Speak Out 4/26/05

Advice to joggers

JOGGERS, TAKE note of this. As you jog, try not to bounce up and down. It's harder on the joints, and it's wasted energy. If you could run in a manner as to keep your head level, you may experience quite a gain.

Beautiful city

I WANT to comment on how beautiful Russell Heights Cemetery is in the spring with the flowering trees. If one of these trees comes down. I hope the cemetery replaces it and always keeps some sort of beautiful tree growing. Also, I'd like to thank the Jackson city fathers and the Missouri Department of Transportation for the wonderful job done putting up that brick retaining walls along the highway widening project. It's so tasteful. I know when the new high school gets built Jackson will truly be a beautiful city and we'll live up to our name of a town with beautiful homes and churches and schools.

Great music too

I ATTENDED the Southeast Missouri Hospital Association dinner. Your write-up was fantastic about all the awards given and what wonderful work the hospital is doing. But I also think kudos need to go to Shane Steck, who did almost two hours beautiful piano playing. He is such a talented young man. Also, kudos to the cast of "Annie." This junior high school bunch of kids is fantastic, and we applaud them all.

Don't turn them loose

I THINK one way to eliminate the child-abuse problem would to quit turning those who are doing the abuse loose where they can get to our children.

Cookie-cutter question

IF CAPE Girardeau's supposed to be such a retail mecca, how come you can find any place to get any good cookie-cutter shapes?

Major safety issue

I WONDER how many other recreation areas Cape Girardeau's Parks and Recreation Department operates without lighting? The lack of lighting along the darkest portions of the Cape La Croix Trail is a safety issue that needs to be addressed. I worry how many more broken faces it will take to have this problem seriously considered.

Tooting and ringing

AS A frequent pedestrian on the Cape La Croix recreation trail, I'm heartened to hear the Southeast Missourian so passionately calling for the use of lights, horns and bells (April 22 editorial) on the path. If only I could devise some way to strap all these on myself while I'm walking side by side with my friends.

Courage to change

HAVING THE courage of our convictions is generally considered a good thing. However, having the courage to change our convictions in light of convincing evidence is much more admirable.

Essential health care

THE DEPARTMENT of Social Services projects that people would drop out of MC+ for Kids if they had to pay premiums. Is this foolishness on the part of DSS to assume such a thing, or on the part of parents who might actually drop out? Living on a disposable income (after rent and utilities and including food stamps) of $180 a month isn't a real pleasure, but living without essential health care is hell.

Curb the legislators

EVER NOTICE this? Cutbacks in federal or state government never mention cutting back on salaries, retirement benefits, government-funded health insurance and all the other perks politicians have that most know nothing about. Do we believe that our forefathers really intended our senators and representatives to hold full-time positions with higher salaries than the majority of Americans? Maybe it's essential now so they can continue to write redundant, unessential, dumb laws every month. Read through all the bills on the state government Web sites. We need to cut these people back to at least half-time and definitely cut back on the retirements they can draw.

Paying for the pool

I'M A non-traditional student going to Southeast Missouri State University. The fact that the university wants to build another swimming pool after they filled in the last one in is a little ridiculous. If the university wanted us to pay for it, it needed to at least add a water park like all the other surrounding communities. That would generate revenue through the summer time instead of making students who don't use the pool pay for it.

Can't go to restaurant

I HAVE three small children, one with asthma and two with allergies. That alone is enough to keep us on edge at all times. However, the last two times we have visited our family's favorite restaurant, we have had to deal with an asthma attack from my 3-year-old son because of the cigarette smoke. Try explaining to children that we can't go to their favorite restaurant anymore because we have freedom in this town -- freedom to fill everyone else's lungs with smoke.

Pool maintenance

ANOTHER POOL for Southeast Missouri State University? How many pools has the university had in the past and taken out because they are too costly to maintain? The university just filled the one in at Parker Hall. Why dig another hole in the ground that will probably be filled in later because the university can't afford to keep it up a new pool?

Middle-class standards

ONE SPEAK Out comment's definition of poverty was a lack of plumbing and color television. Let's try this definition: Parents with decent wages so they don't have to work two or three jobs, health care for those parents and those kids when they're adults and access to transportation that doesn't take a fourth of one's paycheck. That's middle class.

Bricks and mortar

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI State University continues to spend millions of dollars on unneeded construction. While other universities in the region endow academic programs to enrich the learning and career opportunities of students, the leadership of SEMO believes that bricks and mortar define quality higher education. The young people attending SEMO deserve better.

On the wrong foot?

WHY IS it that Martha Stewart has to wear an ankle bracelet and registered sex offenders are able to roam free?

Act like a city

CAPE GIRARDEAU is an official city and has been for quite some time. The U.S. Census Bureau defines a city as having a population of at least 25,000. Cape Girardeau's population is over 35,000. However, Jackson's is somewhere around 12,000. You may long for the days when Cape was just a small town. It may still retain that small-town atmosphere to some extent. But Cape is all grown up. Times have changed. Current and future policies should reflect Cape's role as a city.