SPEAKOUT

I WOULD LIKE to comment about Gulf Mailbag. Please write to the men and women who are overseas now and have their pictures in the paper. Please send them the things they request in their articles if you can. Write them letters. It really means a lot to them. Let's stand behind these fellows. They don't want to be over there any more than anyone else. I'm trying to write to all of them I see in the paper, but I can't afford to send them everything that they want. Let's stand behind the men in service. Thanks a lot, Speak Out.

I'M CALLING IN regards to the people who have called about cars running around with only one headlight. I know a man who had to drive to work one morning with his head hanging of out the window and holding a flashlight so he could see where he was going. He had no headlights, and that's the truth.

THIS IS TO the ladies and gentlemen of Cape Girardeau County and the surrounding area. This year when you're opening your Christmas presents and eating a Christmas dinner think of the firefighters who have protected your property and protected your lives, but have fallen during the battle. Please remember them because they cannot open presents or eat Christmas dinner again. Also, please remember the servicemen and the police officers who have fallen in duty. Thank you.

THE INSENSITIVITY OF those people who are harassing the Cruzan family is appalling. Why don't they leave those poor people alone in peace? They did not come by this decision easily. There are a lot worse things than dying, and Nancy Cruzan and her family have lived with the worse for nine years. Thank you.

CONCERNING THE CRUZAN case, I understand there are a number of people who have picketed the hospital and tried to take legal action to have the support system restored to Cruzan. I think that her parents have gone through an ordeal that few people would realize, unless they have experienced it themselves, and they have finally gotten the courts to approve this. If these people are so opposed to the support system being removed from her body, I'm sure that if they would want to assume the financial obligations and take over her case, some judge would be willing to let them do it.

I WANT TO say I really appreciated Bill Hopkins' letter in the Friday paper about the scholarships at the university shouldn't be race-blind and we shouldn't earmark money for any specific group. I totally agree and I think this needs to be said more often. I thought the whole point was to look at people being all equal and not giving anybody a certain leg up out of federal money. I think it's about time somebody speaks out against this. If there were scholarships that were formerly restricted to only white males, I wonder how many people would complain? I think black people are just as good as white people, and, if they can compete equally, they have an equal chance to win scholarship money, and that's the way it should be. Thank you.

I ALWAYS THOUGHT it was a citizen's right to protect his property, so it should be the right for school children. By my daughter not being allowed to go to her locker at Schultz School, she had two new shirts stolen at Friday's Christmas party. If this is the case, why have lockers? I hope whoever stole her new Christmas shirts has a very Merry Christmas and school policies go down in history. Thank you.

THERE'S SO MUCH I don't understand about the new bankruptcy laws, and I wish someone would call in and explain them to me. For example, I know a young man who was buying a business some people had and they were taking out bankruptcy. He paid several hundred dollars for back phone bills and what-have-you to get the number. When that business took out bankruptcy they were able to keep all their equipment, all their trucks and everything, and didn't have to pay any of the people that they owed; not one cent, didn't have to pay the young man any expenses on what he had been through, the money that he had taken out of his pocket. They also were able to take over a part of his business because this telephone situation caused this young man to lose about half of his business for the last several months, and now he's in financial trouble. It just doesn't seem fair that people can do things like this. Another example: I know a couple who took out bankruptcy. They were awarded their home, which is valued at over $50,000; all of the fixtures, which would probably be another $75,000; two cars that were valued at over $25,000; plus a lot of machinery; adding machines; a lot of bookkeeping equipment; computers; and so on. I don't understand the new laws. Recently it seems like this is the way it is, but in the distant past they were forced to pay at least a percentage of the money that they owed the people. Thank you.

I WOULD like to say Cliff Hill will be missed on KFVS. Good luck, Cliff, as you are going back to Alabama. I just wanted to say how pretty the yellow ribbons are at the KFVS building and how pretty the Avenue of Flags is. Showing these ribbons and flags shows the respect for the men and women in service now and those who have served and died for our country. Thank you.

I'D LIKE TO thank the television stations in this area for all year long, and here at Christmastime giving me the opportunity to look at these crying, money-grabbing, flim-flam preachers on television. It is so nice that they keep shoving them before us every day. Every day we get these preachers, and I certainly want to thank you for them.

DR. KING, IF it were put to a popular vote of the people, wouldn't have a holiday in his honor. That doesn't mean he's not a great guy; it just means that most Americans don't favor it. The holiday was put into place by cowardly legislators who are afraid that if they don't yield to the black man they are going to be labeled bigots or racists, which is ridiculous. It amuses me somewhat that the black people in South Africa and the United States are calling for a majority rule. That's very important in South Africa, and it should be that way; the majority should rule the minority. However, the blacks seem to have a different view of that in this country. They feel that any demand they make should be yielded to by the majority. I think they are in error. A good example is President Bush reversing the secretary of education on the scholarships that are racially selective. Thank you, Speak Out.

I CAN'T BELIEVE it. The snow grinch is going to get our Christmas.

I WOULD JUST LIKE to say I didn't know that if you called 911 that there is an $85 automatic charge. They send you a bill the next day. I think everyone would like to know.

I DON'T AGREE with the man who said there are not enough handicap parking spaces. I see lots of empty spaces and I'm very handicapped and don't have a sticker on my car yet. I had a friend who was very handicapped and did not have a sticker, and she was fined $35. This is wrong. Thank you.

I DO NOT believe there will be a war in the Mideast because past history reveals there never was a war during a Republican administration; so, I hear, during a Republican re-election drive. Think that over.

WOMEN, DON'T HIT men either.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are getting tired of our Congress and president and the way they're running this country. They're just sitting back in their arm chairs and taking it easy, and all those young people over in the gulf could get killed. The American people want to impeach Bush, and that's so.

Polls, nevertheless, consistently have revealed that the American people support Bush's actions regarding the Persian Gulf situation.