SPEAKOUT

Something else to tax

TALKING ABOUT different things being taxed, I'd like to see them tax these dadblasted old yard sales and garage sales. Bargain hunters will actually block the road, and you can't get through. I say tax them and cut some of them out.

TBN cancels Pat Boone

I CAN'T believe this Trinity Broadcast Network canceled Pat Boone who has finally got with it with his new appearance. TBN needs to get a life and do something worthwhile.

Road work suggestions

I WOULD like to point out that we have a great need for resurfacing two streets, especially, in this town. One of them is Bloomfield Road from Kingshighway to Silver Springs Road. It is terrible. The other is Kingsway from Kingshighway north to Mt. Auburn Road or Lexington, and it is in the same need of repair. It is terrible. They keep patching the holes, but that won't do it. You're going to have resurface it. I hope it's on the schedule in the near future.

Build more prisons

I'M SURE you have heard about the case of the man who raped a 15 year old girl and cut her arms off. Got 14 years and served eight. Then moved back to Florida and killed a prostitute. If I were this prostitute's family, I would sue the federal government for every penny and show them that it is more productive to build prisons to put these guys away than it is let them out after eight years after leaving a 15-year-old girl bleeding to death in a rattlesnake pit after raping her. What is the government thinking about? It's time people like us show them the right way to think.

Nice assist from elderly woman

I JUST experienced something incredible and I'd like to share it with you. While visiting the Jackson Riverside Library in a light rain and wind, I was struggling to get my baby out of the back seat without having the car door slam on my rear while I collected baby, purse and diaper bag without falling. An elderly woman in body, not mind, offered to help me without being asked. She could see what a struggle I was having and offered to keep the car door open so I could accomplish everything. I don't think I thanked her enough. Instead of her mentality being "everybody should help me because I'm an elderly woman," she spotted me and came over on her own. I'm still in shock and want to tell her how much it was appreciated. Everyone needs help once in a while, no matter what you age. She reminded me of my mom who, unfortunately, is 2,000 miles away.

Good work, Tamara

I JUST finished reading Tamara Zellars Buck's column, and she is like a breath of fresh air. She is the best writer you've had in a long time. I really enjoy her columns. Please keep up the good work.

Column makes good point

I AM calling for two things. First, I would like to commend Tamara Zellars Buck on her column, "Denial, not discipline, hurts children." She is right on the money with this, and I think this is what's wrong with our children today. They are not getting the discipline that they need. You can't tell the decent children from the hoodlums. Good for you, Tamara.

Is this treason?

IN PAUL Greenberg's column he said "Sometimes one fears Bill Clinton lost his moral compass and foreign policy when Richard Nixon died." I think he lost his moral compass when he started taking illegal foreign campaign contributions so he could win another election. And of course, those foreign countries got something they wanted in exchange. Is this treason?

No trust for elected officials

IN RESPONSE to the comments about John Seabaugh and our state senator, Mr. Kinder: The Southeast Missourian is responsible for all Speak Out comments as they are printed without origin or investigating facts that supports the printed comments or complaints. After all, controversy sells newspapers. So as to print anything about a citizen, even if it appears degrading and untrue, makes you legally liable for civil suit that includes slander. This was certainly unfair to cast any doubt on Mr. Seabaugh's sincerity in trying to not lose his land to a government that has repeatedly mismanaged or taken advantage of every citizen in the state of Missouri. What gives the elected official the inside knowledge of projects the right to purchase land in the areas of content for investment and then introduce legislation to take the powers away from local governments that should over see the project, our elected county commissioners? Where I come from, this politician should remain abstinent from the political benefits that he will certainly benefit financially. Perhaps if we had a watchdog group or a state's attorney doing their job, this activity might remain an a minimum so that we the people could put trust again in our elected officials.

Lake means more tax revenue

THE NEW lake would bring prosperity to Bollinger County residents as well as Cape with taxes from new homes for better roads, businesses selling food, lumber and for many other items. Think about it.

Low blow in column

IN REGARD to Mark Bliss' column: Low blow, Mark. I usually enjoy reading it, but your comment about half-dead music performers in Branson was way below the belt. If you don't know anything about anything, please go back to what you do know. Write about your kids. We enjoy reading about them.

Women, minorities left behind

THE FRONT page of your Feb. 23 edition pictures only white males blasting off into the next millennium. It seems once again that women and minorities have been left behind.

Inappropriate comics

I'M CALLING to complain about the Feb. 23 paper in the comic section. I was opening to read it to my children and the Phantom had a lady in a shower naked, getting out and getting dressed in a provocative outfit. That is not proper in the children's comics at all. If you want something like that in, put it in the grownup sections like the sports or some other section that most children do not read. And please, keep it out of the children's comics. That is not the place where it belongs.

True colors are showing

IT'S INTERESTING to see Sen. Kinder's true colors surfacing. For years he has claimed to be against government and government regulations and for freedom and property rights. That's when it suited him and his culprit buddies. Now that the Cape real estate developers smell a huge profit at the expense of taxpayers, family farms and property rights in Cape and Bollinger counties, the senator finds his position has changed. The freedom he now wants to expand seems to be the freedom of the few to profit at the expense of the many. Maybe in reality it always was this way. Now it's just more obvious.

Cloning ditto-heads?

SO THEY cloned a sheep, a poor, dumb, woolly-headed herbivore. Now we're frightened of cloning people. If the next step is to clone at the same intellectual level, we should be frightened. The cloning target will be ditto-heads. Scary, indeed.

Good teen-agers in Cape

MAY GREENE fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade jump rope team performed at the Cape-Ste. Genevieve basketball game at halftime Feb. 21. The high school students cheered and encouraged the kids and stayed in the gym during the performance. These young people are to be congratulated for their manners and support they gave these jumpers. There are still good teen-agers in Cape.

Debt must be controlled

IF I understand right, we have a $5 trillion debt and the Congress and the president can't even decide on lowering the growth rate of the debt without even paying a cent on it. By the year 2050, all taxes that the IRS collects will probably used to service the debt. Nothing for military, nothing for airports, nothing for Social Security or welfare, nothing for schools, nothing for police and so on. The only answer is to raise taxes to maybe 80 percent at that time. Most people don't want that. You can say, well let the country go broke. Well, I just want to give you a little idea what turmoil that could cause. Banks, insurance company, Social Security, all kinds of retirement programs, unions, teacher's retirement, they all buy bonds and that is our debt and a part of it is foreign bought by other countries. We've got a real problem if we don't get a hold of this debt and get somebody started on even paying the debt. That's my opinion.