SPEAKOUT

Cut taxes to increase family income

I WANT to comment about the person who said they need to raise the minimum wage and how the Republicans wouldn't let them. This is an example of economic ignorance that's wrong with the country. This person never has figured that instead of $1 more or $2 in the minimum wage, what if you cut taxes? If taxes -- hidden taxes, licenses, everything -- are 52 percent of your salary, and if you only had to pay 10 percent of your salary into the government, you would have another 40 percent in spendable income. That way women wouldn't have to work. They wouldn't need day care. You wouldn't need health care. You could buy your own. Just take the income tax from 1959 and overlay it with the amount of women going to work, and you'll see as taxes went up more women went to work and more children went into day-care centers.

Improvements mean temporary mess

WE RECENTLY moved into a new neighborhood. During the last several weeks since we've moved we have collected boxes and packing material in our backyard until we have had enough to warrant a special pickup which we pay extra for. We've already had several of these. We try to keep the materials neat, though wind and rain make that difficult. Also during the recent windy weather, our recycling containers blew over and scattered cans and plastic in our backyard. We were out of town at the time, but as soon as our family noticed mess, it was picked up -- twice in fact. I hardly think these circumstances warrant the mean-spirited letter we received from a neighbor suggesting we should have moved to the country so as not to bring the neighborhood down with our trashiness. I really hated to use Speak Out as my forum, but whoever wrote the letter didn't have the courage to speak to us face to face. So to that person, if you had the courage to address this issue to us in person we could have invited you in so you could see all of the work we've done to the inside of our house, because we do take great pride in our new home.

Easter pageants offer more hope

I HAVE just telephoned the Show Me Center for costs of tickets for the ballet, "The Beauty and the Beast." May I suggest that the cost of tickets at the Show Me Center is prohibitive for working families in Cape Girardeau. Prices for this ballet for a family of four would range from a minimum of $60 to $100 for this family. To me this is prohibitive from a cultural center that's supposed to be giving cultural education to the city and it's people. I would like to suggest an alternative for the families. I would like to suggest that they attend any of the well-presented productions of the Easter story that are offered free to the residents of Cape Girardeau in this week. The portrayal of the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ offers far more hope to the lives of families in our city than any production such as "The Beauty and the Beast." Perhaps our city would take under advisement the cost of such functions as are given or offered at the Show Me Center when it comes to the families with the children that need to see these productions but the costs are so prohibitive.

Just another tax to pay

THE EXPANSION of the restaurant tax is not about fairness. It's about another tax on the citizens of Cape. I thought the original intent of the tax was tourist dollars would be used by the CVB to pay expenses and to pay off the debt of the Show Me Center. Now we not only owe the Show Me Center, Osage Centre, Shawnee Park, and yes, the bank building, and possibly a proposed river museum. I am for fairness but also honesty. Just call it another tax on the Cape citizens.

Blame it on bleached flour and sugar

I'D LIKE to comment about the person who called in about the Atkins' Diet who claimed to be a nutritionist. The nutritionist will tell you that you should eat all these carbohydrates. Let me tell you bleached flour and sugar have been introduced within the last few generations to the average person. Heart attacks and diabetes went up. I think these people who call themselves nutritionists need to study something like Dr. Atkins' diet. If a person has a problem with weight, just study and learn about food, and you'll see what I'm talking about,

Everybody gives our money away

I'M A loyal reader of Speak Out, and for once I agree with the person who asked, "Why is Clinton giving our money away?" The only thing that I would disagree with is that it is not just Clinton. It's Republicans and Democrats alike who stick their noses into other countries' business with our tax money and let our welfare system and our Medicare system and Social Security system go to pot.

Expansion destroyed the beauty

I'M SURE there are people my age who lived through the days before Cape Girardeau took up so much area. You could drive all the way from Jackson with beautiful rose gardens all the way up. It was all wooded. The way Memorial Park and those county parks look now is the way it looked all the way to Highway 61, which is now Kingshighway. Up Broadway it was all wooded and beautiful trees until you go to West End Boulevard. That's the way Independence was too. Annexation took in more territory. Now it's ugly shopping centers and a bunch of asphalt. It really makes tears come to your eyes when you see the way Cape Girardeau used to look.