Speakout 8/15

Sunday, August 15, 2004

In reply to "Change the rules," an Aug. 3 SpeakOut that said girls who were in the Junior Miss and Miss Sikeston Jaycee Rodeo Pageant should have been from around here, it's not only that we do have beautiful girls who live in this area, there are many girls who rodeo in this area that they could have found local contestants to join in the competition. As for the pageant, it would have also been nice if they hadn't let people from other states in the pageant. It's very nice for a queen to be local because the funds that come for the rodeo (whether they're from different states or not or whether they're just from in and around Sikeston), they would like to point to their friends and say, "Hey, I know her." It's nice to know the rodeo queen and have a person from this area to represent the Sikeston rodeo.

Beauty was not the only issue judged in these events. Horsemanship, personality and interview were among items judged to determine the winner. This contest is open to girls in Sikeston and elsewhere and their place of residence is not an issue considered in the competition.

To the person who complained about tipping going from 10 to 15-20 percent, as far as I know, there are no places in town that ask for gratuity. You can tip what you want, whatever your conscience lets you get away with. If you're too tight to tip, you're just too tight to tip.

I live in Morehouse and want to SpeakOut about last week's election. Mrs. McCaskill, I voted for you and will be voting for you again in November. But you really have your work cut out now. Some of the heavily populated areas down here are Matt Blunt territory. I don't know if you knew that or not. I would suggest you go around and speak out at the school system. I had a brother-in-law who taught school in Caruthersville for several years. That area really needs to hear from Jefferson City about what the next governor is going to do for area schools. I hope you're elected in November.

I would like to thank the decision-makers of the Standard Democrat for running Jerry Trudeau's Doonsbury column. I see where a SpeakOut caller would like you to drop it. Doonesbury is intellectual humor. Isn't there enough dumbing-down in our society? Please, Mr. Jensen. Let's don't dumb-down the newspaper as well.