SpeakOut (published 11/30)

Just suppose

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you voted for Obama. But then I repeat myself.

Just you wait

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

Facing the music

In Miner, if you lodge an official complaint about the loudness of music in a bar, you'll be facing the music in court. Residents in Miner do not like anyone interfering with their reason for living there; namely, to party down. If you can't take it, move to Las Vegas.

Put on the ballot

To my letter-writing friend John: I don't think your gravitas has ever been appreciated by your political party. If they could only see your brilliance, surely you would have been offered a leadership role or even nominated as a candidate by now. You are a veritable fount of dire warnings, with no place to take your facts and proof except this small town newspaper and the flying monkeys in your e-mail cabal. That's a shame. Your name should be appearing on ballots. I want you to lead a movement to break away from the Republicans and start a party of your own. Call yourselves Frightened Old Curmudgeons. Or how about Jealous Malcontents? You'll find followers all over town.

A hundred victories

I was very disappointed in the lack of coverage in the newspaper of Coach Derrick Long's historic win. He notched his 100th victory with the boy's soccer program here in Sikeston and the newspaper had very little coverage on it. I don't know him personally, but hear only good things about him. It's a shame that you couldn't have done a story on him so we non-soccer folks could know more about him. I wish other high school coaches would work with the youth in building a foundation in their sport the way he does. I understand that he has developed a training program in town that currently over 100 kids are attending. He is spending countless hours helping the children in this town learn skills of a sport he coaches. And you couldn't spend a few minutes writing about this wonderful achievement. Well, there are folks here in Sikeston that are proud of you Coach, and keep up the good work! At this rate, the next 100 wins will come quickly. It's alright to write about other sports in this town besides football.

Due to numerous other events going on at the same time, we were unable to do a story at the time of Coach Long's 100th victory. However, at the time of receiving this letter we were already in the process of doing a feature story that ran the week of Nov. 17.

Tenants beware

Attention Landlords, we need to ban together to rid Sikeston of these deadbeat tenants. Don't rent to anyone without first doing a background check on www.courts.mo.gov. This is a free site that will list any charges or small claims issues people have, including rent and possessions and unlawful detainers. We as landlords are not going to let these deadbeats continue to get by without having to pay up. Take them to court for not paying and for damages. At the very least their records will be scarred and no other SMART landlords will rent to them again. Landlords need to contact Ellen Brandom and Jo Ann Emerson to let them know things need to change. To the deadbeat tenants, I hope that because of your negligence you have a very hard time finding a nice place to live. What would you do if there were no landlords or no one would rent to you? Live in the streets? Well looks like you may be well on your way!