Speak Out 9/5/10

Incumbent alert

THE conservative commentator George Will said recently that pollsters are missing something. Election results like those in Alaska in the GOP primary tell us that polls may be virtually meaningless this year. He said the anti-incumbency feeling is at a fever pitch.

Mainstream voters

A recent comment proclaimed that conservatives were not representative of mainstream America. However, the facts and data don't support that assertion. The daily listening audience of conservative radio and TV hosts dwarf the puny audiences of liberal mouthpieces. Polling data prove that conservatives are identified as the largest political group in the nation. November 2010 will prove that mainstream America doesn't stand with the likes of liberal elitists like Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

Brazen act

ON a recent Friday afternoon some elected officials in the Cairo courthouse closed their public offices for a couple of hours so they could attend a Democratic rally. What a brazen act. They are public employees and were on the public dime. Do they believe they answer to no one?

Irritating calls

I don't like it when the Missouri State Highway Patrol solicits donations from me on my cell phone, not to mention calling me during work hours. The caller scared me because I have a 21-year-old son and I thought he had had an accident. These calls are unprofessional. Don't tell me how highway patrolmen risk their lives every day. I am a registered nurse, and so do we as well. So do highway workers, utility workers and a whole bunch of other occupations that are dangerous. Please, MSHP, do not call me again.

Professional teachers

SO now teachers should only dress in a professional manner if they are treated as professionals? That is hogwash. I think it's more like teachers should dress professionally if they want to be considered professionals. Respect is earned, not passed out willy-nilly. That may be one of the reasons children don't respect their teachers much today. Too many teachers want to be the students' friends, so they dress like them, act like them, talk like them and, in the case of some of our high school teachers, party with them.

Restoring honor

GLENN Beck managed to gather more people at the Lincoln Memorial than anybody in history. The rally was devoted to restoring honor and living honorably above all else, not politics. Kudos to Beck and his message of faith, hope and charity. Shame on those who were critical and attempted to skew the meaning before it even happened.

Segregated students

SEGREGATION is wrong. The civil rights movement ended "separate but equal." Instead of race, we now accept segregation by gender. Shame on you, Jackson. Shame on you for supporting teaching children that segregation is acceptable.

Keep it messy

"HALLELUJAH!" my spouse said. "I finally have a legitimate excuse." According to the news, the chances for bedbugs are lessened if the bed is not made.

Fine the parents

WHAT in the world have we come to when we offer to pay parents to get them to keep their children in school and make them behave while they are there? Parents should be fined, not paid, if their children don't attend school.