Speak Out 08/06/04

Making an effort

IF YOU don't know Paul Schock, you aren't living. Paul Schock is one of the nicest people I know. He has done so much trying to preserve Old Illmo, and he's not even from the area. He's giving so much to this community. I appreciate him and everything he's trying to do. He's trying to help the community, and that's more than I can say about anybody else. Thank you, Paul.

Water Street potholes

THE MURALS downtown are beautiful. They're doing a good job. But the city needs to do something about the potholes on Water Street north of Broadway. I drove through there twice this week, and my automobile rocked from side to side. That's how deep the potholes are. Visitors see these things. It's a bad reflection on our town.

Hot at schools

IF ONLY it were just one school in the Cape Girardeau School District that has air-conditioning problems. The cheapest air conditioning was put in all the schools. I have been to an elementary school, the middle school and the junior high school. Some of the rooms are OK, but in several of the rooms the teachers have shown me the thermostat at almost 100 degrees. Yet we are going back to school Aug. 18. The elementary schools and middle school still send the kids out to recess in the heat, come back to a classroom where they cannot cool off or get in a long line of students waiting for a small sip of water from the fountain. Schools should have indoor recess on really hot days. When the kids go out for recess, the doors are left propped open until they come back inside. Shut the doors and allow more water breaks or water from home. And don't send the kids out when it is still 90 and above.

Political religion

RELIGION AND politics cannot be separate. This is especially true of Christianity where there is a strong emphasis on taking care of the poor, including people you don't necessarily like such as illegal immigrants. These admonitions have huge political implications. You cannot separate Christianity from politics without losing the essence of Jesus' social teachings. Christianity would become hollow worship, an easy sort of half-baked Christianity which does seem popular these days.

Problem is everywhere

PLEASE REMOVE your blinders. Teenage drinking and drugs are a problem everywhere. If you think Cape Girardeau doesn't have issues with this problem, then heaven help us all. There are preteens as well who are drinking, doing drugs and having children because they are sexually active. We do not live in a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" society.

Threat of terrorism

THE REPUBLICANS are having the convention this month in Madison Square Garden in New York. I think this is a very dangerous thing to do. I wish they would change their mind because of the terrorist threat. I think they would be better off making speeches across the nation.

Let the board know

ABOUT FIVE years ago I was standing at play day at Schultz School and listening to principal Rob Huff talk about how excited he was about his new position as business manager for the district. One of the mothers said, "I didn't know that was an interest of yours." And he said, "It's not. I have absolutely no training but they're sending me to a crash course this summer." So the board gave financial and fiscal responsibility to a man who's a very wonderful man but was completely inexperienced. Shortly thereafter, the board hired Mark Bowles as superintendent. Bowles also had no experience as a superintendent in a smaller district, which is pretty much par for the course for a district our size. He still doesn't have his doctorate, although he told the board he would have it within a year. And then we wonder why we're in the financial mess we're in. Folks, our school board has led us down the wrong path, and we're paying. It's time to let the board know how we feel about this.

Save on interest

I HAVE a quick solution to Mayor Jay Knudtson's problem on how to spend the so-called surplus from motel and restaurant taxes. Pay off the River Campus bonds and save a lot of interest. Who says it's surplus and has to be spent?

Time for a spanking

THIS IS about the underage drinking. How many of those complaining about this have done that themselves? This has been going on for years. Now kids are carrying guns and knives. These kids need an old-fashioned spanking.

Sell it and move on

REGARDING THE Glenn House and lack of money for repairs: The group that owns the property must realize the vast majority of citizens don't care about the property. That is why it's hard to raise money. They should sell the house to a responsible party and move on to another project like the Reynolds House that is boarded up and rotting on Main Street. Historical groups in St. Louis buy property, renovate it, show it for a year and then sell it and start over, avoiding expensive maintenance costs.