OpinionOctober 27, 1995
SPEAKOUT
LAST WEEKEND I read your editorial on challenges that the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport faces in growth and service. Your comments were very constructive of the airport, especially your comments on the need to market the airport. However, one correction is needed to your comment about the billboard just past Perryville on northbound 55 reminding motorists that they would have arrived at the St. ...
Missing billboard
LAST WEEKEND I read your editorial on challenges that the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport faces in growth and service. Your comments were very constructive of the airport, especially your comments on the need to market the airport. However, one correction is needed to your comment about the billboard just past Perryville on northbound 55 reminding motorists that they would have arrived at the St. Louis airport by that time if flying TWE. On a trip to St. Louis to this weekend, I noticed the billboard is no longer there. What gives? Is this some of new marketing approach to eliminate all existing marketing efforts? I hope not.
Support for Kinder
I'D LIKE to respond to the person who made the rather unkind remarks about Sen. Kinder in last Friday's paper. I was one of the early parents who came to Sen. Kinder with the concerns about what I was seeing in our schools of the implementation of Outcome Based Education. Sen. Kinder was interested, he listened, he was quick to catch on to what was going on, and Sen. Kinder has spent countless hours speaking to groups, not only his district but in other districts. He has spent hours away from his family, hours on the road because he cares about the kids in our state. So I think Sen. Kinder should be applauded by the people of this state for what he's doing to try to save the educational system in this state.
Social Security facts
FOR THOSE people who call in and complain about Social Security being a entitlement program like welfare and contributing to the national deficit, it might interest them to know that Social Security does not contribute at all to the federal government deficit. There's not one penny of the federal deficit today caused by expenditures to Social Security, because Social Security this year alone will take in $60 billion more than it pays out. As a matter of fact, the Clinton administration and the government agencies are taking that $60 billion and using it to make their budget look smaller. Of course, they're giving IOUs from the Treasury Department to the Social Security Trust Fund to say that they will pay it back one day, but since they owe the trust fund $400 billion now I don't know how they will ever do it. Once again, Social Security does not contribute to the federal deficit. It is not an entitlement program. It's earned. It will take $60 billion more this year than it pays out.
Racial remark
TO THE caller who made that racial remark about black men should be home taking care of their family: Well, some black men are workers and have very good high-paying jobs, and that's an insult because some black men take care of their families and aren't on welfare and don't receive food stamps. If you don't know what you're talking about, I wouldn't say things like that. That's a very racial remark.
Not just blacks
THIS IS in response to the caller who said that if Louis Farrahkan thinks he so smart, why doesn't he get the blacks to get a job, stop doing drugs and all this other stuff. Doing drugs and all that other stuff is not limited to the black community. And as far as getting a job is concerned, there are so many other factors to deal with.
Thinking of Santa
MY COMMENT is about this Medicare controversy. I'm wondering if second childhood means that older people believe in Santa Claus again. Cuts in most government programs are only cuts in projected spending. Most older people want to keep their money and property so they can leave it to their children. This is not need. This is greed. There are very few people for whom the reduced increase will cause real hardship. However, they could and should use better money management. People don't have to have junk food or already prepared food. They can do a little work and get their food ready to eat or even cook it from scratch. Where do they think the money they want given to them come from? There's only one source: present and future taxpayers.
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Get to work
THIS IS about Medicaid and Medicare. I have no regrets for anybody getting Medicare or Medicaid who honestly deserves it. I know some people who get Medicare and Medicaid, and they're in their back yard drinking beer. And I know if I'm able to work, they are surely able to work, because they're a lot younger than I am.
Different sentences
I CAN'T believe our legal system. A man literally beats a 4-month-old baby to death and gets two years in prison. Another man robs a store and no one gets hurt and he gets 10 years. What does that tell you about our legal system? It's OK to kill a defenseless baby but don't rob a store.
AARP background
IN REGARDS to the caller who said he wasn't a fat cat and AARP does not speak for him: I want to give him accolades due to the fact that in 1993, Clinton had an increase in Social Security, and AARP supported him all the way. AARP also supported President Clinton in 1993 when he had a $54 billion increase in Medicare, and you didn't hear old Gephardt hollering then. Also in 1993, AARP received $86 million in tax money as a subsidy, plus it made $385 million on its own.
Verdict outcry
I WOULD like to comment about the Johnny Nation's sentence. A lot of people are getting on O.J. Simpson's case because he supposedly got away with murder, but look at this. This man killed a 4-month-old baby, and he's going to stay a total of 120 days in jail besides the year he spent already. That is wrong. I would like to see a lot of public outcry and public outrage about that.
Bright lights, dark streets
THIS IS in response to the person who commented on people using their bright lights. Instead of complaining about people who use bright lights on their cars, perhaps you could complain to the city of Cape Girardeau, which has some the darkest streets anywhere. The lack of street lighting is an epidemic, and the city leaders seem nonchalant about it. Something must be done.
Emerson's stands
I VOTED for Bill Emerson the first time he went in. I have voted for him since then, but I'll never vote for him again. He stood up and fought for the big rice farmers and the cotton farmers, but he didn't fight for the senior citizens on the Social Security earnings limit. He quietly let it slip away. All you senior citizens take note of this. Bill Emerson didn't stand by us and fight. Goodbye, Bill.
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