Speak out 101901

Honor to serve

I AM an old Marine, but I sure wish I was a young one, because I would sure be in the Far East. It would be an honor.

A wake-up call?

I WAS wondering: If a fundamentalist Christian sees recent events at the World Trade Center as a wake-up call from God, then how does he view recent developments surrounding Rush Limbaugh?

Signing grade cards

OFTEN THE schools want grade cards signed and returned the next day, which doesn't give you time to think. Parents should be allowed three or four days to sign and return a grade card. Parents should not have to feel rushed or pushed into signing something they don't want to sign.

Push for your rights

TO THE CALLER demanding that the police give us protection: I believe it was the Supreme Court that said the police are not paid to sit on your doorstep and protect you. They respond after you have been victimized. So consider how to protect yourself. I suggest you start by calling for your local, state and national elected officials to reinstate your Second Amendment rights. If they insist that the government can protect you, simply point to the Pentagon.

T-shirt bombs

I KNOW something we could do that would drive Osama bin Laden crazy. Let's drop a whole bunch of God Bless America T-shirts over Afghanistan and let all the Afghan people wear them. Wouldn't that drive him nuts?

Repressive viewpoint

TO THE person who was disgusted by a drag show at SEMO and by the fact that the gay and lesbian group is school-funded: Move to Afghanistan. There you will find many more people who think like you.

Pampered GOP

CLINT LACY was surprised because the Republican-controlled House of Representatives lacked the backbone and embarrassed the nation the other day by shutting down, thereby giving those who would disrupt our process of government a substantial symbolic victory. I was not at all taken aback. The very next day the stand-in conservative Republican host of Rush Limbaugh's radio show said he was a hypochondriac, had stocked up on Cipro and even asked a physician-guest in so many words if his backache was in some way connected with having been exposed to a biological or chemical agent. Though there are some honorable exceptions, I'm not sure why members of the GOP tend toward the Chicken Little syndrome. It may be because of their aristocratic background, pampered lifestyle and lack of experience with life on the mean streets.

Low student scores

BEFORE WE get into a lengthy Speak Out debate over whether Cape's or Jackson's students show the best academic achievement, we need to establish some baseline data that affect both school systems; levels of academic success as measured by statewide tests are quite low.

Bending the rules

WHY ALL this hand wringing by Gov. Bob Holden and other high officials over concerns about crossing the line protecting against unreasonable government searches and seizures? When national security is at stake, constitutional niceties need to take a back seat. This was unequivocally recognized by a president who, without hesitation, suspended the constitutional guarantee of habeas corpus during a time of national crisis. The president was Abraham Lincoln.

Ticket concerns

I WAS cited with a speeding ticket in Thebes, Ill. I explained to the officer that I had my cruise control set at 58 mph. He refused to believe me and refused to let me see the radar. What happened to my rights? If anyone else out there has been cited and feels wrongly accused like me, the Thebes town board meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month. Please come to the meeting and bring your tickets.

The best of society

MY HAT is off to Sikeston-based health-care magnate Don Bedell for his gift toward construction of Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus. I know Bedell and am not surprised. His work ethic, community involvement and philanthropic actions epitomize the best in American society.

But no criticism

LEONARD COOK'S statement that "most educators ... welcome the involvement of parents in their children's education" raised the bar for naivete. Educators do welcome parental support for their efforts but consistently and correctly consider public criticism of their calling of no value.

Untimely criticism

WITH PATRIOTISM at an all-time high, David Limbaugh protests against peaceniks and other nonexistent opponents of our president's targeting of the Taliban terrorists. Limbaugh's railing against anti-war Americans seems better suited for the late 1960s or early 1970s when there was substantial domestic opposition to the Vietnam War. Limbaugh might want to save it for sometime down the road when the fickle American public may actually start to tire of a necessary but never-ending war against terrorism.

Presidential support

WHOM WOULD I rather have sitting in the White House now: Clinton or Bush? For me, there's no contest. I as so many others will take Bill Clinton. That not being the case, however, I will stand behind and support George Bush. I am an American first and a converted Democrat second.

Well-trained teams

UNLESS YOU are a Central High School athlete, don't try to tell us how we should work out. If we didn't have pride, we wouldn't do a sport to represent our school and city. Definitely don't talk about our coaches or conditioning. Unless you are an athlete at our school, you don't know the hours of training we put in. Obviously we do it well enough to win district championships in almost every sport we compete in.

Who's side is he on?

MARK RAMSEY recently rambled on about how God won't get on our side in this battle against terrorism unless and until we get rid of homosexuality, promiscuity and psychic readings. Well, maybe. But it's still hard for me to believe Ramsey's implicit point that God has taken up the cause of the Taliban.