Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight

C. John Ritter was white, but the late Cape Girardeau doctor's medical missions were colorblind.

On Monday, about 500 people, both blacks and whites, turned out at a luncheon at the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau -- decorated with red, white and blue balloons -- to recognize Ritter's humanitarian efforts as part of the national holiday celebration of the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It was one of several events in Cape Girardeau organized by different groups to honor King's fight against racism. Earlier in the day, more than 500 people attended the 18th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at the Show Me Center. Monday night, about 60 people gathered at St. James AME Church in Cape Girardeau for the 14th annual City Wide Martin Luther King Memorial Service.

Harry Louis Schuler, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, received the annual Martin Luther King Community Service Award at the service. The 47-year-old Schuler was praised by two-time award winner Debra Mitchell-Braxton for creating a place for Cape Girardeau's young people to go after school and for many unpaid hours of work.

"It's the unselfishness of Dr. King that keeps me going," Schuler said.

This was the second year for the luncheon, which featured performances by youth choirs. It marked the first presentation of the humanitarian service award which was named in Ritter's honor.

Mitchell-Braxton, director of the committee which organized the luncheon celebration, presented the award to Ritter's widow, Cape Girardeau city councilwoman Marcia Ritter.

Ritter spent much of the last 10 years of his life on medical missions to countries plagued with malnutrition, civil war and extreme poverty. He contracted malaria on one of his trips to Africa and suffered from liver problems.

Even then, he continued to volunteer, working with the Family Resource Center to provide medical, educational and recreational programs for residents on Cape Girardeau's south side.

"I believe in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man," Ritter once said.

Ritter died on July 4, 2002, at the age of 65 shortly after receiving a liver transplant.

The Rev. J. Brent Mustoe, superintendent of the United Methodist Church's Southeast District, said Ritter and King both were humanitarians.

"One was taken by an assassin's bullet, one by a deadly disease," he told the crowd. But he said their commitment to community service will continue to be remembered.

Fellow physician and friend Dr. Jerry Kinder said Ritter was willing to treat anyone regardless of whether they could pay the bill.

"He was a compassionate person," said Kinder.

'The very best exercise'

Former state representative Mary Kasten called on the audience to commit to community service. "The very best exercise we can do is lean down and lift up others," she said.

As with the luncheon, choirs performed at the university breakfast.

State Sen. Maida Coleman, a St. Louis Democrat and a native of Sikeston, Mo., told those at the university breakfast, that they should embrace diversity like the characters on "Star Trek."

Coleman was one of the few blacks at Girl Scout camp in the early 1960s. She said she ended up making friends with white Scouts.

Coleman talked about her girlfriend, Barb, who is white. "We should be out there looking for Barbs," she said.

The state senator urged the audience to work for harmony and be a "drum major for peace."

Following the breakfast, Coleman spoke to the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club at the Holiday Inn.

University officials introduced the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, Damien Myers, an 18-year-old freshman from St. Louis who wants to be a surgeon. The scholarship pays tuition.

The university breakfast planning committee announced it had collected nearly 200 mittens, earmuffs and scarves to be distributed to area needy through various charities.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

On the Net

For a list of local events during Black History Month, which is February, go to http://www.semo.edu/mlk