SPEAKOUT

Social Security withholding limit

RECENTLY, a Speak Out caller said that people making $62,000 a year did not contribute to Social Security. Would someone please explain why this is? I thought everybody had Social Security taken out of their checks, except maybe federal employees. I know there are others besides me that are wondering about this.

REPLY: The limit this year for income subject to Social Security withholding is $65,400. This amount has been going up annually in recent years.

Hunting restriction might save lives

HAVING LIVED in Jackson for a short time, I have really been hooked on Speak Out. The Southeast Missourian is one of the very best papers I have ever read. My comment is on the poor gentleman who was shot while coyote hunting on the doctor's land a few days ago. If we had better hunting laws to forbid hunting in the evening, this terrible tragedy may have never happened. Like I say, I enjoy the articles in Speak Out, and I thank you for letting me make my comment.

Trim shrubs for a clear view

WE HAVE some blind corners here in the western part of Jackson. One is at Parkview and Elm Streets and another at Union and Washington Streets. The shrubs block your view when you are driving. They need to be trimmed back so you can see over them.

Mural already has real winners

KUDOS TO a Speak Out caller who recently commented on Cape's Wall of Fame. The caller's comment was couched in sarcastic language, but the meaning came through loud and clear. The caller implied that the lifestyle of those portrayed on the Wall of Fame should be a consideration in determining who makes it and who doesn't. I agree 1,000 percent. I believe those already portrayed on the wall consistently reflect not only outstanding achievement but a life lived by the strictest Judeo-Christian principles. I speak of the likes of Mark Twain, Redd Foxx and Frank and Jesse James. To place a likeness of late author William Burroughs with these virtual saints would be a desecration of the Wall of Fame.

Children at movies rated R

WE WERE at the opening-day showing of "Copland" at our new theater. You know, the one that everybody's messing up. Well, that's not my problem today. My problem is the mother who took her two little girls, who could not have been older than 6 or 7, to a movie rated R with violence, corruptions and all kinds of stuff. Go see it if you don't believe how bad it is. I'd like all of you parents who take your little children to R-rated movies to defend that decision without resorting to the usual "I couldn't find a babysitter." If you can convince me and everybody else out here who's disgusted by your behavior that you are entitled to come into that theater with your little children and expose them to that, fine, then I rest my case. May I direct you to the August 1997 issue of Reader's Digest. There is an article about this very topic. A woman takes her children to the theater, they see somebody get shot in the face and the woman slaps them and says shut up. Now, I didn't see anybody doing that, but mental abuse is just as bad, and this is a form of it.

Need warning sign, light near trailer court

A YOUNG man was almost killed when he was driving toward Cape on Route W and a resident of the nearby trailer court failed to stop at the stop sign and crashed into his car. A man had to be extricated from his auto. Had his guardian angel not been with him, he would be dead. This location is the frequent site of near hits as trailer court personnel and residents speed out onto Route W without even trying to do a Missouri rolling stop. Because of the danger here, I am petitioning the Missouri Highway Commission to install a caution light and a hidden driveway sign approaching the intersection of Route W and South Street. Please write the highway commission in support of these measures at this heavily traveled intersection. Eighty-five children live at this trailer court. It is so dangerous, the school bus will not even stop here. My mother-in-law was hit by a car when she went to her rural mailbox here. My daughter was hit by a car on her way to high school. Please write in support these safety measures for our children.

School fund-raising sales aren't appreciated

SCHOOL IS about to start, and I do hope that this year the superintendent and the board will put a stop to this sending little children around to sell junk that nobody but the manufacturers make any money on it. Before Easter, two children came around, one of them a very small, who wanted to be paid in advance. And while I didn't want the junk, I did buy it for the child's sake. I never received delivery. I don't like be ripped off any better than anybody else does. But if the school needs donations, put a little blurb in the paper, and I'm sure I will send my $5 to a worthy cause as well as a lot of people. Don't use the children to sell cheap junk. That's not teaching them proper methods of dealing for people.

Addicts don't deserve disability payments

I WATCHED a piece on "20/20" that really bothers me concerning disability paid to drug addicts. Our government pays these addicts a disability check every month to support their habit, and that's not right. That's our tax money, and we'd better get mad and write to our congressmen and anyone else in Washington to voice our disapproval.

A swat of correction won't hurt

HOW IGNORANT our United States is getting to not swat your kid on his hand or butt for things he is doing to let him know you are the boss. My mother and father swatted us, and I give them credit to think they thought enough of me to correct me and make me do. This swatting on the hand or butt is not going to hurt no child. My mother lived to be 98, and she was swat on the hand and butt. I am almost 80. No wonder the children in the stores do things that are so terrible. You can't take them anyplace. They are such a mess it is terrible. If they just swat them on their butt or hand when they are doing things like that, it's not going to hurt them. Anybody with common sense know it's not going to hurt them.

Automation snafu stops the mail

THE POST office has done it again. They must be licking the stamps on coffee break. They are not watching their automation machines. Resident of the 2000 block of Good Hope didn't get mail for two days because someone didn't watch the automation machine. I guess that's the government for you.

Williams is out of the mainstream

COLUMNIST WALTER Williams recently wrote a piece in which he seemed to defend Autumn Jackson. Jackson was recently convicted of extorting Bill Cosby. If I understood Williams, he seemed to say that since no violence or threat of violence occurred, it was not that big a deal. Then, in typical fashion, Williams shifted the focus to Social Security and Medicare and argued that taxes to support these programs are for all intents and purposes extortion on a level much more serious than anything done by Autumn Jackson. But wacky Williams is so off the wall and so far out of the mainstream you just got to love him.

Thanks for comments on passing time

I WOULD like to comment on J.R. King's letter to the editor about how passing time is proportional. J.R., that is the best analogy and explanation I have ever seen. Thanks a lot for putting that in there.

Talk about domestic crime

I SAW your recent headline, "Husband charged in 1989 conspiracy to run over wife." My spouse runs over me all the time. How come they never do anything about that?

Here's one way to keep readers

ACCORDING TO Newsweek magazine, less that 50 percent of American adults will be reading a daily newspaper in year 2015. This alarming decline can be reversed if all newspapers nationwide take a cue from the Southeast Missourian and start Speak Out sections.

Pet owner gets the blame for dead dog

I WANT to know why the person who hit the dog and killed it is feeling so sorry and then in the next statement says he doesn't understand why somebody would let the dog play in the dangerous highway. Basically he is not sorry at all. He's blaming the pet owner. In a convoluted way, he is saying I'm sorry, but he's not sorry. He's sorry that the pet owner was irresponsible enough for letting the pet play on the highway in the first place. Call a dog a dog. That's a dog.