SPEAKOUT

Best since sliced bread

I THINK Bill Clinton is the best thing since sliced bread. I think the Republican Party should get off of Clinton's back over Whitewater. The liberals aren't the ones who got busted in Watergate, now are they? It was those darn Republicans.

Ron Howard's talents

WE ALL remember Ron Howard from "Happy Days" and when he was much younger -- Opie in "Mayberry RFD" and the "Andy Griffith Show." I hope we can appreciate that the name Ron Howard will go down in history as one of our time's greatest directors. I'm watching "Far and Away" right now, a movie that he directed. That boy is amazing. Ron Howard. I knew he was talented when he was just a little kid, but boy, he is just eaten up with talent.

Just more politics

OUR LAW-and-order president now wants to have law enforcement find out where all the guns taken from juveniles come from. He wants these providers of weapons prosecuted. Don't we all? If he would check with law enforcement officials, he would find that this is a standard procedure that investigators do already. Does he want credit for this too? Get a life, Mr. President, and stop putting politics into law enforcement.

The real causes of poverty

I READ with interest your article on the causes of poverty as determined by the liberals and the Clinton administration and the EMAA. I noticed they issued he blame, such as lack of housing and lack of insurance, but they never listed the actual cause of poverty, which is not working and not abandoning your children. These are the causes of poverty. The others are just side issues caused by poverty. The real cause of poverty, of course, is not being personally responsible enough to find a job and seek employment. If you're under the blanket of the welfare system, you're always going to be in poverty.

Judges' approval ratings

THE POLICEMAN who called in talking about the liberal judges that Mr. Clinton has appointed needs to check his facts. The American Bar Association gives his judges an approval rating of about 64 percent, if I remember correctly. This is a higher percentage approval rating than even Mr. Reagan had during his presidency. He needs to check his facts before he tries to stick a knife into the president.

Columnists describe the situation

I WOULD like to congratulate the Southeast Missourian on the columnists they select for the opinion pages. July 8, Mike Royko gives us a good picture of the kind of people who built this United States, and beside it you have placed Paul Greenberg's descriptive picture of the kind of characters trying to convince us they know how to run the country at the present time. I am happy to say that I believe I belong to the type Royko gives a view of, not the Washington bunch. You say I have no respect, and you're right. And may I add, I have no respect for the people who roll out carts of food paid for with my tax dollars. And that goes for these women having children for income. And you say it is your right? Is it?

Thanks for the concern

A BIG thanks to the kind people watching fireworks at Boatmen's Bank on Kingshighway when the gentleman blacked out and hit his head. He is OK. Thanks again.

Poor support for rock bands

THIS IS a message to all the rock 'n' roll fans in the area who didn't attend the concert at the Show Me Center. We'll most likely not be seeing another rock show in Cape because of low attendance. So next time you complain about driving to St. Louis to watch a concert, remember you didn't support the show here. Also, all three bands on Sunday played a great performance.

AIDS is everywhere

I WOULD like to make a comment on the comment in Speak Out about dangerous activities. They were making an attack on cigarettes and said you had to participate in homosexual activities in order to get AIDS. If you think that's the only way you get AIDS, then you're pretty stupid yourself. You can get AIDS if you are straight or homosexual. It really doesn't matter.

Liberal foolishness

THE LIBERAL left as embodied in the Democratic party is foolish and is made up of groups that want the government to take things -- usually money -- from other Americans and give it to them. The coalition includes government workers, unions, government contractors, corrupt big city machines, federal grant recipients, left wing intellectuals and both wings of the dependency lobby. Those locked into welfare dependency and those who earn a handsome living managing the system add to the never-ending dependency. The recent addition has been the new paymasters of the coalition: trial lawyers and the National Education Association. These economically self-interested groups are the radical utopians who wish to use the power of the state to restructure society. They include the radical leaders of the feminists, the homosexuals, the animal rights movements and environmentalists. And do not forget the anti-military pacifists who would now have us surrender our sovereignty to the United Nations instead of the Soviet Union. It is in fact the left that now strives to use state power to impose its morality by forcing all tax payers to pay for abortions and public art that mocks people of faith. It is the left that forces parents to pay for government schools where they do not wish to send their children. The foregoing are all vested interest groups that make up the Democratic Party.

Swimming ideas for state park

AT TRAIL of Tears State Park, I feel that people should take responsibility for themselves. I do believe that there should be lifeguards, but I don't think people should be fined, unless a park ranger thinks they are doing something truly outrageous. I don't think it's fair to keep people in the rope, because that doesn't give you much swimming area, especially if you are a better swimmer. Could the lake be cleared more so that maybe they could put a diving platform out for the better swimmers? Certainly they would need a couple of lifeguards for this. If they needed help, there is a lake in Indiana called Brooks Lake. It's a wonderful place for swimming, and it had a couple of lifeguards. It could serve as an example for Trail of Tears to follow.

Reason to support the lake

TO THE person complaining that Cape Girardeau will get benefit of the proposed Millersville lake sure doesn't know much about their geography. Approximately one-half of the lake will be in Bollinger County. Cape County through the years has promoted industry in the county. During rush hour on Highway 72 west of Jackson, it is simply outrageous to see the masses of Bollinger County people coming into Cape County for work. Wake up, Bollinger County, and try helping yourselves for a change. Support the lake.

Regulating fireworks

WE DON'T need needless laws. Where I come from in Ohio, there is a ban on fireworks, but the neighborhood put on pretty big shows every year. Just like prohibition, you just can't outlaw some things. Fireworks fall in that category.

Stupidity can kill too

I'D LIKE to respond to the caller who felt that the Democrats' attacks on cigarettes were inconsistent because things like AIDS can kill you. I don't necessarily understand the connection. What I'd also like to remind this person of is that a lot of things can kill you. In some places, utter stupidity, like the kind he showed in his comment, can kill you as well.

Unsafe designated drivers

I'D LIKE to say something about these designated drivers. Several years ago, I felt that I wasn't able to operate a vehicle because I had had too much to drink, and I had someone who didn't drink drive my vehicle, and they wrecked it. What's up with that? These designated drivers aren't all cracked up to what they're supposed to be.

Support for Carnahan

I'D LIKE to say that Mel Carnahan is the best governor we've ever had. We ought to all get behind him and re-elect him. He's instigated a tax refund to all our citizens who, through the Hancock Bill, have overpaid their taxes. Thank you, Gov. Carnahan. I'm going to vote for you. I hope everyone else does too.

REPLY: The governor can't take responsibility for tax refunds. They are mandated by the Hancock Amendment. It wouldn't matter who was governor -- except another governor might not have allowed runaway taxation to trigger the refund in the first place.

A question of phobias

HOMOSEXUALS CALL straight people who don't agree with their lifestyle "homophobic". Does that mean that straight people who don't want to get AIDS are "AIDSophobic?"

The rights of the unborn

I WANT to comment about the person who called in saying abortion is a choice by the mother. What about the infant who's being killed? Where are the rights? As far as the state staying out of it, the Constitution says that the state should provide for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- it should protect it. What about life? Does the baby have nothing to say? Even these partial-birth abortions where they kick and scream? Like the movie "Silent Scream" about the little baby who kicks and screams while it's being aborted. You need to see that. That's the problem in this country. We cannot put movies like "Silent Scream" and descriptive things on TV and in the movies. You can show anything you want: gay rights, murder, O.J. Simpson in a sympathetic view, but you can't tell the truth about abortion. People need to see what this is really like. As far as the church staying out of it, that's the problem with America today. The church has stayed out of it. Most of the problems that we have today are from the church not giving guidance to their parishioners or the church says it's all right to do it. There's no guidance.

Where's the performance?

DURING THE 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton promised to balance the budget, reform welfare, cut taxes and anything else that might get him votes. Needless to say, he never delivered on his promises and probably never intended to. Now he's making the same promises, and an amazing percentage of voters still believe this man. Has lying become acceptable to these voters, or are they just plain ignorant?

The Republican way

I WANT everything good for my son, so I'm going to do things the Republican way. I'm going to give him a good minimum-wage job, but just in case he can't make a living on $4.25 an hour, I'm going to buy him an assault rifle so he can rob a bank. There's nothing wrong with owning an assault rifle, you know. If he does get caught and put in jail, I'll buy him some cigarettes, because, they aren't addictive.

Resorting to low tactics

THERE is a shortage of Democratic comments in Speak Out -- the election, I'm sure, has a great deal of influence on that-- but to the name-caller using the phrases "fascist, Marxist, and socialist," that is all the conservative Republicans know how to do is call names. They resort to any low tactics they can because they want to win the election so bad. The comments this person made were purely asinine and complete hogwash. I think it's a proven fact that the Republicans' Contract With America flopped, and I say "Hallelujah!" I say it's an even score for the way they killed the mass health care plan that the president and his wife presented us and that we needed very badly. I would say that his remarks were very desperate because they want to win. I think they're going to have a big surprise for them in November. People see the Republicans for what they are -- they're for the rich. Any rich man who votes Republican is greedy, and any poor man who voted Republican is a fool.

The end of the rainbow?

THE PENDULUM has reached its extreme in all the bad things in this country. Gradually, things will become better. Richness is just around the corner for all of us.

The conservative challenge

IN THE 30 years since President Kennedy uttered his challenge of "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," Americans have not had to consider what they can do for their country outside of the national defense. Instead, the federal government has told us over and over what it can do for us. When it told us it could replace the obligation of families and communities to individuals in need, we accepted this thing called welfare. When government told us that education should be administered by the government and the schools rather than parents to teach sexual education and other behavior modification, instead of how to read and write and think, we accepted that. When the government told us that unchecked spending was necessary, and that the government would increase the government's share of every taxpayer's income, we even accepted that. Today, we know the full cost of ceding our responsibilities to the federal government. Despite the best intentions of those who created these policies, the government cannot be our parents, cannot teach our children about responsibility and character, cannot regulate individual behavior, and cannot create entrepreneurial opportunities. The real message of the 1994 election of a conservative group of new people, was a recognition of the proper and limited role of government. We must continue in 1996 to elect more of the people with the same philosophy of conservatism and traditional attitudes about our limited government and the role of the government in our lives before the American experiment which has happened in our country gets caught in the wheel with a lot of spokes broken.

No military background

WHAT IN the world does Bill Clinton know about who would be qualified as secretary of defense? I told you our boys were going to get killed over there, and sure enough 19 of them were. And how many hundreds of people injured? Bill Clinton knows absolutely nothing about the military because he's never been there. How could he possibly know? The only thing he knows about regimentation is dealing with drugs and guns in Arkansas. I should know, because I'm from Texarkana.

Enjoy birds in summer too

I LIVE in Tamms, Ill., and I'm calling in regards to the comment about not feeding the birds in the summer because of the blackbirds and the starlings. You don't know what you're missing. We feed the birds here year round, and we have small bluebirds, redbirds, mourning doves, house finches, wild canaries, rabbits, wild squirrels and a red-headed woodpecker. We enjoy watching the birds eat the seeds and the table scraps, and we also keep plenty of water out for them year round.

Marc Powers on a mural?

IN A recent column, Marc Powers wrote that he didn't care for the mural on the Mississippi River wall, even when he looked at it in a state of sobriety. I congratulate Mr. Powers for his courageous comments. I agree with him wholeheartedly. However, I am not ready to go public with my criticism of the mural. If I ever conclude that there is no chance that a likeness of me will be painted on the wall, then I, like Powers, will be very vigorous and very public in my criticism. However, in case I someday make it onto the wall, I will just as vigorously and publicly defend the looks of the mural. Thus, for now, it is necessary to remain in the safe haven of Speak Out anonymity.