Speak Out 7/20/09

Europe adventure

REGARDING the story "Saxony Lutheran's European vacation": Alaina Busch did an excellent job on the article about the Saxony kids' trip to Europe. What an adventure. I want to go there now.

Takes a village

IN a democracy, the power of government rests with the people. The concept is known as popular sovereignty. Columnist Mike Jensen recently addressed this and pointed out that though President Obama may be of superstar quality, it take the whole political class and the populace to ultimately make policies and programs succeed. He is so right. The only thing that shocked me was not that this was another Jensen journalistic classic but that he has apparently converted to Hillary Clinton's view that, yes, it takes a village.

Pitching performance

PRESIDENT Obama's opening pitch at the All Star Game was a lot like his stimulus plan and overall performance as president. It was a weak left-handed delivery just like his lame left-wing policies. It fell well short of its objective of crossing home plate just like his wasteful stimulus plan has failed horribly. And he had to have an all star (Pujols) to cover for him by catching it in front of the plate to keep it from hitting the dirt just like the pundits in the media and celebrities cover for his miserable performance as president.

Attention-getter

I loved your ads about something big coming to Cape Girardeau. You fooled me. I thought it was going to be a minor-league baseball stadium. But what really caused me to laugh is that you said there would be no stimulus funds or taxpayer dollars needed. I guess I should have known from that it wasn't a stadium. Good luck. Great job getting attention for your new calendar.

Somebody pays

TO all those who think government health care is a good idea: Don't start whining when you take home less and less from your paycheck to pay for this.

Shopping message

I went into a small store the other day where someone was virtually screaming about the need to abolish Social Security. I left quickly.

Out of touch

THOUGH maintaining its mellifluous collective voice, the Southeast Missourian editorial board continues to express what can only be described as magical thinking if not outright madness. For example, you recently opined that Cape Girardeau County's bid to secure (federal stimulus homeless) funding is another example of "how agencies working together continue to address the needs of the homeless in our area." In reality, Cape Girardeau County's motive is a belated reaction to the Rev. Larry Rice's effort to secure the old federal building. Please make a joint effort to get back in touch with reality.

House sales

BANKS are greedy. There are two vacant homes in my neighborhood due to foreclosure. They are listed with local real estate agents. I've made repeated offers to buy the houses for the value of the loans. The banks would receive what they have in them and get out from under their debt. Instead, the banks insist on trying to sell them for last year's full market value. So the houses sit empty and deteriorate, and they continue to bring our neighborhood values down. Banks claim they don't want to be in the real estate business, yet they seem to prefer to hold on to empty houses that are not bringing in any income and won't be soon appreciating.

Where's the money?

HOW could Cape Girardeau be broke? It has consistently refused to raise taxes since we have been told for so long that less taxation leads to more productivity and, therefore, more tax revenue. According to this way of thinking, our city coffers should be overflowing.

Catholic vote

THE yawn-provoking piece by Wall Street columnist William McGurin was a waste of valuable Opinion-page space. Its underlying assumption was that there is a monolithic Catholic vote in this country. That's simply not true. There should no longer be any discussion of "the Catholic vote," since it almost precisely mirrors the vote of the country as a whole, as the recent presidential election results demonstrated. The country's popular vote was 53 percent-47 percent for Barack Obama. The Catholic vote was virtually the same, 54 percent-46 percent for Obama.

Race funding

IF Missouri's bicycle tour race has such a positive economic impact (as state Rep. Clint Tracy claimed), then why would state government bail out when it comes to sponsorship? If worst comes to worst, shouldn't federal stimulus money be spent to save the race?