SPEAKOUT

Need higher paying jobs

I'D JUST like to give my opinion of the new jobs coming to Cape Girardeau. We're getting 500 to 600 jobs, but they pay $15,000 to $17,000 a year, and that's before taxes. I can't understand why the city officials and the chamber of commerce cannot get decent paying jobs in this town for people instead of below poverty level jobs. I guess everybody can get a new job, we can all live on the southeast side of Cape and maybe have a vehicle to be able to get to work. There will never be a chance for anybody else to move up in this town as long as those controlling the jobs keep getting minimum wage jobs for this town.

Go, Heidi, go

I'M CALLING in regard to Heidi Nieland. She's my favorite reporter for the Missourian. I never miss her column. I'd like to give her a lot of encouragement on her diet, and I wish her the best of luck.

A wonderful writer

I'M REALLY looking forward to reading the articles written by Heidi Nieland on her new weight-loss plan. Heidi's a wonderful writer, and her articles are always light and funny. She's a joy. I hope she stays around for a long time.

Medical explanation

DO YOU wonder why medical costs are so high? A friend told me that shortly after his heart bypass surgery, his doctor walked into the recovery room. He asked the nurse which one was his patient. She pointed him out sitting across the room. The doctor said "He can be discharged today." The doctor's charge for the visit was $40. Any questions.

Wait till you get to college

TO ALL of the teachers, parents and particularly students who think two and three hours of homework is too much: May I alert you to a news flash? Here it is. Wait until you get to college. If you think the amount of homework you're experiencing is way too much for our precious, overworked, under-appreciated, unspoiled young people in the United States, who lag in world education, just wait. This is just a warmup. If you go to college and apply yourself diligently at all, I can promise you you're going to have long nights and long days. Better stock up on the coffee. Better get yourself some Jolt. Better take off all your clothes and jump in a fountain, because it takes anything to keep you awake so that you can do your homework, so that you can do it well, so that you can get your diploma. To the teacher who was quoted, apparently it has been a while since you received your degree in teaching. You have no recollection of what it was like to be in college. Apparently you did the very minimum possible to get by, didn't take other classes and didn't do anything else outside of class that you needed to do.

Pressuring the innocent

GEPHARDT GOT away with his indiscretions with nothing more than a reprimand, but after two years of investigation they couldn't find anything wrong with what Gingrich did, so they've elected to extend their investigation. Does it seem wrong that we sometimes don't have equal treatment or do we pressure the innocent at least until after the election?

Jail regulations

THE REPUBLICAN Party preaches less federal involvement on the local level. Now the Republican sheriff comes before the electorate with grandiose revenue generating scheme to house federal prisoners. It does not take a rocket scientist that in order to have federal prisoners, there will be federal mandate on the building of the structure. I believe the county commissioners, the sheriff and the architect owe the public an explanation of comparison of regulations for the facility expanded for county use and a facility to house federal prisoners.

Medical comparison

THIS IS in regards to RNs vs. LPNs as school nurses. Who is better trained to attend to a child's health needs or injury, an LPN or a school secretary?

A well-rounded student

I'M THE original caller about the homework situation. I think you didn't get my point. I'm a college-educated person, and in college they always taught us to take a lot of different classes, because even though they didn't apply to your major, it was to help make you a more rounded person. In this day and age, considering how much television so many children watch, they need to be involved in sports and other activities. Children enjoy these activities. They make them a more rounded student, and they learn from a lot of these activities. So it's not a matter of getting my priorities straight. It's a matter of those teachers getting on the ball and doing their job while the children are at school.

We have term limits

I'D LIKE to know what the flap is over this term limits. I thought we already had term limits. It's called voting.

Same as murder

IN REGARDS to the abortion issue, if Clinton is going to support partial-birth abortion, then there's no reason that anybody should be in jail for murder, because there's no difference.

Feds control teaching

HAS IT ever occurred to you that the federal government tells our teachers what they may and may not teach our children? Mull that over for a while. And don't forget, it makes no difference which party is in power, the federal government still tells our teachers what and what not to teach our children.

Cooperative accomplishments

I'VE JUST received a letter from the steering committee on the Cape/Bollinger County lake. I must say I'm very excited about the way they have kept us landowners informed and included in their progress. The changes they've made have certainly answered the questions of landowners and others. Sure, there will always be a naysayer here and there. No project will ever satisfy 100 percent of those involved. the benefits of the lake far out way the negative naysayers. This just goes to show what can be accomplished when citizens of Cape and Bollinger Counties work together on a common goal.

Still a free country

A CALLER accused anybody who votes for Clinton as being a socialist. First of all, this is America, and it's perfectly fine to be a socialist. You can be a socialist, Democrat, Republican, whatever you want in this country. So lay off, buddy.

No voting sympathy

SEEMS LIKE the Republicans are running a campaign on sympathy for Dole, because he was wounded in the war. Well, we're all glad he was over there. But he didn't get killed, he just got wounded. But a bunch of people got killed, you know. And Jo Ann Emerson thinks she should have that kind of sympathy. Well, I hope neither one of them win.

Congress spends the money

TO THE caller who's talking about the president getting away tax dollars. Remember, this is money that the Congress has appropriated for the very thing the president is giving it out for. He's only distributing money they appropriated. He doesn't have any money until they appropriate money for him to spend it.

No tax dollars involved

THIS IS calling in regards to the Speak Out comment called "Wasting our money." If this person were more informed, they would know that the Community Caring Council and Walk the Walk have been funded by a private foundation. It does not use one penny of taxpayer money. I expect that taxpayers should say shame on you, whoever called in.

Proud of union ties

I HAVE worked in local unions all of my life. I am retired now and am drawing a union pension, I have union help, secured by my union, for myself and my wife. And I can say that I'm proud to have worked in a union, and I'm proud that I have belonged to a union all of my life.

Stop the wild claims

THIS IS in response to the caller who said Bill Clinton will take your guns, legalize abortion and promote anti-Christian bias. Gun control is a subject that a lot of people don't want to discuss. Neither is abortion. The fact is he's not going to take your gun. In fact, every hunter in this area still has his gun. Abortion's already legal. So quit calling in with these asinine comments bashing Clinton and the Democrats.