SPEAKOUT

Worshipping in leg irons

THE RIGHT to worship is a God-granted right, but worship is in the heart. Therefore, leg irons and handcuffs would not have compromised the personal worship of Mr. Bucklew, who escaped from the Cape Girardeau County Jail. Leg irons and handcuffs would have left the people of the area feeling much more secure.

Legal doesn't make it right

EVERY NIGHT as I listen to the news, I hear of someone who made the choice to kill another person. Frequently, a parent chooses to kill a child. I'm sure each of those decisions were personal and difficult to make. They were also very wrong. It is also very wrong to kill a child before it is born. Technology has proven through ultrasound that a baby in a womb is as human and sensitive to pain as you or I. Yet it is legal to literally tear her apart or drown her in a strong salt solution that burns her skin off. All abortion techniques cause excruciating pain for the unborn child. Yes, it is legal to abort a child, but in Germany before World War II, it was legal for the Nazis to kill Jews. Legality does not make it right. Some choices are just plain wrong.

Sympathy, but no vote

WHILE JO Anne Emerson does have my sympathy for the loss of her husband, she will never get my vote. She may be a Washington insider, but she knows nothing about Cape Girardeau or Southeast Missouri.

Not qualified by marriage

WELL, THE Republican party has done it again. Why in the world would they encourage Jo Anne Emerson to run for her husband's position? My husband taught school for almost 40 years, and I spent a lot of hours typing tests and worksheets for him. But does that mean I could get a job as a teacher? I think not. A Republican has just turned Democrat.

Pain and medicine

ABOUT DR. Wolfer's letter to the editor, I don't know who he thinks he's fooling. People are in pain, and, in the U.S., only 10 percent to 15 percent of the people get adequate pain care. It's almost impossible to get pain medicine in this area. I know. I've been in pain for over 10 years. Yes, I've thought of suicide, but that's no way. My mother, for one, was terminal with cancer, but they wouldn't give her any pain medicine because they were afraid she'd become addicted. Now how does that grab you?

A good Williams column

THIS IS the old geezer again. Walter Williams' column on July 10 is very profitable for people to read. He's speaking out against the uprising of what we call the Freemen Association. It would be valuable to all people to read this account because he speaks of many things that we sit back, swear we don't like it and swear we're going to put a stop to. Try it, people. Read it. It's a good column.

Turning against God

MEN HAVE forgotten God. That's why all the bad things are happening in our own country as well as around the world today. Those who believe in the historical fall of man find the 20th century's mass atrocities horrifying. But they know what makes them possible: the reality of evil and the rejection of God. During the 19th century, the Rationalist Movement, materialistic philosophies, Darwinsim, scientific determinism and various political ideologies such as Marxism and socialism replaced the Judeo-Christian tradition with a new picture of man. Ironically, while these movements regarded man as a highly developed ape, they also shared a confidence in his essential goodness. In the new orthodoxies, evil is social, not personal. The new secular vision also holds up science and technology as a means of salvation. It should be apparent by now that neither of those can save us. Science cannot answer the mysteries of life, and technology is only a tool. It can be beneficial, but it can also wreak havoc when used by fallen people. When God is denied, so is evil. As a Russian novelist put it, "If there is no God, then all things are permitted." Those who think God is unimportant also tend to think that human beings are insignificant. The awful anti-religious developments of the past 50 years are distorted through their own materialistic logic.

Extra hands at Social Security

I HAVE a message to all my peers who are Social Security recipients. I just watched CNBC and found out that there are 180 people employed in Washington who are union activists who do not do a thing to contribute to Social Security. Then there's another 1,800 who do it part-time and have nothing to do with Social Security. The full-timers make $42,000 a year with benefits. Another thing, in a letter that came from Dick Gephardt, Democratic minority Leader, he said that they were the reason the Republican Social Security plan was no good, which is very illegal for anybody to use government offices to promote the Democratic party.

Outraged in Missouri

My fellow Missourians, I am appalled by the fact that Cape Girardeau no longer has a Greyhound bus station. I usually come home twice a year from Indiana and usually have to have someone pick me up in St. Louis. I realize that there is a bus stop at the corner drugstore in Jackson, but which is the bigger town? You have restaurant after restaurant, a lovely mall and a longstanding university. It is shameful for the students at SEMO to stand on the corner on weekends with signs saying "Need a ride to St. Louis." Not to mention the danger involved in that. With a town that has all this going on, why does no one see the need for a bus station? And please don't tell me to buy a car. I prefer to leave the driving to someone else.

Sam Blackwell's column

I'M CALLING regarding Sam Blackwell's July 11 column regarding the adoption of Baby Lillian with his friends David and Chris. I really enjoyed his column, and he is right on when he says that children are the purest expression of God. I just called to say that I really enjoyed his column.

Time for rock concerts

IT'S ABOUT time that the Show-Me Center decided to book some rock concerts. Everybody has been griping, especially on the SEMO campus, for about two or three years now about this.