SPEAKOUT

Opposed to lake project

BOLLINGER Countians, don't be fooled that the lake is going to help Bollinger County. The dam is going to be in Cape Girardeau County and that is where the businesses will build. It will result in higher taxes for Bollinger County, and Cape Girardeau County will get the benefit. The one who started the petition drive here in Bollinger County isn't concerned about Bollinger County as he moved his family to Jackson because Bollinger County wasn't good enough for his family. As for bringing in industry, I haven't seen any industry around Lake Wappapello or Clearwater Lake. Also, Peter Kinder, if you push the lake project, you lose my vote.

REPLY: This is why so many efforts fail. There is a lot of opinion presented as fact in these comments. Who knows yet where businesses would locate? The proposed 1-cent sales tax would be for both counties, not just Bollinger County. The person heading up the petition drive has deep roots in Bollinger County and a prosperous business in Marble Hill that is important to that county's economy. Wappapello and Clearwater lakes don't have industry because they are Corps of Engineers projects. Nearby communities such as Piedmont, however, have benefited from the lakes. There may be good reasons to oppose the lake project. It is still too early to tell. But fanning the flames of gossip isn't a good way to start.

Still strong opposition

THIS IS regards to the lake. The lake was a bad idea five years ago. It's still a bad idea. Mike Kasten, you're a fine gentleman. Your support of the lake is probably why you're not the presiding commissioner. You should have think about that.

Wondering about birds

I'M CALLING in regards to the woman who gave a dream catcher made up of beads and illegal feathers to Hillary Rodham Clinton. I was just wondering what happens if I walk outside in the morning after a stormy night and find a blue jay in my driveway or my yard.

REPLY: It depends. Is the blue jay dead or alive? Blue Jays tend to be rascals either way. However, there are certain birds that are protected by federal law, including some eagles, for example. Possession of feathers from those protected birds is a federal offense.

Teach about the war

I IMAGINE most everyone read the front page story about Charles Branum being a prisoner of war in Japan at the time the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I'm hoping all of you read the letter from Charles Branum himself which tells how he was a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines 2 1/2 years before arriving in Japan where he spent one year. He was on the Bataan death march every foot of the way, and that is when he lost so much weight and suffered so many atrocities. Are our students about even taught about the months the Americans and Filipinos were prisoners of the Japanese and the Bataan death march?

Subliminal picture

I WANT to protest the choice of pictures used to depict the dropping of the bomb in Hiroshima which you used on the front page of the Aug. 6 paper. The Japanese children praying was a touching sight but, that kind of subliminal message only fuels the current approach to history that the U.S. was wrong to drop the bomb and that Japanese lives were more important than our own soldiers' lives. I did appreciate the ex-prisoner of war who told of the torture our prisoners of war went through. We must teach our children that Japan was the aggressor and a very cruel one at that, and we stopped the war the best way we could, to save American lives and to win the war.

Special filing system

I COULDN'T believe this morning when I opened my mail. I received a letter from the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, wanting a sizable donation to help influence the next election. I filed mine in the waste can.

Library combination

COMBINING the Jackson Public Library and the regional library in Jackson is long overdue. It should have been done years ago. Two libraries in a town the size of Jackson has always been ridiculous. However, another location than in the Jackson City Park is mandatory. This beautiful park is the most park any place around, and Jackson cannot sacrifice two acres of green space to a building and parking lot. Another factor is the too remote and inaccessible location off Route D near the band shell for a library. The present regional library is a great central location.

Entitlement woes

MANY OF our citizens today who think they are entitled to some subsidy or grant or gift or program from the government as a right must give up such thinking because no where in the Constitution does it say that anyone is entitled to the earnings of others. We must rid our nation of the idea of entitlement. While government must help citizens in time of emergency, current programs mandated by the federal government calls for dependency, not responsibility.

Grass in Jackson streets

I WAS visiting in Jackson over the weekend. It is such a nice city. I can't believe how the homeowners throw their grass in the street. The street sweeper can't clean up your mess all the time. Isn't this littering? City hall and the mayor at Jackson, please do something about this.

Personal responsibility

I DON'T understand why Cape Girardeau needs to spend $60,000 to move families out of the flood area on the city's application for the buyout program. When is personal responsibility supposed to take over in our own lives? My parents taught me we were responsible for our own ups and downs and not to rely on others to help me out of a situation I got myself into. I in turn taught my own sons the same. We are looking to get our country into better financial shape by cutting back on extra handouts. I pride myself in being able to say I'm from the Midwest, which is what is America is all about. Come on, it is time we wake up and become responsible citizens and leaders.

Air condition the schools

IF THEY would have another election with just one issue, to air condition all the classrooms in the public schools, I'm sure it would pass. Don't say it's up to the state. Someone should put pressure on somebody to get it done. This is unheard of at this point of time to make our children sit in hot classrooms. Are you waiting for all of them to drop out?

Democrats no angels

TO THE lady who said she had been voting ever since women were allowed to vote and we couldn't afford the Republican party: If you've been voting that long, you must have put a lot of Democrats in office and just look at the shape of the poor children and the poor people of this country. We've got homeless, and that's what the welfare state has done. And these poor children are killing each other. They're being abandoned. We need orphanages for them. How much of a worse state can they be in? We've got to change. The Republicans have only been in there now eight months. Give them a little time.

Shoe on another foot

PAT SCHRADER, Barbara Boxer, Carol Mosely Braun and all other Democratic lawmakers might have good reason to rant and rave about Sen. Packwood and his alleged sexual harassment. My question is this. Why were these same women so quiet when their own president was accused of the same thing?

New bid on mowing lots

I WOULD like to be number one to get the contract to mow the 65 lots at $12,999, which is less than the city's $13,000. That sure would be a good deal. Hooray for the city's flood buyout of the grass cutting.

Fabric is tearing

THERE WAS a time not so long ago when government in America meant mostly local government, but the federal judiciary in the name of civil rights has gone a long way towards making state and local governments into administrative subdivisions of the central government. Judges have taken over school systems and dictated zoning ordinances and tax increases. They even strike down referendums approved by the people. I feel that in today's society people are permitted by society to engage in whatever activity they choose without assuming responsibility for it, and we expect the state to perform the functions traditionally reserved for heads of households.

More bombs dropped

AFTER ATOMIC bombs were dropped on Aug. 14 a day raid of 433 B-29s of the 8th Air Force bombed three targets in Japan. That night, another 559 B-29 bombers dropped in sights of the Tokyo area. Before the ceasefire took effect at 7 a.m. Aug. 15, 143 B-29s of the 315 Bomber Wing attacked Japanese oil refineries 270 miles north of Tokyo. The atomic bombs were not the last bombs ever dropped.