SPEAKOUT

Chaffee voters were misled

THIS IS to the Chaffee schools. You just can't understand why the community voted no on the recent tax increase. Here are just a few of the reasons. 1. The school system has absolutely no communication with the parents. So everything is always done in a hush-hush, no-discussion way. This sets up a them-vs.-us playing field with the community. 2. The few times there were meetings or discussions, the community has been lied to. Example: A couple of years ago when the school wanted to pass a new bond issue to build new facilities, we were shown blueprints at the meeting and were told this is exactly what you're paying for. So, we passed the bond issue, believing in the school and what we were paying for. Now, according to the school, all construction is complete. But where are the new rest rooms and concession stands to be used for all outside activities and functions such as football games and track meets? Not built as promised. Another example: At the same meeting, a man stood up and asked about the closed campus rumor that meant our children couldn't leave the school at lunch not even to go home to eat with their parents. The superintendent stood up in front of all of us and said, "There are no plans for a closed campus at this time. And if that becomes an issue in the future, there will be all kinds of meetings between parents, the community and the school before anything will be decided." He also said that if there ever came a time that closed campus came about, the students would not be forced to eat the school food. He said there would be several microwaves available in the cafeteria if they wanted to bring their lunch. Now the schools are closed campus. No public meetings were arranged, no notes to parents informing them that this was even being considered. All we got was a price list one day and a letter stating "this is how much your child's lunch will cost, as we have a closed campus effective Jan. 4." Now that it is a closed campus, how many microwaves are available for the students who bring their lunches? The answer is none. So the school wants to know why we voted no on the tax levy. That's because we are continually being lied to or misled.

Need woman as PE teacher

I HAVE a daughter who will be in junior high next year, and I'm very concerned about the Chaffee school getting rid of the only female PE and health teacher we have. I think we need a lady teacher there for the girls. Junior high girls are not about to talk to a man about personal hygiene questions and problems they might have. I think this is a big mistake and an injustice to all the girls coming up through the Chaffee junior high.

An alarming situation

I THINK communism is one of the worst forms of government ever conceived in the history of man. That being said, I'd like to add that it's a sad day in the history of democracy when the American people become so self-assured, so pretentious and so self-important that they would presume to keep a father and son apart in order to punish a totalitarian regime and, in turn, punish the father who had this misfortune of being born under a totalitarian government. I think it's very heroic that Elian Gonzalez' mother attempted to bring him to freedom. Unfortunately, she died in the effort, as did the boy's stepfather. As such, the boy's natural father who lives in Cuba is entitled to have custody of the boy and raise him as would be his right and obligation. The idea that the American people would believe that since the father was born under a totalitarian rule he deserves to have his son kept away from him, is absolutely preposterous and, frankly, quite alarming to me.

Nothing from column A

THIS IS in response to the Democrat who made a comment in Speak Out that Steve Forbes is bankrolling his own campaign while George Bush has collected close to $70 million, insinuating that he's owned by big business. All I have to say at least it isn't the Red Chinese government.

Degrading our values

HOLLYWOOD HAS been leading the Marxist plan to degrade and destroy America. Now they are going to glamorize a teacher who is a child rapist much like the corrupt senators praised a predator president of the United States. They're all out to bring down our country through constant degradation of American values. They want to bring about total control and power and make America a monarchy. No more of Gore.

Keep tabs on crime

I SAW a sign in the comic strip "Lola" the other day and I think it would be a good idea to have a similar sign in Cape at the corner of Kingshighway and Williams street. The sign should list the number of days since there was an armed robbery, the number since somebody was shot and the number days since the last murder. This would wake up the people here in Dodge City East to the level of crime in Cape. It would also be a good idea for the Southeast Missourian to put the same information at the top of the front page of the paper. Cape is not a safe place to live, and only by making people aware will it arouse them to demand better law enforcement.

Maybe he needs a job

JESSE JACKSON is still all hot and bothered because Decatur schools kicked out six students who were fighting during a football game. I think Jesse Jackson doesn't have enough to do.

He should have been Republican

FOR THE past seven and a half years you Republicans have been bemoaning the fact that the president wasn't lily white, which leads me to believe that you wanted someone who was pure. Now I'm reading that most of you really don't care what George W. has done. Isn't that interesting how that works? The only problem with President Clinton is that he wasn't a Republican. How you people would have loved him.

What's wrong with sandwiches?

I FEEL the need to comment on the person who bad-mouthed school lunches. I recently retired as a school teacher, and the main reason is because I got tired of being a surrogate parent or, if you will, a baby sitter. Now you have the audacity to run down school lunches. Could it be because you are too lazy to fix your own child breakfast and supper? What's wrong with a sandwich lunch anyway? Do you fix your child three hot meals every day?

Responsible choices

THIS IS in response to the item in Speak Out on family planning. I'd like to say that people in the field of family planning do not advocate abortion. In fact, just the opposite. They're trying to help women make responsible choices in the first place so that women will not become pregnant when they're not ready to have children, whether it's for emotional, physical or financial reasons. Those who are so strongly in opposition to abortion should applaud those who work in the field of family planning and those who seek family-planning services for being responsible and preventing unwanted pregnancies from ever occurring and thus preventing the need for abortion.

Schools have hands out

CHAFFEE SCHOOL district never learns that people in the district are not going to pass their new increase so they can blow some more of the tax payers' money. I suggest they trim some of their high-dollar salaries at the upper level of the school management and drop the contract they have with the manicure company for the lawn at both the elementary and the high school. The taxpayer is sick and tired of throwing hard-earned money at a failing public school system. We've been throwing millions of dollars into these schools for the past 20 years and it is very obvious that the money is not curing the problem. Enough is enough. It's time for the taxpayers to draw a line regarding these public school districts constantly with their hands out. School districts need to learn how to manage their money and get off the taxpayers' backs. They had a surplus, and they blew it to build a new cafeteria that they didn't need. Having Bill Clinton and Mel Carnahan already in our wallets is bad enough, much less with school districts standing there with their hands out.

Famous campaign words

WHEN IT comes to running for political office, the famous words are "I will cut taxes." Then they get in and forget all about their famous words. I don't know whether we should cut taxes so much. I'd rather see the national debt paid down to keep from paying all that high interest than trying to give the money out to something else.

It's a Democratic plot

ON THE surface, Bill Clinton's tax-reduction plan sounds great: tax relief for low-income people and no relief for the so-called wealthy. But in reality, this plan takes money from the achievers and gives it to the under-achievers. The number of households paying absolutely no income tax is approaching the 50 percent mark. When these nontaxpayers become the majority, it won't take them long to realize they can use their vote to take even more money from the minority who pay taxes. This is exactly what the Democrats have been working toward for decades. They will be able to buy their own elections by promising to take even more money from the minority taxpayers and giving it to the majority nontaxpayers.