SPEAKOUT

Save some money

MUCH HAS been published about the millions spent investigating lying under oath and disgracing the Oval office. I find it absolutely amazing that all the numbers involved can be crunched to obtain the so-called $40 million amount. What is more amazing is that no one can determine the cost for the president's Far East trip. You know, the one where more than 1,000 persons were involved, several airplanes, and vehicles. There have been estimates the president's trip cost nearly as much as the entire Starr investigation. Someone please tell me what we gained from that trip and why it is impossible to determine the cost. Just recently our first lady visited storm damage in the Caribbean, where she made a commitment of millions of dollars for storm-damage repair. Then on to South America, for what reason I do not know. The question: With all the government officials, why was she given the millions to disburse? What was the purpose for the South America trip extension? Who paid for the trip and what the cost? The newspapers and mainstream press have certainly been lacking in reporting this trip. I wonder why. There has been much discussion about punishing the president. Talk of impeachment, censure, you name it. My suggestion: Take away Air Force One. Ground the president and first lady. I believe this would cause both to resign. Just think of all the additional money that could be transferred to Social Security and saving the children -- by the village, of course.

Driving like maniacs

HAS ANYONE noticed how the young girls drive? Between 7 and 9 in the morning driving from Jackson to Cape, you're taking your life in your hands. They weave in and out of traffic, switching lanes and cutting people off and driving like maniacs. Where in the world did they learn to drive?

Need turn lane at new school

IN REGARDS to the new Notre Dame School, I think that it would really be beneficial if they would have a turn lane because the westbound traffic is really tied up.

Horses in midstream

I'LL TELL you something that I know to be a fact. Bill Clinton is eager to get us into a war because he does not want us to change horses in the middle of the stream, namely him. He will do anything in order to stay in office.

Grandma gets custody

I JUST want to know where the justice lies. I've got a son-in-law who has three children by a previous marriage. His ex-wife and her brother got picked up for a methamphetamine lab. When they did, grandma came and picked the children up, took them out of state. Then the father went to court to fight for these children and the judge gave the children to his ex-wife's mother who has been committed for suicide attempts a couple times. She's been married six times. I want to know how the public feels. Is this is a safe home and environment for these three children? The judge didn't give the children to the father where they belong, who is a fit father, hard worker, has never had any kind of felony or police records against him. I think this is unfair. I know for a fact that the grandma has done these things because I am the grandma's sister, and I am very ashamed of her and ashamed of the way those children have had to live. The judge somewhere along the line did not do his homework. If he had, he would have found out that this woman is not a fit grandma to have these children either.

It takes character to quit

HOW COULD anyone have sympathy for someone who has lied to and embarrassed his family, not once but several times, and lied to and embarrassed his nation? To make excuses for this behavior is ludicrous. He doesn't have enough decency or character to resign.

Give him what he deserves

CLINTON AND Hillary are both out there beating the drums trying to save Billy and his loose morals. They're sure power hungry and will go down howling. Congress, we're with you. Give Clinton what he deserves. Impeach him.

Need five lanes now

FOR INDUSTRIAL and residential growth in Jackson, Highway 34-72 should be expanded to five lanes right now. That's the only kind of real growth Jackson is experiencing right now. I just cannot believe that the current Jackson Board of Aldermen is that shortsighted to go with three lanes. If Jackson city government had been that shortsighted in the '80s, maybe the current growth would be going to Gordonville and Scott City instead.

Conflicting messages

CAROL POOLE of Jackson frightens me to death. She writes letters to the editor that seem to imply if we favor impeaching President Clinton we might end up dead. Then she turns around and sends stuff to the Southeast Missourian apparently designed to influence us to be in favor of impeachment. I'll be blunt. Impeachment may be a good idea, but you can forget it if you think that in order to bring it about I'm prepared to pay the ultimate price.

Right action taken

FIRST OF all I would like to say congratulations to the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association for removing a church for ordaining women as deacons. If the church would have searched the King James Version of the Bible, 1 Timothy 3:12, it starts out by saying, "Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife." How can a woman be a husband to a wife and be ordained? I'm very glad to see that the association took a stand and put this church out of its membership with them. I hope some of the rest of them are searched out also, and I feel that this has been a great adjustment.

Whining about letters

IN A Sept. 29 letter to the editor of the Southeast Missourian, Charles Stiver justifiably complained that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had not yet published a letter he wrote even though he threatened to cancel his subscription if they didn't. I have tried that and many other things in an attempt to letters to editors published. Nothing works. In addition to what Stiver did, I have threatened to call my congressperson, throw a public temper tantrum in front of newspaper headquarters, lead a movement to repeal the constitutional guarantee of a free press, turn my spouse loose on the editor and so forth. Eventually I came to realize the truth of the maxim that the press is free only for those who own it. However, there is one tactic that has worked on occasion. A couple of a times, I got a letter to the editor published by threatening to do the one thing that newspaper operatives simply couldn't stand: send more letters.

Shame on the association

I'D LIKE to speak on the Baptist association voting out First Baptist Church. Shame on them. They have not spoken out one time against President Clinton and what he has done in the White House, but I can remember back as a young man that whenever President Truman said "hell," they wanted to throw him out of office just over one little word. Shame on the association. It should be standing against the president and any other corruption.

Spanking needed sometimes

I HAVE a grandchild that I'm raising, and he's 8 years old now. I raised my children who are grown, are married and have children, and I spanked them when they needed to be spanked. They got punished in other ways whenever they needed to be punished. But to say they want all this time out for children now, the way that they're raising them, this time out will not do it. They'll take their time out, it's over with, they got by with whatever they did, they have nothing to worry about, it's over and they can go and do whatever it is again. All they have to worry about is a punishment or a time out. There is a time that you have to spank. Give the child something to worry about when he's doing something that he knows is wrong. They need to be punished, time out or whether they're going to get a spanking for it. Otherwise, it will become just a common thing and they won't have anything to worry about and they'll do whatever it is over and over and over. I do believe in spanking when it's time to spank.

Starr dragged it out

WE ALL know what Mr. Clinton did is wrong. I don't know of anybody who approves of it. Mr. Starr had all the information he needed in the first week of February. He had Monica, he had her story, had the offer from her lawyer if she was given immunity she would testify just like she did seven or eight months later. He dragged it out for political reasons just like he did by sending the letter this week that he may have more material. How much longer can we put up with what this guy's doing to the country? It's not just Mr. Clinton. It involves all of us and our children. This has gone on long enough.

Party first, then values

HOW MANY preachers, ministers, priests and religious leaders believes what the president done is no big deal, not important? Your liberal Democrats do. They don't think decency, Christian values should be in government. Their priorities are putting their party first, their group first, their cause first.

That taxpayers' money

THIS CALL concerns the historic seminary redevelopment project slated for Nov. 3 ballot. The city is attempting to shove the tax increase down the residents' throats again. I predict this vote will pass an increase in taxes because the students are in town. If it had been when the students were not in town, it would not have passed, not a chance. So, the students who are going to vote for this expenditure don't realize that they're going to be wasting their money for additional taxes every time they go to a restaurant, or their parents every time they come to visit them. But people don't think about these things. In addition, the city seems to be confident that the state will plunk down millions of dollars for the redevelopment. What makes them so sure that the city is going to spend all that? Where is that money going to come from? The state? The state does not manufacture money. That's taxpayers' money.

Digging up the dirt

WELL, WELL, well. You see what's happening to the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois. It seems everything is being dug up about him. This is going to be the case of all who run for office, Democrat or Republican. This will greatly influence the pool of people to run for office. It's always been done by both parties in the past, except it will be the order of the day from now on. Dirty politics.

Moving letter on abortion

I READ 16-year-old Sam Fletcher's letter in the paper on abortion, and I cried. What wisdom this young man of 16 years has, much more so than the leaders of this country, who have twice vetoed legislation on partial-birth abortion. Abortion means the killing of a child. This little child has no way of crying out, but it feels the sharp pains of the surgical instruments. God bless you, Sam, for understanding what is true. Maybe some day you can make a difference. A grandmother.

Ode to the River Campus

THIS FOUR line poem is a tribute to the ongoing civic efforts of SEMO president Dr. Dale Nitzschke. The title is "Down by the river."

I got a letter from Dr. Dale.

'Twas about the River Campus.

Longer than a Canterbury tale,

I guess it's worth all the fuss.