Speak Out 12/9/01

Message to justices

THE RECESSION we're in started the very time the U.S. Supreme Court put George W. Bush in as president. The people quit buying to show their disapproval and are still showing it. Naturally, when people quit buying, the manufacturers have to quit making things. After cutting interest rates 10 times since Bush took office, things are not any better. What do you think the people are trying to tell the Supreme Court? They're saying they made the wrong choice.

Unqualified hiring

THERE'S BEEN much recent controversy about Southeast Missouri State University's recent hiring of individuals who were not qualified by the university's own standards to be hired. One recent caller, calling residents of the area narrow-minded, said we should wake up and grasp the difficult concept that there are plenty of qualified minorities to hold professional positions at colleges, law firms and corporations, which makes me question why the university has taken the time to hire some people who were not qualified.

A good contract

IF THE Contract With America was so bad, how come Bill Clinton promoted most of it and took credit for most of it? It was actually a good thing.

A medical issue

I WAS a little surprised at the question in Dr. Gott's column. A woman asked if she could have sex during her period. That seemed like a typical male response, and I would like any female physician to address this. It would seem that menstruation is a time that God gives your body to rest. I just don't think it seems healthy doing this during that time, and it also seems unclean during this time. Goodness sakes, can't a man leave a woman alone for a while?

Free undercoating

WHO SAYS nothing's free? For a free vehicle undercoating, just drive on Route H between Highway 51 and Highway 34 in Bollinger County. There is a catch: You'll have to spend about three hours removing the excess asphalt and rocks thrown on the fender and body moldings. But what the heck. It beats paying big bucks. It also gives you a sense of accomplishment of a winterizing project you did yourself.

High-tech police calls

IS THE Cape Girardeau Police Department becoming too high-tech? When you call the police department, you get a computerized recording that asks you questions and gives you several options. If you need to talk to somebody for an emergency, you're to call 911. If you call 911 on a cell phone, you get the Highway Patrol, then the Highway Patrol calls the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Don't they want to be bothered? What is the problem?

Dire prediction

I WOULD like to make a comment to Coach Gary Garner. If he doesn't start recruiting better, he can start playing all of his games back over at old Houck Fieldhouse -- and he would have trouble filling that up.

'Hee-Haw' defender

I RESENT the number of recent attacks launched by Speak Out callers against the television program "Hee-Haw." Everyone knows that without the tireless work of Roy Clark and Buck Owens, the Camp David accord could never have been signed in the late 1970s. Further, I have to say that I regret that Don Bedell beat me to the punch in contributing a great deal of money to the River Campus project. I had hoped to contribute several million dollars to Southeast Missouri State University in hopes that the school for the performing arts would be named the Junior Sample School for the Performing Arts. Further, I had hoped that by contributing the money that I could have changed the campus radio station KRCU's name to KORN, the radio station portrayed on "Hee-Haw."