Questions Often Without Answers

Every day I ask myself questions. Sometimes they are rhetorical, and sometimes I would love to have an answer. Here are a few of them.

Why do some people buy extremely expensive cars and then refuse to attach the front license plate? It is not like the Missouri law that requires a front and rear license plate has an asterisk and in fine print states, “unless the vehicle is a BMW, Lexus or Mercedes Benz and the owner lives in an area with a zip code of 63124, 63131, 63141, 63017 or 63005.” 

The clerks at the Missouri Department of Revenue fee offices still give you two license plates, one for the front and one for the rear, regardless of the make of your car or your address.

I do wonder if people who go without a front license plate are trying to defeat red-light cameras or avoid photo radar tickets. Or do they just like the way it looks? Driving a car without a front plate or with dark plastic covering the plates is illegal. I'd like to know why so many drivers still don't attach that front plate. How do they get away with it? Are they getting tickets? I don't think so.   

Does anyone think if the Missouri Legislature passes an anti-bullying law it will reduce bullying in schools? One requirement, recently suggested by Rep. Sue Allen of Town  and Country, is to post the bullying policy in a public place. Will it satisfy the law to post it on a website, or should it be posted in other areas where students might actually read it?

I called a few current and retired public school administrators and teachers whom I know to get their opinions.  All were happy to talk, but none wanted to be identified.

It was suggested I check websites of large school districts in the area and see if they have bullying policies. I checked five major school district’s websites and found no policies posted.

One retired principal said she thought bullying was worse among girls. She said they used to use telephone conference calls to gossip and torment a fellow student, now it is by Facebook and texting.

A current teacher had some other thoughts.

“Bullying is equal to or a little worse than when we were kids,” she said. She explained that even though children are more aware these days of the equality of people and race, it doesn't seem to make a difference when it comes to bullying. She said the only difference she sees is that children are more sensitive to the issue of physical disabilities.

“Girls are far worse than boys. A boy will beat you up or knock books out of your hands. The girls do mental things that are cruel and mean,” she said.

“If the state is going to provide us money to do something about bullying, then I would say yes. But it they are going to lay this onto the back of the teachers and counselors and put more paper work on us, than I have to say no,” an eighth-grade teacher told me.    

What I was told is that the problem is there, but it has always been there. Is it something that the state legislature needs to get into?      

Have you ever wondered why Town and Country never joined Ballwin, Clayton, Kirkwood, Arnold, Brentwood and Creve Coeur with much stricter smoking laws than the current St. Louis County law? I have, especially because 70 percent of the voters in Town and Country precincts voted for the ban.

In April of 2009, former Alderman Bill Kuehling introduced a smoking ban resolution at his final Board of Aldermen meeting. That resolution bill was eventually continued twice and died.  

Of course, at the Woods Mill Center at South Forty Outer Road and Woods Mill Road, there are the two joints that allow smoking, thanks to the exemptions provided by the county law that are not allowed by the stricter local laws in other cities.   

restaurant has reduced its menu to qualify to be a legally smoke-filled room. This is probably good for the manager, Lisa Keller, who is a smoker.

Dave’s Famous Bar next door didn’t have to make many changes. Before the smoking ban or after the smoking ban, if you walk into the place midday you will find three or four people sitting around the bar with a mixed drink in front of them and a cigarette burning.  

My problem with exemptions to the smoking ban is they discriminate against a portion of the public. We force all businesses, by law, to provide parking spaces, ramps and extra wide doors and special bathroom stalls for people with mobility disabilities, but we ignore a segment of society that have breathing disabilities.

Just a couple questions I have that I would like answers to and something for readers to think about as well.