SpeakOut 12/3

Monday, December 3, 2007

Call 471-6636

I am a concerned parent of a student at the 7th and 8th Grade Center. For the past three weeks we've been getting information that the school has been having them clean the cafeteria. I advised my child to tell them she wasn't going to do it anymore. Well she did, they suspended her - in school suspension - threatened to throw her into an alternative school. They told her she was lazy, told her she thought she was better than others. I'm sorry, but I'm not the only parent in this town that feels this way. We send our children to school for an education, not to clean up, because there are people who are paid to do so. They even went as far as to say that my child had no charity. As far as I'm concerned cleaning a school cafeteria is not a charitable thing. I really think if there are more parents out there who feel the way I do, they need to speak out. The school talked to me like I was an idiot and like I don't know what I'm talking about. I've been hung up on twice by the people at the school. I just don't know what else to do.

You may call the Board of Education at 472-2581 with your concerns. We did a little investigating and found that the students are being asked to clean up by returning their food trays. If there is another tray nearby, they are asked to return it as well. We applaud the school for teaching responsibility which is lacking in many households.

Is there really considerable controversy regarding climate change/ Are the "more than 19,000 scientists including thousands of climatologists" right and perhaps the facts are in and we need to act now? I went to a web site put out by liberals that say we are in grave danger, (http://ate.entrewave.com./view/project/index.htm) to gauge for myself. The site has the list of the signatories to the global warming petition project. I randomly selected from the list those PHD's whose last names began with V. I found their current occupations to be in the fields of health physics, computer science, neuropathology, forestry research, health information administration, soybean research, fiber optics engineering, polymer science, mathematics, human nutrition (contributed to a study on Slim Fast and weight loss), food chemistry, nuclear reactor engineering, hydraulics and immunology. There was not one who had a background in meteorology, climatology or atmospheric research. Meteorologists can't even get the weather right for the week ahead. Do you really trust Al Gore? I'm all for keeping the planet clean and everybody doing their part. But folks, it's all about taxes.

I'm calling about the jobs in Sikeston. It's hard for us to find jobs. I guess it's overcrowded. Maybe if they would stop building stuff that's not necessary and build some good apartments and get some jobs, people could get good jobs. I don't think it's fair that it's hard in this area for blacks to own things and get good jobs. How many black people do you see working at the banks, maybe one or two. When you go down south you see a lot of black people. I don't think that's right, I don't think that's fair. Why is it that uptown people have smooth roads, when down here in the "hood" we have rough roads? The police are always down here and we can't hang out down here. But it's okay for the white people to hang out up there by Aldi's. All black people are not the same. There are black people out here who want to do something with themselves, and want nice things. But we can't get it because other white people are messing it up. I think black people should get respect just like everyone else. You don't have anything for black people to do except work at a fast food restaurant. I am unemployed and I'm looking for a job. But it is so hard to get a good job around here because of my skin color. Of course, they will never let you know that that's why they are not hiring you. They never call you back and let you know the status of your application. I don't think that's fair. They should do more for the public instead of making a skating rink for the kids to skate.