THE PUBLIC MIND: READER WONDERS, `IS THIS AMERICANISM?'

To the Editor:

I fought the Germans in World War II.

Now is it time to fight a few Americans.

Maybe you think it was fun to sleep with a pistol under your pillow for eight months. You try it for eight months on a thin pillow. Look around: progress is getting worse. We spend most of our time making money to buy things that are not repairable but good looking.

We build more roads, bridges and larger buildings for factories that are foreign owned. Is this Americanism?

Food is processed and doped in embalming fluid to keep it from spoiling while being shipped hundreds of miles.

How many people eat vegetables from their own garden? A bikini and hoe handle will give you a tan and a good appetite.

A large part of our money is spent on building larger and more churches, schools, banks, ball parks, motels and lawn mowers. Home supplies we use once a year or are thrown in the big garbage dump when used.

It is not good to me to see a foreign flag flying over a factory or any other building except their embassy.

It is no doubt they love their flag, but take it home and look at it.

If they are in America, they should look at our flag.

Like I said, did I go through hell to look at their flag in my back yard?

I can think of very few things that do not have a law controlling it.

The air so far can be used freely without cost, but with all the motors running and polluting it how long will it be usable?

We are stomped on and condemned for smoking tobacco and it is supposed to be an honor to have a smoke-free place. Where would the revenue come from if not from tobacco? Your food!

I had rather sleep under the steering wheel of my car than spend up to a hundred dollars in a smoke-free motel and listen to a roaring air conditioner to keep from suffocating.

Half of the people in the United States need to stop and smell the daisies.

Pay off your debts and don't make any more than you have to. One of our biggest downfalls is trying to get ahead of our neighbors.

How many men do you see working in a store any more?

I am sure God meant for a man to earn a living for his family, not a woman.

It is a sad world when it takes two people to exist like this.

The only thing I can see that is improving is the foliage on the trees here at Cape Girardeau. They look at least 60 percent better than they did a year ago.

We live in a Garden of Eden and don't know it. Very few things we can't grow and eat from our back yard, but most of our food is shipped many miles. Freedom of selling anything from your own home is disappearing fast.

I put out a large yard sale five days and made $50 and got beaten out of a hundred. I thank God for Social Security.

I had my congressman to check my Army medals through proper channels and that is very good and I am thankful to all concerned. What bothers me is that as great a country as we live in cannot afford to give me six air medals instead of one and a small piece of metal one fourth of an square for the other five.

Let us take the five stars from a general and give him a one-fourth inch one.

When I was young I knew all the people personally within five miles of our home. Today, I am 70 and see two across the fence from my home. They both work and have no time to talk. The old is supposed to teach the young, but who has time to listen or care?

Dennis O. Karraker

Cape Girardeau