Speak Out 04/19/04

Thanks for cleanup

I'M CALLING to say thank you to city workers in Cape Girardeau who picked up trash during spring cleanup week. It's a wonderful service that the city provides, and the workers do a great job. Thanks very much.

Leave it alone

CHANGING THE mascot of Southeast Missouri State University is a stupid idea. The Indians and Otahkians each have their own identities. What happens if Red Wolves is chosen? We all know what a female canine is called. How embarrassing for the Otahkians. I can see the committee sure put a lot of thought into the choices. I say leave well enough alone.

Use bags instead of cans

I WOULD like to see Cape Girardeau ban trash cans with lids. They blow all over the place and could cause accidents. I would like everyone to use plastic bags and tie them up.

Leaving trash behind

I'M A taxpayer. I also pay for my trash pickup in Jackson. The city passed a regulation stating that we could not have our trash at the curb in trash cans, but when we put it out in trash bags and dogs get into it, they leave trash on the ground. The people who collect the trash also leave the trash on the ground and refuse to pick it up. What kind of service is that for my money? I wish they would control this.

Lack of dental care

MOST DENTISTS do not want to accept Medicaid. The lower payments Medicaid approves, as well as the paperwork involved, make that understandable. What is incomprehensible is that many of these same dentists want to deprive lower-income people of the dental care that Cross Trails Dental Clinic could provide for them, using a sliding scale geared to their income. Shame on them.

Evolution experiment

I RECALL, while studying evolution in my college biology class just a few months ago, that there was an experiment to explain how life was quite possibly started. It is called the Miller-Urey experiment, which took place in 1953. This experiment demonstrated how chemicals in the earth and atmosphere would combine to form organic compounds that would eventually form the predecessors of life.

Going too far

I THINK the spring cleanup is good, and I hope we can continue to have it in the years to come. I am also OK with people looking through items put out. However, this week I set out some items and also set out my recycle trash. Someone went through my items, poured my recycle trash in my yard and took two of my recycle bins. I'm sure they were aware trash was in the bins since they dumped it in the yard.

Government clout

GOVERNMENT EDUCATION and the income tax are two of the most despicable spokes on the cycle of state violence. Children are viciously molded for more than a decade into wards of the state who will obediently spend the rest of their lives paying to indoctrinate the youngest helpless generation. Although many complain that the problem with schools is that they don't get enough tax dollars, I doubt any amount would be sufficient to make the public education system efficaciously teach one obvious truth, a value that almost everyone mostly observes, except as it concerns the government: Forcefully taking property that is not yours is theft, and coercively detaining a child is kidnapping.

Talking on cell phone

I WAS at a stoplight and saw one car in particular that made me think of a few Speak Out comments about giving people fines for talking on cell phones while driving. I don't think that would work around here. The particular car I saw was a police car, and the policeman was talking on a cell phone. I've seen this many times.

Speed Trap Parkway

SOMEONE SAID he was offended by the name "Shawnee Parkway." I agree. It is unacceptable. It should be renamed Speed Trap Parkway. It would more accurately reflect what that highway is used for.

Junior high concert

HATS OFF to the seventh-grade orchestra and band students of Central Junior High School. Their spring concert was just a delight to listen to. A big round of thanks to the music staff and everyone who made it possible. Keep up the good work. What a way to kick off spring.

Keep it all year

ONCE AND for all, will someone explain to me the reason for daylight-saving time and why we can't stay on it year-round?

Spoiling the child

WHEN IT came to child-rearing, my dear old granddaddy had a saying: "You give a pig and a little boy everything they want, and you end up with a very good pig but a very bad little boy."

Money-saving idea

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI State University's decision to change the mascot is definitely a money-saving idea. It will save me money every time I refuse to support their alumni fund raisers because they chose to give in to the politically correct crowd. I vote to reinstate the Indian as the mascot.

Jefferson landscaping

JEFFERSONELEMENTARY School ought to get a chamber of commerce landscaping award. Jefferson has the prettiest landscape in town. Those kids do such a great job helping take care of it. If you like tulips and creeping phlox, you'd better see it soon or it will be gone. Those kids are proud of their school, and it really shows.

Competing predators

WITH ALL the talk about mascot change at Southeast Missouri State University, there is still an issue that has not been addressed: the marching band. If the athletic teams are renamed, will the marching band be renamed to match? Those of us who were Leroy Mason's students remember the history of the name and the reason for the uniform colors of blue and gold. It would be a shame to lose that history of the Golden Eagles, but I can see that coming. After all, if a football team is named Red Hawks, then a competing large predatory bird would not be a good name for the marching band.