Faune Riggin honored by local law enforcement

Congratulations to Faune Riggin on receiving the inaugural Assistant Chief Roger Fields Law Enforcement Award given by the Cape Girardeau Police Department and Seniors and Lawmen Together. She has been a community jewel for over 15 years at radio station KZIM/KSIM. Faune is a knowledgeable, conservative radio fixture with a sense of humor.

Also Kudos to her sports news associate at KZIM/KSIM, Erik Sean, who did an excellent job (along with the Missourian's Erin Unerstall and Josh Mlot) announcing the Semoball Award winners.

Maria Sweet of the U.S. Small Business Administration was in Cape recently while on a visit to cities on the Mississippi River. She was given tours of Catapult, Codefi, Mississippi Mutts, Annie Laurie's Antiques and others.

Along with the passengers of the American Queen riverboat that toured Cape on Saturday, she found our city a delight and innovative during her national Main Streets road tour.

She had some interesting demographics on the 12 cities on her tour, which I will share with you:

Ste. Genevieve, MO 17,919 1.1% 5.5%

Carbondale, IL 26,399 5.4% 39.9%

Cape Girardeau, MO 39,462 2.8% 19.8%

Blytheville, AR 14,462 3.0% 61.2%

Memphis, TN 655,770 6.5% 72.5%

Helena, AR 11,320 1.2% 75.2%

Clarksdale, MS 17,282 0.3% 82.0%

Jackson, MS 170,674 1.6% 82.0%

Vicksburg, MO 23,131 1.7% 69.4%

St. Francisville, LA 1,716 0.9% 29.9%

Baton Rouge, LA 228,590 3.3% 62.2%

New Orleans, LA 378,715 5.2% 64.1%

On a similar subject of demographics, columnist Pat Buchanan made the following observations in an excerpt from a recent column using "figures of the U.N.'s World Population 2015" chart.

"Between now and 2050, Europe will lose 32 million people. Not one European nation has a fertility rate -- 2.1 children per woman -- sufficient to keep it alive. A quarter of all Europeans are 60 or older.

"The tribes that created the West are passing away.

"Contrast Europe with Africa, just across the Mediterranean. Between now and 2050, Africa will [have] 1.3 billion people, to reach 2.4 billion in 2050. Then its population will double again, to 4.4 billion by 2100.

"Only 5 percent of Africans are 60 or older, while 41 percent of Africans are 15 or younger.

"Given the tyranny, destitution and disease that afflict Africa, what -- other than barriers, border guards and warships -- is there to stop tens of millions of young African men from crossing over in coming decades to fill the empty spaces left by dying Europeans?

"The Arab-Muslim population of North Africa alone, from the western Sahara and Morocco to Egypt and Sudan, will add 130 million people in 35 years. Egypt will add 60 million, to reach a population of 151 million by 2050. Yet Egypt will still have only the fifth-highest population of Muslims, behind Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

"While impossible to find a Western country with a fertility rate that will prevent its native-born people from dying off, it is difficult to find a Muslim country that does not boast a rising or exploding population.

"If the future belongs to the young, it belongs to Asians, Africans and Latin Americans, and it belongs to Islam."

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Good quotations by famous people:

"Don't be humble -- you are not that great." -- Golda Meir

"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." -- Ayn Rand

"Only two things are infinite -- the universe and human stupidity -- and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." -- Sir Winston Churchill

Gary Rust is chairman of the board of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian, as well as a member of the editorial board.