SPEAKOUT

Neighbors who are a problem

IN MOST cases neighbors are wonderful people to have close to you, someone you can depend upon. There are those neighbors, however, who interminably complain about everything you say or do at any given time. A perfect example is the Speak Out comment complaining about goose hunters. I think that complaint is aimed at my employees and myself, who hunt on our own ground and on ground that we have permission to hunt upon. These are geese generally known as snow geese, not Canada geese. There is no shooting out of a truck windows. And the only private property we were on was to ask the owners if we might hunt on their ground. This man complains about all aspects of our farming operation simply out of the lack of better things to do with his life. We, like 99 percent of the hunters, are legally licensed through the Missouri Department of Conservation and obey any and all laws pertaining to the harvesting of game as well as any issues dealing with private property, especially since I am a landowner myself. The issue in this particular case is not what to do with hunters who are obeying the law, but what to do with neighbors who move into farm country, then complain incessantly about the activities of farmers and hunters on their own land. The statement of "take things into our own hands" is one that gives a good idea of the type of neighbor we have, and it is a statement that could lead to extremely dire consequences if so pursued.

Prison is cheaper

TO ALL of you whining about how much more you're going to have to pay for Darrell Mease to live in jail, count your blessings. You'd be paying almost $2 million more to execute him than to put him up in jail his whole life. And to all of you ranting about what a great idea the death penalty is, how do you feel about abortion? Do you think doctors who perform abortions should be murdered because of the services they perform? It's the same thing. Two wrongs don't make a right. Let Gov. Mel Carnahan do his job, and keep your Cape Girardeau politics out of it.

Stop corporate welfare

CORPORATE WELFARE is a $125 billion a year giveaway that takes us all for a ride. And instead of rewarding the poor, we reward the powerful. What went wrong? Who really pays the taxes? Every working American gives up at least the equivalent to two weeks' pay per year just to provide corporate welfare. Why aren't we doing something about that?

Education important to Dr. King

I GREW up in the south in the '60s. In fact, I worked with Dr. King in his ministry during that time. One point that he was always very adamant about was education. He felt, for those who are less fortunate or minorities to get out of their situation, education was the key. To me, this action of being overly reactive about going to school on the day honoring him is a slap in the face to Dr. King. He, of all people, would not want anyone to miss a day of school.

The truth for history

WELL, IN less than 10 years, I've witnessed two phony trials in the good old U.S.A. Those trials were for O.J. Simpson and Bill Clinton. I can understand the Simpson jurors. The decision was based purely on race and Simpson's prestige. But I expected more from our elected senators who are supposed to be well educated. However, it looks like our senators refused to see or even hear crucial evidence because their minds were made up even before the phony trial began. I hope this impeachment trial will go down in history as the most brazen conspiracy ever in my lifetime on the part of Democrats. Every Democratic senator will be known to have obstructed justice in this case. Not only did they let a felon off, Bill Clinton, they also abetted that felon. My children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will read the federal government's stand on this story in their government-regulated, mandatory history books, but they will learn ugly, real truth from Nana's lips and through my own writings.

Need troopers on highways

I'D LIKE to Speak Out on the 70-mph speed limit. They are saying that raising the speed limit has increased traffic deaths. I'd like to say that it's not true, because people are going faster than 70. They're going 75-80-85 mph. I drive to Cape every morning to go to work and almost get run over. Six cars passed me, and I was doing the 70 mph. Then somebody got so close behind me while I was in the passing lane that I could barely see his bumper. He gave me this look like "I could kill you for being in my way." So, it's not the 70-mph speed limit that's getting everybody, it's the 80-85 mph, and there are no troopers out there to protect the innocent people from all these drivers who are doing the road rage thing. There needs to be some troopers out there just to slow things down a little bit. Maybe there wouldn't be so many traffic deaths.

Lower in-state tuition

I'M CALLING in reference to the very long letter to the editor from Dale Nitzschke, the president of Southeast Missouri State University. I wonder if it's occurred to Dr. Nitzschke that if it was less expensive to go Southeast Missouri State University for the in-state students, there would be more in-state students. Also, instead of addressing the River Campus that he's trying to push down everybody's throat, what is being done, if anything, about the parking problem that has been a lifelong problem at the university?

Social Security and IOUs

DURING THE Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson started taking Social Security trust fund money out for war expenses with the intent of paying it back. It didn't happen. Today the same thing is being done although there's no war. President Clinton is taking out money to use for everything except the Social Security trust fund. He stole about $60 billion last year and he give Social Security another IOU with no intent of paying it back. Rumor has it that the Social Security trust fund IOUs total over $3 trillion, which the federal government is responsible for. All these IOUs are nothing more than liens on our children's income. It could to take Congress years to settle this and even longer for any legislation to take effect. Meanwhile, families will continue to have billions of their tax dollars exchanged for IOUs. Does it make since to rebate the FICA tax surpluses now while we use the rest of the surplus money to cut taxes?