Speak Out 1/12/06

Highway detour

I KEEP reading about the detour on Bloomfield Road and all the problems. It seems to me the solution would be fairly simple. Stop people from coming off Highway 74 onto Bloomfield Road. That would stop most of the traffic, and local traffic would not clog up so bad.

MLK Day events

I WOULD like to comment on articles regarding Martin Luther King Day events. Why did Southeast Missouri State University elect to replace a long-standing tradition, the Martin Luther King Day memorial breakfast, with the dinner planned for this year? The university is not concerned about student attendance. It raised the price of tickets to $15 a person for the dinner. The average student can barely afford $5. Who is the university trying to fool? Why should one tradition be replaced with another one? Patron sponsors who supported the annual breakfast held at the university are not supporting the event this year. Could that be because it is being held at the Osage Community Centre and not at the university? We should all be vested in keeping Dr. King's dream alive. The purpose of holding events is to honor his legacy, not placing any importance upon the place or location in which these events take place. I am concerned and appalled at local agencies and establishments for not supporting such important events.

On the dotted line

SOMETHING ELSE you need to know about using your debit card or your credit card: When you sign your receipt, make sure you add a tip or place a line or a zero in the tip line and carry the total down to the line under it. If you don't, someone could put in a tip and add it to your total.

Flag needs repairs

THE FLAG that flies so beautifully over Cape County Park needs to be repaired or replaced.

Movie memories

I HOPE you're wrong about movie theaters being obsolete. I would miss them. I would pay to see some of my old favorites on the big screen again. "Out of Africa" and "Gone with the Wind" are not the same on my little 19-inch TV set. How about it? A theater that plays old movies on the big screen with surround sound? How about the old theater building downtown? Remember the hush of the crowd as the curtain went up? Remember the taste of real buttered popcorn and black cherry sodas? Remember intermissions? The balcony? I do. I guess I'm getting old.

Luxury of time

THE ANSWER to the question as to why President Bush does not go before the special court for wiretapping permission is simple: Time. When you are dealing with a brutal and merciless enemy like we are, you don't have the luxury of time. What the intelligence gatherers are doing is perfectly legal with precedents set by presidents of both parties.

Good idea, but ...

A SOUTHBOUND single-lane Main Street with angled parking is a great idea, but I wonder if there would be enough room for parked cars, stationary delivery trucks and moving traffic.