Speakout 8/10

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I'm curious to know what is the policy or guideline at Sikeston Public Schools about boys playing sports. About the haircuts, if they have to have mo-

haircuts or what is the big deal about them wearing braids? If that is the case that you have to have your hair cut, a lot won't play sports for Sikeston Public Schools. I would like to know why some of the famous NBA players have long hair, have braids. That is ridiculous to make those boys cut their hair to play ball. If they are talking about representing their school and being clean cut, that is fine too but I don't see why they have to have mo-haircuts if they choose to wear braids.

I know on the Statue of Liberty it reads give me your tired, your poor. Ok, when is enough enough? It was a few years ago that you would have to go to a big city to see foreigners running motels, speaking very poor English. Well, not any more. In this town we have a Chinese population that keeps growing due to the fact that the more money they make, the more relatives can come over. Not all come settle here, some come to Pennsylvania, New York, St. Louis, etc. What do they do? Open more restaurants. Where do born Americans do? We eat at these restaurants because we know the majority of us will work day in and day out and never be able to own anything. Sad isn't it? You see, we as Americans, don't get free money to open a business. We don't get a big tax cut because we are Americans. How about apartment buildings? Let us become Vietnamese and buy a few of them. What about Mexicans, coming across the border. How many are illegal in this area, owning restaurants, working, taking away our jobs and are not suppose to be here. But our government doesn't care, let the rural stay poor and not get any breaks. It doesn't matter whether or not you are Democrat or Republican, you will still get the worse end of it. Have you ever seen a poor president, senator, etc.? I think not.

This Speakout would be directed to Mike Jensen, management of the Standard Democrat and anybody who works there who has to do with Speakout columns. Your paper produced an article about a week ago about Sikeston teachers. It talked about how they worked in the summer and had part-time jobs. Those teachers are wonderful individuals who do great work with our students. In last night's paper there was a Speakout about someone calling in to be derogatory about our teachers and tell us how they thought our teachers had such an easy job, worked in air-conditioned rooms all day and then go home and didn't really do anything and how they didn't really need to have a summer job. That one person doesn't represent the general public. Our son graduated from high school here and our daughter is presently in high school. Our children have gone through since kindergarten through the public school system and had teachers dedicate their work to them. It is shame that one person could make such a comment and insult teachers. By the way, I'm not a teacher in the school system, never have been and won't be. I am a parent and a parent is a teacher of their children and the community.

I'm speaking out about Miner, Missouri, and the hole they have in their money bucket. Let me first of all say that the city board we have in Miner seems to be a very well organized group of people. They seem to be working together and trying their best to get the problems solved. I know the money is short in Miner but Miner has got a money problem where they are spending more money than they are taking in. It is like any other business, you can't spend more than you make. Until they fix the little hole in their money bucket, nobody is going to vote for anything to give them more money to put in that bucket because it is going to drip out that little hole. Maybe someone will listen and realize you can't live above your means. We have got to scale things back or we will go broke.

This is to the bunch of busy bodies that live here in Sikeston. I feel sorry for you if all you have to do is talk about somebody that has passed away instead of trying to help that person before that tragedy happened to him. You got to talk about him owing everybody in the country and everything else. Why don't you mind your own business. The man is dead and gone and leave him alone.

Yes Michael our city has changed. You bring up in this editorial of the dependent society that we lured or permitted into our bosom. Maybe the upper class or townsmen had an idea that they could receive next-to-nothing labor costs if they flooded our little town with this particular kind of element? Maybe this cheap labor backfired in their faces. If the leaders of this community were more intent on getting better paying jobs and more education for all of this new element that seems to always need attention. I am a firm believer that it is cheaper to educate than incarcerate. Perhaps the incentives for completing high school without pregnancy or arrest could be rewarded with a job making substantially more than minimum wage would be a step in the right direction. All I have personally seen is more and more buildings being torn down and factories leaving our area. We need someone in office that knows how to lure businesses and factories into our area and utilize government funding for those projects.