SPEAKOUT

I WOULD LIKE to thank the party who found my golden cross at Storey's Food Giant. God bless you. Thank you.

I CAN'T BELIEVE anybody would seriously call into Speak Out and say they ought to have a moratorium on calls about abortion. That would be like a newspaper in the 1850s saying there would be no more calls about slavery because people were sick of hearing about it. A newspaper is supposed to be relevant, and a lot of people have abortion on their mind. We have to have some forum to voice our views. Thank you, Speak Out.

I'M CALLING IN response to the concerned mother who wrote in Sunday's Public Mind section that the gay and lesbian group shouldn't be allowed to contribute to the county park light display. If she's truly concerned about the future and wellbeing of her children, she will not send such bigoted messages about gay and lesbians to them. Approximately one in 10 of America's children will grow up to be gay or lesbian, and positive, or at least not negative, messages from parents could help decrease the incredibly high suicide rate of gay youth. Thousands of young gays and lesbians, all someone's children, choose to take their own lives each year rather than to try to live happily in a homophobic society.

RIGHT ON, MRS. Jateff, on your article to the editor. Why is it that in the state of Missouri it's a punishable crime to be homosexual? We arrest people in our parks; on the other hand we allow them a display at our county park. When is it ever going to stop? Where are our rights with our value system?

I HOPE EVERYONE comes and hears Cape Central's freshmen band play at CHS auditorium Dec. 12 at 7:30. In my opinion, they are one of the finest bands I've ever heard. Thank you.

THANKS FOR THE great concert at the Show Me Center Saturday night. We thoroughly enjoyed Gene Watson and Alan Jackson and thank K-103 for some more great entertainment. We just can't wait to see who's next. Thanks again.

IN REFERENCE TO the Monday, Dec. 9, Speak Out statement by the Hawaiian vacationers who don't like our garbage: Come on, what's the cost of dumping garbage in Hawaii? Give me a break. If you can spend six months in Hawaii you can sure well pay the reasonable rates for garbage pickup in this town. Come on, get with it.

I WOULD ENCOURAGE everyone to read the Monday, Dec. 9, column by Joseph Sobran: Washington is mecca of greedy: Meet overclass. It hits the nail right on the head. He might as well have included some ministers, lawyers and judges in the same class. Thank you.

REGARDING THE GAY and lesbian light display in the county park, I think your display is atrocious. We celebrate Christ's birth at Christmas. What it is you celebrate? I have no idea but you're strictly out of your league here.

IN SUNDAY'S EDITION of the Southeast Missourian, Roger Harms of TCI Cable Television was discussing the changing of some channels like channel 30 and channel 11 so that they could get the economy basic service. I'm raising a point here that's been raised before. The American Family Association and others, many people who are not members of American Family Association, have requested that the MTV channel, which is obscene and pornographic and not wanted in many of our homes, be switched while they're switching channels. But this one should be switched not from the economy basic and extended service, which we pay $20.30 for, to a premium pay channel like HBO, Encore, Showtime and others they must pay extra for to get into the house. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to say that I agree 100 percent with the mother who wrote her letter in the Public Mind of Sunday's paper about the gay and lesbian lighting display in the county park. I think that she said it all very truly; nothing else could be added.

I CERTAINLY HOPE the Delta Board of Education turns down the request for the 61-cent tax increase. Just look at what we are paying in taxes for your school now. Every time you need something you say tax the people. The people are fed up.

ACCORDING TO TCI Cable TV, there are 450 of you out there who subscribe to economy basic service for $10.50 a month and receive channels 3 through 13. Because several subscribers have asked that Chicago's WGN be included in this package, TCI is planning to take channel 11, the Discovery Channel, out of the package and put in WGN. I can't help wondering if there aren't a lot of satisfied customers out there watching the Discovery Channel who would really miss its excellent wildlife and science programs. If so, please call TCI at 335-4225 right away and let them know you don't want to lose the Discovery Channel. There are several channels from 3 to 13 that give you about the same as WGN does, but there is only one Discovery Channel. Thank you.

I'D LIKE TO say that I'm so tired of hearing all the publicity on safe sex and giving condoms in school. Why don't we just say it like it is? We're teaching our kids it's okay, just use a condom. It's time we put traditional, moral values back into our schools. Let's teach our kids what's right and what's wrong. Let's let them know the truth: if you play you will pay. There is no safe way other than abstaining from sex. This will save our kids from a lot of psychological and emotional problems down the road and will prevent unwanted pregnancy and disease. Abstinence is the only safe and true way. If our kids can learn this, they will be respected. Thank you.

THIS IS TO people in Cape Girardeau who complain about their city council members and the way they run the government. You ought to be in Marble Hill.

THIS IS A comment to the guy who called in about having a big time with his 15-year-old son, about him wanting to study all the time. Sure he shouldn't study all the time, but you telling him constantly that you had more girlfriends than you could count when you were his age is not right. You're only putting his self-esteem down lower. Maybe he doesn't want to have that many girlfriends. You told him he was shy. Let him grow out of it. You shouldn't push him all the time like you're doing. That's not right. You need help.

I WOULD LIKE to thank God for giving me another Thanksgiving Day to celebrate with my family and friends. I would like to thank my family and friends for loving me and doing so much for me, and I would like to thank the Southeast Missourian for sponsoring Toybox and Christmas for the Elderly programs. May you all have happy holidays. Thank you.

TO THE PERSON WHO called about Magic Johnson, saying he knew he was infected and then slept with many women and infected them: I don't know where this person is getting their information. There hasn't been anything that I know of that said he knew he had AIDS before he came out publicly. As a matter of fact, he did not know he had the HIV virus, which does not mean that he has AIDS, when he married his wife back in July. He just found out. He had no idea and no one has actually said how many people he has slept with or whether or not he was extremely promiscuous. I just think that people should respect his privacy and respect his wishes. He has become a positive force in an area that is filled with negativity and persecution. Thank you.

I'M CALLING BECAUSE I'm a waiter in Cape Girardeau and I just wanted to comment on the new Epicurean Club, a club which boasts itself as having members of taste who enjoy eating out regularly. I would just like to say that for the most part they are nice people, but when it comes to customers' gratuity, the standard in this area is 15 percent of what the bill should have been, not 10 percent of what the bill is after one meal is discounted. I'd just like to remind these people who are using that card that the waiters in this town are usually college students paying their way through school and the money they make helps go to tuition and rent. When we get short changed, it just comes back on to the local economy as well. Thank you.

I THINK ALL the drivers on Missouri's highways and around the nation should have insurance. The people that don't have insurance ought to be put in jail when they find out that they don't have insurance to drive their cars. This happened to us a couple of weekends ago: My car had been parked and a woman hit my car. I think it ought to be against the law. So get all these uninsured motorists off the road in Cape and the surrounding areas. We'd be a lot better off. Thank you.

I HAVE A suggestion for the Ford Motor Co. regarding that ad they run that says don't let your kids grow up to drive Chevys. I suggest that they change that to don't let your kids grow up to drive Toyotas. Toyotas are giving them fits, not Chevy. Chevy's doing just fine by itself but Toyota is giving both Chevy and Ford fits. So I suggest that Ford joins Chevy, get together and say don't let your children grow up to drive Toyotas; either drive Ford or Chevy. That'll help the U.S. economy very much. Thank you.

IT IS ALARMING to read the report in the paper about the Show Me Center Board of Managers idea of what to do with the money in the city tourism fund. Show Me Center already has been allocated money in a very controversial hassle with regard to a $5 million bond that was passed by the voters and then went to court. The Show Me Center should build any additions by financing them from its income, the university or some other method, and not from tax money that was raised for a non-specific purpose. Thanks to Leming for keeping a watchful eye on this.

I DON'T THINK most people in this area are as uninformed or witless as many of the contributors to Speak Out, so why has this paper chosen to give stupid people a spotlight? Stupid people are out there, but must they be brought into our homes on the pages of what should be a benign news publication? I think that most people would agree with me when I say that extremely stupid people should not be permitted to speak freely in a publication that presumably is meant to be taken seriously. If I want to hear an idiot speak, I'll go out and find an idiot. Why don't you upgrade the standards for Speak Out? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch will not print letters written by deranged or feeble-minded people. There's an idea.

The very purpose of Speak Out is to offer everyone an opportunity to express himself, and we don't intend to sit in judgment of a person's intellect based solely upon the contents of his message. We have found that people who will not take the time to write a letter to the editor, and sign their name, will call or write Speak Out because they are not required to give their name. Of course, not all Speak Out submissions can be published, but our decisions not to publish certain messages are based on journalistic standards and not on an arbitrary estimate of the intellect of the caller.