SpeakOut 4/25

Call 471-6636

I am deeply concerned about my recent visit to a Sikeston dentist's office. The girl at the front desk was wearing a nose ring. Now I may be old-fashioned, but it really offended me. What if she was working on me and that ring were to fall off and into my mouth? Isn't there a health code or something about medical and dental personnel concerning body piercing?

I live on the west end of Sikeston. My husband and I have lived here for 60 years and raised our children on this end of town. Our children won't even come see us because of the condition this area is in now, because of the noise and the violence and the way the houses have run down and the city hasn't done anything about it. I appreciate the people who went before the City Council with our concerns because my husband and I are not able to do it ourselves. My husband and I go to bed every night, scared, not knowing if we're going to be broken into, and because of the noise. The city of Sikeston has to improve all over - not just on the west end, but we've all got to come together and work together.

Amen! Amen! Amen! However, the city can only do so much. It's the landlords who often allow property to deteriorate. But thanks for your call.

Fleming Foods, Interstate Bakery, Essex Wire and now Charter Cable. Sikeston's motto for the 21st century should be, "Will the last person in Sikeston please turn out the lights?"

I read in the April 20 newspaper where Charter Cable is closing its local center. Then I read in SpeakOut where people are complaining about the service they get from Charter. Don't you see what happens when you complain? They just pack up and move. What's going to be next?

I would like to respond to "Example set" in the April 18 Standard Democrat. I would disagree with your position, based on some semi-recent events. The state of Illinois may or may not have to remove all its inmates from death row. While Governor Ryan was in office, there were enough decisions overturned during a mandatory appeal process. The state considered commuting all current death sentences to life in prison. This country is set up in such a way that it is better to let a guilty man go free than to convict an innocent man. It would be appalling if information were to come to light later in one of the Illinois cases that an innocent man had already been killed.