Speakout 1/26

Mike, you and I must have been wheeled out of the hospital in the same chair since I find myself agreeing with you so often. This time for sure. I had a bad childhood and I can't imagine killing an innocent person for any reason. Yet it is how the system works. It is how these low-life defense attorneys do their jobs and make their money. Anyone who would stand up and say, "If it doesn't fit you must acquit," knowing that the guy who cut up some people is as low as the killer himself. How some of these folks sleep at night is beyond me.

I have been a subscriber of your paper for many years now and I have noticed over the years that two of the Sikeston Elementary Schools get much more media attention than the other. Matthews Elementary and Southeast Elementary are given attention almost on a daily basis in you paper where Lee Hunter is in the paper very rarely. The children of Lee Hunter deserve to be acknowledged for their accomplishments just as the children in the other schools. I have also noticed when driving by the different schools that Lee Hunter seems to be short changed in the school budget department compared to the other schools. This is not right in my opinion. I am so very glad I do not have children in this school system. It is very disheartening to see the difference made in the schools.

I'm worried about the American people after reading today's paper about Social Security and what President Bush wants to do about it. People have worked hard to pay their money in and some of them have had an accident or sickness and left. The money that is left in there has been sent to different ones and their families to live on. This was like putting money into the bank to draw it out. Now Bush is sending so much stuff abroad to help the people. Who will there be in the United States to help the people there if he gets it passed on Social Security to cut out different things? But yet he's taking care of so much abroad and leaving things alone in this country.

We have a solution to this Social Security problem that the so-called president has created. We would suggest he put every dime back in that he stole in his first term. Do not bother it anymore. Take some of the money he is wasting and throwing away, put it in there and leave it alone. This is a pitiful excuse for a president. I watched the inauguration and couldn't even finish it. It made me sick to my stomach.

There is surely something can be done to rid these blackbirds in Sikeston. We are just sending them from one side of town to the other side. There has to be a way of eliminating them.

To the office employee from another factory employee. What you're trying to say is that we do not have to use our brains so, therefore, we are not worthy to get a Christmas gift of any kind? I really think a company runs because of its office employees and factory workers. So, therefore, one cannot run without the other. You are not any better than any of us, so I don't know what you are trying to say. Oh, I forgot - I don't have a brain, so I can't understand.