SPEAKOUT

I WOULD LIKE TO thank the person who took my purse and pocketbook to the bank. And another thing: Why do we have to keep harping on Drs. Stewart and Browning? All I can say good about it is that it woke up a lot of people, but it also terrified a lot of little children. Only God knows for sure. Let's trust in him. It is over, so let's get on with our lives and forget about Browning and Stewart. We'd better be thinking about our boys and women over in Saudi Arabia and about what Bush is doing to this country. Let's just pray for our men and women and have trust in God. Please bring them home in a hurry. Their wives and their children need them. Thank you.

I THINK DAN Rather is great. He's the only newscaster we've got who's got enough guts to tell it like it is.

THIS IS REGARDING the article in Speak Out about the horrible odor between Dutchtown and the Route K exit. Anybody who drives up and down that road knows it's not the sewers from Cape Girardeau; it's from Biokyowa on Nash Road. Thank you.

I THINK this should be a New Year's resolution. Dan Quayle went over to Saudi Arabia. I think the soldiers should put a uniform on him and put him in service. Then they ought to send for Bush and do the same. And, if they have to have a Republican in the White House to fill out Bush's term, I would suggest that they put in Lowell Weicker. I would have some hope for the country then.

IT SOUNDS LIKE we, the people of Scott City, need another mayor and police chief. These are people we pay. Something needs to be done. Thank you.

I HAVE LIVED in Scott City for several years. I have seen many police chiefs come and go. I believe the chief has lost control of the police department.

PETER KINDER HAS a nice column in Monday's paper praising Reagan. However, he forgot to mention his union-busting package, the Iran-Contra scandal, the savings-and-loan scandal, the huge deficit, and the $3 trillion national debt. Reagan was a rich man's president who thought the poor people and homeless wanted it that way. Thank you.

IN SUNDAY'S SPEAK Out someone asked the question, why aren't the Japanese over in Saudi Arabia? They own most of the United States." Haven't you got it figured out yet? As long as we're stupid enough to keep selling to them, before long they're going to own all of it and the United States will be the Japanese mercenary army. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to comment on the housing development in Scott City. There ought to be volunteers seeing to it that the drive coming down to the housing, which is a real steep hill, and the sidewalks for the elderly people are taken care of. I was just wondering if we could get volunteers to come down and do this. This is a concerned citizen of Scott City who has elderly parents and in-laws who live in the housing. Thank you.

I'M INSULTED BY the programming person at KFVS or CBS. They think people here in the Midwest don't know that it's already midnight in New York, and they show Terry Bradshaw live at 11:37, when it's already past midnight in New York. CNN has already shown the ball coming down in Times Square. Then they put it on the CBS affiliate here, and it says live at 11:36. It's an hour tape-delay. This just insults me that people think we here in the Midwest don't know better. Thank you.

I JUST WANT to say that people who go to school should not have to go to school the day after New Year's. That's really stupid because people are tired and want to sleep in, and we have to go to school. Thank you.

MY FRIEND JUST had an abortion and I think it's very wrong. I tried to discourage her, but she insisted on having an abortion because she wasn't ready to be a mother or her boyfriend wasn't ready to be a father. To other kids who think abortion is the answer, think about it again. Thank you.

IT'S HARD FOR me to understand why they send Dan Quayle over to Saudi Arabia to give the soldiers a pep talk. If you want to impress someone, send a man like Bob Dole, who risked his life and lost an arm while trying to save a buddy in the war. Quayle said tonight on TV that the Quayle family and the Marines were number one. Well, I prefer the Marines to the National Guard. I look on this as a political scam and nothing else.

I CAN'T BELIEVE city government and the local paper can't do simple eighth-grade mathematics. If you have 1,000 homes with one person in each house, or you have 500 homes with four people in each house, the town with the more people per household has a greater population. On our street here in Cape there used to be four people per household. Since the kids have all grown up and left home to other parts of the country, we only have two people per household now. That's a 50 percent reduction in population from our street. So don't be simpleminded and just look at the number of houses; look at the people in each house. Thank you.

The actual number of occupants of each house is not directly at issue when cities challenge census figures. The Census Bureau has a count of occupants of each house from information that was submitted on individual census forms. The number of housing units becomes an issue after census figures have been compiled because, by showing there exists more housing units than the bureau can account for, a city can make a case for a higher population.