SPEAKOUT

Try birth control

LET US prevent abortions by starting at the very beginning, which is birth control for unwanted pregnancies. This would eliminate all controversy over abortions.

Not forgotten

NICOLE BROWN and Ron Goldman, you are not forgotten. Until your killer who walks the streets a free man faces his maker and confesses his crimes, it will never be forgotten.

Substitute parent

I'M CALLING about the caller's comments in "Just butt out." It's sad to say that if you send your child to school in cold weather with heavy coats or hats, you let them stay up to midnight, you don't let them brush their teeth and you send them to school or you send them to school without glasses and they can't see the board, then it is time for the school to step, in because obviously you are not doing your job as a parent.

Budget mess

$100 MILLION for Israel. Much, much, much money for Bosnia. A Democratic president wants it. A Republican Congress approves it. They both want to balance the budget. How can they balance the budget without cutting spending or raising taxes or by giving to people who do not even pay taxes here. Instead they want to cut out the so-called entitlement programs. The best thing yet is don't re-elect anybody, especially the ones who are going to increase our taxes.

Location options

AS A person of 53 years born and raised here in the City of Roses, I'd like to speak out about the location of the new federal building. First, the location on Good Hope. Will it really help to put the business back in a corner by itself, away from the other government establishments, post office, courthouse, our existing federal building, city hall? Inconvenient. Not only inconvenient. I think the citizens of the City of Roses and visitors would like a place to be proud of and be safe at, not in a rundown crime area. Also, visitors would like to be able to be close to eating facilities as well, not to run all over Cape to find someplace. Downtown does have these place. Broadway, even Sleep Hollow area would be a better location. Like I say, I've nothing to gain as a Red Star river rat. I would not like to see someone lose his home either.

Bus phones in Jackson

I JUST read the article in the Southeast Missourian about businesses putting cell phones on buses. That may be so in Cape but in Jackson, they keep the phones in the safe. The drivers have to check them out each morning and back in after their route or trip. It's so much hassle, none of the drivers even use them.

Dressed for school

DEAR PEOPLE, have you noticed how the children are going to school today, how they are dressed? Boys look like they don't have a belt on. They have the straddle of their pants hanging to their knees, and they've got holes in them. What kind of a place are we having around here? Used to, we'd wear clothes like that out in the fields where they'd get dirty and things like that, but never to school. I wish we had a dress code in our schools around here. We sure do need them.

Fair is fair

ALL THE talk about President Clinton having to testify in the Whitewater case: Well, why didn't Reagan have to testify in the Iran/Contra scandal? He said he didn't know anything about this by phone, but the special prosecutor finished the investigation, he said Reagan on down knew all about this scandal. I never heard a Republican say anything about this mess, because the whole deck was stacked plumb to the top. Ed Meese, George Bush, Ollie North. But it all came out. I would like to see something in favor of being fair come out in this paper one time.

Snowy reception

I'D JUST like to say I read about the cable companies raising their rates and the next day I'm sitting here trying to watch overtime of the Tulsa-Louisville NCAA basketball game, and I'm looking at a snowy TV screen. Seems to me there's something really wrong with that. Seems like every time I sit down and try to watch some kind of sporting event, I always end up watching snow.

Ladybug, Ladybug...

I MISS Ladybug, Mary Blue. It was a very good column and everybody thinks that you should have someone else.

REPLY: We have been considering some options for another gardening column. We appreciate your interest.

Beware of Dole

As a citizen concerned about where our country is going, I must say I am fearful for our great United States and Bob Dole if he should become our next president. Just on the other night on TV, Bob Dole's lovely ex-wife of 23 years told how she had stood by him all those years, through his illness and all of his troubles only for him to approach her without warning and state he wanted out of their marriage. What if by some slim chance he did become president and would wake up some morning and would approach the people he had sworn to serve would announce, "I'm sorry, I no longer care about you or this nation"? What if?

Voting suggestion

IF ANYBODY at all in the state of Missouri cares anything about educating our young people, they'd better vote against Peter Kinder.

It's barbaric

CONFIDENCE IS an attribute, but egotism such as Mike Tyson and Cassius Clay's makes me want to throw up. I wouldn't pay $1,000 to see anybody fight. I wouldn't pay 30 cents to see the kids next door fight. Boxing, which is fighting, is a sport only for barbarians.

Missing movies

IT'S OSCAR time. Do you think we might possibly get "Nixon" or "Dead Man Walking" at the little burg of Cape Girardeau any time soon?