SPEAKOUT

Monuments and Broadway widening

WHY DO the City Council and city officials allow American Legion Post 63 to continue to build those monuments to put the eagles on for our dear servicemen when that's where Broadway is going to be extended. There won't be room for even two people to walk alongside of it. The City Council should look into that.

REPLY:

Parents, love your children

WE HEAR so much about teen-age rebellion. Let me tell you, when I was a teenager I did rebel, but I was rebelling against the ungodly ways in which I was being raised. In my young mind, all I could do was try to break free of that. A child feels when he's unloved and being abused and mistreated, and he will rebel and try to find that safe place. He will try to find someone who will take him in and love him, right or wrong. Parents, love your children. They're your most precious possession, and try to understand them and relate to them.

Medical expenses go uncovered

I NOTICED that some of the callers have been talking about health insurance. My husband died recently of cancer, and I'm so thankful he had Medicare. It not only paid most of the cost of his illness, but it kept the cost down by refusing to pay the inflated doctor bills. I wondered about this, but recently one of our fellow workers on our group insurance discovered the shocking truth of our situation here in Southeast Missouri. This worker also came down with cancer, but unfortunately there was no Medicare to help him out. He learned that our health insurance would not pay a large part of his bills because they said that the doctors charge more than is reasonable. So this man is left with a large portion that he has to pay. The insurance company would have paid all of it if he had gone to St. Louis, where costs are cheaper. I would like to know why we have this situation here in Southeast Missouri.

Does cable pact mean higher rates?

IN THE article "New TCI cable pact proposal," there was no mention of how much our rates are going to go up. I don't care if we get 150 new channels, if the rates are going to go up, nobody in Cape is going to be pleased.

Underestimating intelligence

MANY OF the comments published in the Speak Out column, especially those of Oct. 18, really lend truth to the adage of H.L. Mencken, who said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

Bigger vehicles are safer

I'VE JUST finished reading the Southeast Missourian and was very disturbed to about the article that said insurance rates will be adjusted for some vehicles. I drive a large sport utility vehicle because it is safer and it is bigger. I think it's ridiculous to pay a higher rate for a big car that's safe for my family and kids when I could buy a little beer-can-sized car, which would be a very dangerous small car, and pay less. I think it's time for people to wake up and start checking into their insurance more. With mandatory insurance, companies should not be allowed to pull such crap on people. If it's true that my insurance company is participating in this, I'll drop them like a ton of lead. I hope that more people will call their insurance agents and complain.

School board cancels meeting

I THINK it's very sad that the school board for Shawnee District 84 in Southern Illinois had to cancel the school board meeting because only two of the board members chose to show up. I'm so glad we have such leaders for our school district.

ADD is a real disorder in children

I AM responding the comment about attention deficit disorder. I think it is totally unfair that someone would call in and say that ADD is nothing but a scam to get money from the government when children out there, including my child, are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. My child does not receive a check from the government at all. It is a true disorder. The child has trouble concentrating and learning, and it disrupts his whole life. As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to comment on something, you need to get your facts straight. Maybe some doctors are misdiagnosing patients, but when it comes to getting money from the government, these things are investigated. It's not a fair statement to say that parents of children with ADD do nothing but get money from the government when it is a totally untrue, unsubstantiated statement, and it does make me seriously angry. There are children our there who are suffering from this disorder.

We don't want to be first in meth

FIRST OF all, I'd like to say you have a great newspaper. I've never missed a single paper in all the years that I've lived in the area. But I am amazed at all the methamphetamine articles that I read in your paper. Is the use this bad in our area? What's becoming of our young people when they read about the lawyer in Madison County who said it ruined his life, or the doctor's wife who just pleaded guilty to having methamphetamine in her purse. If professional people are involved in this, God help us for what's become of the young people when they read about these things and think they may want to try it. Let's all try to keep that drug from going any farther in our area. We sure don't want to surpass California in the production of methamphetamine. That would not be a very good thing to say about our fair city.

Even smoking is preferable

I'M 11 years old, and I'm allergic to cigarette smoke. But I'd rather smoke a cigarette than watch Ellen Degeneres.

More convenient dumping needed

TWO YEARS ago I lived in a suburb of Chicago. It was twice the population of Cape Girardeau. We had a city garage and parking lot pretty much in the center of town, and they had some wall trenches where they backed in about six dumpsters. The people of the community would bring trash and dump it in the various dumpsters as the city man directed. The city also backed its trucks up there and dumped small lots of stuff to be hauled away to various sites. I think that this was a heckuva lot better than standing around for a half hour waiting in line to get in to dump a little trash out at the city transfer station out on the other side of town.