SPEAKOUT

No recycling fever

I HAVE a problem with the people in They don't want to recycle. They're lazy. I'm totally disabled. I can hardly walk across the floor, but I recycle. Why do I recycle? Years and years ahead of us are coming. We have the younger generations coming. What are the younger generations going to do if they don't have it as good as we've got it right now? Let's make it better for them. Let's get off our lazy butts and get out there and recycle like we're supposed to do. If you don't do it, you don't think anything of the generations that are coming up.

Avoiding Advance

I MAKE frequent trips to Poplar Bluff. Usually I go through Advance and Wappapello to get there, but in the future I'll be going down through Sikeston and over to Dexter to get to Poplar Bluff since the crime seems to be escalating since they fired their police department. I think it's too bad that they fired their police department for doing a good job. Now you see what they're got in return. All the vandalism, all the crime is just going to escalate, I'm afraid.

Identifying the callers

I'M A constant reader of the Southeast Missourian, and I very much enjoy reading the Speak Out column. But if you don't allow people to include their names with their comments, the content of what they say is basically worthless. When you express an opinion, you want people to know where the opinion is coming from. I don't think people should be required to give their names when they call in, but I do think they should have that option if they wish to. I don't think the Southeast Missourian really has the right to tell people that they're not allowed to leave their names.

REPLY: Speak Out callers are encouraged to leave their names and telephone numbers. This is important when follow-up is needed. Many callers leave their names and phone numbers. However, it has always been the policy of Speak Out not to publish that information.

The anti-Americans

IT WAS hard for me to relate to the people in New York when the World Trade Center was bombed, but I can certainly relate to any person in any capacity in Oklahoma. I blame the federal government for ever allowing these people into this country knowing they are anti-American. Anybody in this country who is anti-American, I blame it on the federal government.

No Holocaust

THE HOLOCAUST never happened. All Jewish people who were put into the concentration camps by Hitler were casualties of war. War, that's all there is to it. People die. The Holocaust never happened.

Terrible coverage

I'M A little late, but I wanted to tell you that I thought your coverage of the gymnastics meet Saturday night was just terrible. There should have something in Sunday morning, even a summary of it. Then Monday's paper didn't give any of the individual scores except for just two or three winners. I think we really got cheated.

Journet's letters

ARE YOU folks so hard up for letters to the editor that you keep printing junk mail from this environmentalist whacko, Alan Journet, or is it that he has friends or family on the staff at your paper? I'm going to go down and chop down a tree and stomp on any rodent or insect I find on my property. Come on by and try to stop me.

I WOULD like to know where we can recycle oil and dangerous chemicals after we use them. You're not supposed to put them in the trash. Is there a place in Cape or Jackson that we can do this?

REPLY: There is no official recycling location for these materials, but Metal Recycling Co., 800 Gibony (335-9457), will take automobile batteries, and Tractor Supply Co., 612 S. Kingshighway (334-5971), will take up to 5 gallons of used motor oil.

I WAS just wanting to ask about the new walkway that starts around the area of Arena Park and as of now ends at the old Lowells on South Kingshighway. I would like to know how many miles that walkway is.

REPLY: The Cape LaCroix Trail will be five miles long from Shawnee Park through Arena Park and Osage Park to a dry retention basin to be built north of town. About a mile of the trail has been completed, but city officials say it isn't open to the public yet.

Ashcroft visit

IN RESPONSE to Sen. Ashcroft visiting the high schools: It appears to me he's trying to brainwash the young people for their future votes. Why doesn't he down to the real facts? He says he wants to curb the budget. What about their future? What about the future of medical health care? He didn't mention that. Why doesn't he come to people that are our age, in their 60s, ask us about our health care, ask us what we think about not having a national health care bill, what we think about our fixed incomes? He could work along with the factory people, but he goes right back to his luxury living when it all over. He wants to cut their wages. He does not want to see a minimum wage bill go in. He's really hypocritical when goes working like he has their interest.