SPEAKOUT

Market forces and farm prices

SEVERAL PEOPLE have weighed in on the recent debate regarding whether or not farmers should receive government aid. Most of the callers seem to feel that farmers should receive government aid. Two of the callers said that farmers should receive aid because undeserving welfare recipients receive government aid. Another caller said that farmers should receive government aid because farmers can't set their own prices for their goods. I was unaware that this was the case. I don't believe that other industries can set their own prices for their goods and services. If this were the case, we wouldn't be able to get a cup of coffee in this country for under $200, and this newspaper would probably be priced at about $150 to $200 if the producers could set their own price. Market forces in this country set the price. In fact, if left to their own devices without government props and subsidies, market forces would make farm products much cheaper than they are now. Back to the person who felt that farmers should receive government aids because undeserving welfare recipients receive government aid: That is plainly absurd. The caller also said Lockheed Martin was bailed out and as a result farmers should be bailed out. Just because a wrong was committed in this country some time ago, and the wrongs of welfare continue, doesn't mean they should be allowed elsewhere. If that were the case, we ought to start allowing the enslavement of people in this country again, because after all, we allowed it in the 1860s.

Repent, ye sinners

I'M SURPRISED that the editors of the Southeast Missourian are not aware that the phony "compassionate conservative" garbage is wearing thin with voters. Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, Henry Hyde and Dan Burton are four of the main reasons why. To have admitted adulterers trying to foist their family values line on the voters really makes them look like a bunch of phonies and makes anything espoused by them highly suspect. In the law, there's a doctrine of clean hands. Congress doesn't have clean hands at all. Newt's mistress testified that they have been sexually intimate for the last six years. Repent, ye sinners. The Bible doesn't say "stone throwers get the first sin."Read entire Bible at interchange

WHILE I'M sitting at the stoplight at Scott City, I prefer to read a book. A very long book. I find the Bible is a nice book to read. In particular, I like to read about the trials of Job. I'm sure there was one more trial they left out. That would be sitting at the Scott City stop light.

Don't make me pay for others

I'M READING the comment, "Medical system is broken." This person is talking about getting a national health-care program. The caller says every citizen must have the right to live without fear of financial ruin by our antiquated system. I suppose he's talking about the medical system. No citizen has a right to expect some other citizen to pay for his needs. Every citizen has the right to go out and work and earn money to pay for his needs. I think we ought to get off the idea that other people owe us something. Where have they been all their life? What have they been doing? I know there are people who think others should give them everything they have. I don't agree with them. I work for mine, and I give part of mine away. But no one has a right to expect me to give it to them because they don't want to provide for themselves. It's from my own free will.

Good reasons to give thanks

LIKE ANOTHER reader, I would like to see more thanksgiving instead of complaints. I'd just like to say that for today I'm thankful when I awake that God gave me another breath to breathe and that he blessed me with good health and a wonderful son. Thank God.

Leaves don't fall on a schedule

THE LAST city I lived in solved its leaf-removal problems. The city had one truck with a vacuum unit mounted on the front that was rather jury-rigged, but it worked. The second unit, which became the city's primary unit for leaf collection, was really a smooth-operating unit. It was a city truck that had a 16-foot-long dump bed on it and a snowplow frame on the front. They added expanded mesh sides and top for the unit and mounted the vacuum unit on the snowplow frame on the front. They then put on a spring-loaded, hydraulically controlled nozzle unit that would go several feet over the curb in front of this truck. This unit started working when the leaves began to fall and ran most every day until all the leaves were gone. They only used the original unit for a week or two during the heaviest leaf fall. These units required only one man each to operate, and it was nothing like the goofy idea of expecting the leaves to fall on the schedule of the city. That system worked. Let's try it.

Just burn all the leaves

I LOVE fall weather and the aroma of burning leaves. I think everyone should burn their leaves. It would sure save the city a lot of money.

More concerns about nurse staffing

I JUST read the comment from the hospital nurse who feels hospital staffing patterns aren't enough to give proper care. Boy, is that ever true. I'm also a hospital nurse. One of the things you need to ask when you are a patient in the hospital, when you ring your light and don't get any response, instead of immediately getting mad at the nurse, when that nurse does come, ask point-blank how many patients are assigned to your nurse and how many are assigned to your nurse's aide. We can't tell you unless you ask. You will be extremely surprised what they're asking of us these days. Another thing, if your doctor's late getting there to discharge you, please don't blame the nurse. We can't call them and ask them to discharge you. We'll get fired.

Pickle your liver, but don't drive

THIS IS in reference to the two people who called in about the troopers getting "notches on their guns." First of all, the troopers can't be everyplace at once. You're complaining about the fatal accident on Missouri Highway 72 involving the "stone-sober driver who was passing in a no-passing zone." I guess you think the troopers would ignore this if the subject wasn't drunk. Recently, within the last two weeks, there was a one-vehicle accident on Highway 72 west of Patton in which three subjects were injured. The driver was drunk. Troopers were investigating the accident and had the scene marked off with flares, and the emergency lights on patrol vehicles were activated. Another drunk driver drove up on the scene, lost control and struck a ditch. I am so tired of hearing people complain about troopers sitting outside of bars of community-service organizations. The drunks are going to complain no matter who arrests them. Until you see what the troopers see when they work the fatal-injury accidents involving drunks, keep your mouth shut. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. If you don't want to get arrested for DWI, don't drive drunk. I don't care if you want to pickle your liver, just don't get behind the wheel when you are drunk.

Route N looks like a wilderness

I WAS just reading in the paper about Mo

DOT selling its tractors, mowers and maintenance equipment for the highways. You think it's bad between Whitewater and Tilsit, go out Route N west of Delta. It looks like a wilderness. It looks like maybe bears live in there or something. There are thistles 10 feet tall. Weeds haven't been mowed since spring.

Night air leaves you gagging

I AGREE with the comment about the air smelling so bad. You try to open your windows to get some fresh air, and the smell makes you sick, especially early in the morning. The night air just knocks you over from the trash smell. I think the city ought to ban burning altogether. In St. Louis you cannot burn or you get a fine. The city should fine some of these people. Then they could buy new vacuum trucks to pick up leaves.

Forming a big mistrust

I'VE BEEN reading all the items in Speak Out about the police department writing tickets. Isn't it a shame that the citizens of Cape Girardeau are getting suspicious about the honesty of the police department? They've leaned on so many people and written so many tickets, that citizens are now forming a big mistrust for the police department. I hope the city manager is listening. I hope the city council is listening. Citizens, keep paying attention.

Newt Gingrich is no poster boy

FOR YEARS the Southeast Missourian quoted and agreed editorially with Newt Gingrich. On a recent "Capitol Gang" segment about the outrage of the week, Margaret Carlson's outrage showed the sanctimonious adulterer and phony Newt Gingrich promising to keep attacking Bill Clinton for his adulterous affair at the same time Newt was having an affair that was five years old an affair with a mistress who was about half his age. The kind of politician who would do this would have to represent the right wing of the Republican Party and advocate a tax cut at a time when the national debt is approaching $6 trillion. You right-wingers are a joke.

Another unsolved murder recalled

I WAS Interested in reading your front-page story about the unsolved murders in the area. I think you left one out that affected my life quite a bit. When I was about 5 years old in 1963, around about that time, a little girl was kidnapped and taken from her yard and never found again. I guess they assume she's dead. Several criminals since then have said that they know where she's buried, and so on. There's been a lot of hoopla about it over the years. You didn't mention that one. I remember about that time all the parents really panicked. It was really scary. You might want to go back and investigate that one too.

All those lights are blinding

I THOUGHT driving with brights on was a violation, but what about these cars that have four lights on the front? I thought they weren't supposed to be used except in bad weather. They nearly blind you.

We have a responsibility to speak

I WANT to comment to the person who said they were a born-again Christian and said we should stop calling people liberals and homosexuals and such. As a matter of fact, we should love these people, but we should not say homosexuality is acceptable before God. It's not. It's an abomination. God does not make abominations. People make themselves into abominations. Maybe the devil influences them. We should love these people but also point out, the way John the Baptist did to Herod and the way Jesus did to the Pharisees, their sins. Remember, if a man's going over a cliff, who loves him most: the person who tells him "Hey, you're going to fall over a cliff" or the person who says "Go on, brother, keep going" and lets him go over without warning him.

Two more top sports figures

I GUESS the newspaper will be thick if we keep adding to the top 25 sports figures of the century. I think there are a couple more names that have been forgotten. First, Richard Wilson, track runner. At one time he was named the fastest human being in the United states or the world, I forget which. And Jeffrey Wilson, a basketball player. And I'd like to comment on the paper writing about the Jackson woman who was too smart for the scam artist. If the scam artist reads this newspaper, he'll know what's going on.

Stop whining about Scott City interchange

I AM so tired of all the people who are slamming Mo

DOT for the interchange in Scott City that gets backed up. They're doing the best they can to straighten out the situation. It's not an easy task. They have the school on one side, the railroad station, businesses. What would you people suggest they take out? The school? Or how about the railroad station? Or I guess we could do without Burger King. It's not as easy as you guys seem to think it is. Timing those lights is hard because traffic is coming off the highway, and there are so many people coming from Cape going to Scott City or Kelso or wherever that come off that interchange. You can only do so much with so much room. You cannot take a cardboard box and make a mansion out of it. It's only going to go so far. So the next time you're sitting there at that light and you are upset because it's taking more than two or three minutes, you should look around, take a good inventory of the land and what's there and then call Mo

DOT and tell them what you think they should destroy. School. Railroad. Businesses. It's your choice. Myself, I think Mo

DOT's doing a great job. I'm very, very pleased with my highways.

We're paying for freedom of filth

AMERICA IS caught in a catch-22 situation between values and censorship. It can't uphold values as long as it allows Hollywood and all the smut venues to spew their filth to American youth. We see the results of it every day. The Hayes Office, overseer of Hollywood years ago, kept a brake on movies and decency, but it was abolished. Deep degradation has occurred ever since. So freedom-of-filth expression has taken a fatal toll on our nation and its previous values of morality. Freedom comes with a price. And America is sure paying drastically for filth freedom. Where and when will it all end.

Decatur doesn't deserve this

JESSE JACKSON and the NAACP poke their noses into every incident, no matter what, in any community to stir up racism. Decatur should tell these people to get out of their town and tell Jesse to take these boys with him to his residence. They all should be in jail. Some of these students involved are third-year freshmen with a combined absentee rate of 300 days in a year. Use waiting time to reflect

THIS IS in regard to the Scott City traffic light. Friday night at 5:35 we were going into Scott City from Chaffee. We counted 36 cars that made it through the red light off of the interstate. That is no time at all when you have time to sit and relax before you go home to face what has gone on that previous day. We need to reflect what goes on in our lives every day, and that's what I think you all should be doing as you impatiently wait for the light to change.

Lions clubs appreciate community support

BOTH CAPE Lions Clubs want to thank all the residents and mail carriers who helped make the recent Lions' "Looking for Lenses" campaign such a success. Special thanks go to KZIM and KISS for their help also. Where are youngsters getting cigarettes.

ISN'T IT illegal in Cape Girardeau for children 18 and under to be smoking a cigarette? If this isn't the case, I'm still concerned about the high school children who hang out at the gas station across the street from Central High School and the church parking lot close to the junior high school and behind the row of buildings next to Mc

Donalds. Where are they getting their cigarettes from? Why don't their parents know their children are smoking? Do they just not care.

We pay road taxes too

I CALLED to agree with the call about the Route F between Whitewater and Tilsit and Route Z from Route 00 west to Route F. I live on Route F and travel it and Route Z daily. The surface is horribly rough. The right of way hasn't been mowed, and it looks like a disaster. I think they're the worst-maintained state roads in Cape County. What worries me is, if they aren't going to take care of it now, what will happen when it comes time for snow removal? We must be the tail-end of some highway district and they don't care about us. But we pay taxes just like those who live on well-kept highways. I think it's time for someone to look into this and make some improvements. Congratulations to the Indians

I'D LIKE to congratulate the Jackson Indians for winning another district and conference championship. You all had a great season. Keep up the good work, Jackson coaches. From a Jackson Indian fan.

Test for drugs before issuing gun licenses

I HAVE a question for Peter Kinder. What are you going to do about the meth users and their ability to get and use guns? As is well known, the use of methamphetamine causes the regular user to be aggressive, paranoid and delusional. In addition to this, when these people are on meth they can go for days at a time without sleep. Giving people like this the right to carry guns is doing nothing but asking for trouble. With Dodge City East, also known as Cape Girardeau, being the center of the meth belt, something needs to be done to test for drug use before issuing gun licenses to druggies. What are you going to do, Peter? You're a gun advocate. I don't want to be shot by a druggie.

No need to run for mayor

SHOULD JIM Drury run for mayor? Why should he? We have no mayor. We have a city manager. The mayor here is just a figurehead. They hired a carpetbagger to come in at an exorbitant wage. The mayor has no power at all.

Another view of seat belts

I'VE READ in the paper where this couple was honored for rescuing this mother and her boy from a car. And well they should be. That was a very heroic thing to do. But I also notice that in trying to get this boy out, the rescuer was having trouble with the seat belt. Finally he got the boy free. Then he went back to the mother, and he couldn't get her seat belt to come lose. Finally he had to lay the seat flat and slide her out. They say seat belts save lives, and sometimes they do. But in this case, it could have meant two people burning to death because they couldn't loosen the seat belt. There's two ways to look at everything.

Band recognition was classy

I JUST recently attended the Central High School band annual banquet at the end of the year honoring the band seniors, members and parents. I just wanted to say that I was impressed. It was very classy. It speaks well for the individuals that the principal Randie Fidler, the head football coach Lawrence Brookins and the athletic director Terry Kitchen, were all in attendance. The band members all appreciated it very much that these people attended and watched their recognition.

Good experience at heart institute

I JUST wanted to express my appreciation to the professionals at St. Francis Heart Institute. I recently underwent a battery of tests there and was pleasantly surprised at the kindness and professionalism with which I was met. Everyone from the receptionist to my cardiologist was professional, kind and full of information. You should be very proud of yourselves.

Share a teacher's life

I'VE BEEN a bit troubled lately by what seems to be a round of teacher-bashing in this community. I'd just like to suggest that for those of you who think we are spoiled, please come share time with us in a classroom. Experience with us our joys, our challenges and our frustrations, and then you will have a real basis to express your opinions if you wish.

Good words for columnist, highway department

I WANT to thank Dr. Scott Gibbs for having the courage to speak out about how cigarette butts are litter in the paper. I think it was a great column, and I really applaud him for having the courage to say something to the people who are littering up the Disneyland with their cigarette butts. Another positive note, I want to thank the highway department for the work it has done on I-55 from Sikeston to Cape Girardeau. It's great. It's wonderful to travel the highway, and I appreciate the improvements being made. I have the fullest confidence that the traffic problem near Nash Road will be resolved soon.

Still more things to do on the interchange

HERE'S ANOTHER thing that you can do while you're waiting for the light to change at Scott City. I suggest that Burger King install a pick-your-own-hamburger type thing. You know, where you pick the cow you want your hamburger to come from. They slaughter it, they make the burger, they get it to you -- all before the light changes. It's possible, Burger King. Try it out.