Speakout 2/13

Michael, "shock and awe" is fine, but a little sunshine would be good too. When they redid the council chambers to make room for the two new council members, they wired those seats to the public address system so they would be ready for cable broadcasts of their meetings. It cost $1,000. I know the people who installed it. So, wouldn't this be a good time for council to start broadcasting their meetings on cable again? Otherwise, they wasted $1,000. If we're going to pay $90,000 for a city manager, why can't we see if we're getting $90,000 worth of city management?

Mr. Cravens, you are starting out pretty good, but I think you should have gone a little farther with your statement to the Standard Democrat. It is true that an elected official cannot raise his salary while serving the term he was elected to. But while in office, the commissioners can, and did, vote themselves a salary increase. Can you explain this to us? If a county commissioner is elected to office, let's say at $29,000 per year for his two-year term, but while that same commissioner is in office and they all agree that at the start of the next term the salary will be $32,000 a year for the next two-year-term, if that is not a raise of $3,000 per year, then what would you call it? Sir, do not try to snow all of the county employees who know for a fact that the commissioners will get a $3,000 pay increase and the sheriff a $10,000 increase starting with the election in 2004.

I have noticed that the people in Sikeston do not support the sports activities for girls like they do for the boys. I was at the Sikeston vs. Jackson game last night and there were hardly any Sikeston spectators there. I'll bet there weren't more than a dozen people there from Sikeston. Where is your school spirit? These girls work hard just like the boys do.

Whoever the imbecile was who put in the paper that the Democrats started World War II needs to look and see. We were bombed at Pearl Harbor and had no choice. As far as the Vietnam War, Eisenhower was the one who first sent soldiers over there to fight. They are talking about the war we have now. We were attacked in World War II. In this war, we attacked for no apparent reason.