OpinionOctober 14, 1998
SPEAKOUT
I'D LIKE to thank the Southeast Missourian for printing how the people in the House of Representatives voted on the impeachment issue. Those who have a "y" after their names will not receive my vote. Those who have a "n" after their names will receive my vote...
How Congress voted
I'D LIKE to thank the Southeast Missourian for printing how the people in the House of Representatives voted on the impeachment issue. Those who have a "y" after their names will not receive my vote. Those who have a "n" after their names will receive my vote.
Repulsive, but acceptable?
WHAT MR. Clinton did was too repulsive for most people to discuss but not too repulsive for most Democrats to accept.
He fits perfectly
A LARGE percentage of our population of this nation is sex perverts, criminals, drug dealers, dope addicts, alcoholics, street walkers, street gang members, adulterers, shyster lawyers, crooked politicians. The jails are full. There are thousands of abortions. Grades and morals are dropping daily. TV, books and movies are full of filth, self-indulgence and a dog-eat-dog society. I think Mr. Clinton fits in perfectly as president.
Another airplane story
IN REGARDS to Mr. Coomer's odd analogy of the nation, an airplane and Clinton as the pilot: I'd just like to say I'm a fellow passenger, and I saw the president in the rear of the plane occupying the rest room with three stewardesses. He has sent word forward to the Republicans he'll shut the engines off if they don't pass his huge $50 billion farm bill, which will assure the re-election of Farm Belt Democrats. To my left, Democrats are sitting in seats bought with donations from unions. The Democrats are raising taxes on working folks in coach to purchase more seats in first class for those who choose not to work. On my right, the Republicans are playing eeny-meeny trying to find a leader to go to the cockpit and take the pilot's seat. The plane, on auto pilot, was built by Ronald Reagan's Economic Recovery Act of 1991 allowing blue collars, such as myself, participation in IRAs. It continues to climb and fly to its destination of Utopia.
Parents set the example
I KEEP reading what effect the president's actions will have on the children. What you do in your home is what will train your children, not what you say, but what you do. If you're greedy, dishonest, selfish, unforgiving, prejudiced, loveless, you are setting guidelines for your children. So don't blame it on others, especially the president.
A meaningful statement
FOR MANY days, pros and cons of President Clinton's quandary have surfaced in Speak Out and on the Opinion page. None has been more meaningful and inclusive than the opinion voiced by James Seibman in The Wall Street Journal and quoted in the Southeast Missourian. Here is a partial quote: "As a lifelong Democrat and chief counsel of the House Judiciary Committee at the time of the Nixon impeachment inquiry, I believe I have a personal responsibility to speak out about the current impeachment process, and I believe my fellow Democrats on today's judiciary committee have a moral, ethical and constitutional responsibility to vote to impeach President Clinton. The positions taken by the president and his die-hard Democratic defenders in Congress and the media are indefensible."
Party differences
TO THE caller who was bemoaning the fact that the Democratic Party is a composite of people from all walks of life: Of course, there's nothing new about that. We have always reached out to everybody with the thinking we are God's children, unlike the Republicans who think that just a select few are God's children. By the way, the Republicans have a few of these sordid people too. It's just that they want to hide what they are.
Keeping libraries pure
I AGREE with what I understood to be Bruce Collier's point in a letter to the editor. Libraries should be filled exclusively with the Bibles and Collier's interpretation of them.
The GOP legacy
MANY REPUBLICANS want Clinton impeached because of adultery and lying to Ken Starr and his grand jury. Dan Burton and Henry Hyde committed adultery. Reagan and Bush lied about Iran-Contra. If we're good Christians, we surely believe God's Ten Commandments come from a higher nonpartisan court than the Republican-led Ken Starr grand jury. Based upon that, Reagan and Bush are as much liars as Clinton. A lie is a violation of God's law, and Reagan, Bush and Clinton are equally guilty. So if this is about lying, Republicans gave us Nixon, Reagan and Bush. This is not about God's laws and party politics. When is Ken Starr going after Gingrich and Tripp for lies and recording violations?
Clinton has done good things
IN RESPONSE to the person who said they lived before Bill Clinton came into the White House and they will live afterwards: I also did, but fortunately I have a good fixed income and a good retirement for I've been blessed. But a lot of people didn't have it so good before Clinton came. The people need a national health plan, the minimum wage and much more that President Clinton tried to do. I have insurance, but 40 million other people that, unlike myself, are without. What if a disaster or something should happen to them? My father lived OK before Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He survived. But let me tell you, he barely survived. Thank God, Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought in wonderful things like Social Security, the New Deal, and my father lived much better. The person who called in must be very self-centered. President Clinton has done wonderful things, in particular this national leave act for people who need it, and minimum wage, what little it was helped a lot of people.
Keep one campus
I LIKE the idea of having a performing arts center on campus. It makes so much more sense to have it right next to the other buildings where students can take a dance class and then the next hour they can go to math class or science class or English class and we won't have to have shuttle buses between two campuses. It makes a lot more sense to have one campus and have the performing arts center on campus.
Same information in newspaper
THE LADY from Jackson who wrote to the Missourian on Sept. 28 and again Oct. 6 may well have gotten her information on the Internet, because it's full of information, but I saw a similar article with a little more detail to it about two, maybe three, years ago in The Wall Street Journal in case anyone is interested.
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Live with student parking
I READ with interest your front-page story about the parking and trash problem around Central. I am a real estate agent here in Cape, and I go to great lengths when I show people property in that area to drive them by during the school day so they can see what the situation is like. If they're looking at the property during the summer, I am very candid with them that this is the situation, that this is near the high school, that the new high school won't be built for several years and that the students park along there. Mr. Rau should have known this when he bought the property. And it's been like this a long time. I graduated from Cape Central 27 years ago, and it was a problem then. If you'll look back in history, this is nothing new. He chose to buy the property. He should have investigated that. I think the littering is irresponsible, but the parking is something he should live with.
Arts support is expensive
TODAY MY family and I live really feel like proletarians, part of the great unwashed masses that apparently arts councils and people who set ticket prices for art events are trying to reach. We're not destitute, but like most families we live on a carefully budgeted system. Our only sin seems to be that we are very interested in the performing arts. I don't want to hear any more people crying, "We don't support art in this community, we should do better, a town of this size needs to bring more people out, we need to be drawing bigger and better performances and towns like Paducah are doing way better than us and they're smaller than we are." I'll tell you why you don't get people at these performances, and this goes for everything that comes in here from out of town such as Spirit of the Dance, Nutcracker from St. Louis. It's the ticket prices. I know people have to make money. They have to cover their travel expenses and everybody's salaries, but I want to tell you something. If I have a family and if I have children and if they're interested in dancing because Riverdance has really sparked the nation's interest in Irish dancing and if I want to take them to see Spirit of the Dance, I'm looking at well over $100 if I even want the cheaper seats. This is ridiculous. We don't go to these things because we can't afford them. There are very few events around here that are affordable and within a family's budget. We have other monetary concerns, and unfortunately art is the last thing to be considered. It's the first thing to go of our list of things to do. So when we build the River Campus -- and by the way, you can forget about taxpayers' money -- if you people find a way to fund it, I hope you charge more acceptable ticket prices so we can all go. Art is supposed to be universal and for the people. It was never meant to be a class system for only the upper echelon to enjoy. I'm sick of that attitude in this town.
A sign of character
TO THE people who say, "He's made a mistake, forgive him": Right, you should forgive him, but he should step down for the good of the country. A president who lies and does this filth as president shouldn't be president. But for those who say this is no big deal, it's private, his wife doesn't mind so why should we, your statement shows your moral character is about the same as his.
Pharisees still with us
IF I am understanding the Speak Out caller who congratulated the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association for removing a church for ordaining women as deacons based on I Timothy 3:12, which starts in the King James Version of the Bible, "Let the deacons be the husband of one wife": Using this reasoning and following scripture to the letter, I would assume that the caller would agree that this passage would disqualify Paul himself from becoming a deacon, as he was not the husband of one wife. Although I personally was not there, I would guess after having read historical accounts of the days of abolition of our country, there were Christians who justified, fought for and died in the defense of slavery, clutching Scripture to their bosoms which commanded slaves to be obedient to their masters. Is it not time to use critical thinking, compassion in our humanity regarding people as persons instead of regarding them primarily in terms of sex? Although I am neither Baptist or a biblical scholar, just what separates the Pharisees of Jesus' day from certain Christians of today?
More on crazy driving
I AGREE with the Speak Out comment about driving like maniacs referring to young girls driving between Jackson and Cape. I also think they should watch around schools. After school they will see some boys driving just like that. But particularly, girls are driving crazy.
It's about forgiveness
I'D LIKE to ask all these Bible-quoting people if there's somewhere it says that the president of the United States, Mr. Clinton, cannot be forgiven for his sins. Is he different from anybody else? I think the Bible says you can be forgiven for your sins.
Concerned after the fact
HAVE YOU noticed that many parents only seem to get concerned about the effect of the morals of their children after the morals of some public figure or their own children makes the news? I have.
It's all be said again before
YOU GUYS are darn lucky I love repetition. The plethora, even deluge, of Speak Out comments about the president's problems has given whole new meaning to the word redundancy.
Heroes save lives
MR. FARROW, you and all these other people need to know what a hero statement means. It means to put your life in danger to save someone else's life. I don't think Mark McGwire did that nor any of these other so-called heroes that you people loosely use the term for. Get it right.
Women have equal rights
IN REGARDS to the Baptist church being dropped because it ordained female deacons: My gracious, you men deacons, how did you get on this earth unless a female delivered you? Jesus was delivered by Mary. Wake up. Women have equal rights. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. That isn't religion.
Wait till its gets really bad
TO IMPEACH Clinton, it will take Democrats' votes, and they don't think he has lied enough or has been filthy enough yet.
Keeping an eye on voting
REPUBLICAN STATE Sen. Peter Kinder recently seemed to hold out hope that some Bootheel Republican candidates for the Missouri House of Representatives may win. That stunned me and made me very suspicious, so much so that alarm bells went off in my head. As a result, I'll be in the Bootheel on election day to record any Republican funny business on my trusty video camcorder.
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