SPEAKOUT

I'M CALLING BECAUSE I've been shopping for shirts for my husband for Christmas and it seems like all the shirts are made in China or in places abroad. I'm not going to buy things like that this year. If it's not made in the United States, I'm not going to buy it anymore. It isn't that I think American products are so much better, even though I really do deep down, but why should I have to pay unemployment for all the people that I'm putting out of work when I'm not buying the stuff made in our country? I can't afford to do it, so I'm going to start buying American.

YOUR FRONT PAGE article on Sunday, Nov. 17, stating that the postal service isn't what it used to be is certainly true. I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. Recently we sent out invitations to our daughter's wedding. Some were never received by our guests nor were they ever returned to us. I called the local post office and the postal employee I spoke with informed me that if they are not delivered, they are returned to sender or end up in the dead-letter box at St. Paul, Minn. Due to preparations for the wedding and the distance from here to St. Paul, I could not rummage through the dead-letter box to retrieve our invitations. All of them had a return address stamped on them. To our relatives and friends who did not receive their invitations, we are truly sorry and terribly embarrassed. You can sign my name, Marie James. Thank you.

OUR PERSONAL PROPERTY tax was a total of $135.94. The school portion was $96.62. That's 71 percent of our entire tax bill. Thank you.

I FULLY BELIEVE the recycling program would be much better if they just picked up recycled stuff once a month. I followed the truck the other day for 21 blocks and they did not pick up a thing. There are four in our family and we don't have any trouble with that once-a-week garbage pickup. The garbage I have I chop up real fine and put it right out in the gutter by the street. What the birds don't eat, the street sweeper picks up. But I fully believe that once a month for the recycling would just work fine. Thank you.

I KNOW HOW you do it but I don't know why. Thank you, Speak Out.

I JUST WANT to ask everybody out there who reads Speak Out to get your taxes out and see how much of your money is going for school taxes. If everything else in the county is being run for so much less, then surely our schools can manage this money better than they're doing. Thank you.

I THINK THE Ford commercial that is running on television has run its course. It was funny when it first came on but now it's getting to be sickening. Instead of these American carmakers downgrading each other, they should get together and work against foreign-import cars. If they really want to gain something in the American spirit, it's to put commercials on against the foreign cars instead of American manufacturer against American manufacturer. I, myself, am sick and tired of hearing this commercial. Thank you.

THIS IS TO all Scott City citizens. I am a Scott City taxpayer, and, if you think it was wise the way they gave the land away, I wonder if you knew about when another Scott City citizen offered $3,000 for that same land at the same time. Maybe you ought to think again if you thought it was such a wise move. Thank you.

SO THE ST. Louis department bought back $7,000-plus weapons. Do you think any of those weapons belong to robbers, would-be robbers and murderers? They did not. That was merely the disarming of timid citizens. Thank you.

TO THE PERSON who said we should have more college-oriented shows at the Show Me Center, college-oriented shows won't bring as many people as the family-oriented shows or a rock concert would. If I remember correctly, just the other year, the college requested a rap concert be brought to the Show Me Center. It only brought in 300 people. I don't think the Show Me Center could afford another college-oriented show. Thank you.

HOW SAD FOR the people of Louisiana. Their new governor is a man who has been indicted twice. Too bad.

READ MY LIPS: The president says the recession is over. Want to bet?

MICHAEL JACKSON'S REALLY been on the TV and in the newspapers. I'd just like to remind Michael Jackson that he's not God.

I THINK WE should spend more money on taxes because I think we should have raised the taxes. We need more money for the city. I feel we don't pay enough taxes. That's why our roads are all screwed up and our schools ain't right. I just hope we start paying more taxes. Thank you.

THIS IS FOR all you religious people out there who don't agree on abortion. I'm against abortion too, but I wish they'd quit griping and complaining because all they have to do to stop overpopulation of the world is make people have vasectomies. The first male child of every family should have to have a vasectomy. Only one male child of the family can be fertile. Thank you.

I THINK IT has gone entirely too far when schools hand out condoms to school children. It's saying it's okay to have sex to anyone that wants sex. They should tell them to lay off until they get married or don't expect sympathy if something happens or if the girl gets pregnant. She should be sterilized so she won't ever get pregnant again. Thank you.

MAGIC JOHNSON, A role model, a hero, is a sick joke. Picture this hypothetical case: Chris Evert publicly announces that she has contacted syphilis from sleeping around with many men. The liberal media pick it up and proclaimed her to be a heroine. Will someone explain the difference in this hypothetical case and Johnson's. So he could play basketball; that doesn't make him a good man. He may be a role model for some children but I'll see to it that he's not for mine.

I SAW OPRAH WINFREY on television talking about her being abused as a child and how she wanted a special bill on school and day cares to refer to child abusers. I know how hard it was for her to come out in public and say that because I know how she feels. I myself was an abused child, and to this day I'm in my 20s I still suffer from it. But I want to say, even with having a daughter now, I am scared to death for her. She is 4 years old. I'm scared to death for her being in day care and going to school because many times child abusers are in school and day cares as Oprah Winfrey said. I will feel much safer for my daughter to be in school when she starts, and I hope you all feel the same way and that you will let your senators and local politicians know that that should be done. Thank you.

PRESIDENT BUSH DOES not have to apologize for one moment on his foreign affairs business, but I can apologize come election day by voting against him and any other Republican that runs in favor of taking care of the foreign countries instead of the United States. There's more than being president of the United States than staying overseas all the time. He's got economic problems here at home that need to be taken care of. I intend to vote against him. I voted for him the first time but never again. Thank you.

WHAT KIND OF a society are we today when a person that goes out and contacts AIDS is suddenly blown up and becomes a hero over night. Magic Johnson did not do right, and he is not an example to follow.

I HOPE THAT Magic Johnson is not allowed to represent the United States at the Olympics. Thank you.

IN EVERY NEWSPAPER I read and many newscasts I listen to, I hear the school boards crying for more money. I just received my tax bill, and, as a resident of Cape Girardeau I am paying more school tax this year than I did last year. Maybe if they would stop handing out free condoms and teach these young people the meaning of the word abstinence, we could all save money.

You wrongly link your Cape Girardeau School District taxes to free distribution of condoms. The school district does not distribute condoms.