Speakout 4/21

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

I just want to let everyone in Sikeston know that I'm down here in Sarasota, Fla. It's 11 p.m. and I just left a Kenny Rogers concert. He has gotten so old that he won't even come out and sign autographs. His manager acknowledged how important Sikeston is to him, but his manager personally said that Kenny Rogers is too old to sign autographs anymore. I just wanted to let Sikeston know.

In defense of the performer, over the years, Kenny Rogers has become a special person in Sikeston's history. He may be getting up in years, but could it be that because of aging or other reasons, such as arthritis, it may be difficult or painful for him to write? Inability to sign autographs does not make him less of a person than he has always been. Give the guy a break.

There was a misprint in my SpeakOut about the railroad company tearing down houses to bring a track in. It was North Risco, not North West Street. The government is looking to putting a spur (railroad track) down North Risco and it is going to connect to the track on Maude Street, which is the east and west track.

Sorry caller, we ran the tape back several times and the name of the street was hard to understand. It sounded like North West to our transcriber. Thank you for setting the record straight.

To those bickering about loud music, why is there so much passion for such an insignificant issue? This seems to be very pressing in your "little" lives. Unimportant complaints from unimportant people. It is disgusting but I believe it is an accurate representation of Sikeston's priorities. After all, we can't have people focus on the real problems around here. Who said image is not everything? If that were my life's biggest woes, I guess I'd want the world to know about it too. But I think I'd take more time to praise God for having such a simple life instead of complaining about this nonsense.

Apparently Sikeston's leaders don't consider the city's residents as "unimportant," since the noise ordinance was put in place to benefit everyone.

I would like to SpeakOut about the New Madrid County parks. What is going on in our town? I recently learned that we are losing all of our city park equipment. If our kids want to slide or swing, we'll have to go to another town. As if it is not bad enough, we also have such high insurance rates, that we as well will lose all our summer and fall programs. You heard right again. We have one of the nicest complexes in this area and in a few years, at the current rate, it will just be dust balls. I've lived in New Madrid all my life and have been associated with youth programs all these years and have never experienced anything like this. All residents need to go to a city council meeting and find out just what is going on. I understand there is an increase in insurance rates, but does that mean the youth in our town should suffer? I think there is more to this than we're being told. Contact your council member or attend a meeting to find out what is really going on.

Sometimes it is best not to listen to rumors. Yes some of the equipment is being removed for safety reasons but the New Madrid Park Board has announced plans to replace equipment as funding becomes available. The changes are due to requirements of the city's insurer.

I live in Miner. Someone was saying about merging with Sikeston? No thank you. We don't want Sikeston's problems, not here. That's why I moved here. Go ahead, Sikeston, keep your own little deal. I know you want our revenue but that's tough. Old money in Sikeston doesn't want to grow. That's why there's no industry. Another thing, DOT, about our trees, we'll trim them. Why should we worry about billboards? All they do is clutter our roadways. Let's keep our trees. Sure, let's trim them, that's great, but don't threaten to pull them out. That's where you cross the line.