SPEAKOUT

Monday, December 24, 2001

Call 471-6636

I'd like to ask everyone, do you know why we really celebrate Christmas? We are celebrating Christmas for Jesus' birthday. This is not about money or how much we spend or what will I get for Christmas. It's about having Jesus in your heart and your salvation. That's more important. It's not about giving a gift. It's about giving.

Regarding our conservation efforts, I believe in the past years we have focused on creating overpriced duck ponds. We should have used that money to buy and protect the natural areas we already have in this area. Wolf Island Chute was one of those places where a person could get away from it, surrounded by trees, diverse wildlife and great fishing. Now it has been logged to where even the banks are almost bare of trees. The fishing has declined significantly and for what? Please tell me. I would like to say I haven't seen the conservation department for Missouri do much right, in my opinion, over the years.

I live on Third Street here in town. The city says there's nothing wrong with the sewer line, but it's kind of funny that there are three or four people in the same neighborhood who are having to dig up the sewer lines now because of some kind of problem. It seems funny that we'd all be plugged up at the same time. Hmmm.

Under the Eisenhower and Reagan administrations who were allocated money to help business and corporations so the money would trickle down to middle class and lower income workers, it never came about. Instead, they stuck the money in the bank saying now was not time to build new factories and invest in new business. Greed took over. We're faced with the same thing today. The government should keep the tax program we have and surpluses and save them for really hard times in this country.