SPEAKOUT

No fan of smoking ban

IN RESPONSE to all the holier-than-thou non-smokers patting them selves on the back about the mall smoking ban here's my reply. Choke on your arrogance and suck up the car exhaust fumes as you enter and leave the mall. For you smokers who are being discriminated against and laughed at, don't get mad, get even and spend your money elsewhere. And laugh back as you watch one store after another close down. You mall business owners, take heed and consider relocating soon. If you choose to snub off at least one-third of your smoking patrons who will shop elsewhere, then consider filing bankruptcy. You can stuff your smoke-free mall, and I'll spend my money where my it's welcomed.

The other side

MAYBE NOT everyone thinks that the mall should ban smoking, but most of us do.

Clinton supporter no more

I VOTED for Bill Clinton last time, but I won't vote for him again. After Mexico took so many of our jobs, he turned around and loaned Mexico $20 billion. Good golly, what could we do with $20 billion here with so many old people hurting and so many young kids going hungry?

Thanks for Night Court on 12

I'D LIKE to thank KFVS for bringing Night Court back on at 6:30. It was my favorite show. I grew up with Dan, Harry, Bull, Roz, Mac and Christine.

Oil leak reported before Jan. 25

THIS IS in regard to the article on the front page of Wednesday's paper about an oil leak in Jackson. It says that the residents noticed it. It was undetected until Jan. 25. I am a resident of Jackson. I live near the creek, and I know personally that my husband called in to the EPA on Jan. 16, a week and a half before this date, and told them that there was some kind of black substance or something discoloring the water there in Goose Creek. Why the EPA didn't follow up any further I don't know, but it was detected Jan. 16, by a resident, my husband, not Jan. 25.

Likes O.J. coverage

I'D LIKE to say that I'm disabled, and all I have to do is sit here and watch TV during the day. I can't walk hardly or anything, and I've got arthritis real bad in my back, and I'd like to say I like watching the O.J. Simpson trial. I'd rather watch that any day than watch these soap operas. After all, the trial is educational. What are soap operas? They're nothing but sex, and they tell us how people live their lives, and they act like they're such Christians and all that. I think the O.J. Simpson trial, yes, I'd like to see that more.

Stop the monopolies

I LIVE in Cape Girardeau. I'm going to send a letter off to the Supreme Court next week when I get it finished. I've got a lawyer here in town writing a letter for me. I'm not going to tell who the lawyer is or anything, but the letter is being written. The letter is stating how some people can own a monopoly in this town, or own a monopoly in this state, and get by with it. I was told that you couldn't own a monopoly. Nip Kelley has a monopoly in Cape Girardeau. Cape Girardeau only gets people whoever they want and they hold a monopoly in this town. We've got no other cab company but Nip Kelley. We've got no other cable company but one, poor programming too. Then we have one newspaper and they buy up every little newspaper that comes along. That's a monopoly, and that's the Southeast Missourian/Bulletin Journal. This will probably never get in your paper but I'm letting you know the letter is being sent.

How about a third hospital?

I WOULD like to see the city of Cape Girardeau get another hospital into this city. After all, we've just got two hospitals, and it seems like to me as fast and as big as Cape Girardeau's growing we could use another hospital. I've been sick for quite a many years, and for me to go to a research hospital for my diseases, I have been going to Memphis. Some people are going to Columbia, and some people have to go out of town to St. Louis. Some are going to Ohio. I talked to a guy the other day who had to go to Columbia. I was wondering why we couldn't get another hospital here in Cape Girardeau that the patients wouldn't have to drive so far out of town to go see a good doctor and see how their diseases are progressing and see if they couldn't get better help than what they're getting here? It seems all they want to do is charge you for this and charge you for that, and they don't know nothing.

Speakout no place to find ghost

THIS IS to the person in response to looking for the ghost writer. If you're looking for a ghost writer, you have to have a seance. I'm pretty sure of that.

What happened to Clinton agenda?

I NOTICE that Bill Clinton has not sweated buckets to give an increase in minimum wage, fund job training or pass campaign finance reform. Instead, he vigorously pushed justifiably unpopular loan guarantees that saved the butts of corrupt Mexican corporations and American bankers. If this is what Cape Girardeans refer to as a liberal president, I'd hate to see what a conservative Republican would do in the White House. He'd probably have us all pulling ricksaws and living in tar paper shanties.

Get rid of blaring speakers on Main

DOWNTOWN MERCHANTS in the paper, it says, are worried about business. Some say they're not worried about business. If they take the speakers out between Themis Street and Broadway on Main so people can walk down without having to listen to the lousiest music you ever heard on one side and other music on the other side of the street, then people would shop downtown. But when you go downtown, and you step out of your car, and you're blasted with some crazy music, you get back in your car, and go to the mall, where it's nice and quiet. If you want some business, get rid of the speakers, put them back in your buildings where they belong. We don't need entertainment on the street.

I'D LIKE to say that the blond-headed lady that does the ultrasounds at Cape Radiology Group and Doctors Park is the nicest person I have ever met that does public medical procedures. She wasn't just nice, she was friendly and smiled and was helpful to everyone she was doing ultrasounds on. I want to say, thank you ma'am, you were really nice.

Forecasting the Greenspan recession

WELL, WELL, Alan Greenspan is raising the interest rates again. I think the man has a two-fold purpose. One is to harm Clinton by a recession. The other is to aid the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Surely there is some way to get rid of that man, because the up and coming recession can be called the Greenspan recession.

Where's the tour for Lou?

I THINK Cape Girardeau should have a tour for Lou Hobbs.

Trying to punish success

WHEN MY wife and I started our business we risked everything we own in order to raise the necessary capital. We worked 12-16 hours a day and paid ourselves less than what we were paying our employees. It took several years of hard work and sacrifice in order to be successful. You can imagine how we felt when we read that Dick Gephardt wants the government to force business to share their profits with their employees. We have excellent, well-paid employees, but they didn't put their home on the line, they didn't work 60 to 80 hours a week with no guarantee that they'd make anything. My wife and I have earned every dime we've got, and now Gephardt wants to punish us for being successful.

Carnahan shouldn't have pardoned child

I WONDER if this is what we voted-in Gov. Carnahan to do. Does he have no other business to do besides getting into family business and pardoning a 10-year-old boy who had been disciplined by his parents, and not unduly? There was no physical abuse involved, but he took it on himself to reprimand the parents for what they were doing best. Is this all he has to do with his day? And if so, do we need a governor? Maybe our Congressmen and Representatives could take care of our business without someone of his calling sitting in the capital building. We could save several dollars in taxpayer money. Maybe we should impeach him.

In search of a more receptive school board

AFTER READING the paper Feb. 1, it is clear that there are people willing to sit on our school board other than Mr. Thompson. People that are registered voters in our schools should get out and vote for someone other than Mr. Thompson and maybe then our schools will begin to be changed. There are a few other people that we need to get rid of, and we can eventually get a school board that is willing to work with the people, and the people that have children in these schools, and then maybe our schools will begin to be changed. We cannot and will not be able to change our schools until we change the school board. This should be a clear and perfect message going out to our superintendent of schools, along with our school board members, that there has to be a change, and it should begin with the board, and hopefully the superintendent of the school will soon follow.

Set those trash cans upright, please

I WAS just wondering if the Cape Girardeau sanitation collection department has a policy where their collectors cannot stand the trash cans back up after removing the trash. I've been all over town today and noticed that every trash truck throw the cans down instead of standing them back up, and they don't realize that the wind will blow these round cans in the street when on the ground.