SPEAKOUT

No tax support for lake

CONCERNING the artificial lake proposal in Cape and Bollinger counties, I reside in the city of Cape Girardeau, but I will vote "no" for a sales-tax increase to make a lake for these reasons: 1. No matter how much revenue it brings in, I will never see a penny of it. My tax money went toward building the new sports stadium in St. Louis. What good has it done me? Nothing. 2. If the people who own the land presently have been blessed to have this land in their heritage, they should be allowed to keep it. It is only right. 3. The government cannot afford to take care of the recreational areas it has now, notably Trail of Tears park and other parks. It does not need to take on another tax-and-spend project.

REPLY: So far, the lake proposal is still in the discussion stage. No sales-tax questions regarding the lake has been placed on the ballot.

Dangerous activities

I WOULD like to make a comment on the Democrats' attacks on cigarettes, saying that they can kill you. Yet, at the same time, when you perform homosexual activities, that can kill you too, with AIDS. But yet they think smoking is worse. Wake up, Democrats. The Republicans are not stupid.

More street cleanup

I WOULD just like to commend the gentleman who picked up that cardboard box at William Street in front of Kentucky Fried Chicken on July 3. Congratulations, sir. You did an excellent job, and we're proud of you.

A dying Constitution

THE FEDERAL courts, including the Supreme Court and federal judges, have circumvented limits on government by interpreting what they call a "living Constitution" to be adapted to the needs of our time, as seen by the busybodies, the liberals, the socialists, the big-government machos. What is called a living Constitution by them is actually a dying Constitution, for the whole point of a constitution in the first place is to limit what government can do to and for us. When those limits are circumvented by judicial interpretation in such cases as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, confiscatory taxes and welfare dependents, the Constitution is dying. We need to return to strict constructionist constitutional interpretation if we are going to survive as a moral, religious and free nation.

Back those officers

AS A police officer, I would just like to state that even though it is nice of Mr. Clinton to allegedly give us 100,000 more police officers -- granted that is quite important -- but what would be even more important would be if he would support judges that he appoints, federal judges that is, who are less liberal and more conservative and more willing to punish the wrongdoers instead of the police officers. In other words, getting 100,000 more police officers is just a political maneuver. It does us very little good if Mr. Clinton is not going to back the police officers.

Liberals and integrity

WE CONSTANTLY hear the liberal views and their Marxist philosophy adopted by the Democrats and their socialistic attitudes to bash the wealthy in business. The loss of American jobs to cheaper foreign labor is due solely to the business grief -- so they think. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The real culprits are the greedy, tax-hungry politicians and their tax codes. Virtually every electronic product you own, from TVs to VCRs, were designed and patented here, and then licensed to non-U.S. companies to manufacture. A tax code discriminates against investment and long-term risk. After 40 years of punishing invested capital by the Democratic party, the liberal Marxist tax philosophy has reduced our economic growth rate by more than 50 percent. Our government has become the single greatest debtor in the world, and all we have to show is unfunded liabilities, more public servants and billions of new regulations. With the help of all these bureaucratic social values, crime has soared, and government psychologists still have not approved of the simplicity of the Ten Commandments. In 1960, the American family paid only 25 percent of its income in taxes. Now it's nearly 40 percent. The rate of increase in government spending is twice that of the economy. We must resolve the issues of integrity before the country goes bankrupt.

Start the petitions

I JUST read the article about Joanne Emerson possibly running to fill her husband's vacant seat, and I think we should get a campaign going,so that we can get our signatures and get it going by July 29.

Kids for St. Vincent's

I'M 11 years old, and I go to St. Vincent's Seminary, and I don't want to see it go down. Me and my brother and I like playing in the locker rooms and the basketball courts, and we have a lot of fun here, and we're also going to start a few things. Me and a friend of mine are going to set up a little model-making business. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Great Benton fireworks

I JUST want to say a big thank you from my family and me for the great fireworks at Benton on July 3. They were the best we've ever seen.

Cleaning up fireworks

THOSE WHO shoot off fireworks should take the responsibility to clean up after themselves. Example: dead end of Kennett Street. City officials should take the responsibility to ban the sale of fireworks in the city. Outcome: dollars saved. If the Fourth of July ranks among the busiest holidays for the police, the solution should be most obvious.

More to Whitewater

IT LOOKS like Bill Clinton is going to have to get his saxophone out and start practicing, because he's only going to be in office another four or five months when Whitewater really comes down. These major news media were saying that there was nothing to this Whitewater thing. Two weeks before the guilty verdict, Hillary Clinton said that when all of this is over, "You see what I've been talking about is true all along." You see, what she's been saying isn't true, and they found him guilty.