FREEDOM FORUM SET JUNE 14-16

Leadership, training and government will be among topics at the annual Missouri Freedom Forum June 14-16 at Southeast Missouri State University.

The forum is a leadership conference for high-school students from across Missouri. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce began the conference in 1962. It has been hosted in Cape Girardeau since 1986. Another is held in Mexico, Mo.

About 150 students, all invited by the chamber, are expected. Each student is also sponsored by an area business, said Linda Minner of the Cape Girardeau Chamber.

The forum stresses principles of American freedom, the political system, free enterprise and active citizenship.

Nick Watts, a junior from Notre Dame High School who will attend, said: "I think it will be mind-stimulating. I want to learn about what goes on in the House of Representatives and the governmental process. I'm looking at studying history, and I need to learn about the present government because some day it will be history."

Last year students acted as freshman congressional members with the aid of a computer program.

Paul Kranawetter attended that forum and was a congressman for a day.

"At the end of the program, the election came up," Kranawetter said. "I barely got re-elected by 1 1/100th of a percent."

Speakers include Sanford McDonnell, chairman emeritus of McDonnell Douglas Corp. in St. Louis; Richard Hardy, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and 1992 congressional candidate; members of the chamber and state representatives.