Speakout 5/10

Friday, May 10, 2002

Call 471-6636

Someone was talking about what to do with people caught drinking and driving. I was watching "Cops" on TV one night. The story was in Los Angeles, Calif., and they were in a courthouse where there were drivers on trial who were charged with drinking and driving. They took their license away from them, but then they walked right out of the courthouse and drove away with nobody watching them. That's a good way to do it, isn't it?

I'm calling to the residents in Sikeston and the local area. We want to keep our money here in town, so shop locally. You can go to the Outlet Mall into the office and ask for a discount sheet or sticker. You can go to all the stores there and get a discount if you have the sheet or sticker.

I'm glad Sikeston is getting an Applebee's, but I wish we would get a Steak 'N Shake like they have in Cape instead of another Sonic.

I'm calling about a local fried chicken restaurant. I don't know who the manager is, but when you go through the drive-through, you never get the correct order. You go there for lunch, they never have corn on the cob; you go there late in the evening and they still don't have corn on the cob. I think the manager needs to find out what's going on.

As I was walking out of a Sikeston store on May 2, I noticed something that was really a shame. A little boy was playing by the car and the mother just reached down and back-handed him like a dog, slapped him by the side of his head so hard that he started crying. This is a form of child abuse. It's a shame that people have their kids and then get aggravated and do things like that. I could have been mean and got her license plate number to the woman who hurt that little boy in front of me, and I could have had that woman's child taken from her. But I'm better than that. I hope this mother reads this in the paper and will realize I saw you and you won't do that to your child again. If I see you do that to him again, somebody's going to knock you up the side of the head like that.

I would like to SpeakOut about the concealed weapon they're talking about in Jefferson City now. I hope Gov. Bob Holden will veto that. Those of us with common sense down here in the Bootheel and the Highway Patrolmen and all that are strictly against that. There are too many hotheads out there who don't know about gun safety and have no patience - they shoot and think later - including a lot of households where family disputes break out. If you veto that, I'm liable to vote for you next time.

In the May 5 paper there is an ad for Jerry's Sideways Seven, Haynes Family Cookhouse. You give the days that you're open and the time you're open, but where are you located? What town? It's in Wappapello.

To the brave caller who is outraged by letters being published when people do not sign their names, the point is, the message is what is important and some people desire privacy. Why don't you now give your name to SpeakOut in a message?