SPEAKOUT

SMOKERS, YOU ARE killing yourself and others. The Cape Public Library has a number of books about the harmful effects of smoking and about how to quit this vicious habit.

I AM CALLING to complain about trash pickup in Scott City. Having to have the trash out to be picked up by 6 is impossible for those of us who like to sleep in a little later. You really can't put your trash out there at night because of all the roaming animals. Thank you.

I'M CALLING IN regards to Family Services in this county. It seems as though I don't understand any of it. You get down there and report everything you make, what you have to have to get by, and you can be turned down. I'm a senior citizen. I had heart bypass surgery and my medication is over $300 a month alone, plus what I have to pay for utilities and rent. While I was sitting there a girl came in with two babies and no husband and had her boyfriend with her. She went in there and got food stamps and money for her rent. I know of another woman that has three kids and she is shacking up with another man. She's divorced and she gets her rent, groceries, clothing and everything else while living with another man. Thank you.

HELLO. I'D LIKE to comment on a column in the Wednesday, May 29, paper by K.J.H. Cochran in regard to Popeye comic strip information. I've been reading Popeye starting about 50 years ago, just two or three years after it began. Much of this information in the column is different from the Popeye I've been reading. The lady's name was Olive Oyl rather than Olie Oly as you have in the column. Swee-Pea was a foundling adopted by Popeye and was always portrayed as a boy, as I recall, not a girl. The letter "T" was never used in the word Sweet; it was just Swee-Pea. Popeye and Olive Oyl were not married in this comic strip that I read. Pluto was Popeye's rival, always chasing after Olive Oyl. Another character that wasn't mentioned here was Wimpy, who was never satisfied in his appetite for hamburgers. He was about as famous as the others. I just wonder if this article was to see if we were paying attention. Thank you.

I'D LIKE TO thank my wonderful neighbors for killing yet another pet of mine. These are the same people that claim to be Christians, but they don't know about the Bible saying that you must love your neighbor as yourself and love does not work evil to one's neighbor. They have no love for their neighbor and they spread rumors to hurt our family. We pity you, neighbors. You have small hearts and much smaller brains.

I AM APPALLED that Cape Girardeau public schools do not provide air conditioning for their students, teachers, cafeteria workers and janitors. The only people who do have air conditioning are the principals and the secretaries. As a parent I feel that something must be done. I would like to see all air conditioners in Cape Girardeau be turned off from the hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. This includes restaurants, hospitals, offices, grocery stores, clothing stores, homes, and especially the Cape Girardeau board office on Clark Street. It is only when adults sit in the heat all day for seven hours that they will truly know what children suffer through all day. I'm not interested in hearing the argument that if children were home they would be playing outside in the heat anyway. It simply isn't true; children don't play in the heat for seven hours at a time. I don't think anything will be done to improve the situation until we as parents demand it. Thank you very much.

I AGREE WITH the comments about the traffic lights in Cape. Tens of thousands of cars daily go from one traffic light to another on William, Independence, and the other major arteries, and they pull away from one red light just to be stopped at the next. Major cities and even towns smaller than Cape that have a main drag are able to coordinate these lights. Tens of thousands of drivers in Cape are daily wasting time and causing unnecessary traffic congestion. And think of how much gas is being wasted as you crawl from one red light to the next. Thank you.

MOST OF THE people who work on the line at canneries are interested only in getting paid for a day's work. They are not really concerned about the health and welfare of the people who buy those products. There was a grasshopper in a can of beans that I had planned to prepare for dinner. So do you know what we are putting into our stomachs unless we grow it and clean it ourselves? I know that carelessness can cause death. A sober person can be just as careless and cause just as many deaths on an assembly line as a drunk can cause on the streets. Thank you.

I READ AND heard various comments basically stating that the public should put behind them the controversy concerning the athletic situation at Cape Central. I personally think that this subject should be kept at the forefront until every member of the Cape Girardeau school board is voted out of office and replaced with citizens who won't bow to the pressures of a bunch of has-beens whose primary purpose is to relive their glory days through their children. Since graduating from Central I've lived in the Sikeston and Springfield, Mo., school districts. My children presently attend Jackson schools. I've seen parental pressure and favoritism in each of these districts but they don't even come close to comparing with Cape Girardeau. We are now in the second generation of this nonsense. The only place that Cape voters can stop this is at the ballot box.

MAY 31. Anyone out there who has read Dear Abby this morning, please notice "Only in America." Clip it out and mail it to your congressman. Thank you.

OKAY, CABLE SUBSCRIBERS, this is a great time to place your opinion about cable options. Scott City and Perryville already get KPLR and the Cardinals games. We want them too. TCI, your ratings would increase and improve a great deal on the surveys if KPLR were included. Do you get the message? We want St. Louis. I'd rather have St. Louis than Paducah. Now is the time for KPLR.