SPEAKOUT

Few southeast projects

I'VE JUST finished reading about the wish list that the city has. If you will notice, there are 30 items that the city manager and the mayor have listed. However, there are only one or two of the items that are south of Independence Street. The only one that I can see is the Bloomfield Road, which definitely needs to be done. However, you also see South West End Boulevard going down to Expressway Highway. Those are the only two items in the southeast quadrant of the city.

Answering machine woes

I WAS just wondering if anyone receives the same message on their answering machine day in and day out. It's a dial tone followed by a recording that says if you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again or call your operator. Do you know what causes this and how it can be prevented or how to prevent people from doing this to other people's machines?

REPLY: There is probably nothing sinister going on. When callers to your number get your answering machine and don't want to leave a message, they often hang up without saying anything. The phone connection isn't always broken, however, and it appears your phone is off the hook. That's why the recording comes on.

Baseball's future

IF THEY can't watch major league baseball, everybody knows a kid. Go watch them play. They would enjoy it a lot more and would probably appreciate it more.

Subsidized meals

REGARDING THE subsidized meals at the senior center. I find it interesting to observe all the luxury cars on the parking lot each day for the meal. I wish I could afford a luxury car or even a new car. But I'm helping pay for their meals.

Overrated lawyers

IN MY opinion, after what I've seen of F. Lee Bailey, Johnny Cochran and Robert Shapiro, the defense attorneys for O.J. Simpson, they are very much overrated. It does not necessarily mean that they are great attorneys simply because they are loud and they are bullies. They have made themselves look like total idiots, and they are hoping that every member on the jury is not very well educated or not too smart. Surely the entire jury has seen through every bit of their actions.

Find a Friend

I READ the article in the paper about how the couple met through Find a Friend. I just wanted to also say thanks to the paper, because I met my husband through a Find a Friend free Valentine ad last year, and now we're married. We got married on Dec. 10, and we're very happy.

Getting ridiculous

FOR CRYING out loud, what's going on in that paper? The other day I read where this idiot calls in blaming liberal Democrats for molesting children. Now Bill Clinton's being blamed for the O.J. Simpson jury. Fair is fair. This is just down to the ridiculous.

Mizzou's basketball

WHAT'S ALL this talk about Missouri's basketball team being so good? They're not good. Good teams know how to win during the tournament. They haven't proven themselves, and they will lose early during the tournament this year as well. Who cares how good their conference record is? The Big Eight is almost as weak as the OVC. They have one good team, Kansas, and what happened when Missouri played them? They lost by 15 at home.

I'D LIKE to follow up on the Speak Out comment about needing a stricter principal at Washington School. I think we need a stricter principal at the high school. When I went to pick my daughter up at the high school I was appalled at what I saw. There was one student who was standing outside the building smoking. There were two couples inside the doorway locked in a very intimate embrace. There was another student walking down the hallway saying the F word loud enough for most of that floor to hear. I'd like to know where is the principal with the hard-nosed reputation? I say go, Sen. Kinder, I'll help you support school choice. I'm looking into a private school for my daughter.

When it is murder

AFTER NOTICING the headline in today's paper that the man convicted of hazing Michael Davis is out walking the streets today, we were reminded that a couple of weeks we noted that the murder rate was down this past year in our city. I don't see it that way. It seems that our murder rate hasn't decreased. It's just that slick lawyers have plea bargained their clients down to manslaughter charges. I don't consider an infant who was kicked across the room and died as a result from that manslaughter. I don't consider a fraternity pledge beaten to death manslaughter. I consider those murders. I don't think the murder rate has decreased in our town. Our values have just changed.

The worst street

WHILE YOU are repairing streets, why don't you work on the worst street in the heart of Cape Girardeau: Missouri Street between Scott and New Madrid. You can't drive on it. You can't walk on it. Try it sometime. The gravel is a mess. It causes cars to detour and have near wrecks every morning. This street is truly a disgrace.

Ashcroft and wages

WHEN I saw John Ashcroft's picture in the Missourian serving coffee at a local restaurant, I hoped he toured all the eating places to tell the young people he and his pals in Washington are voting against a raise in the minimum wage. The Republicans have always voted against it while they live in luxury.

A french fry short

WHEN I first became aware of this Newt Gingrich, I had to ask myself: Is this guy indeed seriously for real? But now I have come to the conclusion that Newt is 100 percent definitely an order of fries short of a Happy Meal.

Like the new hairdo

I LOVE the new hairdo of Lisa Crain, the reporter on KFVS News at 5.

Where's SEMO news?

I THINK it's a shame that KFVS News has virtually stopped giving any news about events in Southeast Missouri. I realize that they are trying to gather advertising business from the Illinois area, which is fine. But at least they can reserve a minute or two for events in Cape Girardeau and surrounding communities in Southeast Missouri. I can no longer rely on television coverage of news in Southeast Missouri. Also, I'd like to say that the new weather radar on KFVS I find not to be very good. I wish they'd go back to the old radar.

THAT FLY-THROUGH weather on KFVS is about the silliest thing I've ever seen. Makes me dizzy. Using cartoons to forecast the weather. Are they serious? I'm familiar with the computer program and windows and I always thought that's what KFVS forecasters use because if they're not looking out a window, they're usually wrong on their forecast.

THIS IS about KFVS weather, brand new fly-through radar. Does anyone like this? I hate it. It doesn't tell you anything. You can's see what's happening in the rest of the country. I would encourage everyone who hates fly-through radar to call KFVS. I've done it and I will continue to do it.

County roads

A RECENT caller stated that northern Cape Girardeau County roads are in bad shape. Those of us who live on County Road 264 in southern Cape Girardeau County will trade with them. Our roads are in a more poorly maintained condition than they were in the 1950s. The road ditches were cleaned at least once a year 40 years ago. They haven't been cleaned for at least 10 years now. We have water standing on the road. The gravel's so thin no ruler small enough to measure. With the current maintenance from the county, our roads aren't going to exist much longer.

Taxes and dancers

A COMMENT on taxes and dancers: A recent caller suggests that Cape Girardeau tax monies will only go to fund major programs in major metropolitan areas like the Chicago Symphony and the New York City Ballet. He suggests that none of this money goes to fund local type musicians, or as he puts it, our country music. I would suggest he educate himself on the National Endowment for the Arts. Large blocs of that money goes back to the local areas. The National Endowment for the Arts provides monies which do benefit Cape Girardeau. They deal with local artists in wood carving and pottery, country music artists, bluegrass. In fact, if the individual had checked he would find that this last weekend a pair of individuals specializing in Irish folk music performed in Cape Girardeau, and part of that money that brought them here came from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Where are fire trucks?

I LIVE near a fire station in Cape Girardeau, and I'm really disturbed that almost never during the daylight hours are the fire trucks at the fire house. I understand that they may need to leave from time to time to train or do something like that or to answer calls, but almost from 8 to 5 they're gone. I don't know where they are in the city. What if my house starts burning, are they going to have to come all the way from across town? We have a lot of money for these outlying fire department buildings, and they never seem to be at their locations. I think somebody ought to investigate this. I think there must be some abuse of the system to not allow these firemen to be in the fire house at least a majority of the time.

Dangerous old house

THERE IS an old house at 605 Silver Springs Road, and it has holes in the roof. It is so dilapidated it should be torn down. I've seen children over there and the windows are falling out. Please do something about this home.

Whooping crane sighted

HAS ANYONE reading Speak Out living in and around the Cape area seen what appears to be the whooping crane? I don't want to say exactly where I've seen it because I don't want some mean-spirited person to try to shoot it but I think it's the most awesome sight I've ever seen.

Dancer has her say

I AM a dancer at Regina's and I live in this area. I have a whole lot of self-respect. I am a businesswoman, and I do my business tastefully and very well. I am attractive woman, and I don't need three inches of makeup or false eye lashes to be attractive. I am a decent person, and you probably have seen me at the grocery store with my children. I am a normal person, and I am someone's mother, daughter, sister and aunt. Don't stereotype all dancers as being trashy or sleazy, because I am not. I work very hard to make a living. You see more nudity in some of the R rated movies than in our club. Why don't you go picket some of the movie theatres? And to all the protesters, unless you coming into our club and seeing what we're all about, be careful of what you say, because a lot of what I've heard is so untrue about dancers and about topless clubs.

The Fourth Amendment

I WAS watching Nightline where they were discussing this latest mess that the Congress has voted for. It was about the Fourth Amendment and the exclusionary rule concerning having a right to come into your home and search. I just wanted to call and express my disgust with this. It was terrible. The Fourth Amendment protects us from people being able, even so-called police, coming into your home with a warrant. I was very upset about it. I have written to Bill Emerson just now, and I'm going to pursue this. If we don't watch it all of our constitutional rights are going to be removed.

On political correctness

LET ME direct your attention to your own opinion page of Feb. 16. All four articles including your editorial reflect my thinking nicely and obviously in more appropriate words than I can produce, not being a teacher or editor myself. Peter Kinder's series of articles on OBE are straightforward, enjoyable and quite agreeable to me. Keep up the good work, Mr. Kinder. But I want to direct your attention to the other two opinion columns, one by Walter Williams about listening to fools and especially the one of Mona Charen's about all this P.C. crud at Rutgers and pay especially close attention to the last six paragraph of Ms. Charen's opinion. I dare say that in my 46 years I've lived with, befriended and worked with or for more ethnic varieties plus women than most folks in academic ivory towers can ever dream of.