SPEAKOUT

Astronaut on the mural

DON'T FORGET Linda Godwin from Oak Ridge. She should be on the wall.

DWI repeaters

I WAS reading Sunday's paper about the parents whose children had been killed by drunk drivers. I recognized one parent whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver who served a very short time in the penitentiary. He has gotten another DWI in the last few weeks. Evidently he didn't learn too much in the penitentiary. I was wondering if there isn't any type of severe penalty for these second offenders in matters like this.

Things to consider

IT'S TRUE Rush Limbaugh is famous. But stop a minute and think about what he is famous for. Such vicious comments. Being a female, I especially dislike the way he carries on about women. I really wish the mural committee would stop and think that a lot of his things that he has made statements about have been proved to be in error. But it's his vicious tongue that I oppose.

Baseball player for mural

HAS CAPE Girardeau forgotten about a man that has us very proud? Elam Vangilder. He was a major-league baseball player for the St. Louis Browns. Why don't we put him on the wall?

Buses at the airport?

I THINK that Greyhound would best serve the public of Cape Girardeau if Greyhound would use the airport terminal. We have that beautiful multimillion-dollar facility that goes to waste because there aren't very many flights. If Greyhound could stop outside that facility, it would be great. There is taxi service into Cape Girardeau. South Bend, Ind., does that. Greyhound uses the Michiana Airport in South Bend, and it works great. Our airport manager ought to go to see how that whole thing plays out for South Bend.

Put Rush on the wall

I'M GLAD that Rush is going to be on the mural. I liked him the first time I heard five years ago. He tells it like it is.

ATF is the KGB here

THE SOUTHEAST Missourian almost always calls for smaller government as showing major hypocrisy when in the July 11 editorial titled "Growing workload at federal courthouse." The paper supports over $3 million to be spent on a new federal courthouse. Why? Because of government workload. Here's my suggestion. Get the government thugs called the ATF out of there. The ATF is the KGB of America.

Guns at the P.O.

ONLY THE Postal Service could think of this one. I heard on the news that the Postal Service wants to make bringing a gun to work a firing offense. I assume this is due to the rash of crimes where a disgruntled postal worker comes in and shoots his supervisor. Now let me ask you this: Don't you think someone knows he's going to be fired if he shoots his supervisor? I believe they're putting the cart before the horse, and I don't think this is going to work. This is the same kind of mentality that makes the cop-killer bullets illegal, not knowing that someone who is going to shoot a police officer doesn't really care that he's buying illegal bullets.

More Cubs coverage

I'VE BEEN a resident for the last eight years. Been a Chicago Cub fan for the past 28 years. I would like to see some reports on the Chicago Cubs other that line scores in the Southeast Missourian. I'm sure there's a lot of fans in Cape Girardeau that are Cub fans also.

REPLY: The Southeast Missourian's new sports editor, Bob Todd, welcomes this kind of information from readers.

Free things to do

I AGREE with the lady who said she was disappointed with the article regarding the activities for children in the summer being too expensive. I think there needs to be an article written about families of modest income and what they do in the summer. I'm a grandmother living on a fixed income, and I have grandchildren visiting all summer. I would like to see something written along those lines of what to do when you don't have a lot of money for your children's activities and fun.

Sales-tax bonus

THE CITY of Jackson and surrounding cities hope Cape Girardeau will pass a transportation sales tax. This will ensure of sales on larger items which they make a nice little profit off of.

REPLY: Using that logic, Cape Girardean have been profiting from Jackson and Sikeston, which currently have higher sales-tax rates that Cape Girardeau. (Scott City has the same sales-tax rate as Cape Girardeau.) If the proposed Cape Girardeau tax passes, the rate here will be higher than those towns, but Sikeston voters also will consider a half-cent sales tax increase.

License bureau location

COULD SOMEONE tell me why the license bureau is way downtown instead of in the middle of the city? It's practically over in Illinois. It's inconvenient and no parking space, and it's a bad location. Why can't we have it more in the center?

REPLY: The license bureau recently moved from one downtown location to another. It is operated by the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation as a fund-raiser for the school. The cost of office space as well as location is an important consideration.