SPEAKOUT

THIS IS TO ANYONE who is responsible for a baby or child in an automobile. Every day I am sickened by your ignorance of the necessity to put infants in car seats. Your arms cannot overpower the resulting force of an accident needed to contain your baby in your lap. He or she will suffer the same fate as that of a tornado being thrown at a brick wall. Please, if you do not have a car seat, stay home. No trip is worth injury to or death of a child due to lack of restraint while in a car. Also, need I remind you that it is unlawful to fail to restrain a child in a car? Thank you.

I WAS ONE of many to enjoy the parade Monday organized by the fair board and the city. The children, the school bands, and all the participants were fantastic. Many thanks to the instructors of the bands for the hours and patients. They made us all proud. Thank you.

REGARDING THE ENHANCED 911 that Scott City is going to vote on in November, I would like to know if Speak Out could print the exact reading of that issue on the ballot. I would like to know if it's going to read as a percentage as far as the funding goes or what.

The ballot will read: "Shall the city of Scott City, Missouri, establish an emergency 911 telephone service and impose a telephone tax to finance such service? Yes (or) No. The initial tax imposed shall not exceed 15 percent of the basic monthly rate charged by the telephone company."

I THINK THIS Proposition B is going down the drain, what with that Judge Russell Clark in Kansas City throwing our money away. Thank you.

A QUESTION: YOU people who throw candies and so forth at parades, do you ever think of how you the hurt those little ones you miss. I took my two grandsons to the parade Monday and only two people threw to them. They were hurt to see kids on each side get so much and they got four pieces. If you are throwing just to friends or those you know, just give it to them and don't throw it at all. It would be so much better for the youngsters.

LET IT SNOW, let it snow, let it snow!

I'M CALLING TO say hooray and thank you to Wal-Mart. I've just opened my paper and their circular is printed on recycled paper. If more of the stores around here would start doing that instead of using the glossy stuff that can't be recycled, we could save the planet a little bit more. Wonderful, Wal-Mart.

I'D LIKE TO get a correction on a telephone number that you published on page 12A on the 12th of September. The title of the article was Students Must Learn Skills for US to be Competitive. At the end of the article it says for more information call 1-800-778-SKILL. I've tried that four times and they say the number is not good. Please publish a correct number. Thank you.

For those who did not see the corrected number in Friday's edition, it is 1-800-788-7545.

I WOULD JUST like to say thank you to Mark Bliss and the Southeast Missourian for their article on the cooperativeness of our area law enforcement agencies, and especially his comments on Mr. Copeland and the Cape County Sheriff's Department. I thoroughly agree with him. They are far from cooperative, not only with the media but with the public. Thank you, Mark. I enjoyed your article.

SOMETHING VERY DISTURBING happened awhile back while I was driving through a small town. The car in front of me hit a cat and left it paralyzed in the road. A policeman passed by and flagged him down and asked him if he could do something, and he said no. So I went home and called the closest veterinarian, and he said I would have to pick the cat up and pay for its treatment. I didn't know if the animal would bite me or if it was run over by more cars meanwhile. Please, would someone advise me what I should have done? It really bothers me.

I DIRECT THIS comment to Mr. Mark Bliss about his column on the county sheriff's department. You, sir, are grossly misinformed and totally out of touch with reality. It's too bad that you are inconvenienced in your quest for information for your newspaper. Surely you could get your information between the hours of 8 and 5. How short your memory is. The citizens of Cape Girardeau County were humiliated by the antics of Mr. Below and Mr. Thomas. The sheriff's department lost credibility in the eyes of the public. It was a joke. Norman Copeland stepped forward and streamlined the sheriff's department. He got rid of deadwood and hired key personnel to do the job. He is an administrator that any county would be proud to have. You, sir, are not qualified to pass judgment on our sheriff. Thank you.

I WOULD LIKE to Speak Out about the proposed licensing fees for handymen in Cape Girardeau. I can describe why the city is supporting this measure in two words: licensing fees. You don't have to look too deeply to understand that their concern is for the fees that they can collect if this law would pass. Let's look a little deeper before we say, Oh, we just want to do it for the good of the citizens. Let's look to see where the root is. Let's look for the money.

I WOULD LIKE to make a recommendation on the Scott City election for enhanced 911 in November. I would like to recommend that unless you have a telephone you can't vote. Since we're voting for an increase in our telephone bill, I feel that people who don't have a phone shouldn't be able to vote an increase for those of us who do have one. Also, I think people who have two or three phone lines should be able to vote more than once. Wetterau has a lot of phone lines. I think they should be able to vote a lot of times.

I WANT TO comment on the women that think they should have an abortion. In 1943 war broke out. I was pregnant. My husband went into service. I lived in a 6-by-8 room. I slept on a three-quarters bed and my husband slept with me. I carried my baby. I contracted measles and went into the hospital. They thought I was going to have the baby at seven and one-half months. I came back. I carried the baby full term and walked to the hospital and up the steps, and I was there 40 minutes before the baby was born. We were dismissed, came back to a little bigger room. We slept, ate and cooked in the other bigger room. There was a fire in the house where I lived. We got out safely. My husband went overseas and I took care of our baby boy. I conceived a baby girl 10 months after he came back. I carried that one full term. My husband had no job. I went to work selling dresses. I went to work also working at a dress factory. I have now a handsome son that was born in 1943. I have a grown daughter who is 44 that lives in Texas. I went through very difficult times. Believe me, it was worth it. If you are to abort, you will abort naturally. I also did that. My baby was aborted at seven and one-half months of pregnancy. So I advise you: do not have an abortion unless it is absolutely necessary. Thank you.

I TOO APPLAUD Police Chief Boyd for chasing the homosexuals out of the parks. Keep up the good work. And we're setting a double standard when we are expected to support the GLSA at SEMO when homosexual activity is a violation of state law. Are we expected to support something that is against the law? We better get something right here.

FIRST, LET ME say I'm a long-time citizen of Scott City. I have just read in the paper where the tax rate is going up to $1.26. Do you know that four years ago the tax rate in Scott City was 51 cents? Do you know the mayor asked for a one-half cent sales tax and now she would like a 911 number at a possible cost of 15 percent of our phone bill of everyone in Scott City? When is she going to realize that good government starts at the top?

I JUST WANTED to say thanks to whoever found my driver's license and Schnucks card at Rhodes at Scott City. Thanks again.

DO THE HIGH school teams that play at Houck Stadium have to kick goals and extra points on the narrower goal posts that the college now uses?

Yes. A spokesman at Central High School said teams that play Central in Houck Stadium this season have agreed to play with the narrower goal posts.

I SAW WHERE THE American Family Association here in Cape, which claims to be a Christian group, wants MTV banned from TCI's cable programming. I realize some people may not like MTV and some might claim MTV is detrimental to the way teenagers are being raised and the way they dress and things of this nature, but I think they are overlooking one key factor. The teenagers watching MTV are really no more, I guess, dangerous than the teenagers watching regular cable programming with violence on it. It's not having any more of a detrimental effect than seeing violence on TV or seeing some of their athletes that they look up to being busted for cocaine use or heroin or something of this nature. Another thing is, if they do this they will lose a vital number of students that go to the university here in town and this university makes up a good portion of this city's economy. The people need to realize, I guess, that MTV is no worse than any other network on the air, just like Encore or anything else. If they don't like it, they can have it scratched from their TV viewing and their cable package. As far as being detrimental to the youth, there's nothing in the way people dress; styles have changed throughout history. It has no effect on the way people think or act. They really need to look at what it's going to do to the economy of this area.

I'M CALLING about the organization called AFA wanting to ban MTV. Well, not all listeners of MTV or rock 'n' roll music are teenagers. If they're going to represent people, they're sure not representing me because I like MTV and I'm an older person. And I'm not out killing or doing drugs or anything like that. I don't see any harm in watching MTV. If any individual wants to watch MTV, it's their right. If they want to turn it off, all they have to do is push the little button or turn the little knob on the TV set and turn it off. It's up the public if they want to watch MTV. They're not representing me. Thank you.

AFTER WATCHING the fire in Hamlet, N.C., I was wondering if the city of Cape Girardeau inspects businesses for safety so nothing like that could happen here in Cape.

Yes. The Cape Girardeau Fire Department has a fire safety inspection program for businesses.