SPEAKOUT

Bad checks and hungry kids

I WAS calling about somebody who called Speak Out about writing a bad check. I too have wrote bad checks to make sure that my kids had food, that my baby had diapers. And the sad thing is, I didn't have the chance to pay the service charges or pay off the bad checks, so I went to jail. The judge told me point blank if I had written the checks because I was addicted to drugs, I could have gotten off easier. That's pretty pathetic. Here you have children screaming "Mom, I'm hungry, I'm hungry." So you write a check even though you know it's not there in the bank account. I'd do it a thousand times again and again.

Who's going to call Speak Out?

I ATTENDED the SEMO football between Southeast and Truman State, and the talk of the game was who was going to call Speak Out the next day and complain about the loud noise from the announcer. Every time he talked, his voice broke up. It was rather funny was that the big talk was how somebody needed to call Speak Out about this.

Friends don't use national TV

SEN. LIEBERMAN of Connecticut, I'm really appalled. I certainly can appreciate your stand on high morals. However, you claim to be a friend of the president. I'm beginning to wonder if you're a pseudo-friend. You could have written a letter to him and told him that personally, but I think it was uncalled for you to get on national TV and say how high morals are and the need to be apologetic. I think the president has been very apologetic. He made a bad mistake. He did a bad thing. I don't know what more he could do. Everyone said if the president would come clean and apologize, they would forgive him. Well, they don't like the way he apologized. And first thing you know, even if he would resign, they wouldn't like that.

Don't stay where you're not wanted

YOUNG FOLKS who have no children would probably tell me that times have changed. However, my parents taught me almost 70 years ago to never stay where I'm not wanted. Truth and common courtesy never change. Only fads and styles do. Bill Clinton doesn't have the decency to resign. I guess his mama never taught him to get away from where he's not wanted, not to go where he's not wanted. He'll hang around where he's not wanted until hell freezes over. Thank God he doesn't have to give a State of the Union Address at this time. He would lie, as usual, and say we're in great shape thanks to him. But thanks to Bill Clinton, the union is falling apart. The stock market is shaky, and I'm paying almost $4 a pound for butter.

Capitalize on wisdom

RIGHT ON, I say to Professor Walter Williams for his "Common sense vs. experts" recently included in the Southeast Missourian. In my book, Professor Williams is 100 percent correct. Our congressional leaders and our state leaders are devoid of any fortitude. Not even one of them is focused on concrete measures or is even promoting any actions that could turn around this wonderful country. It frightens me that our entire country is racing down the path of our eventual demise. Please, citizens of America, let each one of us begin to capitalize on the wisdom of Professor Williams and each of us to start at once to take his advice and begin to take action accordingly.

Burton should go too

I THINK it's time to get rude and crude about things. If Dan Burton thinks he can knock up his girlfriend and run around being so sanctimonious, it's about time somebody did some butt kicking. He doesn't belong in Congress. He belongs out of the country. He called the president a scumbag. He couldn't get up that high on his best day.

Front-page news

IN LOOKING AT the paper, I saw several articles that I felt should have been on the front page. First and foremost, that the murder charges against the innocent 7- and 8-year-old boys in Chicago that they have been dropped because evidence proves the murder was obviously committed by a pedophile. That should have been on the front page. Another article I found very interesting was a Republican from suburban Indianapolis admitting to an illicit love affair and fathering a love child. He was the one who called our president a scumbag. So what does that make him? That should have been on the front page. A third one, very important I felt, was Poshard uncovering payoffs and cover-ups in the Illinois secretary of state's office. Women were getting $600 payoffs. Why wasn't that on the front page? Instead, there was a half-page of coverage of Mark McGwire, a big article about Benton's queen for a day and more news on methamphetamine. We've heard enough about all that, and who cares about a queen for a day? I guess this is typical small-town hick mentality. I'd like to see the interesting articles on the front page even if they are against the Republicans. And certainly if someone's innocent, let's put it on the front page.

Other university needs

SO SEMO State University wants the city of Cape Girardeau to go in with them to build a fine arts center and bring in cultural events. I thought that's what the Show Me Center was for. Besides, what exactly is the purpose of the Osage Community Centre building for the city of Cape? I don't understand why SEMO University doesn't take care of the basic needs like reducing the tuition so students can afford to go to school in the first place. And since they seem to have an extra $7.1 million to help fund the River Campus, why don't they bring the campus they have now up to par as far as handicap accessibility goes?

Plenty of scumbags

WILL TRIPP and Ken Starr go after that campaign finance investigator Dan Burton for his adultery and illegitimate child? No, he admitted it. Besides he was a senator from Indiana at the time. Rather than impeach old Burton who called Clinton scumbag, they promoted him to Washington. Oh, well, in Dan's case he doesn't want talk about it anymore. He confessed. That's enough. Our reporters say they have the right to ask Clinton about his affair over and over ever since he admitted it. When Rep. Dan Burton starts as investigator of campaign finances again, he should be asked about his adultery as many times as they ask the Democrats. What's the point? Both parties have scumbags. We just don't know who they all are at this time.