Wrong priorities

Two headlines in Wednesday's News-Press show how wrong the priorities are at both Missouri Western State University and in our state.

"Western warned of funding shortfall," is the dire headline on one story. In it, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Higher Education warns that state budget cuts might result in reduced spending or increased tuition at Missouri Western.

"Western opens bids for athletic facility," the second headline trumpets. The story explains that nearly $5 million will be spent on a new on-campus sports complex. No, this has nothing to do with the Chiefs summer training camp. The state, the city and the county are ponying up additional millions for this facility now under construction. Some keep reminding us that the Chiefs are paying the bulk of this bill, but everyone knows that millions of dollars were given to the Chiefs organization by the state of Missouri, and the Chiefs are kicking back a part of this gift to help build the training facility. The new $5 million sports complex is a luxury. The city has an excellent baseball stadium and a state-of-the-art softball complex that are available to Western.

This isn't the only time that Western athletics have trumped education at the school. A few years back, the then-president of the college and the then-athletic director cooked up a scheme to finance a new artificial turf for the football field. They encouraged a student election on a proposal that, if approved, would add $5 per credit hour to student fees, with no sunset clause. As it turned out, about 1,000 students voted, and a slim majority of those approved the fee. The positive vote of those 500-plus students is still adding to the cost of attending the college, and one assumes still being used primarily by the athletic department.

There is certainly something wrong with all this, but I don't see any cry for change.

Keith Evans

St. Joseph

For the people

The recent gloom-and-doom story on the death of the House's health care reform bill is based on the premise that the senator from the Hartford Insurance Group, Joe Lieberman, will do his masters' bidding and keep any bill containing competition for the insurance companies from coming to the floor.

All along, the pundits have told us that a bill needs 60 votes to get passed in the Senate. I beg to differ. A bill needs 60 votes to avoid the threat of a filibuster in the Senate.

So let Mr. Lieberman and the other senators more beholden to Big Insurance and Big Pharma than the citizens they are elected to represent filibuster.

Instead of caving in to their threats, make them take the floor and actually talk. And talk, and talk, and talk and talk. Pretty soon the voters will see that they don't have anything to say, and eventually they will shut up. Then, call for a vote, take the 50 plus 1 votes needed to pass real health care reform and do what's right for we, the people, instead of what's good for them, the special interests.

Jon Hinkle

Bethany, Mo.

It's a big place

In response to "Oh, the shame" in "It's your call": God must love stupid people, because he has made so many of them, and yes, you are one of them. For centuries and today, people have fought, and are still fighting. They have given, and still give, their lives in order to keep the freedom and rights we have in this wonderful nation we call home.

My son, a Marine, just got back from Afghanistan, where many of his brothers have been killed or wounded fighting for the cause. My son-in-law will be leaving in a few months for Afghanistan, and my two nephews are already over there. My father just passed away last month, and recently I was laid off from my job. But even through all this stress and worry, I am still proud and honored to be called an American.

Now, if you're still ashamed to be an American, then stop using just one of the rights you have been given by the hard work and deaths of so many of our military men and women for so long, and to this very day. I am talking about your freedom of speech. You are an ignorant coward, and I, too, am ashamed for you to be called an American. So if you don't like our country, then get out! The world's a big place.

Linda Miller

Stewartsville, Mo.