Speak Out 1/12/08

Painless executions?

WE SHOULDN'T be considering how much pain an execution causes. Nothing is ever said of how much pain the victims went through or their families.

Let students decide

FEDERAL PRIVACY laws forbid providing student information to parents or anyone else inquiring. I advise students to never give anyone their access information. Parents, remember the students you send to college are old enough, and supposedly responsible enough, to protect this country by serving in the armed forces. You can't send them to class without monitoring their activities, but you would send them across the world with a rifle in their hands? You may be footing the bill for your kid's education, but try to establish some trust so they learn to make sound decisions. The community would be surprised to know how many parents try to manage their kids' college schedules and accounts. If they are old enough to choose our next president, they are old enough to choose classes each semester. It's all a part of the learning process.

Wonderful tour

THE 2007 Christmas Country Church Tour was wonderful. A special thanks to everyone who helped organize and host this event.

Don't annex us

MEMO TO Jay Mayor Knudtson: Those of us who live near the new I-55 interchange do not want to be annexed into Cape Girardeau. Your tax-and-spend ways are not for us.

Tragically wrong

IN 1981, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan in the chest, James Brady in the head leaving him paralyzed, officer Thomas Delahanty in the neck, and officer Timothy J. McCarthy in the stomach. For this, Hinckley was sent to the St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital. Recently, a 16-year-old boy from Jackson was convicted of shooting another teenage boy in a dispute over a girl. He was condemned to 30 years in one of the worst prisons in the country and subsequently committed suicide. There is something tragically wrong with our legal system when something this monstrous can happen to a teenager. What ever happened to the concept of reform school?

Brighter future

TIMES ARE going to be tough for a while, but we will overcome it. We will elect a new president this fall and have a new beginning here in America. Everybody needs to think positive and stop being negative about everything. We have a brighter future on the horizon.

Cigarette taxes

GOV. MATT Blunt's proposal to have an anti-smoking program in Missouri is good. However, the question has arisen about how to pay for it. It seems that all states could have and should have been using the millions of dollars from cigarette taxes to do this very thing. It's rather a sticky situation, though. If the majority of smokers quit, there goes the tax money the state needs to keep the budget somewhat balanced.

We don't want him

DAVID LIMBAUGH may want Fred Thompson to start acting like he wants to be president, but there's a vast number of us out here who don't want him as president. He probably knows that, and that's why he's not acting very presidential.

Complain to Congress

I WOULD like to urge everyone to write Congress and complain about the switch to digital broadcasting. Technology is fine, but it should be our choice. Many cannot afford this. Congress should not be allowed to take away the TV service we have.

Secret investigation

THE SCOTT City police suspected Marcus Bowers had committed murder, wanting to keep it top secret, allowing him to continue to go to a public school with hundreds of children. One of them happens to be mine. What would the police have done had he killed one of those kids? Would they have kept that a secret too?

The ugly side

THE INTERNET is further lowering the polite barricades of society. The addition of random comments added on news stories is nothing more than an outlet for gossip and the open airing of the human trait to cause and enjoy another's suffering. I see little point to Web sites that allow people to express the ugly sides of their nature.

Locking the doors

JOE SULLIVAN writes good columns. His recent one about Aunt Minnie was so funny. I was raised in Vermont. I can relate to the locked doors or unlocked doors. We never locked our doors. Now I live in Missouri, and we don't even lock our doors here. I just cracked up laughing. I really appreciate Joe.

Heart goes out

I WOULD like the parents of Jonathan McClard to know my heart goes out to them. I read the piece in the paper where he was interviewed. It seemed that a 30-year sentence was harsh. Considering the remorse of the youth, it's too bad the governor couldn't have pardoned him or lessened his sentence. I want the family to know that people think of him in a kindly way. I firmly adhere to the Bible: "Judge not lest ye be judged."

Precious children

THERE ARE no deadbeat children. Children are precious. It's deadbeat parents who ruin their children and teach them to be like them.

Matter of time

MAYOR JAY Knudtson made a hateful remark about parents not being involved in Sunday's paper, especially single or low-income ones. I attended the parent-teacher conferences last fall at Central Junior High School and spent two hours there waiting in line. Maybe if we all had jobs where you don't have to be at work all the time, like the mayor, more parents could afford time away from their jobs. I wish Knudtson had to work two or three jobs to survive to pay for our useless taxes.

Blocking the street

MY ROUTE to work takes me past several vacant lots in a housing development. Construction is about to begin on one of the lots. About a week ago, the contractors parked two trailers on each side of the street. You have to approach at an angle to get between them. Come on, guys, use your heads. This is the kind of thoughtlessness that causes people to complain to the city. You do not have exclusive use of the street. Leave it open for the area residents.

Legislative plan

IT HAS been my experience that we benefit whenever our legislators are not in session, because they are unable to intrude into our lives.