SPEAKOUT

Fighting to prevent repeat

TO THE person who has lived in Oran 36 years and can't understand what the big deal is about putting lights and gates at the crossing because of his clear view of the tracks. No: I guess you can't understand why it's so important. It wasn't your mother, wife, sister or child. But one day it could happen to your family. And this is why I'm fighting so hard. I don't want anyone to go through this horrible, violent nightmare.

Parents wanted publicity

SOME PEOPLE have gone nuts over wanting to be on television. Some will do anything to get publicity, even put children in danger. We have to protect our children until they're old enough to know the danger. If you love you child, you will do that. That's why we have to have laws if people don't want to do that. To say, as this mother did in the airplane crash, that the little girl is happy now makes me sick.

Who weeps for the babies?

LAST WEEK was an eventful one for the United States. A 7-year-old was given the choice to fly a plane across the United States. President Clinton vetoed the partial-birth abortion bill to end the life of babies by sucking their brains from their little heads. They have no choice. The 7-year-old girl had a memorial of flowers and stuffed animals. Complete strangers wept for this child. Who weeps for the 4,400 babies killed each day? They are forgotten. We have replaced God's law -- Thou shalt not kill -- with our own: It's a woman's choice.

Instructor was in charge

I FEEL sorry for the 7-year-old who got killed in the plane crash. I'm not blaming her. I'm not blaming her mother. They had an instructor with them. I'm not a pilot, but if I want to fly, I would depend on the instructor so nothing happened that I couldn't take care of.

Blame the moviemakers

MOVIEMAKERS teach children to do as they please. The younger ones see a young actor slap, sass and dare it's parent in a movie, then it becomes acceptable behavior because it's seems not so bad to him because of the movie. Monkey see, monkey do. Children have been taught to be such easy liars by moviemakers. I accept part of the blame for having four adult offspring who dispute me, ridicule me, tell me I'm wrong, lose their tempers with me, show ill manners, ignore me and who think "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am" are a part of the past. The rest of the blame I place on moviemakers, liberal Democrats and a lot of the media. These are the signs of the times. Terrible omens. It will only get worse because of such broad communications access. It is cruel the way some offspring insult and abuse their parents. I think it began with school teachers having to get permission from the parents to correct or punish an ill-behaved child. Problems we parents have today regardless of their ages stems in my view from liberalists in the federal government. At first, I thought only trashy people behaved so badly, but now I know that it can happen to any young person who watches television, goes to movies or gets out of the house. It's a sad and shameful time we live in, because our kids have been taught not to respect their parents. Moviemakers know that a child sees and hears whatever is right there in front of him. Children cannot read between the lines.

Clinton supports abortions

PARTIAL-BIRTH abortions were first brought to attention of the public by Brenda Pratt Shaffer, a pro-choice nurse working in an abortion clinic. She was so sickened by the sight of a helpless baby that was alive and well and almost completely born being stabbed in the base of his skull and having his brain sucked out of his head that she walked out of that abortion clinic and began working to stop abortions. President Clinton refused to stop this procedure by vetoing a bill that was passed by both the House and Senate. His excuse was he was doing it for the mothers. Dr. Pamela Smith, director of medical education in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago say there are absolutely no obstetric situations encountered in this country which require a partially human baby to be destroyed to preserve the health of the mother. President Clinton has done everything he can to promote abortion in this country and the world. He says he wants to make abortion rare, yet he won't even help outlaw this one cruel procedure.

Let them pursue dreams

THIS IS to the caller who put in "It's a parent dream." Every mother and father wants the best for their kids. If they have dreams, they should follow them. You're speaking like the mother and father wanted their child dead, and no matter what her dream was, they were willing to let her die for it. I don't think that was it at all. It was the mother's and father's decision to let their child go on with her dream, which is right.

Store controls its carts

THIS IS to the person who called in wanting to know where the store is that doesn't leave carts left all over the parking lot. It's on the corner of Independence and Kingshighway. The reason for this is you put a quarter in the shopping cart when you get it, and when you take it back, you get your quarter returned. It's too bad more stores don't do this. Nothing makes me madder than to find a cart beside my car when I come out of the store.

It's the taxes they want

PLEASE DON'T be fooled by politicians calling for a bigger minimum wage. These politicians don't care about how much money you're making. They care about the Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes they're going to get from you. From every 90 cents, which is the proposal, that they can raise the minimum wage, they're going to get $140 a year more from you and $140 more a year from your employer in Social Security and Medicare taxes. It's also going to put you in a higher tax bracket. They don't care about you. They want your money.

Older drivers cause accidents

I'D LIKE to make a comment about these elderly drivers. They drive so slow that they actually they confuse everybody else on the road. Although they don't have accidents, I believe they cause accidents by confusing people on the road with their middle-of-the-road driving, starting and stopping and slowness. They need to be tested with a driver's examination and a written driver's examination every three years, starting at say age 65, maybe 70.

Clinton remembered others

TO THE caller who lambasted our president for not saying one word about the other people who were killed in the crash with Ron Brown: Apparently you missed CNN's coverage of the ceremony at Dover Air Force base in Maryland when the bodies were brought in which President Clinton named each one of them by name, choking back tears as he did so, nor did you see the memorial service in the National Cathedral in which he spoke of the young people as very sweet young people, very intelligent young people whom Ron Brown really admired and that's why he was on the plane with them. If you don't believe me, let's go to the videotape.

Freeman should read Bible

IT SADDENS me to read about the Freemen in Montana, how they are defying the government. They need to read what it says in the Bible, Romans 13, which says, "Obey the government, for God is the one who has put it there. There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power, so those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God and punishment will follow." And it goes on to say pay your taxes too. The government workers need to be paid so that they can keep on doing God's work, serving you. Pay everyone whatever he ought to have. Pay your taxes and import duties gladly. Obey those over you. Give honor and respect to all those to whom it is due and so forth. I'm quoting from the Living Bible.

Gas in St. Louis was same

IN RESPONSE to the "Long drive for gas" in the paper, I spent the entire day Sunday in St. Louis, and if the caller found 99-cent gasoline in St. Louis, I'd like to know where. Every station I saw in St. Louis was $1.19, the same as Cape Girardeau's prices.