SPEAKOUT

How about a race track?

I WAS wondering when Cape Girardeau is going to get a horse race track or dog race track. I've heard we've got one coming. I think it's a very good thing, because we need to get all kinds of gambling and gaming devices here in the city.

Smoking at mall eateries

I HOPE the West Park Mall will be truly smoke free Feb. 1 as the signs in the hallways state. If the many eating establishments there still permit smoking, that smoke is also in the hallways and the mall will not be smoke free.

Prepare for earthquake

I THINK in light with the recent earthquake in Japan that we need to be more earthquake prepared. I think every facility, every school, every church needs to come up with an earthquake plan and survival kit. Baby formulas, diapers, food, clothing, blankets, tools -- all these things will be needed when our earthquake hits. We may be the next one. I think everyone needs to get prepared.

Please send addresses

On JAN. 14 at Southeast Missouri Hospital my wallet was stolen with my checks, credit cards and cash, driver's license and my daughter's pictures. To the man or woman who thought they needed my personal belongings more than I did, I'm sorry that you are such a hard life, but I want to you know that the Lord provided for me before you took from me, and he will continue to do so. But if you have an compassion at all, you already have my address, please mail me the business cards. These are people I met on business trips, and I would like to continue my friendship with them and I have no other way to contact them for the addresses are on the business cards.

Poor postal service

I'D JUST like to say that I've had four pieces of mail, all bills, lost by the Postal Service last month. I've got $500 floating around out there. I don't know where it's at. I've had to cancel the checks which cost me $15 a piece to do that, and I'd like the Postal Service to address this issue. Why the service has gotten so poor lately.

A two-way street

IT IS a two way street. If the holier-than-thou people are going to attempt to censor my thoughts and activities, then I am going to spend all my efforts to see tax exemption, especially for real estate, removed from church organizations and properties. Why should any church or its properties or organizations be exempt from taxes?

O.J. writes back

WITH TONGUE in cheek, I sent a check in the amount of $1 to O.J. Simpson hoping that he would endorse it and consequently I would have his signature, as so many others did, I'm quite sure. I received a letter from O.J. Simpson in October of last year. I'm curious what others have received from their so called contributions towards his legal defense fund. The last paragraph of the letter that he sent me reads "Since you've been kind enough to share with me, let me share with you something that I have always tried to live by. `Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident and money takes dreams. the only thing that endures is character.' Thanks for believing in me." And it was signed O.J. Simpson. Has anybody else has received a response from him?

Dexterous nurses

THIS IS to the caller who thought it was a bit queer that a nurse was taking a pulse at the same time she had a stethoscope on a patient's stomach. There are nurses who know how to do two things at the same time.

Backhanded compliment

TO THE caller in Friday's Speak Out who referred to Jay Eastlick as a zealot: I consider this a compliment for Jay coming from a liberal, which this person must be. I suggest that the person before he criticizes Eastlick because he said somebody wrote a book that he liked, maybe the caller should read the two books by David Brock on Anita Hill which cover specifically the details of the hearing where she condemned Thomas for something he didn't do. If this person would read Brock's books, he might agree with Eastlick. At least Eastlick has read them. This person hasn't, so he doesn't know where Eastlick is coming from.

Time to cut back

THE EDITORIAL in the Jan. 20 Missourian is absolutely correct and terrific. If we could just get enough people to understand that Missouri must cut back on its expenditures even when it makes more money. I wish the Missourian would start to publish all over the state so other people can see the intelligence of this.

Liberal logic

I JUST love liberal logic. It's usually good for a couple of laughs a day. The caller Jan. 20 complaining about Jay Eastlick's article on Anita Hill was really funny. The person tells us that they quite believe Larry King's assessment of Rush Limbaugh as being a zealot. Larry King is the icon of intelligence to this individual. Then they go on to tell us that we don't know anything about Anita Hill. Perhaps we just read one book about Anita Hill. This is pure and simple liberal 101 debating. It is psycho-babble and nothing more. Jay Eastlick is evidently very intelligent and well read as are most conservatives. Keep it up, liberal. Political junkie here.

Stethoscope near heart

THIS IS in regard to the article on the practical nursing students. There was a comment in the Jan. 20 Speak Out saying that the student is taking a pulse over this patient's stomach. I believe it was in the sternal area, approximately above the apex of the heart, is where her stethoscope was placed. I would like to be corrected because it is a bad reflection on our school. I'm one of the instructors at the vocational school.

A great public service

I READ Speak Out on a regular basis. Other than the editorial page, I can think of no other portion of the Southeast Missourian I find as enjoyable as your Speak Out feature. You're performing a great public service, particularly for the Cape Girardeau Public Schools. Since I began reading Speak Out, I've voted for every single school bond issue, assuming most Speak Out callers are products of the public school system. If voters would consider those callers' collective literacy level, responsible citizens would certainly be willing to support at least one bond issue per week.

When Cape was open

I ATTENDED college at SEMO in the 1950s and Cape was one heck a lot more wide open in the 1950s than it is now or will probably will become because of a couple of slot machines and one nude bar. The so-called poor, exploited women will be laughing all the way to the bank. I really don't have the appropriate figure, but if I did and I had the choice between working in a nude bar or the slave wages paid most women in Southeast Missouri, I'd work in a nude bar.

Don't be greedy

I DON'T work. Chrysler and General Motors are having a very good year, and their profits are good. Now I'm afraid the strikes will begin. Remember after World War II when the factories were bombed out in Europe and in Japan? We never had it so good. They could ask for a great big raise and the companies could give it to them because they didn't have too much competition. In the 1970s, Chrysler was broke. This is what greed will do. So let's be fair to the consumer and not be greedy this year. I'm ready to pay my fair amount for a car but not excessively.

What's indecent exposure?

WE READ every once awhile about somebody being arrested for indecent exposure. I would like to have a definition of indecent exposure. I'd think that nude bars, nude women dancing, would be indecent exposure. And here we are condoning it. I think we have the wrong man in for mayor.

The minimum wage

IT'S THE same old story on raising the minimum wage. The Republicans are hollering that people could be laid off if that happens. Ronald Reagan told the people that in the last raise, but it finally came about, and no one was laid off. Fast-food chains are doing great business. I hope you people working for minimum wage out there watch how this goes.

Only in America

I JUST want to say how happy I am to be in America. We've been so blessed with food, homes and good cars, or most of us have. But it really hurts to see our people who have worked so hard and try to live a good life and pay taxes. And then disaster hits and the government they're helping up, as the poor man through FEMA. It was his to begin with and now they want it back. We give billions to other countries and they never give back while our people can't help themselves. What can we do about it? I'm glad to help Japan but what do you bet our government will not ask them to give it back and we've worked hard to help ourselves. Such a sad situation when we can and they give it to someone else with no strings attached.

Oops! Department

WITH REGARD to R. Joe Sullivan's column in Friday's paper, it's obvious someone needs to buy him a map or give him geography lessons. Festus is not anywhere near Jefferson City or I-70. He must have been speaking of Kingdom City.

REPLY: Actually, the editor was thinking of Fulton. Maybe it was a subconscious wish for a more direct route to the state capital that made him write "Festus" instead of "Fulton." A correction was published the next day, but maps are always welcome.