SpeakOut 3/6

Thursday, March 6, 2003

Call 471-6636

I read in the Standard Democrat where East Prairie received money to beautify the town. Why don't they use some of that money to clean up the cemetery? It is in the city limits and when you go by there, you see big tree limbs that have blown down laying in the cemetery. They have been there since Halloween, if not before. It looks like they would use that money to clean the cemetery up or find out who is supposed to get that done.

East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery is privately owned. It has been cleaned up since Halloween, however with the continuous inclement weather for the past several weeks, it has been impossible for workers to take care of it again. Funds to help with the upkeep of the cemetery come from donations. For more information, call Ricky Penrod at Shelby Funeral Home at (573) 649-3544.

Slick Willie left $7.4 trillion in the treasury and the federal debt paid way down. Rich Boy Bush has spent $4.6 trillion of it the first year and has depleted the rest of it significantly, enough to have to go into Social Security and Medicare. Fifty years from now, Clinton will be remembered as one of our greatest presidents and Bush as one of our worst.

I hope Dan Rather stays over there with Hussein. They need a news commentator over there anyway. During the Cold War, he was always over there on Russia's side. I don't trust the man. Never did and never will.

My 89-year-old grandfather was reading your paper and was having a real good chuckle. We said, "Paw-Paw, what's so funny?" He was reading the article by the director of the Convention and Visitor's Bureau. He said that for all the world, it reminded him of a dog chasing its own tail and trying to make the world think it was a full-blown tornado. We thought you might get a big kick out of that. We did.

An article in the Feb. 25 paper said, "Rough winter is leaving many with cabin fever." I am retired. It's rough enough on me to be retired and not knowing what to do, let alone the snow. But I have hobbies, like reading. I have a lot of books to read and occupy my time by reading (in between napping). Pick up some hobbies. Go to the library. Southeast Missouri is returning to the old-fashioned winters like we had in the early 1900s. My father and his brother came to Missouri from Illinois in a wagon loaded with furniture. Back then, the Mississippi River froze over every winter from St. Louis to Cape. In 1896, here in the Bootheel, the year was known as the year without a summer. June, July and August saw rain, snow or freezing rain almost every day. So, folks, don't get too alarmed. The next 10-15 years will be the worst we've seen in a long time. This weather pattern goes in cycles.

I see you took out Dumb and Dumber again. What happened to Geech? That's one of the better comics in your newspaper.

United Features Syndicate, which supplies Geech to the Standard Democrat, failed to forward the comic strip to the newspaper. This has been taken care of. We like it too.

I am a Standard Democrat subscriber and just received my Sunday paper. It had no sports section, no ads, no nothing. So I had to go pay another $1.50 to get another paper with everything in it. Why is it that a subscriber can't get what they paid for, but when the bill comes due, you want it paid on time?

We have referred your complaint to our circulation manager. Please call our circulation department at 471-4141 with your name, address and phone number.

If the IQ level seen in SpeakOut and opinions is representative of our society, is it any wonder we have a blood-lusting moron occupying the White House? Those who believe that another war with Iraq has anything to do with our freedom or safety deserve neither and will have neither. Those who support the Armagheddonistas running the White House are insane. I have two sons on the front line right now, but I know where the real dictator is and so do they.

I have a question for employers. If your race doesn't matter, and filling out an application doesn't have anything to do with you being employed to get hired, why do they have on the paper "black, white, Hispanic or other nationality?" I believe race does matter because if it didn't, they wouldn't ask you that question.