to become holier than thou in our other categories.
Recruit students from the Bootheel
IF CLINTON wants to give scholarships with the agreement to work in underprivileged areas, why can't our president at the university, Nitzschke, recruit in the Bootheel area to educate these people so they can return home to build up the area?
Lawsuit aims to preserve exclusiveness
IT'S A good thing Jackson city government has been fiscally conservative since they have decided to spend tax money on a lawsuit to resolve a conflict in order to save face and try to help preserve the city's exclusiveness in real estate matters.
Mistletoe in what kind of trees?
I AM 69 years old, I have a carotid artery block, and my memory is slowly fading. The question I have, are there any old-timers out there who can remember when the teachers used to send us out to shoot the mistletoe clumps out of the tall trees? I can barely remember that we did this, but I'm having trouble remembering what kind of trees. Were they sweet gum trees, black gum trees or tall sycamores? I'm just wondering if there's anyone out there who can remember this.
Girl Scouts sing Christmas carols
TO THE Girl Scouts who were caroling on Ricardo last evening: Thanks so much for the Christmas carols and thank you also for singing happy birthday to me.
Santa's workshop: New industry?
AS MOST people know, there is no land mass under ice at the North Pole. When global warming melts the ice cap, there will be nothing left but a vast empty sea. My point is this, Santa will have to relocate his base of operations, and I feel that our area has a lot to offer. We are centrally located for easier domestic deliveries on Christmas Eve. The rising sea level will put the ocean right at our door step so Santa will have a shipping point for his overseas operations. We could build a harbor and use the big ditch as an inland shipping lane. Although, our area doesn't have any elves to supply Santa's workplace, we do have lots of short people who could just a good a job as any elf. We also have the 5-H Ranch. These people are experts when it comes to caring for exotic animals. Santa can drop his reindeer at the ranch and not even worry about them until the following Christmas Eve. It it also important to note that the 5-H Ranch is located in an area that would not be covered by the Gulf of Mexico. So come on, civic leaders, use a little foresight. Contact Santa before the North Pole melts and he moves his operation to some place like Pakistan or Indonesia and uses child labor. Remember, we've got short people who need good jobs.
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Warning to owners of cats
I'D LIKE to issue a warning to the owners of all cats who run the neighborhood of Good Hope, Lewis, Minnesota and Bloomfield. Please keep your cats up or they will wind up as cat soup. We are tired of them scratching our cars and using their dirty feet on our cars too.
Thanks for city action on bar
GOOD FOR Chief Hetzel and good for the City Council. Great work. All this town needs is one more bar where everybody can beat each other up. Thank you, councilmen, and thank you, Chief Hetzel.
Trees didn't impede golf games
IF THE city did not use golf course labor to cut down healthy trees for firewood, they would not have to raise senior citizens' annual fees by 50 percent. These trees were not in the line of play, and removal did not improve playing conditions. Who got the free firewood?
Help was really appreciated
A BIG thank you to the Good Samaritan who helped me and my grandson at the corner of Kingshighway and Broadway Wednesday at around 11:45. May God richly bless you.
Prison helps break meth habit
I WOULD like to respond to the caller who thinks it is ridiculous for meth users to get jail sentences. He states these people need help and don't need to be locked away. There's a young man in our area who just was released from prison after two years for using meth. He stated that he probably would have been dead by now if he hadn't been in jail. It helped him to kick the habit. Tim Allen from "Home Improvement" said on his special that he served about two years for drugs, and it made him a better person, it made him kick the habit. The man in federal prison who wrote in a letter to the editor says that he is drug free and he has found peace within himself. The Cape woman who was given five years probation for using meth is being given a chance the kick the addiction and if she can't, she will go to jail. This is a social problem. This is an educational problem. This an public health problem because there is no treatment program in Missouri for meth addicts. Which means that if a meth user gets put on probation, they usually continue to use the drug. Meth is highly addictive after one or two uses, according to most law enforcement medical officers.
A message to teens who smoke
TO THOSE teen-agers who keep writing in about their rights to smoke, I'd like to tell them a little story about my brother-in-law. He started smoking when he was an early teen-ager. He was a pretty intelligent man. He worked his way through college and got a law degree. He said he could quit smoking anytime he wanted to. He said he quit a thousand times. A couple of years ago, he quit because he was put on the oxygen tank. He died last year, and I hope you get the point. He was a real smart young kid when he started smoking, but he wasn't near as smart when he died.
Bible doesn't say much about many things
I'M NOT sure what point the lady from Burfordville is trying to make in her letter to the editor. Is she attacking Christmas or Catholicism? She sure did some research whatever her reason, however accurate it may or may not be. But no one is forcing her to take place in the "pagan" celebration. Her house doesn't have to be lit up. She can turn to classical music instead of Christmas songs. No one will make her send cards or gifts. She doesn't even have to smile or wish anyone a happy holiday. And where in the Bible does it say we should celebrate birthdays with cakes ablaze with candles, or smack a small, hard ball over a course with a long stick weighted at one end or force artificially cool air into our homes, or travel into the sky or share with the less fortunate, etc., etc., etc. Come on. Get real.
When should you start making choices?
DEAR ERIN: If at 15, 16, 17, you are able to go out as you please and provide yourself home, transportation, education, food, clothing and the welfare of your future, then adults will no longer have the right to tell you what to do. When do you think we should start letting minors start making these decisions for themselves? Maybe 10 or 11? Over the years, I have seen more and more criminal acts committed by minors, yes, even murder, because of this idea as a whole that minors have their way too often now. By the way, I couldn't vote until I was 21, and since this privilege has become mine, I have not missed a major election. I took my privileges seriously. Yes, Aaron, we were all minors before we were adults, and believe you me, you haven't had any major decisions to make at 15. I hope you keep a copy of the letter you wrote and reread it when you have a minor in your household and see if your feelings are still the same.
Let off because of a loophole in the law
CAN YOU believe it? Well, I can. This is about the jury and lawyer of the man selling the marijuana in Jackson, the jury that let the man walk free. Here, you've got evidence, a man sells another man marijuana and then let him go free. If that's the society we want, that's the society we've got, that's the society a few people have got. The only reason this guy was freed is because he had money to pay a good lawyer to find a little loophole on the deal. I hope the next time the guy sells marijuana that it is taped and filmed and everything else, or maybe they'll find some other excuse to get off free. But this is what a few of our society, the people who speak up, most of the honest people, try to take care of themselves and try to be decent to everybody else. But it's the crooks who get away with all this stuff. I especially like the last comment that was said: "Crime 2, honest citizens 0."
Too much bashing, righteousness and hate
WELL, I got up this morning in the best Christmas spirit until I picked up the paper and read Gladys Woods' letter to the editor. If this woman does not want to celebrate Christmas, then why doesn't she just not do so and leave the rest of us be? I found her letter to be Catholic bashing and a straight-to-the-heart fundamentalist message of pure righteousness and hate.
Recognition for good soccer programs
I JUST read the article on John Mark Thompson. He is just the latest in a long line of successes as far as the soccer program here in Cape. I know we have several kids playing Division II and a lot of kids playing Division I soccer in colleges. One boy, I think his name is Craig Shear, is playing semi-pro soccer. It all goes back to a lot of these kids started in CAYSA and have gone on up from there. They've played on teams in St. Louis. I know that Mr. Thompson took his older son, Chris, back and forth to St. Louis to play on a St. Louis team. There are a lot of people that are really dedicated to this sport here in town, and this recognition that John Mark got was recognition for the entire program. I think we have a lot to be proud of in town as far as our soccer program, and I think that the successes are going to keep coming.
Military force would send message
IRAQ REBUFFS U.N., says U.S. stands alone. That is 100 percent true. If we're going to be wishy-washy on all of these things that we try to correct and not do anything really about it, bring all the military home. You'll have to use force on these people. They don't know any better. And I mean to tell you, use a lot of force.
Enjoyed story about the bunny rabbit
I'D JUST like to comment about that bunny rabbit eating that man's Christmas wires up. I thought that was a great, great news article, and I wish we had more like it.
How must testing would be enough?
THIS IS to the caller who said the county must pass a law requiring examinations for food workers and such. Well, that's all nice and neat, but what about that everyday exposure? That would mean that they would have to be tested every day, and the results would take days to come back. And all that testing would make the food cost about 5,000 times as much. So the idea is absolutely ridiculous.
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