SPEAKOUT

Adulterous lives

TO THE caller complaining about Rush Limbaugh's and Bill Clinton's adulterous lives. Rush was single. Is Clinton?

Local insurance too

WITH THIS being "Buy Local" week in Scott City, is it true that the city council has just purchased city insurance from an agency in Sikeston? If this is true, our community leaders, councilmen and women need to take a hard look at themselves.

Police harassment

AT 1 O'CLOCK this morning I went to Cape to pick up my husband who was getting off the boat. He's a captain on a boat. It was rainy and bad weather and we were talking on the way home about 1:30 and I kind of made a bobble in the road and this Cape County cop pulled out behind. He followed me all the way home just as close as he could. He made every turn I did all the way through Jackson. And when I started to turn in my driveway, he put his lights on, wanting me to stop. Then he turned in my driveway. I asked him what he was doing following me, and he said he thought I was drinking. I'd be the last one he could catch drinking and driving. To me it was harassment against an elderly person. He checked my driver's license. I asked him why he didn't stop me on the road. He said the more he followed me the better case he got on me. I don't drink, and I don't appreciate harassment, and this is what a lot of the cops are doing.

Let strippers be

I'M CALLING on the strip tease regulations. I would just like to say that I think Cape Girardeau should really let this be. It hasn't really been a problem in this area yet, but here lately I've heard a lot of ruckus about all this, and I'm looking at all these regulations. It's just ridiculous. It's the Bible belt. I personally wouldn't go to one of these strip bars, and I think it's totally getting out of hand.

Cable maintenance time

I'M CALLING in regards to the comments about the cable going on and off. All you need to do is call the local TCI office, and they would inform you that they are doing maintenance repair. Also this time of year there are sun spots. They also informed me that the maintenance repair is required twice a year by the FCC. It's kind of like changing the oil in your car. Do you leave your car running when you change your oil? No, of course not. You have to turn it off to repair the problem. Do you ever know when you're phone is out? No, it just doesn't ring. Give them a break.

Liberal hollering

I WOULD like to make a comment about how Newt Gingrich was interrupted and had to cancel a speech because you had these liberal Democrats up there hollering and chanting "No more cuts" and stuff. What I would like to know is who are these people? Why aren't they at work? Oh, are these the ones drawing the welfare checks? I say let's cut all of it.

Leaving the GOP

IF YOU rightly remember, the Republican Party that I belong to, whenever Mr. Reagan was in, took the freeze off the imports coming into the country that Carter put on there. They went to shipping money overseas helping other people out under the Republican Party. Even Bush did the same thing. Then when the Democrats came, they're supposed to get the recession under control. Every time Clinton tries to get it under control, Dole says he's not doing a very good job, he backs and bumbles it up and everything else. They say they don't owe the American people anything. I think they do. All the money that we've given to foreign countries. We have to pay those debts off. We had to pay the debt off on Bush and Bush's son on the bank fraud, but that was alright. It seems like when the Democrats do something wrong, it's wrong forever. But when the Republican Party, my party, does something wrong, it's not done wrong, they're OK, they're God's little children. Well, I'm sorry, but I have to leave the Republican Party. Whoever runs on the third party the next time, that's the way I'll go. I'm sorry that the Republicans feel like they're the best party and everybody else is the underdog. To me the Republican Party is the communist party.

I'M FROM the South. Consequently, I've never heard of the expression or phrase "Ollie, oxen, come in free" when the kids are playing hide-and-seek or when you're playing come out, come out wherever you are. I would like for someone to tell me where that phrase or that expression came from. I have no idea. Nobody else down South does either.

REPLY: This is an interesting question. Does anyone have a clue?

Eye for an eye

I DON'T know whether to laugh or whether to be outraged. Cape County Sheriff John Jordan has expressed his opposition to the concealed weapons bill before the Missouri General Assembly. He said it's like going back to the old wild West, an eye for an eye. Well, Sheriff Jordan, I'd like to invite you to our Sunday school class next Sunday. We'll show you where that term, an eye for an eye, came from. It's not from the old West. It goes back a lot farther back than that. It comes from the best seller of all time. It goes back to the Bible. God's word is not outdated. An eye for an eye is from the Bible, and that is not outdated, Sheriff.

Dream-team nightmare

IN MY eyes, the dream team has ruined it for all defense attorneys. F. Lee Bailey is a fast-talking smart-aleck, a loud-mouthed money grabber. Johnny Cochran is the same. Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde, Jack the Ripper and Al Capone had the respect and admiration of other criminals. Not one of the dream team has my respect nor that of any member of my huge family scattered from Alabama to California and north to St. Louis.

Three strikes

IF A person has committed three crimes, I don't care if they're violent or non-violent, a criminal is a criminal. I think three strikes and you're out is a good idea because those who have committed three crimes, even though they are non-violent, are headed towards perpetual criminals. They're headed for violent crimes because they're gotten into the habit. Three crimes is too dadgum many. One is to many but one can be saved. But not have three times. You'd better do something strong to these people.

Remember the snow?

JUST A reminder that a year ago, March 9, 1994, we had about 12 inches of snow on the ground.

States waste money

THE REPUBLICANS are wanting to turn over the welfare program money and police protection money to the states. That would be a disaster. Look what the states have done with the lottery money that was supposed to help the schools. They added it to the general fund, and the schools weren't benefited. That's the same thing they would do with the money that was supposed to help the police and supposed to help the welfare program. It would go into the fund, and they would waste it all.

City of restaurants

I'D LIKE to make a suggestion to the city council and to the fathers of Cape Girardeau to please change the name of the city, since there are so many restaurants opening up. We should strongly change the name from "City of Roses" to "City of Restaurants."

Roads, not a jail

I'M FROM Scott County and I would like to tell the people in Scott County to vote against the tax for a new jail and more deputies. We need better roads more than we need a jail. I'm sick of living on a gravel road that's muddy in the winter and dusty in the summer. When they haul a load of chat, the road grader comes along the next day and scrapes it away. The sheriff should do like they do in Arizona: make the prisoners sleep in tents and use outdoor facilities and eat bologna sandwiches and no TV. That's why we have so many prisoners. They are being coddled so they don't mind breaking the law. What we really need is a better judicial system. Vote no for a new jail. We have enough taxes. And if this sheriff doesn't like it, get a new sheriff.