SpeakOut 10/24

Call 471-6636

I'd like to SpeakOut about people who are in prison who are mentally sick. Someone I know didn't have a trial of any kind. Is it really true that the governor has decided to let all the mentally ill prisoners out of prison to be placed in homes for the mentally ill only if the families can't provide homes for them because the government can't afford to keep sick folks in prison. Is this true? Please let me know.

I've been reading about the farmers burning their fields. I don't understand why they do that. I grew up during the Depression and after the crops were out, the farmers would take a disc over and over the fields and disc the stumps and everything up. Later they would go out and turn the soil under and left it that way. That helped to enrich the soil, there wasn't any burning and they also gathered all the manure from their bars and put it on their fields. The farmers in those days didn't have stuff to make their crops grow. They had to put it on there themselves. They're destroying the land when they burn it off because they don't put anything back in there. These fertilizers are artificial and it's better to disc that stuff under and let it lay under the ground. I don't know why those people think they have to burn the fields. I think they're just because they're lazy. They just want to sit on their butt instead of farm and let it take care of itself. Farmers nowadays have gotten lazy, lazy, lazy. They weren't raised that way.

I would like to personally congratulate the state of Missouri for its Welfare Reform Act. I think that is one of the only things Gov. Bob Holden has done that is commendable. It's time the taxpayers get a little more relief on their income and get these welfare people paying back something, like in their spend downs. I don't think a letter to the governor will do any good. It's definitely time that they start paying in. When they go to the pharmacy, they get a prescription filled for 50 cents when everybody else has to pay $10 and $20 copays. Older people who have to pay $300 and $400 a month because they don't have insurance, it's ridiculous to say they have to pay $285 a month just to get benefits. That's wrong. It's time to start giving back to people besides just welfare people.

I watched Adren Rodgers today on TV when he was in Memphis, Tenn. He sure was praising the police officers for the work they do. One time I gave the Sikeston Department of Public Safety the money for a bullet proof vest several years ago. It was so beautiful how this man was talking about our officers and about how good they are about caring for people.

I read an Associated Press story in the Oct. 13 Standard Democrat. The title of the article was "New guidelines set for World Trade Center." Of all things, they've got architects coming from all over the world, coming in and voicing their opinions about how the new buildings should be built to replace the two buildings that were bombed. The citizens of New York City should get a chance to vote on how those buildings are constructed, how tall, if they're fully equipped for terrorism if they expect terrorists. They should be stocked with stuff (that is undetectable) in case of another terrorist strike. That article doesn't nearly cover what the American people are thinking about the tragedy of Sept. 11. I'm in my later years and I'll remember that until the day I die.

This is to correct an erroneous SpeakOut for Oct. 10. It said Sen. Carnahan had voted for a pay increase. She actually voted against the increase and donated the increase she received to charity.