Speakout 5/17

In response to the yard signs "Parents Who Host Lose The Most." We at Mission Missouri would like to inform everyone that this is a public awareness national campaign sponsored by us to draw attention to these facts. (1) Providing alcohol to minors is illegal. (2) The adolescent brain cannot adequately handle the use of alcohol as proven through research. (3) It is illegal to host or allow underage drinking parties in your home. (4) Those hosting can be prosecuted under the law. (5) Those hosting can be sued and their salaries and personal property garnished. (6) Property owners of hosting sites can be held liable. (7) Research has also proven that the younger someone begins drinking the more likely they are to become addicted whether or not there is addiction in their family. Addiction knows no boundaries; not economic, ethnic, racial or social. Mission Missouri is dedicated to raising awareness about the disease of alcoholism, and if these signs save even one child's life, then our efforts have not been in vain.

Lady misses her brother. If anyone found a black cat with white feet around the neighborhood of Autumn, but you know how cats get around, he may have went further, please call 472-0706 or 471-6893 and leave a message. His name is Percy. We miss him, too.

This is in rebuttal, you might say, to You booze, you lose. My opinion is that alcohol is not the cause of all these problems, political corruption, wasted manpower, premature death. Come on. It's the user, repeat, it's the user. The person who wrote this article must be about 105 to have lived during Prohibition because they obviously don't know what they are talking about. This Prohibition Party 2004 Platform calling for the alcohol industry and its products to be placed under the jurisdiction of the FDA, now that makes no sense as well. Think about it. During the Prohibition period, that's what helped the illegal crime wave.

I just drove through the intersection on East Malone, right there in front of McDonald's in Miner. There's a block laying there for the third day in a row. I sure would hate it if one of our fine energetic police officers would stop one of his air conditioned patrol cars and pick that 4x4 block up before someone runs over it and flips it up into the windshield of someone's car.

The recent comments about the tractor parts lot on East Washington Street in East Prairie are so adverse. This lot is fenced, the parts within are orderly and arranged. It is not a trashy place. These parts are the reason 20 people have a job. In this job-deprived town, believe me, these people are glad to have employment. If the person concerned really wants to bitch about something, drive the streets in the residential section of East Prairie. There are big, green garbage cans sitting in the middle of the sidewalks all week long. Some have garbage sticking out the top. Please know that the tractor parts are not breeding flies and mosquitoes. Can't say the same about the exposed garbage.