SPEAKOUT

Article of Father Darling is appreciated

I'M SO thankful for the article on Father Darling in the paper. It was just wonderful. It's so good to see something like that in the paper. I appreciate it very much.

Night crawler on license plates

I HAVE seen brightly colored birds on license plates from other states. Missouri, on the other hand, is a black night crawler worm drawn under the name of our state. I guess that's for the birds.

Time to plan more SEMO parking

AS THE regents at SEMO University are considering capital projects at this time, I suggest they strongly consider constructing some parking lots. The parking situation up at SEMO is terrible and getting worse by the day. How in the world can they expect to fit 2,000 more students, which they plan to recruit, on that campus? It is virtually impossible. Until they accept the fact that they have to provide parking for all the students who attend SEMO, we are going to have nothing but a nightmare up there.

Let's see SEMO defense against a real team

THIS IS in reference to Marty Mishow's column that he generally puts in after SEMO runs over some small team like Rameth College, a Division II-NAIA school. He's talking about how all of a sudden they've found their defense. Let's see how good SEMO's defense is against somebody like Eastern Illinois, Eastern Kentucky, Murray State or somebody like that. Then let Marty write his column about good their defense is, how they've suddenly reinstated themselves.

County needs laws about night hunting

MY CALL'S in regard to the person from Jackson who called Speak Out wondering why we do not have hunting laws in Cape County for coyote hunting in the evening. Let me first state that I agree with this gentleman, that we should have laws that forbid this. I too am a loyal reader of the Southeast Missourian, and I agree that it is a great paper, covers a lot of area. A lot of people read the articles. I'd also like to state that I have a friend in Oregon County who's with the Conservation Department, and he states up there they do have hunting laws regarding that you can't hunt coyote late at night. I'd like to hear from other readers. Come on, Cape conservation department. Let's wake up. Let's get these laws in effect so tragedies like this will never be repeated in our fair county.

Definition for beating a dead horse

YOU GUYS are getting famous. I looked up the expression "beating a dead horse" in a reference book. It said, "see Southeast Missourian ongoing complaints about increased public education spending."

Comfort to know Diana is finally at peace

THE WORLD has lost a beautiful, caring lady by circumstances so hard that surely this is only a bad dream. We awake to newspapers, TVs and radio to find it's horribly true. We find the pain to be so deep for someone we never knew but maybe a little of her caring heart abides in us too. Princess Diana found a need and met it. She was able to take her caring heart into places you and I couldn't go. She touched those with AIDS, she held the unlovely, spoke so sweetly to the small ones and the aged, comforted the dying and God help those so called Royal Family for their coldness toward this special lady. My comfort is knowing she is resting in peace with our Lord.

Attila's column on Opinion page?

I SURE hope that Attila the Hun never comes back to life as a newspaper columnist, because if he did, he certainly would be right there on the editorial page of the Southeast Missourian. Gary Rust would do his damndest to get that man to present his views.

Requiring community service in high school

FROM THE Southeast Missourian, an article from Chicago. Chief executive of the city's public schools has decreed that beginning with students entering high school in the 1998-99 academic year, every student must complete 60 hours of community service over four years in order to graduate. He said, "There is no better way to teach and reinforce honesty, respect, tolerance, worth ethic, discipline, self-respect and respect for others." Cape School Board, are you paying attention?

Commodities dumped along county road

THIS COMMENT is to the persons that are dumping the government commodities in the creek on County Road 550 in Cape Girardeau County. Please, if you don't want to eat the peaches and prunes, don't take them or at least give them to a hungry family or organization that feeds hungry people in our area. My point is, I paid for the peaches with my taxes, and I would like you to stop my wasting my money. If you're too good to eat peaches, get a job and buy apples.

Recreation facilities are waste of money

I WOULD like to comment about the article in which the SEMO regents discuss improvements at the university. They're planning a $8 million improvement to the recreation complexes. I have five children. Two of my older children graduated from SEMO. They had to work part-time jobs to help fund their tuition and studying. They had no time to enjoy these multimillion-dollar facilities. I think this is a waste of our students' money, and I'm going to encourage my three kids still at home to attend a university in another area that has more emphasis on education and not recreation. I cannot stand to see an increase in student fees to pay for a recreation complexes. Most of these students who pay these fees do not even get time to participate and enjoy these features.

Where's the spending on education?

DID YOU read the Southeast Missourian about all the things they're wanting to do over at Southeast Missouri State University? Did you see anything in there on education? All I saw was basketball courts, weight rooms, aerobic dancing, recreation fields and what it would cost if they would happen to do it. All on the backs of the students. It would increase the students' fees. I've got grandchildren who will be going to college just very shortly. Some have already started. But this, I'm sure, would not be what they come to college for. They would be coming to get an education. Why should they have to pay more per hour to come to college for something that will benefit just a few? I can't understand it. I don't live in Cape, but I wish I had a say-so.

Broadway should have resurfacing priority

I DON'T know where the city's priority lies on resurfacing the streets that we've voted a tax in to do so with. Which is more important, Broadway from Clark east or up by the Show Me Center and out on the east end on Siemers Drive? This Broadway that I'm speaking about is shaking people's cars all to pieces. It looks like to me Broadway would have been a priority instead of a new section out in the west end.

REPLY: The priorities for the street projects were set before voters approved a sales-tax increase to pay for the improvements. Hearings were held to determine those priorities, and the public was given ample opportunity to be heard.

Motorists are obviously just lazy

I AM trim and in great shape because I walk from Spanish Street to my job at Southeast Hospital. Now I don't give a tinker's dam if the Cape license bureau is only open one hour a day, I will survive. Too many lazy slobs need to get their backsides off those car seats and make their life better for themselves and the people around them.

Courageous physicians sign anti-abortion letter

CONGRATULATIONS TO the physicians from Jefferson City who had the courage to sign the letter in the Missourian. Now if our physicians from Cape Girardeau would do the same, consider how many tiny lives could be saved.

Government usually unresponsive to needs

THIS IS a comment regarding the caller who suggested better hours for the license bureau. This caller must have forgotten that this is a government agency. When people suggest the government change to suit their needs, it just ain't going to happen. It's not a business, It's the government.