SPEAKOUT

THIS IS IN regards to Dr. Sacha. I really believe that we shouldn't criticize him until we've walked a mile in his shoes. Let's back Dr. Sacha. Thank you.

I GRIEVE FOR THE soon-to-be widows and orphans and for the blind actions of a gullible government that has placed American GIs in harm's way. The phony reasons given for our intervention in the Persian Gulf can in no way justify the loss of American lives. Neither can the real and actual reasons for our Mideast misadventure be acceptable. We are actually there for the defense of Israeli imperial aggression of Palestine territory and to keep open the oil supply lines of Japan and Germany. American Israeli Defense PAC and multimillion dollar Japanese congressional lobbying have long ago bought our political leaders, and now in the role of world policeman. U.S. troops will pay the price in bloody carnage. Where are the Japanese and Israeli troops and the German army?

I HAVE A QUESTION. Is there going to be a draft, and if there is, what are the ages that it is going to start at? Thank you.

There has been no effort initiated to implement a military draft.

WE ENJOY WATCHING the SEMO boys basketball games. This past Saturday we came to watch the girls. It came five minutes until game time and the north Show-Me Center doors were still locked. Something needs to be done.

I FEEL IF President Bush decides to attack we should support the president. First, I feel that we are going to have to fight Saddam Hussein sooner or later. The man has already vowed that once he has a nuclear bomb he is going to use it. They are going to be nuclear-capable in five years. I would rather see 50,000 troops die than 10 million innocent civilians in New York. There is not an educated American who can look at this and say American lives are not being threatened. Second, we're over there fighting for ideals. Kuwait was overrun. When Iraq invaded, pregnant women were being raped; fathers were being shot in front of their families. Freedom isn't free. Freedom is an ideal, and this country is founded on ideals. If we speak so highly of our ideals, why don't we fight for them? Thirdly, anyone saying thou shall not kill should keep in mind that this is God's will. It is written sooner or later that this is going to happen. I think we can prevent the Apocalypse now. I hear we are fighting for oil, but people speaking out of both sides of their mouth. Everyone who says we shouldn't shed a drop of blood for oil are the same people out here driving these cars and cruising at night. I don't see anybody in Cape Girardeau driving a horse and buggy to work or a horse and buggy to school. I don't think there is a one of us who are going to give up the luxuries of a car.

I HAVE A complaint to make. Why is it when you call time and temperature, you do not get the time but only the temperature? Sometimes that is pretty important because your clock has stopped. Thank you.

WHAT PART IS the Southeast Missourian playing in the recycling of newsprint? According to Sunday's paper, only 50 tree coupons had been distributed out of an available 1,500. As a major user of paper in Cape Girardeau, the Southeast Missourian should become environmentally responsible by beginning its own recycling of newsprint. Is there no profit in the venture? Thank you.

We encourage our readers to dispose of newsprint so that it can be recycled. Few newsprint manufacturers have found recycling to be profitable; they therefore have not gotten into recycling. We understand, however, that more are on the verge of recycling paper. Since we are not a manufacturer of paper, we cannot recycle newsprint. We did recently purchased 22 tons of newsprint that contains 25 percent recycled paper, and plan to continue to purchase it.

WHAT A WONDERFUL world. At last some nice sunshine. Thank the Lord for that.

THIS IS IN reply to the people who called in criticizing Gephardt's remark about cutting off the funds for a war. Probably they don't know that that is the very thing that ended the fiasco in Vietnam: Congress voted not to send any more money, plain and simple.

I WAS LISTENING to Atwater apologize for the campaign he ran against Mike Dukakis. I'm sorry for your illness but you ran the kind of campaign that Bush wanted. They always run a dirty campaign. They get worse at every election. Mike was a fine man and still is. I'm sure he will forgive you.

I CANNOT APPROVE of mothers going into war in foreign countries and leaving their children. I firmly believe that a mother's place is with her children if possible. That's the trouble with a lot of our children today. Your children should be your first responsibility at all times.

I WANT TO know who to call to get this free paper on Wednesdays.

Call our circulation department at 334-7115.

THIS IS TO the person who found my keys on the Town and Country store parking lot in Jackson. I appreciate it that you took the time and the trouble of taking them to the office in the store. Thank you very much for your kindness.

ABOUT THE ARTICLE in Speak Out on why people keep electing Gephardt: I'm not a big Gephardt fan, but it makes me wonder the same thing about the people in the 8th District when they keep electing the character we've got. At least Gephardt didn't vote to get in such a senseless war.

THIS IS AN answer to Eagleton's article on the editorial page on Monday, Jan. 14, regarding the Senate committee hearings on the Keating Five. He said there were only eight measly letters from Missourians regarding the hearings. If the other voters are like me, they figure the Senate and Danforth were taking the proper steps, and did not need any other people putting their two-cents worth in. As for not being concerned about the ethics problem, you are sadly mistaken. We are concerned. You are very hard on the voters in Missouri in saying that we do not care. We have faith in Sen. Danforth that he will take care of it along with other senators who feel the same way he does. I know for myself, I feel betrayed by many who we elect to represent us in Washington. They think of only filling their own pockets and not what is best for our country. We in Missouri are very lucky to now have a high caliber of men in the Senate to represent us. There are some in the House who are an exception and a disgrace to Missouri. This does not include Emerson. So, Eagleton, you shouldn't generalize Missourians in this matter. We do trust our senators, who are just as appalled as we are about the Keating Five or any other misconduct. We also rely on them to take care of the matter. They know more about what to do than we do; they will take care of it.

I GOT SO TICKED off at the Oprah Winfrey audience today. Those people who joined the military think we are paying them to learn how to have a picnic. The military career people, the National Guard, the reserves and their families who are complaining about having to do a job we have been paying them to do for the past 20 years make me so mad I could spit. I want all my money back from them. They shouldn't be able to say they quit when we need them the most without the stiff penalty of returning every easy dollar we paid them in advance. Thank you.

ARE YOU AWARE that if Saddam Hussein gets what he is after he can control the United States' economy? That gives you something to think about before you shout we don't belong. Remember, he could control our own economy.

THE SITUATION IN the Middle East is getting closer to war for all of us. Oprah Winfrey had a heated discussion today on her show. Some of the folks said we had no business over there, that Kuwait was nothing to us. I have read in the Southeast Missourian a number of times on the editorial page where it said Japan and Germany, especially Japan, got all of their oil from Kuwait and the United States gets only 5 percent. Therefore, I think that's why people are wondering what we're doing over there. Nobody felt we should do anything in China when they were shooting their people down. Nobody felt we should do anything when Russia was walking all over those little countries, so why Kuwait? I can't say like some of the folks on Oprah did today that they wouldn't support Bush if war broke out. Whether Democrat or Republican, I think most of us Americans would. Thank you.

I SAW ON TV where the man spent 11 years making big money working for the oil company overseas. Now the poor man is worried about getting home. Why doesn't he just stay there and volunteer to protect his job in the service? That way it will save because we won't have to send him back over. Thank you.

LET'S LIST THESE protesters. They seem to converge at each and every opportunity. Maybe it's their way of life. No matter the issue, it seems they simply wish to go against the consensus of public opinion. We had Nancy Cruzan and always for or against abortion. Now they are trying to have a real field day with the gulf crisis. Why today, instead of when the troops first deployed some time ago? Could it be they don't believe in any cause and are just looking for publicity? Next week they will no doubt have a new cause. Get real. Thank you.

I THINK IT'S great that nobody wants to fight a war today. It shows how civilized we've become. But look at what our vets and our ancestors went through. Are we worth any more than they? If it weren't for them we would still be under Great Britain's rule. We would not be a union. Hitler would be our dictator and this country would be totally communistic had Vietnam never happened. So who are you? Thank you.

WHY DO I think I'm right and everybody else is wrong? I don't understand it. Thank you.

WHILE WATCHING TED Koppel's "Night Line" tonight they interrupted with a commercial, of course. Which drive or force is stronger, sex or fear of AIDS? When a TV commercial like the one I just saw on Ted Koppel's "Night Line" tells you not to have sex because you might get AIDS, and at the same time shows two people having pleasurable sex, I call that a double standard and an out-and-out brainwashing. Thank you.

THIS IS A notice to the person who found my money. How grateful I was to her. I don't want her to think I wasn't proud. Cape Girardeau has some nice people. She will know who she is. Thanks very much for finding my money and returning it to me.

I WAS VERY distraught to watch the national news last night and see the people from Minnesota burn the United States flag. It brought tears to my eyes. Isn't that the flag the Yankees fought for? How sad. Just what kinds of citizens does this country have?

RONALD REAGAN'S EIGHT years in office produced a wave of anti-unionism; Oliver North's undermining of the government during the Iran-Contra conspiracy, about which Ronnie and read-my-lips Bush confess to know nothing; cuts in social spending; an increase in the number of homeless and jobless; paid the way for the savings-and-loan outrage; elevated astrology to a new level of government decision-making; created a federal deficit that can never be brought down; and made the United States a better nation. All of this and more makes me wonder if Gary Rust has read anything lately except Reagan's latest book. Thank you, Speak Out.

THE MEDIA IN the country continually refer to the Iraq army as numbering a million people. This, I suppose, is intended to strike fear into somebody's heart. In World War II there were 3 million Americans under arms in the Pacific alone and there were 15 million Americans under arms in Europe and the Pacific. Why would a country that can put 15 million men under arms have the slightest concern with an Iraqi army of a million men when these men are old men and infants. Who cares about these million Iraqis? I'm sure we can cut that number down considerably anytime we care to. They are an ignorant bunch of people who think this is really an awesome thing. Thank you.

COULD YOU TELL me if there is some organization that can help me? I am married with children. I am not able to work and have mounting medical and medicine bills and may loose my home. I do receive food stamps but I don't qualify for medical help. Where can I go to get financial help to pay my medical bills? I don't qualify for SSI either. My husband doesn't make enough to keep everything together. I have the will to work but I can't do this due to illness. Thank you.

MY SON IS in Saudi Arabia and I want you to know that I personally back the president 100 percent in his policy, and so does he. He wants to be there. He believes in what he is doing. He says: Mom, these people think that this war is about oil. It's not about oil; this war is about stopping a mad man like Hitler from gaining the hold that Hitler got to where it took half the world to defeat him. This war is not about oil; it's about saving people's lives, and the United States has always been the one, right or wrong, to help these poor people because they're too small and they don't have a way to do it themselves. Mad men always invade small countries when they can't defend themselves. They trample people, they take people's lives, they take everything from them. It's about another Hitler being stopped before it's too late. Thank you.

I THINK PETE Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. He was a very, very good ball player. He did wrong in filing his income tax, but how many hundreds of other people are doing the same thing year after year and nothing is done to those people? Why do you hate Pete so much to keep from putting him in the Hall of Fame for baseball players? Thank you.

THE TV, RADIO and newspapers are getting the message to all the world that Americans are a bunch of sissies and babies. They should be cheerful and not burn the flag. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to know why you have to stop at every stop light in Cape. Most towns time it so if you stop at the first one you can drive on through and you can do the speed limit all the way through.

AFTER JUST RETURNING from a trip to the Deep South I realized that the farther south I went the more patriotic people were. Come on, Cape Girardeau and surrounding areas, where are those yellow ribbons and American flags? Unfortunately our military members are not here to see them, but their families are. Go to your nearest florist or craft shop and get a yellow ribbon. Let's show that we love and support them and they're in our hearts and prayers every day. Thank you.