SPEAKOUT

I WOULD JUST like to say thanks to the Earl Simpson family for putting in such a nice race park at Benton and to the Cape Phone No. 9 car for such a nice performance. What a racer. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to personally thank everybody responsible for the new race track at Benton. Our quiet little community with so many dreams has now become a nightmare. It was so loud Saturday night that it sounded as though it was in our front yard even though we're a quarter of a mile from there with lots of trees between us. I'm looking forward to elections. I intend to vote against everybody that's in office right now who approved this. Benton, I'm not the only one feeling this way. Thank you.

I PAID TAXES on your grade school. I paid taxes for your high school education. I am paying taxes for your college education. Can't you even pay your own babysitter? You have known what to expect going to college and raising a family. Don't expect everybody else to be paying your bills. Thank you.

WHO IS TO blame for all the uneasiness and worry about Quayle becoming president? No one but George Bush. Was he worried about the country when he chose him for a running mate? No. After so long, unqualified people like Reagan and Bush administrations' appointment will take a toll on this country and the people. Quayle was some insurance to keep Bush in office. There's the reason. Ask yourself, did I vote for this and am I going to vote this way again?

NOW THE UNIVERSITY wants to get into the day-care center business. First it was the restaurant business, then the convention business; next it will be a guest house to compete with motels. How about a car dealership or maybe a piano bar? You can always tax the business community to put yourself in business. Thank you.

THIS IS IN response to all these people writing about Northbridge. To whoever started these articles in Speak Out, where's your nerve? The children do have swing sets and jungle gyms as well as inside toys and do play with them. They ride on the street; there aren't any sidewalks out here. Get real, we all rode our bikes on the street. This street is a dead-end street, not a main thoroughfare. I don't have small children but do live on this street and I'm sick of reading this Northbridge stuff. Enough's enough. Address your problems with the guilty parents, not the whole county, and stop taking the mousy way out by calling Speak Out so no one knows your identity. Thank you.

I'M TIRED OF reading comments about Northbridge. Our children do not play with toys in the street. They ride their bikes in the street. Children ride their bikes on every street in this city and I'm tired of reading about how Northbridge is the only street that that happens on. Thank you.

We think most readers also are tired of reading about it. We, therefore, will not publish any more comments on the matter.

ALL THE HULLABALOO over the children in the Northbridge area reminds me of the time many years ago when I was a young mother living in a non-too-prosperous neighborhood in East St. Louis. One rainy morning I heard a frustrated mother a few doors down yell out to her children, Get out of that mud hole, you've got the whole street to play in. Thank You.

THIS IS IN response to the caller who was comparing the Christian schools, saying they are behind as far as equipment and so on. I have an article here by Paul Harvey and it's called "Comeback for Church Schools." He said that one of the fastest growing industries in the United States is the church school. There are approximately 18,000 elementary and secondary schools in the United States and their enrollment is growing at an average rate of 24,000 students per year. On an average, students from these schools are ahead of public school students by 4.5 percent in mathematics, 4.8 percent in science and 12.5 percent in reading. These Christian school students are less likely to drop out than their public school counterparts. Once they graduate they are 40 percent more likely to go to college. He also states that they have discussed that the church-related school children were too sheltered; they would not be able to emerge to deal with the problems of the real world. Well, they've since found out that the public school student is over sheltered; he is denied an understanding of rightness and wrongness. It is he who graduates naked and vulnerable. So how's that for the Christian schools? Thank you.

THIS IS IN regards to the Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week. What concerns us about the organization is the college gives the little darlings our taxpayer money to support their cause. What if we wanted to have a week to promote better morals and stronger faith and to give away a few Bibles? Would they give taxpayer money to support this cause? Oh no. Would they allow us to do this? Oh no. What does this tell us about our local college?

I THINK MR. Richards was right to question the trash issue that I saw the other day on the Cape council meeting. It's a shame the way that Mr. Barklage and Mr. Limbaugh respond to council members when they question city business and it comes up other than the way that those two want it to go. I'm glad someone is in there asking the right kind of questions.

I'M A WHITE, happily married heterosexual middle-aged, middle-income working mother of two. I'm a Christian, I smoke cigarettes and I have two dogs who bark sometimes. I've been reading Speak Out for a long time and never opened my mouth, but I feel like today is the day. I've lived in a city where there's no smoking allowed in public buildings, and believe me it's much more pleasant and much easier than you other smokers might think. I was appalled when I got here and found out you can smoke almost anywhere you want to. Good for you, Boatmen's Bank, I hope everybody else follows suit. To the woman who is losing her job and her husband won't pay child support, I want to say to her, honey, if there was anything I could do for you I would. I pray for you and urge everyone to do the same. To those who hate the gay and lesbian community so much, I pity you. I bet you all think you're the best Christians since Jesus Christ. I think the Bible says something about loving one another and doing unto others, doesn't it? It doesn't just say it for straight people; it meant it for everyone. Gays and lesbians have just as much right to bear lives as you do. To the pro-choice Christian lady, I wish there were more of you out there. You need to talk to that gay and lesbian hater. As for the man who was beaten while resisting arrest, he broke the law but that didn't mean that those L.A. officers did the right thing. You have to agree they used a little over kill. And to all of you people out there who call in so worried over little things, you all are going to kill yourselves if you don't chill out a little bit. I used to be like you but I realized my life isn't long enough to waste it worrying about little things that don't matter to a hill of beans. I'm a much happier person since I did and much nicer to be around. Thank you, Speak Out, for my time.

THE SHOW ME Center is really lame. I wish they would get some more rock concerts. Thank you.

I AM A PUBLIC-school teacher who is tired of public education being the whipping boy for everyone from Gov. Ashcroft on down to Peter Kinder. If you want to improve the quality of teachers in our schools you need to attract high-quality individuals. If you want to attract top graduates, you need to compete with private industry in offering financial and other incentives to enter the teaching field. I agree that higher salaries for teachers will not solve all of education's problems, which are related to a multitude of societal problems that haven't appeared overnight and won't likely be solved overnight. I could not help but laugh over Kinder's assumption that Catholic schools boast greater success with students and, therefore, need to become more imitative of Catholic schools. He obviously doesn't think the fact that parents in Catholic schools have chosen to make financial sacrifices such as tuition, uniforms, and so on are indicative of parental interest in the student. Good teachers can do a lot to shape the lives of young people. We can give them skills if they will accept the responsibility to learn, we can give them hope and we can even do our best to teach them how to be better people. Despite even an excellent teacher's best efforts, she cannot work miracles; there are too many factors working against us. It's useless to compare American education to education anywhere else in the world. Our society is much more ethnically, culturally, and socially diverse than any other nation and our educational aims are different. We have our own unique set of problems to solve, and it is going to require much thought and research to solve them.

WHILE I'M ALL for hiring more well-qualified minority teachers in the Cape schools, I'm also disturbed by what appeared in a recent article in your paper. The article flatly stated that black students who graduated from SEMO under the new Grow Your Own scholarship program were guaranteed jobs in the Cape schools. I can only wonder what could be meant by guaranteed. That word doesn't leave much, if any, leeway, you know? Are these students guaranteed a job even if their grades and teaching skills aren't the best of all applicants? If minority recruitment is really the goal, as Mr. Englehart says, then the new program would solve that problem without the guarantees.

I WOULD LIKE to congratulate the Professional Black Men's Club for the project Grow Your Own. This is a worthwhile program for minority use in Cape Girardeau. However, I do have a question for the Cape Girardeau school board: how can you guarantee teaching jobs for these students and not be prejudiced to other qualified students who might may be graduating at the same time? Thank you.

THIS IS TO the person who feels they were being treated unfairly at the food pantry in the church basement. There are several I think six or eight food places in the city of Cape Girardeau and you really have your choice which one you want to go to. But I'm sure you weren't mistreated. In fact, the biggest part of the people who come to our food bank compliment us on how straight we are, that we are fair with everyone. Thank you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH IS visiting the United States and the White House. I'm wondering how big of a check in foreign aid that she will return to her country with. It seems that's all these dignitaries come to the U.S for, to carry the taxpayers' money back home with them. Thank you.

TO THE PERSON who called about wanting KPLR, I agree; not only for the Cardinals baseball games but in the winter it's a good time to see the Blues play hockey. Since they were the second-best team in the league, I think that TCI should get KPLR. Thank you.

WE HAVE GOT some of the sorriest legislators in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. that I have ever seen. Why are these people wasting their time trying to come up with a bill for higher education? This is a time of recession; people are losing their jobs and some people don't have enough to eat. What is wrong with these people? Why don't these people in the state and federal governments get down to brass tacks and solve this recession, these lost jobs, and then pass a bill that the voters will buy in this state? I will not vote for any kind of a tax increase regardless what it is for until our country starts waking up and sweeping their own porches before they go to the foreign lands. We have had cuts in social programs for the past eight to 10 years and this federal deficit is no better than it was six, eight years ago; in fact, it's worse. Somebody is not doing their job. Eighth-grade students could run the state better than it is being run now. I believe they have more knowledge than the ones in there. Get the jobs, then we'll pass your tax issue. Thank you.

THERE HAVE BEEN several responses in Speak Out in regards to the $500,000 insurance requirement for licensing contractors in Cape Girardeau. Most have said that it will hurt the small guy. If they would have any sense about this at all, they would realize, by not having this insurance they are placing themselves, their families and their customers in jeopardy in case any accident might occur. If you do any work for any legitimate companies as a subcontractor, they won't even consider you if you can't prove at least that much insurance, and in most cases more. Any people that have any work done around the house better make sure that the firms they are dealing with have insurance because, if something does happen they will be paying for any damage themselves if the contractor does not have insurance, which in all likelihood will raise their insurance costs. This would also include what is called completion insurance for protection after the job is completed. If you have any questions on this, call your insurance agent and he'll let you know what the facts really are. Thank you.

I WANT TO thank the Show Me Center for bringing the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus to Cape Girardeau. I think it's really great when the Show Me Center brings quality entertainment that my children can get excited about. In the past we've enjoyed Sesame Street and Disney on Ice, and we need more quality, family shows like that. Thank you.

I DO NOT live in Kentucky and, after having seen the political ads on television, I'm glad.

I HOPE THE Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, will be a candidate in 1992 for president. He's a Democrat and the best man for the job. He'll have my vote.