'DOCTOR KINDNESS' GIVES FOOD FOR THOUGHT

After a 50 year absence, "Dr. Kindness" finally came back to Missouri.

Will Glennon was the featured speaker at a Saturday evening rally culminating seven days of baking bread for neighbors, donating dollars to meet needs and otherwise being nicer during Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Glennon lived with his father in St. Louis until age 4.

Glennon, now 54, has made a name for himself by showing others' acts of kindness to a larger audience through a series of books titled "Random Acts of Kindness." They are printed by Conari Press, a small publishing company in Berkeley, Calif. that published its first kindness book in 1993.

At the rally in West Park mall, Glennon spoke about how society has made it harder to be kind. Life has sped up, and taken everyone along for a ride, he said.

"Fifty years ago, what did people do at dinnertime?" Glennon asked. "They sat around and talked rather than turn on a TV."

Children and parents spending hours in front of televisions, driving to the corner store instead of walking, and not stopping to talk with neighbors have made people more distant from each other, he said. It cuts down on opportunities to be kind.

"None of this was a conscious decision," Glennon said. "Time just sped us up."

People need to make proactive changes if they want a kinder, gentler society, he said.

"If we're not all in it together, we're all going to be out of it together," he said.

Building new sidewalks and repairing old ones is one act of restoring opportunities for kindness that the city is committed to, said Mary Spell, a member of Vision 2000, a community improvement group established in 1987.

Cattle rancher Raymond Wolfangle came from his home in Madison County to visit Cape Girardeau on Saturday. He doesn't find much neighborly kindness there, he said.

Most of his neighbors are content to have a dog around, but Wolfangle seeks out the company and kindness of people.

"You can't ask a dog for advice on how to fix an automobile," he said.

The talk about kindness is something that can give a sense of purpose, he said.

"Everyone needs a sense of purpose," Wolfangle said.

Sometimes just being kind for kindness' sake isn't enough, said Eric Cunningham, a Cape Girardeau resident who brought his family to the rally to hear gospel performers.

In his acts of kindness, Cunningham said he tries to reflect the kindness that God has shown people through Jesus Christ.

Hong Ving, a student at Southeast Missouri State University, sat and listened while Glennon spoke. Ving said he couldn't recall whether he had done anything kind this week.

"But I will think about it now," he said.

The first national Random Acts of Kindness Week dates back to 1995. It was just a year later that Southeast Missouri, spearheaded by the Southeast Missourian newspaper, observed its first Random Acts of Kindness Week on Mother's Day 1996.

Glennon said the reason he decided to come to Cape Girardeau was because he was impressed with the newspaper's commitment to the effort.

The National Random Acts of Kindness week involves more than 450 communities and 10,000 schools around the world.

Vision 2000 and the Southeast Missourian sponsored Random Acts of Kindness Week.