SPEAKOUT

IN THE SOUTHEAST Missourian on Sept. 26, there is an editorial written by the Southeast Missourian concerning the city being on the right track of low-cost housing. One of the sentences in here states: "Just this summer the city got another block grant. This one was for $800,000 that will be used to upgrade up to 60 homes in the neighborhood of College and Jefferson streets." I wish someone would please tell me why in the world they would be spending money upgrading those homes around College and Jefferson streets when those are the houses that will be torn down when the new Highway 74 goes through? Thank you.

The city has said none of the houses that must be demolished for the new highway will be included in the program.

THREE CHEERS FOR the city of Cape Girardeau's curbside recycling program. The city of Cape Girardeau's ready for the 20th century. How about the 21st century? How about you?

THE FAMILY OF Leo Robertson wishes to express our thanks to the person who called Speak Out and also wrote a letter to Grace Methodist Church about him. We appreciate your thoughtfulness so much. If Leo were still living, I know it would make him very happy. May your life be filled with many blessings.

I WANT MY MTV.

I WOULD LIKE to say that I really appreciate the clean air in the library now that there is no smoking anywhere, even in the staff lounges. Thank you.

RECEIVING TWO CALLS from a salesman from the same company in the same day is a bit too much. Surely they have some way to keep this from happening. I don't like these commercial calls anyway, and to get two in one day from the same place is absolutely unnecessary. Thank you.

I'D LIKE to thank whoever is responsible for the great walking trail at the Scott City Park. I'm on doctor's order to walk and the trail is perfect for me. It was designed so well. But with winter coming on and it getting darker quicker, there is a need for at least one light down in the bottom for safety's sake since most of the walkers are women and a lot of us have to do our walking after dark. Thank you.

BUSH SAID, "READ my lips, no new taxes." Congress, to embarrass Bush, would not agree to the budget without some tax increase. Bush agreed after Congress promised to keep the budget and not overspend. Although Congress promises not to, it wants to spend $6.4 billions over the budget for unemployment by borrowing. Bush would agree to the extended unemployment benefits if they found the money without borrowing. They could find part of the money by doing away with their wage increases and limiting some unnecessary programs. This Congress will never balance the budget without a balanced-budget amendment. Poor people need these amendments. The poverty level is already above $1,300 a month. Taxes add to this problem. Retired people who work hard become poor because increased spending increases their cost of living. Check your groceries, rent and so forth, and you will notice this to be true. Thank you.

I'M A SENIOR AT Central High School and I'm commenting on the Speak Out article that said the class of 1992 didn't have school spirit. So what? Who cares? School spirit means nothing, so why don't you people shut up and get off our backs. Thank you.

THIS IS IN response to the person who called about a week ago wondering why so many people are spitting on the streets. It's mostly men and boys because they are chewing or using smokeless tobacco. They spit the extra juice out anywhere. Not only is using tobacco unhealthy for the person who chews, but it spreads germs to everyone else and it is grossly ill-mannered to always be spitting.

I'M CALLING ABOUT the MTV deal. To all the people who are against it, look at the movies parents are letting their kids watch. MTV's a whole lot better than some of those movies the parents are letting the kids watch. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to speak out on all these teachers going on strike. How would they feel if they went to the butcher market and found out all the butchers were on strike because they want to make more money, or the gas stations. By golly, if the teachers can go on strike, so can everyone else. And another thing: If the teachers want to go on strike, and they want a 5 percent pay raise, fine, give it to them; but cut off or fire a couple of them. Lay a few of them off so that the other ones will still have a job. Thank you.

DR. KASTEN HAD a good point. All should be tested for AIDS when entering any hospital. I agree, providing all doctors, nurses, LPNs and anyone who comes in contact with patients also have the AIDS test. Thank you.

ABOUT THE TEACHERS going on strike. They should be glad to have a job. Moreover, it isn't fair for the children to start school and then be sent back home for weeks just so the teachers can go on strike. They better think about the children instead of themselves.

WHEN DO WE set out clocks back? Thank you.

The change from daylight-saving time takes place Oct. 27.

THEY USED TO quarantine people with measles and other infectious diseases. Every person with AIDS should be isolated with a big red sign on their homes as a warning. Thank you.

I'M GOING TO say this as gently as I can. I was an activist and I'm sorry I don't agree. They pay good money to make me go there and protest. I'm not going to do it any more. Now I'm working a full-time job and I don't make as much money as a protester does, but at least I feel good about myself. A little confession. Thank you.

I'M TIRED OF hearing black Americans call themselves Afro-Americans. They're not Afro-American, they're black American like I'm white American. If they were Afro-American, then I'm Irish-American or English-American. We're black Americans and white Americans. Let's get it straight.

WILL SOMEONE DEFINE or explain to me higher education? My children often ran into trouble with their teachers due to the fact that they were well-informed from an educational library at home. Should we allow intelligent children to be held back by a level of teaching to accommodate slow learners?

WHEN I GO shopping for clothes, I look for tags that say, Made in the U.S.A. When I do find them and bring them home, after about three washes, they start to unravel and rot. I paid good, hard-earned money for these clothes. Why didn't someone tell me these clothes made in the U.S.A. are disposable and can only be worn three times at the most in order to look nice? I remember when a pair of jeans would last a year or more. Is there a recycling enter for jeans that have only been washed three times?

I WISH PEOPLE would give this some deep thought: Each organism, whether it be bacteria or human, will eventually adapt to it's own environment.

I JUST WANT to say football at Jackson is super. The coaches don't yell, jump up and down and act like little boys. The coaches for football are great guys. Their first concern is the players. Thanks, Coach Carl Gross and your whole coaching staff. We appreciate you. Thank you.

WHAT'S GOING ON over there in Iraq with this detaining situation? I thought the trouble there was all over. What in the world are we going to have to do now, beg them to do things? Well, now the only way we can sell it is we give up some of the things we've went over there for. Good gracious, I'm getting tired of reading about this.

I CAN'T UNDERSTAND why we're still hearing about having trouble with Iraq. I feel it's time for the president to do what he should have done back during the Persian Gulf War when it first broke out. He needs to drop a neutron bomb on Baghdad and send in the infantry to mop the place up.

CAPE CENTRAL HAS no chance against the Jackson Indians in football this year. There's no doubt in my mind that Jackson's going to drum them. With the group we've got right now, we are bad.

I TRAVEL ROUTE W frequently and many times when I travel this route there are bicycle riders or joggers and they do not get off the road. If you meet an oncoming car, you have to brake in order to keep from hitting them. Would someone please tell me, does my taxpaying vehicle have priority or do they have priority? I would really like to know just what my rights are. I don't want to hit them, but I have the feeling that it might be unavoidable. Thank you.

ONCE UPON A time not so long ago our schools operated in a very simple way, yet we graduated with high test scores. Our football coach was also our basketball coach and our history teacher. He had no assistant coaches. There were no teachers' aides. The teachers had to run their own classes and most classes had at least 28 students. Not only that, but they took turns, a week at a time, being hall monitors before school. Calculators and computers were not used in grade schools. We did not have a swimming pool, which had to be heated all winter. Foreign languages were not taught in grade school. We had no drivers' ed.; our parents taught us to drive. We had no black history classes but we had American history classes which included it all. We had no sex education classes; we learned that at home. We didn't have a cafeteria, so there were no cooks or helpers needed there. Our school only had sports on Friday nights and had to travel less than one hour from home. They would have never taken us all the way to Blytheville, Ark., or Fort Smith, Ark., or Joplin. Our junior high did not have sports programs. Central's junior high teams travel as far as Murray, Ky., to play games. We should stop spending so much money on our schools. We should stop some of these expensive programs and go back to a program that is lean and simple. Our teachers should be paid $20,000 to $25,000 a year and the administrators should be paid less. Those principals should only receive $40,000 to $45,000 and the superintendent should only receive $50,000 to $55,000 with no car or any other expenses.

I WANT MY "Mystery Science Theater 3000" back on the air. Thank you.

WE ARE PAYING for garbage pick up, not recycling.

I HATE COUNTRY music. Thank you.

PLEASE, WOMEN, TAKE care of babies. Keep them quiet. I raised 10 babies and they were perfect. They are good. So many kids scream and talk bad. They will be crazy if the mother doesn't take care of them right. Thank you, Speak Out.

THE PRESIDENT CAN give away $598 million in loan guarantees to the Soviet Union so the Russians can stay fed through the winter. That's very considerate of him. I want to know why he refuses to give a 20-week extension to the unemployed here. What enables him to give those loan guarantees? We're the ones working here. George, don't bite the handle that feeds you.

I HAD TO sit and wait on the train in Jackson the other day. I wonder what people would say about truck drivers or farmers if their equipment smoked that bad. They'd probably not say much so good.

I DON'T WANT ANY MORE probabilities from the Discovery Channel; I want facts, I don't want disillusioning theories. We have enough problems without some scientific know-it-all shaking in our face whatever he believes without proof: probably life began in one giant cocoon and probably we all are dreaming; probably life began in the sea and probably our ancestors swung from trees by their tails. But nobody has yet told me how the sea created that life in the first place or where the sea itself came from. Shall we simply say the sea has always been there and accept that answer, I need some answers. Thank you.

ABOUT HUMMINGBIRDS: Well, I'm not an expert on it or anything, but I know one thing: it's good to feed them up until about the middle of November. I don't know about hitching rides south, but they do head towards Mexico and the Yucatan. And, the thing about Speak Out that I am concerned with concerns the recycling program. You're trying to help the city haul less trash. You pay almost $9 a month for hauling off trash but yet it costs $40 to get a dumpster. A lot of the older people live in the south end of the city and the dumpsters are so expensive. Is there any way that can be changed? Be something worth looking into. It's awful expensive even if you working. Thank you.

HEY, CENTRAL HIGH School class of 1992, this is from the alumnus of the class of '57 at Central High School. Get a life. There is more to the world than Central High School, smoking dope, and who's going to take who to the prom on Friday night. You kids grow up.

I WOULD LIKE to ask the person who complained about the anti-abortion booth at the fair if she has ever seen an abortion. (A doctor) has performed many abortions, causing over 6,000 deaths, and he is now very pro-life. He is one of the persons who lectured against abortion while showing these pictures. I have his book if she would like to read it.

IN RESPONSE TO the person who challenged that the United States was settled and developed by Christians, obviously you have little or no knowledge of American history. In pointing to credible proof, I quote from George Washington's inaugural address, "It is impossible to properly govern this nation without God and the Bible." At the framing of our Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, then in his 82nd year, said, "Sirs, I have lived a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing are proofs that I see that God governs in the affairs of man. We are told, sirs, in the holy scriptures that a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his knowledge. Is it probable that an empire can rise without his divine aid? Those who labor to build a house without God labor in vain, and I am convinced, sirs, that without God we shall succeed with this political building no better than did the builders of Babel." I could fill the column with other examples but, of course, space does not permit.

MY COMMENT REFERS to the person who does not understand why we're criticizing the display at the Arena Building about anti-abortionists. I also am against abortion, but I do think the displays were a little too vivid for children under 7 years old. There's no need for them to be scared by such pictures depicting such tasteless propaganda.

I, TOO, AM a student in the public schools and I agree with the caller about the quality of school lunches. The hamburgers are either overdone or raw; the fries are cold, hard and greasy; there is too much sugar and butter in everything. I guess I will either have to bring my lunch or buy it elsewhere. Thank you.

I THINK ALCOHOL must be the No. 1 drug of choice in the U.S. The only difference in it and others is that alcohol is legal. It must also be the No. 1 killer. In reading the news, you must also come to the same conclusion. I am a recovering alcoholic or drunk, whatever you choose to call it. I've been sober for eight years now. It hasn't been easy but thank God, with him, all things are possible. If I can accomplish one more thing in my life, it would be to force anyone with such a problem to look in the mirror and face it head on. In abusing alcohol, we not only kill ourselves, we are gradually dying before our loved ones every day. I can't count on both hands how many friends I've lost due to alcohol. If you or a loved one are dependent, these bonds and chains can be broken. It can be the beginning of a new life for you. If you need help in doing this, contact the church of your choice, your local AA or a friend who has been there and recovered. Family members can help someone who is in denial who doesn't want to help themselves. Denial and that false sense of control we call delusion of thinking creates havoc in relationships. This can be broken with a process called intervention. If you're frustrated by another person's drinking, you don't have to wait for him or her to hit bottom, which could ultimately be death. To learn more about intervention, call 334-1100, 339-6212, or call this 24-hour parent-and-teen helpline, 1-619-458-4357. Make this the first day of the rest of your life. It can be a wonderful life. Thank you, Speak Out.

HOW DISHEARTENING THE sports headline must have been for the young people in Portageville. We hope that they realize that only one person wrote the Jackson-Portageville game headline. Thank you.

THIS IS IN regard to the article you had Sept. 26 about "Jackson Lady Indians enjoy 21-1 laugher over Portageville." I don't think that's very nice. We don't laugh at other teams. Maybe they don't have quality like you think they do at Jackson. I'm sorry that you had to put the article in the paper as a laugher. I think an apology to Portageville would be appropriate. This is a follower of high school softball teams. Thank you.

The headline was not meant to degrade the Portageville team. The word laugher is acceptable in sports writing to describe a very lopsided game.

THANK YOU FOR including the Central Tiger in Friday's newspaper. One hears so much nowadays that students cannot read or write. This does not seem to be the case at Central. The writing was excellent. Thank you.

I WAS WONDERING if anyone could tell what is the correct way to wear a pear-shaped diamond on your finger. Does the point go toward your fingernail or towards your hand? Thank you.

I'M OUTRAGED THAT the state is delaying Escobedo's hearing. Reading the article in the paper, it seems like they're delaying it simply because he refuses to answer their questions. This hearing's been going for two years now. Two years is two years too long. If I were accused of stealing from somebody, could I get off simply by sitting home and refusing to answer any questions that investigating authorities put to me? Does it mean anything at all to have a doctor's license? Are you just free to do anything you want? Looks to me like the doctors ought to be leading the charge to investigate people and actually punish them. What's he going to get if they do punish him? The whole thing is a travesty.

HAS THE Southeast Missourian quit giving out the Wednesday paper? I usually buy Friday's and Sunday's paper as I'm out of town during the week. I was told that I will start getting delivery if you still did Thank you and have a nice day.

Non-subscribers should be receiving our free Southeast Missourian Plus on Wednesday. If you aren't getting it, call our circulation department at 334-7115 or 1-800-666-7115.

I WOKE UP this morning and my trash was still here from last night. I don't appreciate this new environmental deal with the trash. That's fine to try and save the environment, but we should at least vote on these things. I have a very large family and trash pickup one time a week will not get it. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE TO know who paid for Ed Meese's trip to the Cape Show Me Center. I'd hate to think any of my taxpayer money went for a project such as that. Maybe somebody could tell me. I'd really like to know who paid for that. Thank you.

Debate expenses are being paid by the Southeast Missouri State University Student Activities Council, which sponsored the event, said council President Joe Sinning. He said they are being paid with money from a $25 student activity fee.

THIS IS REGARDING when hummingbirds migrate and when to stop putting your feeders out. I've talked to several noted zoologists and authorities at the St. Louis Zoo who keep the birds, and they studied hummingbirds for years. What they suggested to us was, below each of your hummingbird feeders get you a large, easy-to-read calendar and mark Thanksgiving or any date that you think the birds should leave. The birds will be able to see the calendar and they'll leave on the date you marked.

THIS IS HILARY Hummingbird, and boy am I cold. I wish you all would take your feeders down so I would know to go home. Thank you.

YOU ALL WON'T have to worry about when to take your hummingbird feeders down because with once-a-week trash pickup the smell will get so bad all over town that they'll leave all by themselves.

WHY IN THE WORLD are we letting Saddam Hussein get away with his refusal of the inspection teams and his bottling up David Kay and 44 others on a parking lot and his blocking of the helicopters? Take away the permission given for him to sell $1.2 billion worth of oil. Drop a few leaflets to inform his people. Tell them why so many people are starving in Iraq. Give figures on the casualties from Desert Storm. Better still, send pictures of Schwartzkopf scowling as only he can.