SPEAKOUT

DEAR SPEAK OUT: In regard to the proposed Route E and Interstate-55 interchange, I was asked by the reporter what my "personal" reasons for wanting this exchange are. I answered the question honestly. I could have easily offered many school or community reasons. For instance, I could have explained that 20 years ago the majority of citizens in the area were full-time farmers. This is no longer the case; these people work at commercial and industrial jobs as well as farm now. They must commute to work. We, like many others, love our country home and do not choose to live in the city. We prefer a small school where the children are known on a first-name basis by teachers and administrators alike. We all helped pay when I-55 went through and are still paying. Many local residents took a loss on their land in order to have it. The ramp was on the original plan; all we would like to see are old promises kept. Thus, I would expect that if the over-500 Cape Girardeau County registered voters who signed the petition were asked their "personal" reason for wanting this exchange, you may come up with over 500 different answers. Brenda Schoen, Jackson Route 1.

DEAR SPEAK OUT: I want to thank everybody back home for all the support you've given us service members here in the gulf. All your letters have meant more to me than words can ever express. You make me proud to be from Southeast Missouri. God bless and keep everyone. Cpl. Michael Woods, USMC, Lima Co., 3rd Btn, 5th Marines, temporarily stationed on the USS Vancouver, Persian Gulf.

I WANT TO thank all the nurses at St. Francis hospital on the third floor who took care of somebody in room 3065. May God bless them all.

I'D LIKE TO answer the caller who wanted to know why we're fighting in the Persian Gulf. It's because we have a president who is long on talk and threats, but weak on patience and diplomacy.

I SEE OUR city manager is hollering about the count on the census in Cape Girardeau, saying that so many housing units had not been counted. Has it ever donned on him that maybe some of those housing units are not occupied yet? You don't count the unit, you count the people. That's the way you figure up the census. Thank you.

You must have missed our earlier explanation on this matter. As we explained a couple of months ago in Speak Out, after census figures are compiled, the number of housing units is not directly related to the actual population count of a city. Instead, showing that the Census Bureau under-counted the number of housing units during the census becomes a technical basis on which cities may protest census figures.

WOULD THE PERSON that took the ribbon from the front of St. Mark's Lutheran Church please return it? It was put there by the Darcus Circle in honor of our men and women serving in the Persian Gulf at this time. Thank you very much.

THIS IS TO the people who broke into my car Wednesday night. You can keep the $72 purse and even the $30 wallet; just please do not take the red and pink pills that were in my purse. They can be very dangerous to people they are not prescribed for. Also, it devastates me not to have my pictures. Please leave them in my garage. Believe me, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to answer this question for a caller in Speak Out in Tuesday's paper wanting to know why we were in the Persian Gulf if we weren't fighting for oil. It's plain and simple why we are in the Persian Gulf: it is to keep this Saddam Hussein from obtaining nuclear weapons in the future that he could use against the United States. This man has no feelings for any living thing. I'm sorry it has to be the United States that stops him with their allies, but this man has to be stopped. He is a dictator like we have never seen before. He will stoop to anything to get power. I hope this answers your question. Stop him over there before he gets over here. Thank you very much.

I WOULD JUST LIKE to thank the person who found my purse in a cart on the parking lot of Food Giant on North Kingshighway on Monday and turned it into the office. I appreciate it very much, whoever you are. Thanks a lot.

TO THE PERSON who was appalled to read in the morning paper about a jury awarding $25 million to a Springfield family because the woman died during an abortion: What makes her life worth more than the baby she was aborting? He who is without sin cast the first stone. She may have been able to recoup her life and try to start things over. We are not to judge God's laws; we are only to try to live by them as much as we can and try to help other people, and not pass judgment on whether one person's life is worth more than another person's. That isn't for us to decide.

I AGREE WITH the caller that we do not need the pro-abortion people speaking out for us, but there are those who do need the pro-life people to speak out for them. They are the unborn children who are unable to speak for themselves and are being killed by their mothers.

I'M VERY EXCITED that the city of Cape Girardeau has established longer hours for the recycling drop-off facility on North Kingshighway; however, the article in the paper giving the extended hours was hidden in the middle of the paper, and I was wondering how many people are not aware of the new hours. Also, have the schools been notified of the paper-to-trees campaign? It would be great if all the children could collect their newspapers that their moms and dads get at home learn what the reasoning is behind all this as a school project. Thanks for having this program and making all the people become more aware of what they can do in order to help recycle our products. Thank you.

I COULDN'T AGREE more with the caller of Feb. 5 about Leslie Stahl. She is ridiculous. To think she has a razor-sharp mind. I'd like to see her pit it some time against William Buckley. As far as that's concern, all of CBS news except for the local news is the pits. Thank heaven she comes on when I have the TV on at 11. So I immediately turn it off. Otherwise I'm going to be so angry I'm not going to be able to get to sleep. I wish they would send her across the sea somewhere, clear to the other side of the world and let her get real. She should go back to the boon docks. Thank you.

I WAS READING about the annexation of land by Jackson, and in a way it reminds me of the war in the Middle East. Even though the residents of the area to be annexed got to vote, their votes aren't going to count. Jackson, the big country that it is, is going to come in and take them whether they want to be taken or not. Could you please tell how the annexation process is fair to the people who are to be annexed? If they say we didn't want this and we're not going to pay our taxes, Jackson's going to have them thrown in jail. How is that different from Iraq going into Kuwait and saying we need more land for growth, now you're ours?

I WISH SOME of these mothers who keep complaining about how the Cub Scouts dens are being run would take some of the time that they use just sitting around at home doing nothing, and volunteer to help them out and see just exactly what these women go through. Thank you.

I WAS JUST wondering why KFVS-12 took off the pictures that go along with that song on the yellow-ribbon commercial. My brother is in those pictures and we enjoyed looking at them. Thank you.

I THINK WE should keep our boys over there until we get Saddam Hussein out.

MUCH HAS BEEN said and done for child abuse and I think that is good to a certain point, but I think it's time somebody stepped in and did something about parent abuse. I would like to know if there is a hotline for parent abuse. A friend of mine has been abused, verbally and physically, by a teenage child. Thank you.

PRESIDENT BUSH IS again asking Congress to cut the capital-gains tax. He said it would create more jobs. If he was sincere in that, he and former president Reagan would have signed both the textile- and shoe-industry bill. That way it would protect the jobs that we already have. The capital-gains tax helps mostly the rich.

THIS IS TO the person who wondered why we are at war in the gulf. We are at war because a crazy man has taken over a small country and thought he could get away with it. Are we going to let Saddam Hussein take over the whole Middle East? America cannot protect one country and let a small country like Kuwait fall to a crazy dictator. P.S.: Please support our troops.

I'M VERY UPSET with the people who are protesting the war. I think they should all be drafted and sent to the Middle East, too. This is very upsetting to the Vietnam veterans and the veterans of other foreign wars. Thank you.

THE UNITED STATES doesn't need any enemies; it has news reporters.

I WOULD LIKE to know if others in the area share my concern that in this crisis situation we are not getting enough national news from our CBS affiliate. We are able to get one full hour in the early evening of local news and a half hour of national news. We are invited by Dan Rather to tune in after our local news for another program that they show later, but all I've ever been able to see is "Night Court." I think they could be more concerned about updates of the situation and more news. I wish that they would try to do better. Thank you.

I JUST SAW the report on TV about the bald eagles. They mentioned it's just like the elephants: Anybody that buys ivory should be punished just like the poachers who shoot them because you can't support that kind of activity. Thank you.

THIS IS TO whoever said all those long-haired men should be drafted and sent to Saudi Arabia. First of all, just because they have long hair doesn't make them bad people, and, if I were you, I would be ashamed wishing that another human being has to face war. Haven't you ever heard, don't judge a book by it's cover? I say you better get to know a person before you make any accusations about them. Thank you.

With Valentine's Day coming up, it would be nice to see if there would be some possible way to get together a large valentine to send to the people overseas in Saudi Arabia; maybe to some of the local people from around here wherever their units are at. I can't do anything. I can't go fight, but I'd like to see everybody come together in the area. Just get behind our troops and don't protest against the war. Maybe you can print this in there and maybe we can all get together and do something nice for them. Thank you.

HERE IT IS Tuesday night and a good movie comes on and it says in stereo where available. What's the only station in Southeast Missouri that doesn't give you stereo? KFVS. Channel 3 and channel 6 give you stereo. What a joke.

I WANT TO say something about the people raising cane about minors smoking. What is the purpose of having a law where you can't smoke at a certain age? I'm 15. I smoke, and you're not going to stop me. You're not going to stop any kid that smokes. Give it up, folks.

WELL, ONCE AGAIN I'm watching late-night news with Charles Kuralt and that Leslie Stahl. They don't know anything. Here they are interviewing a 90-something-year-old man that was in World War I with the mustard gas. They should be interviewing children of the men that lived through that. I was one of them. So he's blind. The blindness was not the major factor; it was the lungs. The gas masks in World War I were completely ineffectual. The only way they could breathe was to pull them off of their mouths and noses; so they got the mustard gas in their lungs, which indeed did do much, much damage throughout their lives. Some lived, some didn't. I'm the daughter of one that lived through it and he was never well from a young man until the day he died. They don't know what they're talking about. CBS should get real. Thank you.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND why the United States should be afraid of Iraq's threats to use chemical warfare. After all, they probably got the chemicals from the United States in the first place. Has everybody forgotten the nerve-gas tests that were done in the West, with all the dead animals; sheep, cattle, and, yes, even people? Don't tell me, tat for tat. That's the way it works. Thank you.

I'D LIKE TO share something that may help someone else out there. For me, I feel like it's almost too late. My mom stayed with dad for us kids, so she said, and she thinks she punished him by doing so. But here, after all these years, it hurt her worse. But most of all it hurt us kids. I hope this helps somebody else.

I SUPPORT THE Americans and I support the war against Iraq because he is a dictator and needs to be defeated. But I have heard on the news recently that we will rebuild and help the country after the war is over, and I say no. We did that before; why should we do it again? We have Americans here that need help. We're cutting Medicare, we have homeless people, and I say no. Thank you for listening to me.

I WANT NO more federal government; I want state government. I'll be happy to pay more taxes to my state than to a bunch of people a thousand miles away who neither know me nor my needs. Wouldn't it be wonderful to bring the control of our lives and our money back home? Then we would all know and have a say in what's going on. One small group who controls the lives and pocketbooks of the entire country is out of style. America has grown too big to put up with that. Thank you, Speak Out.

THERE ARE SO many things in this life that have become more and more unbearable. In fact, I find the only tolerable people to be those who pretend to be something they are not: the actors, singers, and entertainers. They are the only truth in this world. Thank you.

WE HAVE ALREADY taken in acres and acres of land in Jackson. It is time we people wake up and know we're asking for land we may not need for some time to come. It is taking advantage of people who have farmland and who want to stay where they are and as they are until they are needed. It is time for Jackson to wake up because we have been told by an honest alderman that we are growing short on money for needs and improvements. Why should we take in more and ask those people to bear that burden?

I THINK IT'S about time our soldiers over in Saddam Hussein's country be proud, but yet don't be as cocky as they are. I think that's how a few of our men have gotten killed over there. They get too cocky instead of going over there with one mission in mind, and that is to get rid of Saddam Hussein. We ought to go over there, do our thing, and then get back over in the United States and back to our families and back to our way of life. Thank you.

I HEARD SADDAM Hussein killed his wife because he caught her drinking a can of Busch beer. Thank you.

HELP SAVE CAPE Girardeau taxpayers from Show Me Center Director David Ross and other public-sector employees who seek the solution of a so-called problem by having the city council pass an ordinance so that the problem miraculously becomes an illegal activity. Mr. Ross doesn't want so-called ticket scalpers to buy tickets and then sell them for a profit to some rich people at the end of the line.

I JUST HEARD that in Missouri now you don't have to have a title notarized to buy or sell a car. Doesn't that sound a little bit dangerous, considering anybody could take your title and sign it and sell your vehicle since it doesn't have to be notarized to prove that you sold it? I just don't understand that kind of reasoning. Thank you.

You heard correctly. Effective in August 1989, the Missouri Department of Revenue decided the signature of a notary no longer was required on vehicle titles.

THIS IS CLETUS Todt with the Exchange club. I'd like to tell everyone about our dance we're going to have at the Arena. It will be on March 8 and the proceeds will go to the SEMO Crime Lab. My number is 335-5829, if you want to contact me for tickets or information. Thank you.

I AM APPALLED. It's 9:45 Wednesday morning and I was sitting in the living room of my apartment and I just can't believe what I witnessed. An old car stopped in front of my building, an old woman jumped out and stole two of our newspapers. I just don't understand what type of people would steal newspapers. Thank you.

I HEARD THE Marines caught Saddam Hussein in a telephone booth dialing 911. Thank you.

IRAQ PULLED A sneak attack on the Marines with their guns turned back as a sign of giving up. Then when they got there they opened fire on them. They are surrounded now so kill all of them. An old Ex-Marine.

I WAS JUST wondering what the commander-and-chief was thinking when he let an attack come in and kill our Marines. I don't think he knows his job too well. All he does is talk. This is a sad situation. The United States does not realize what kind of a man that Saddam is. He will not back down on anything and he's going to win this war if it takes two years. Thank you.

WITH SO MANY people complaining about what we call the federal government, how can we say that we're happy with the way we live our lives? How much money goes to feed, entertain, and amuse those who are gifted with a talent of gab? Congressmen who rule us ruin our lives. I would rather blaze a trail to my destination, make my own decision on to what my congressman will be paid and whether or not he deserves a raise, and whether my child will fight the war my congressman decides to wage. I had rather be free to fail as an independent person, state or country than to be in bondage to a federal government. I'd rather teach my own child the three R's and let him think for himself than have somebody else tell him what he must think and believe. It's getting worse and worse and I dread to think what robots our grandchildren will be without them even realizing it. It's time to get out of this mess before our children and grandchildren are slaves to it. Thank you.

I WAS WONDERING anybody could tell me how parents can do something about getting their kids out of foster care. My kids have been in for almost a year and the social workers are giving us a raw deal. I was wondering if there is anything I can do and how to do it. Thank you.

I WAS WONDERING if there was anywhere in the Cape area where someone could go for alcohol-abuse counseling when they don't have any insurance and not much money. They have tried AA and that wasn't the answer. They need more in-depth counseling. I'd sure appreciate it if you could let me know. Thank you.