SPEAKOUT

Plant a peace garden instead

I SEE in the newspaper that the VFW is raising money to rebuild the brick posts in Capaha Park. I would donate money to have the old posts torn down but wouldn't contribute a dime to rebuild them. The old posts are nothing but a monument glorifying war -- war, the widow and orphan maker and the destroyer of the nation's treasury as well as the biggest drag on the advancement of civilization. We ought to be beyond the barbaric practice of war. Let's tear down the old posts and plant a peace garden in their place.

Personal choice

I JUST wish the government had better things to spend its money on than whether to make tobacco illegal or ban physician-assisted suicide. If a person wants to smoke cigarettes, that's his thing. If someone wants to kill himself, let him. The government should stay out of such things. That's a person's own choice.

Make a good home life

I WOULD like to respond to the Speak Out topic "Use common sense." I agree 100 percent with that caller about being suspended from school for touching the opposite sex. I am shocked and ashamed of the way adults have made an issue of this. I just wonder how a little 7-year-old boy or girl would be if they were made a spectacle on this issue. What has happened to adults who think like this? No wonder you hear of so many teen-agers who get trouble. They don't have any role models or good examples to follow anymore, or not many. There are a few left but not enough to go around. I pray for the kids every day. They are so neglected. And I pray that mothers who just absolutely doesn't have to work will re-evaluate their priorities and stay home. Mothers and dads should just concentrate on having a good home life. The time is so short they have until the child is a teen-ager, and you can't ever go back and live it over.

Dole is hurting the GOP

REMEMBER HOW Bob Dole in the campaign with Bill Clinton for president always told us how crooked President Clinton was, what a bad boy he was? Well, Newt Gingrich and Ollie North were his idea of honest men. So thank goodness he didn't fool the people to make it to the White House. Bob Dole fooled people for a long time. But now you Republicans see where he stands. He's hurting your party.

Reagan's tax cut

I WAS just reading the recent comment in Speak Out about the person running down President Reagan so bad for the tax cut. I don't think you'll ever have to worry about that anymore, because it will probably be the last one they'll ever get. But time and again -- and again just recently -- the government figures that were given out to the press showed very well that after Reagan gave us the tax cut, the government actually received more tax money coming in, because the money stayed with the person who got the tax cut and he was spending that money. The figures are easy to get. It shows that is a true story. They're just talking about something they know nothing about when they're running down President Reagan and give George Bush a perfect system to step right into, laid out for him perfect, and Bush blew it. He did the same thing that Clinton's done to us.

Others in the musical

AS A cast member in Notre Dame High School's musical, I'd like to let all the readers of the Southeast Missourian know that there are other people in the show besides Jessica Hency. Granted, she may be a talented performer, but there are other people in the show who are equally as talented as her. Referring to the show as Hency and Company only further enforces the belief that this is her show and nobody else's. There were just as many people who were with her at rehearsals for three months beforehand, working just as hard as she did, although you certainly wouldn't have noticed it from the review we got in the Southeast Missourian.

Can't see the difference

I CANNOT see any difference between the two political parties except one seems to be socialistic and the other one seems to be for free enterprise. Are there any other differences between the two parties?

At the public trough

WHETHER OR not George Bush jumped from an airplane is of no concern and little interest to me. All I know is that man has fed at the public trough since he finished prep school, as did his father before him. He is still being paid by the taxpayers, and now we have this third generation of that family wanting the public to support them. What a bunch of leeches.

Mafia or Washington?

ISN'T IT ironic, the people in Washington nipped organized crime and the Mafia in the bud with the arrest and conviction of John Gotti. But who's going to convict and arrest all of the criminals in Washington, D.C.? We've got criminals arresting and convicting criminals. Personally, I'd rather be protected by the Mafia than anybody in Washington. At least the Mafia is truthful and honest. I know because I've been there.

Bob Dole's money

BOB DOLE, the poor boy from Kansas that lived in a basement. He played it to the hilt during election time, and he's able to loan his buddy, Newt Gingrich, $350,000. My, my. How generous. He is a nice fellow. If you ever read Merrill Miller's book, "Plain Speaking," Harry Truman says any public servant who is elected in no way is going to get rich in politics. There's no way possible you're going to get rich. If anybody got rich in politics or in the Senate, he got it from some place else. He didn't do it on the salary of a public servant. It often makes me wonder about Dole. He certainly didn't get rich as a state's attorney in Russell, Kan. He just better not pull the poor boy act again -- man who is anti-health benefits, anti-union, anti anything for the poor.

Home of an astronaut

I'M A truck driver. I live in Illinois and travel pretty well all over the country. I see some of the towns I come through have a sign saying home of some different astronaut, and I know Linda Godwin lives in Missouri. I think it would pretty neat to put a sign over on I-55 by Fruitland saying home of Astronaut Linda Godwin. I think it would be kind of neat to kind of blow your whistle, pat yourself on the back.

Mispronounced words

SOME OF the most mispronounced words in the Heartland are picture, library, and pumpkin. It comes out as piture, libary and punkin. But the most mispronounced of all is Missouri. Some think there's an A on the end of our state.

Require scoopers

I DO not mind people walking their dogs in the parks. I like dogs. But I agree with the person who said the owners should be required to carry a scooper to clean up what the dog has left. I think people should call the city and ask that a law be passed requiring a scooper.

Don't listen to losers

I WOULD like to comment about the young black man who called in and was amazed that Tiger Woods had won the Masters and he liked golf and didn't realize that he could get into it. As a matter of fact, young black people, or any race or color, can do anything they want to. You've just got to stop listening to these losers tell you that you can't do it. You can do anything you want. Just go at it. Don't listen to Jesse Jackson and all these losers.

Sharing the guilt

I WANT to comment about the anniversary of the Waco massacre. The little children, the 3-year-olds and the little innocent babies 2 months old, they weren't able to make a decision to come out, and those people were there practicing a religion. At Nuremburg, they said the German citizens were just as responsible for killing the Jews as Hitler because they supported Hitler. Isn't that the same thing with Waco? Aren't the people who voted Democratic just as responsible? Don't they bear the blood of those innocent children?