Parents need help too

THE SPEAK Out comment on "Parents must take responsibility" is very true. These good, loving parents also need help from the church, school and society. We pray for God's help.

Wrong to apologize for slavery

GIVE ME a break. Why are we apologizing to the blacks for their tribal chiefs' selling them to slave traders? My ancestors had to pay for their trip. When they got here, no one fed them and gave them a place to live. They had to find work. So don't tell me I should apologize to the blacks.

Children have to accept responsibility

I'M CALLING in regard to the On the Street comments. You have a young man from Louisville, Ky., who says he puts the responsibility of the Jonesboro activities on the people who own the guns. They had nothing to do with it. There's another guy who says take the violence off TV. It's not the TV. It's the weak mind that listens to it. I hope everybody in Southeast Missouri takes heart to that and realizes it's not just TV or the owners of the guns, the parents or the grandparents who are responsible for this. It's the young children with their weak minds.

Red Star area needs attention from city

I WOULD like to know when they plan to do something with the houses in the Red Star District that have been empty. Now they're being ransacked, the doors are hung open, trash is everywhere. They come in and burn up one and let it sit for months and months. I do not see why the council has let this go on in a residential area like they do in the neighborhood up here. There is filth everywhere up here, and you can't get your councilman do anything about it. I'd like to know when they plan to do something about cleaning up this area.

Cape golf rates should be lower in winter

I'M CALLING in reference to the proposed increase in the fees at the Cape Girardeau municipal golf course. The fee increase will be very acceptable except for one major problem. The problem is during the off months when the course maintenance is way off and overhead is cut drastically. All the other courses in our area cut their rates considerably during those months, but our Cape golf course maintains the same rates as they do in the summer. What makes this hard to swallow is that you have to play on what they call winter greens which are merely a little low spot at the side in the middle of the field and are very poorly maintained. Half the course if closed down, and we still are required to pay the same fees as we do during the summer. So let's be fair about this and realistic, if you would drop the rates in the winter, then raise the rates in the summer. You should raise the rates in the summer, then drop the rates in the winter. This is only fair to those who play golf.

Parents have no say in high school matters

CAPE GIRARDEAU County residents who live in the Nell Holcomb School District, are you aware that you don't have a vote for school board members in Jackson or Cape Girardeau? You're only vote is for Nell Holcomb board members. Your students attend one of these high schools after eighth grade. I have spoken with our representatives, and they both seemed very interested. I then spoke with our senator who told me his parents did it that way, and he had never had any other complaints voiced to him so I didn't see any need for change. As I see this, the residents of Cape Girardeau County have no say in the board members who are elected to represent their children in their school, and I believe that does need to be addressed. If you agree, please call your representatives, Mary Kasten and David Schwab. And you might also try to call Peter Kinder, although I don't believe you'll get very much response from him.

Taxpayers foot the bill for attorneys

I JUST read the article about someone who is on death row and his attorneys are fighting his death sentence. I'm a blue-collar working person, and unfortunately I make enough money that if I were ever sent to jail I would have to provide for my own attorney fees. It incenses me that as a taxpayer I and the rest of the state are paying for him and others to have more than one attorney. Why isn't one good enough? I think the systems stinks when the other taxpayers are forced to pay for several attorneys just for one person.

Government employees may have vested interests

THE THREE regular letter-to-the-editor contributors who espouse liberal big-government views are Alan Journet, a university professor, Gil Degenhardt, a federal SBA employee, and Donn Miller, a retired postal employee. These are three honorable occupations that are needed, and I'm sure all three of these gentlemen have been excellent employees. However, readers need to realize that one thing these three people have in common is their paychecks come from the government. Generally speaking, the bigger the government, the bigger their paychecks. So my question is this: When Journet, Degenhardt and Miller spout their liberal, big-government views, do they do so for good of the country or the good of their paychecks?

Doctors charging for phone calls

I'D JUST like to let all the citizens of Cape Girardeau know the doctors here in Cape, especially at Doctors' Park, are starting to charge for telephone consultations whenever you call down at night to ask them about your child or something, even if they have seen that child that day and you're just letting them know that the medicine isn't working and could you get a prescription. This charge is $15. It's the new style that all the doctors in Cape Girardeau are taking.