SPEAKOUT

I WOULD LIKE to express thanks to the Cape Police Department and the university's Department of Public Safety for responding so quickly to the call that my son was missing. They found him within minutes. Thanks.

SPEAK OUT, I think the people of the United States need to remember what John F. Kennedy once said. It isn't what your country can do for you; it's what you can do for your country. We need to give President Bush and our armed forces all our support against this madman Saddam Hussein and his armies. Thank you.

WAKE UP, AMERICA. It's time to open our eyes about the crisis in the Middle East and what they are doing to our fellow Americans held hostage. Saddam Hussein is another Adolph Hitler. We have to stop him before it's too late. Thank you.

TWO RECENT CALLERS complained that John F. Kennedy got the U.S. into the United Nations and issued an executive order that turned our military over to the United Nations. One caller even called people pathetically ignorant for not knowing his supposed facts. Actually, the U.S. joined the U.N. in 1945, not 1960 when JFK was elected. Secondly, American forces have fought in Vietnam, Grenada and Panama in the past three decades without needing U.N. approval. Also, why didn't the Missourian correct these gross misstatements? You've commented on other Speak Outs many times. Could it have to do with your frequent bashing of prominent Democrats?

We didn't catch the misstatements or we would have corrected them. Secondly, this newspaper does not bash prominent Democrats in Speak Out. The U.N. charter was drafted from April to June 1945. The United States and, incidentally, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were among the original 51 nations that became members. You are correct on U.S. forces fighting in Vietnam, Grenada and Panama during recent decades.

I'VE BEEN WATCHING CBS news with Charles Kuralt and Lesley Stahl and I think they're doing a great disservice to the United States. I spent 22 years in the Navy, spent a little time in Vietnam, and those people are wanting the military to give away battle plans, and it is absolutely stupid. The military is not going to give away their battle plans to the news media just so they can make a profit, and that's what it amounts to. The news media is just getting to the point where they're making a profit, and that's all it amounts to. And Charles Kuralt, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the lowest journalists on the face of the earth.

IT JUST GRIPES the heck out of me that these demonstrators get out and demonstrate for peace while our boys are over there fighting and getting killed and captured. It looks to me since they've got time to get out and demonstrate for peace and this type of thing, they don't really have a whole lot to do. If I had my way, I'd pick up every one of them and send them over there and give them something to do. Let them help fight. Thank you.

TELEVISION IS BRINGING the war live into our living rooms. In past wars we only heard or saw reports on basically regular news broadcasts. The general public would be much better off without seeing it live. Everyone that has a loved one in the service now has to immediately join a support group in order to cope. I wonder how in the world people coped in past wars. In World War II my parents had four boys in the service at one time and they did not belong to a support group. In fact, so far as I have ever knew, there was no such thing as support groups. People and the news media act like this is the first war we have ever been in. All these servicemen and women are volunteers. True, a lot of them did not volunteer to go to war, but they have been drawing pay from the reserves and National Guard, and they knew that serving active duty was required if needed.

I WISH THE demonstrators would have gone to the polls and voted against George Bush. It would have done a lot more good. We would not be in this today. Bush cannot be trusted. He did not tell the truth in the campaign concerning the Contra affair. His own party knows that. We don't know why we're over there in this mess and we never will know. Don't expect the Republican Party to tell you now or ever.

I'D LIKE TO make two points. I don't understand why our local National Guard goes to Panama to repair roads when we need roads repaired in Cape County. Why don't they do their training right here? Number 2, I think the news media does not help the morale of all our boys overseas by showing the anti-war demonstrations. Why don't they just forget about putting them on the air, in the newspaper and on TV, and show only the people who are backing our soldiers? Thank you.

I'M CALLING TO disagree with the person who says that Reagan and Bush were a sleaze factory. Maybe he should be in a sleaze factory. Maybe Dukakis would never do this stuff, but I think Bush is doing the right job. Thank you very much.

I FEEL THE news media should give absolutely no air time to the war protesters. The protesters are few and will protest anything given the chance. Let's concentrate on the people behind our boys in Saudi Arabia.

I WANTED TO let everyone know that I'm a nurse and I would go serve my country in Saudi Arabia. I have friends and family there that I care dearly for. I think we're doing the right thing because Saddam does not need to run the world or the U.S., and I'd like to know why Sikeston and Cape have such outrageous gas prices and Benton is $1.13 and they're the only one semi reasonable considering that oil prices dropped $10.50 on the gallon. Thank you.

FIRST OF ALL I want to give thanks to each and every man and woman serving in the gulf. Especially my heart is with the 4th and 64th armored divisions. May you all raise triumphantly by the hands of God and God bless you all. Simply, thank you.

IN REGARDS TO the person who thinks that Dan Rather looks so terrible on television, maybe Dan Rather is not there to look good or pretty; he's there to tell the world what's going on. There's nothing pretty about war and there's not going to be any good news for some time, I'm afraid. If Dan Rather does not meet her or his expectations, it seems that your expecting everything to look good in life. That's not the way things are. I count on Dan Rather to tell what's going on, not how he looks.

PETER KINDER HAS again showed himself a master of politics and the English language. Everyone should read his editorial in Tuesday's paper in which he points out that President Reagan's Star Wars initiative is helping us to win this war we're fighting. The patriot missiles are a direct result of Reagan's efforts. Thank you.

THIS IS JAN. 22, 4:35 p.m. As we worry about the people over in the Middle East and the war going on over there, today marks the 18th anniversary of a war that has killed more than 25 million people. It is a war that the people being killed can't even defend themselves against. What is that war? It is against the unborn children. We call it abortion. If we were to lose 25 million people to Saddam Hussein, everyone would be outraged. Where are these people when it comes to innocent little babies? Thank you.

DO YOU RECALL who started the protesting and demonstrations? You should. They just celebrated his birthday. Do you recall how the news media built it up, the marches? I think all protesters should not be shown on TV. They will do anything to get their face on the TV screen. Stop that and you will stop the protesting. If no one sees their faces, then they gain nothing. Thank you.

PETER, IF IT WASN'T for Bush getting us into this and drawing his line in the sand, we wouldn't need all those fancy weapons you are bragging about. Thank you.

I SAW ON television yesterday that the federal government subsidizes the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday commission to a tune of $300,000 per year. Could you tell who's on that commission and how that money is spent? Thank you very much.

I WAS AT a business meeting the other day and a speaker was talking about how when anything goes wrong in the world, the United States is always called on to help. And had come to the conclusion that the reason for that is that the United States is the 911 of the world. Thank you.

SPEAK OUT, THE United States needs to take all the drug dealers and murderers out of prison and send them to the Middle East to help fight this war. Thank you.

SPEAK OUT. I think Israel needs to retaliate. Thank you.

I JUST READ in the paper about the American soldier being beaten by a mob of people over in Iraq. I think the United States of America ought to start bombing all of Iraq including even it's citizens., too. Thank you.

ISRAEL NEEDS TO join forces with the United States and Great Britain against Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi stooges. Thank you.

SADDAM HUSSEIN is one of Satan's bloodthirsty demons. Thank you.

COULD ANYBODY TELL me what this war's all about? I don't understand why we should be in this war in the first place. I think it's a politicians war, one for the big shots. We need to put some of them over on the front line. Then we could get it stopped. Thank you, Speak Out.

I DON'T GIVE a tinker's damn about Hussein's beef with Israel. Israel did not strike the first blow and has not even retaliated. So, as far as I'm concerned, that madman has attacked and killed innocent people. We don't know much, but we do know that this is a fact. This unreasonable attack on neutral Israel should give you people who are protesting this war some idea of the kind of animal we are dealing with. Protesting the war at this late date is like closing the gate after the horses are out. Thank you.

I THINK IT'S a shame that the national news media seems more interested in scoring points off the military, making the military look bad and inefficient, than they are reporting the news truthfully. They often purport themselves to be asking the facts when in truth they are trying to get someone to say something that the reporter wants them to say in the first place regardless of whether the person being interviewed wants to say that or intends to say that at all. As a veteran, I support Desert Storm and I'm very angry at the national news media when they attempt to belittle the attempts of this country and the situation, which I think we're justified in.

IN RESPONSE TO the person who called Speak Out several days past stating more or less, have you ever noticed that the people who are wildly enthusiastic for this war are the ones who will never be asked to go, well, I'm a naval reservist and I may be asked to go. While I didn't want war, I wholeheartedly support the efforts of our country and our service people and what they are doing over there now.

THIS IS FOR Peter Kinder regarding his article in the Jan. 22 Southeast Missourian. Thank you, Mr. Kinder, for an article that expressed what has to be the opinion of many Americans regarding the shameful behavior of Congress regarding our defensive capabilities over the last Lord-knows-how-many years. Thank you again for a very apt and accurate article.

I WISH I KNEW that another war would insure freedom for all people who want it and who agree with our perception of it. But from what I know of the world's history, and from what I've experienced myself through the past 60 years, there always have been and always will be a tyrant, an oppressor, a dictator or an aggressor somewhere in the world. So I guess that means there will always be wars and rumors of war, no matter how many people have died, are dying and will die for somebody else's freedom or for whatever excuse or reason. Thank you.

IT'S NICE TO see a little bit of the news of the war and what's going on in the Mid East but why do we have to play into Saddam Hussein's hands by showing all the devastation and the bombing and the POWs that he has in his custody? We're just playing into his hands when we show this. Thank you.

NOW WE KNOW how crazy it was for Gorbachev to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He must have been elected by the same people who gave Milli Vanilli a Grammy. Now that we've seen the true Gorbachev killing all those Lithuanians and Latvians, perhaps its time to revoke his peace prize.