Speak Out A 10/07/02

Fooling the gullible

EVERY HUMAN being alive has character flaws. Some people hide them better than others. Decent and God-fearing? How do you know? Public prayers and pronouncements do not make a decent man, but they're excellent tools for fooling the gullible.

It's all about winning

THE DEMOCRATIC Party and the Republican Party mouth the words to us about what they stand for. Those same words come back to us over and over again in nothing more than a bunch of political rhetoric. Our biggest problem is neither party really stands for anything except winning elections.

Dangers of war

I AM against going to war with Iraq because it will set off a terrible war in the Middle East against Israel. Besides Iraq, Iran and Syria have said they will go to war with Israel. President Bush has asked Israel not to fight back when attacked, but it will. It will turn into a big war. God is on Israel's side. The Bible states that nations that come against Israel will be cut in pieces. Because there will be more terrorist attacks in our country, we need to pray as stated in II Chronicles 7:14: "If my people will start calling my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." God will protect us.

Disgraceful action

I'M A grandmother. I wonder if you can believe that our police department would go to a public school and get a 5-year-old girl out of kindergarten to show them where her father lived and arrest this father and take him out of his home in his underclothes in front of that 5-year-old and his other two children. I think it is a disgrace.

Urban-rural wedge

WHEN YOU go to the St. Louis area, people have an attitude about small towns. They even make jokes and say "we won't hold that against you" if you tell them where you're from Cape Girardeau. People in the Kansas City area seems to have a closer relationship with rural communities and smaller towns than St. Louis does. There's a wedge between the St. Louis area and the rural communities. We need to get rid of that wedge.

Tax alcohol instead

I THINK they need to raise the tax on alcohol instead of cigarettes. Alcohol has caused more problems in people's lives and has caused them to lose their lives due to car wrecks. Cigarettes are nothing. They haven't done like that. They supposedly cause cancer, but that's not really true either. Some of the people that don't smoke have lung cancer and have never been around smokers.

TO ME, a park is a place that has trees, lawns, flowers and things of beauty. It is very hard for me to envision the concrete and cobblestones on the river side of the floodwall in downtown Cape Gir-ardeau as being a park. It's always referred to as the Riverfront Park. I can't see anything there that even begins to look like a park. On the Water Street side of the floodwall, there are trees and stuff that look nice. Don't call the riverfront a park. Call it what it is. Quit trying to mislead the people.

Band credentials

THIS IS in response to the person who said Dave Mason didn't deserve to be at the City of Roses Music Festival. He was the founder of the band Traffic and was also a member of Fleetwood Mac.

Washing uniforms

THE PROUD band mom called in and said that the reason that the band didn't march at Central's game a couple of weeks ago was because the field was dirty and they didn't want to get their uniforms dirty. It wasn't raining most of the time during the game. It wasn't muddy out there. With the new artificial turf the field is not muddy like it used to be. After the game, our boys didn't look any worse than they do after any other game on a dry night. We football-player moms don't have a team group that washes the uniforms. We wash uniforms twice a week, and none of us is complaining.

Aggressive democracy

I WILL probably be put in jail or reprimanded in some way for what I'm about to say. But it sounds to me like the United States has become a little bit aggressive where Saddam Hussein is concerned. It sounds like we are determined to have a democracy in that country. That seems aggressive to me.