BE OUR GUEST; WORLD MEETS NO ONE HALFWAY NO ONE SAID LIFE WOULD BE FAIR

Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau is a junior at Southeast Missouri State University, majoring in economics. He plans to attend the University of Missouri Law School following his graduation from Southeast.

As I look at Cape ~Girardeau as a whole, I see a thriving community of ethnically diverse individuals. ~On May 23, 1993, Michael ~Sterling, president of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wrote a provocative article entitled, "Please Think of the Children: Why Make Them Suffer For Your Social Cowardice?"

This article served as a catalyst in formulating my~ opinions of Cape Girardeau. Being a life-long resident of Cape Girardeau, I have been exposed to racism and do not deny its existence~. However, I have also witnessed discrimination of not ~just blacks but women and yes, even the evil white male.

Life on the planet Earth is not a Utopia, it is reality~. The world meets no one halfway, and if one wants to achieve in this environment one must purse the concept of rugged individualism. One must make his or her own ~breaks.

To ridicule and down play the achievements of successful individuals in our community and your ethnic class, Mr. ~Sterling, is destructive. You not only pay a disservice to yourself but also to those children, white and blac~k, who view them as ~role models.

I must also disag~ree with your conclusion that minorities have only reached levels of success as a "direct result of civil rights fighters opening the doors for them." To be successful today, as in any other day, an individual must open his or her own doors and make his or her own breaks. Granted civil rights leaders have played roles in the advancement of minorities but it is the individual who seizes opportunity and makes him~self or herself successful.

I do agree that many of the black leaders of today~, for the most part, are part of "the problem." By placing dreams in anything other than the dreamer's own human spirit, an individual has already placed that dream out of reach. Until individuals grasp the responsibility of forging their own future and achievements, the problems of which you speak, Mr. Sterling, will never be corrected.

The voice in city government in which you seem to want given to you will not be handed out for the sole purpose of meeting a quota. In America and even in Cape Girardeau, individuals are given the opportunity to run for election and campaign on their values and ideas. I encourage everyone to do so.

As long as individuals look for help instead of seizing opportunity with both hand~~s, a permanent underclass will exist in our society and all the money in the world and the most elaborate quota systems will not be able to abolish it. Belief in one's self is what is needed, not belief in some institution that will make everything "fair," because life has never been and never will be "fair."

Thank you for your time and energy.