CAPE TALKS CONTINUED ABOARD BOARD; PANELISTS FOR TIME MAGAZINE FORUM WERE TREATED TO DINNER AFTER MEETING

A number of panelists at the community forum hosted by Time magazine Wednesday continued discussions about Cape Girardeau informally over sauted shrimp and asparagus at a dinner the magazine hosted after the forum.

Seven or eight community members joined more than 20 editors and reporters from Time on the boat the magazine is sailing down the Mississippi as part of its "Pulse of America" tour, said Lisa Lane, executive director of Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed Inc.

Lane, one of the panelists who attended the dinner, said she got the idea Time wanted a chance to learn more about Cape Girardeau in a casual setting. Those attending the dinner included Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel and Mayor Albert M. Spradling III.

"Because the forum took place in front of news cameras, answers to questions were more formal," Lane said. "I think Time wanted to hear more in an informal setting."

While some community members have had ample chance to voice their opinions to Time, others feel they were left out of the whole discussion, which focused on community policing and a melee that occurred last June on Good Hope Street.

Delia (Niesy) Campbell, whose brothers Greg and Kenneth Campbell have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers and resisting arrest in connection with the Good Hope Street incident, said she, her mother and sister tried to attend Time's forum but were turned away because their names weren't on a list for the by-invitation-only event.

Campbell said a man from the Show Me Center, where the forum was held, told her that only those with an invitation were being allowed into the forum.

Campbell said the fact that no one from her family and few people from South Cape Girardeau were on that invitation list infuriates her more than being turned away at the door.

"If they are going to discuss Good Hope and what's going on in South Cape, why didn't they invite any of the people involved?" Campbell asked.

Those invited to the forum were selected from a list of names submitted to Time by the city staff, Southeast Missouri State University and the Cape Girardeau Camber of Commerce.

Campbell said her brother Greg also went to the Show Me Center as those with invitations were filing into the conference room. But no one invited him to take part, Campbell said.

Capt. Steve Strong, assistant chief of police, said he saw Greg Campbell at the Show Me Center that day, and he heard that employees of the Show Me Center did turn away some people who were not on the invitation list. But he said the police had no hand in deciding who was admitted and who was not.

Campbell said not asking people from South Cape Girardeau to participate only reinforces divisions in the city. Community leaders "say they are working to bring the community together, but this just reinforces our feelings that they still believe it's our side and your side," Campbell said.

Not all the forum panelists were invited to the dinner aboard the boat.

Judith Ann Lang, who owns the downtown business Judith Ann's, said she wasn't invited to the dinner, but that didn't surprise her since as a business leader she tried to focus only on positive things about Cape Girardeau.

"I think Time had an agenda," Lang said. "They were looking for something sensational like Good Hope."

Arrick Jackson, a professor of criminal justice at Southeast Missouri State University who was on the panel and was invited to the dinner, said the conversation at his table at the dinner touched on race, community policing and economic issues.

He said no one took notes, although Time editors and reporters asked plenty of questions. Still, he said he didn't feel like he was being grilled for answers.

"It was a hospitality thing," Jackson said. "They asked us to come and have an informal conversation. They said they didn't want to make it seem like they were pointing to Cape as a bad town. They just wanted to get a glimpse of life here, how we were handling issues."

Hetzel and Spradling both said they were told that whatever was said during dinner was off the record, a term that means news reporters won't use what is said in their stories. Hetzel said Time is holding the same types of dinner at all the stops during the river tour to New Orleans.

"They were interested in a multitude of things," Hetzel said. "'We talked about the history of the region, Missouri, boats. It was just casual dinner conversation."