Honors, honored and honorable

This is National Newspaper Week (Oct. 6-12), and we continue to enjoy our profession and the readership and advertising support you bring to our newspaper.

You might not realize that we're a little unique. Even though there are more newspapers today (weeklies and dailies) than 20 years ago ... the number of family-owned daily newspapers in the United States has dropped from 1,650 in 1900 to 850 in 1960, to 350 by 1990 and to only 250 now (or less than 18 percent of all dailies).

For us, the newspaper is a public trust that serves five different constituents (agreeing with the owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette). A newspaper must serve first the readers, then the advertisers, employees, creditors and finally the owners.

I'm proud of the recognition that the Southeast Missourian receives annually in the Missouri Press awards. Although we now compete in the classification with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star and papers in Springfield, Joplin, St. Joseph and Columbia, we continue to win awards.

Last week we received the general excellence award for the best overall daily in the state (third place) with the Post-Dispatch and Star taking top honors.

That recognizes the overall quality of our newspaper based upon news content, advertising, composition, design and printing. I salute our people.

Another area company deserving recognition is UNION ELECTRIC CO., doing business as AMEREN, which is celebrating its 100th birthday.

Local president DOUG GROESBECK included the following comments in his brief remarks at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee:

"The employees of Ameren work to deliver natural gas and electricity that have, over generations, become products vital to the health and well-being of the general public and that have faced ever-increasing customer expectations.

"Within these 100 years, it is the Ameren employees of the past 15 or so years who have both witnessed and participated in the greatest awakening and record-setting accomplishments in the history of the company.

"In support of that, Ameren's nuclear-generating facility is among the world's safest and highest performing. We have five of the six cleanest-burning coal-fired power plants in the country. Our gas facilities hold an admirable public safety record. Customer-satisfaction ratings place Ameren among the top 5 percent of utilities in the country. And our electric rates have done nothing but go down since 1987.

"In 2001, employees in Southeast Missouri achieved an 83 percent favorability rating from our district customers, outage frequency was reduced by 45 percent over 1998, our district's operating expenses were 25 percent lower in 2001 than in 1994, with 90 district employees serving our 83,000 Southeast Missouri customers better today than 160 did in 1994 -- and they are breaking all work-group safety records in the process."

Congratulations to AMEREN on 100 years of service.

Last week I received a friendly worded complaint about our lack of mention by this newspaper in our coverage of a recent news event. The following are some of the comments from my friend TOM ZYCH.

"Saturday 28 September 2002 a POW/MIA Remembrance Day was held in Jackson. The Southeast Missourian reported on the event which ran in the Sunday edition. The story mentioned participation by several groups including the Southeast Missouri State University Air Force ROTC and even Boy Scout Troop 311. The story neglected to mention, however, the role of the Cpl. Mason O. Yarbrough Detachment No. 1081 of the Marine Corps League. It may seem like a minor issue to some, but those of us who have had the privilege and honor of wearing the Eagle, Globe and Anchor and are members of our local Marine Corps League are disappointed and quite frankly are hurt by what appears to be a snubbing.

"Gary, it's not as if we had a minor part in the event. The Marine Corps League Color Guard led the parade. Included in the color guard was the commander, Richard Bollwerk, a retired principal of the Cape Girardeau public Schools, and Ron MacCubbin, the disaster-relief chief for the Red Cross and the commandant of our detachment. The Marine Corps League provided the three-man firing squad (I was one of them -- I serve as chaplain of our detachment). The keynote speaker was Marine Corps Lt. Col. Glenn Schneider, the senior vice commandant of our Marine Corps League detachment.

"No one is looking for any individual attention. We work hard as a unit to represent the values of the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps League. We see ourselves as community servants meeting the needs of the region in projects such as Toys for Tots and providing a color guard at the funerals of fellow veterans. I would be the first to admit that Marines believe they are special. I do not see this as an act of arrogance, but rather a legitimate healthy pride in ourselves. We take serious 'Once a Marine, Always a Marine.' We take pride in our motto, 'Semper Fidelis -- Always Faithful.' We stand tall when it is said of Marines, 'First to Fight.' We are satisfied with but one grade on the work we undertake: a grade of 'Outstanding!' Gary, thank you for hearing us. Our desire is to live the Marine Corps values of 'Honor, Courage, Commitment.' We've been in existence for a year and are already approaching 100 members. Publicity of course helps us to let other former Marines know we're here and offer that esprit de corps few understand. I hope you might do a special series on our detachment. I believe it would be a great story for your readers.

"We will celebrate the U.S. Marine Corps birthday on 9 November 2002 at the Holiday Inn with a gala event and cake-cutting ceremony. A former legislative colleague, Jerry Ford, will provide the music. Lt. Gen. Charles Pitman USMC, Ret., is our keynote speaker. I invite you to join us and Marines all over the world as we celebrate our birthday.

"My youngest son will celebrate 10,000 miles away in Okinawa where he is presently deployed. My future son-in-law and my daughter will celebrate here in Cape as he will drive in from the Atlanta area where he is presently stationed. A member of our detachment who is also a member of the Legislature Club will also be with us, State Rep. Rod Jetton. We hope you too will be able to be with us.

"Gary, God bless you and thank you. Join us for worship when you can.

"An Old Friend, Tom"

We'll see if we can't do a better job of publicizing your upcoming Nov. 9 gala event (which sounds great).

Incidentally, my former partner and proud Marine MARVIN JENSEN attended the 50th anniversary of the IWO JIMA victory a couple years ago.

Three different art receptions were held last Friday evening with the artists in attendance. All of the exhibits are available for your viewing for the next couple of weeks.

I especially enjoyed the paintings of VIOLET BAXTER'S "The View From Union Square" exhibit at the Southeast Missouri State University Museum. The museum hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and weekends from noon until 4 p.m.

"An Inauguration" is an exhibit by Glenda Manche of Charleston, Mo., showing at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri through Oct. 25. Midwestern images "Spirits Upon Fertile Ground" are by native New Yorker Wendy Cross, now of Columbus, Ohio, also showing at the arts council gallery at 119 Independence, which is open 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The Kelsen Gallery, 13 S. Spanish, is hosting Fraser Leonard's "Recent Works Contemporary Paintings & Sculptures" through Nov. 4, noon to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.