SPEAKOUT

For reproductive rights

I AM CALLING to express my outrage at any threat to the erosion of women's reproductive rights. It is nobody's business what any woman does in this private matter. Abortion doesn't stop when tougher laws are passed. It means poor women die again from botched illegal abortions the way they used to before abortion was legal. People who worry so much over a fetus and not a fully grown female have their priorities truly befuddled. Also the idea of putting poor children in orphanages as though their mothers cannot be trusted to support them is another outrage.

Jury locked up

IT'S A SAD day when a jury is sequestered, and the jury ends up doing more time than the a cold-blooded murderer.

Whose license is it?

TO THE LADY who is wanting to take down license plate numbers at the nudie bar: She needs to watch out. She might find her husband, or her son, or maybe even her daughter in there. She needs to watch what she's thinking.

Awful slow mail

TALK ABOUT the mail: I got a letter Jan. 9 that was mailed from Kansas City Dec. 16 from some people that were going to Memphis over the Christmas holidays, and they wanted to know if it would be alright for them to stop by my house and spend the night, and they wanted me to let them know, and I just got the letter today. So where in the world has it been from Dec. 16 to Jan. 9? I never heard from these people, so I guess they went on without stopping at my house. That is awful slow mail.

Stripping: No problem

THIS A LIFETIME subscriber to the Southeast Missourian, and I would like to make a comment on the new strip bar in Cape. I see no problem with that as long as it is a clean, well-run establishment. I do not see any difference in a woman stripping in a bar within reason other than it offends some good Christian moral people, but at the same time the women will watch men strip down to a G-string. I see no difference in the two, but you do not see anyone picketing where the male strippers are. There is a stripping contest going on this week, and I do not understand the big controversy over this. I am a lifelong resident of the Jackson area, and I it aggravates me to think that someone would be judge and jury on a female stripping bar and not a male stripping bar. Let's get real, Cape Girardeau. Face the facts. This is the 20th century. We are not living in the 1950s.

Not Division I basketball

ANOTHER SEMO basketball game, another loss. The problem is not so much the players, but the problem is the head coach, Ron Shumate, and the athletic department itself. Shumate went on and on -- on the radio after the game -- about his players being stupid and that he couldn't play the game for them. It's time to wake up and realize that this whole thing is a farce. This is not legitimate Division I basketball. The OVC is a glorified Division II conference that has one team that makes the tournament and is out in the first game. It's time to wake up and go back to Division II where we were competitive. Is this athletic program about competition for student athletics, or is it about simply making money for the university? It's time for a change. It's time for a new head basketball coach.

It's past bedtime

WHAT A SHAME: America's new favorite, hapless, put-upon victims/folk heroes, Newt Gingrich's parents, showed up on Tom Snyder's new show, and all the people who went to bed after Rush Limbaugh totally missed it. Bummer.

Paying Anita Hill

I WISH to comment on the $10,000 Southeast Missouri State University is paying Anita Hill to appear on campus. I am a taxpayer. I'm also paying for the education of students at Southeast Missouri State University. This $10,000 fee is wrong, this is not appropriate use of our tax funds or our children's fees for education at Southeast Missouri State University. This fee should be picked up by funds not generated either from taxes or from fees. It would appear to me the consumer and the taxpayer are again being ripped off by poor use of funds by Southeast Missouri State University.

PERHAPS university officials can explain how it can afford the luxury of $10,00 for Anita Hill, a woman of questionable veracity and verified weak teaching performance, but cannot honor the full merit pay it owes the faculty for 1994-1995. Ask them to comment on that.

I'M VERY interested in who pays the bill for Anita Hill. I figure people have a right to hear what she says. But at the same time, I was wondering how much is being paid to Justice Clarence Thomas when he comes to speak, and does he receive the same amount of fee for his appearance and will it be paid for by the same groups that are paying for Ms. Hill? I would be interested in seeing him speak but I certainly wouldn't even listen to her for a second.

REPLY:

The visit by Justice Thomas to Cape Girardeau in February has been cancelled. He is expected to be rescheduled sometime in the fall. Thomas is prohibited by U.S. Supreme Court rules from accepting payment for speaking engagements. The College Republicans at Southeast Missouri State University, the organization that invited Thomas to Cape Girardeau, will pay the justice's travel expenses.