Speak Out 2/10/09

Feeding pets

IN response to the story "Food drive aims to help starving animals": Free food isn't going to solve the problem. If a person cannot afford to feed his pets, then he cannot afford shots and medication to prevent fleas, ticks or heartworms. We have two licensed pounds in this area, the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau and Safe Harbor in Fruitland. Both of these places are nice.

Deceptive interview

IN an interview with John McCain, Dianne Sawyer played a clip of Rush Limbaugh's comments that had been spliced together to make it sound as if he wished Obama would fail because he is black. She asked McCain if he was offended by the comments. She was hoping to get McCain to condemn Limbaugh for something he didn't say. McCain was smart enough to know that Sawyer was trying to use him and didn't take the bait. We all should be offended by Sawyer's purposeful attempt to deceive McCain and the American public.

Life and liberty

I pray that during these tough economic hardships that every citizen will be thankful for their lives and liberty. Remember this struggle. Learn from it. We must not make the same mistakes. Live within your means. Take pride in your life and your families.

Education spending

I have been a Democrat all my life, but I disagree with some items in the stimulus package. I see now where legislators have watered down the money for infrastructure overhaul, something needed badly and something that would create good-paying jobs right now. I see where they increased the funding for education, mostly for Pell Grants. How is this going to put people back to work? All this money the taxpayers have thrown at this education bandwagon for the past 30 years has not worked because the majority of the funding for education goes to the top and not to classrooms. We need to get back to the basics and start moving more toward vocational and technical classes.