MISSOURI WATCH: JUST HOW WELL-INFORMED ARE WE, REALLY?

Without our even having to ask, the American news industry ceaselessly tells us we are the best informed citizens in the world. Of course we are. No other country receives more news at a faster pace than do we who live within the continental limits of the United States.

The boast of the daily press, television, radio and even the Internet is accurate to a fault. Americans are supplied with a virtual encyclopedia of events every 24-hour cycle, and often, we are able to witness events as they are transpiring. We are even transported within the chambers of the U.S. Capitol to watch historic impeachment proceedings; we can view our leaders, including the President of the United States, as they go about the nation's business; we can watch from the sanctity of our own living rooms as the pope visits our own state and rides down Lindell Boulevard in St. Louis; we can even watch one of our state's heroes break Roger Maris' home run record.

We are, truly, blessed with instant news, delivered with electronic speed to our homes, by the finest technology in the world. Why, we even know the color of Monica Lewinsky's infamous dress; we have even seen pictures of Chelsea's ex-boyfriend and the former husband of the woman Henry Hyde once romanced.

The irony of all this progress is news delivery and dissemination is that virtually none of it really matters in how we live, how our lives progress, how our children are being educated, how safe our families are in their neighborhoods, how danger-free we go about our lives or the stability of our jobs or the quality of our medical care. It might even be said that the news we receive and the events that affect our individual daily lives are almost categorically schizoid. The 6 o'clock news on television tells us the condition of our nation and whether there has been some new disclosure about the sexual proclivities of our national leader. Anything specific about how our children are being educated for the future or what protections have been provided to keep our homes free of armed invasions is almost always missing.

For the most part, the major news media in Missouri have given complete coverage to the so-called trial of the president and the visit of Pope John Paul II. We know details beyond imagination about what occurred between Bill and Monica in the Oval Office passageway and we have been provided with more biographical material on the pope than will appear in his obituary.

Days after the Clinton impeachment trial began and days before the pope's jet set down at Lambert Airport, there occurred in the City of Jefferson a relatively brief speech by an elected official that will have a thousand-fold greater impact on our lives than either Clinton or John Paul II will have, with no disrespect to either the presidency or the papacy.

The event in the central part of our state, the annual State of the State address by the Governor of Missouri, will affect and impact our lives far more than anything else could. Yet it is probably safe to say that there aren't 10,000 among us who could remember even a couple of subjects mentioned in that address, as vital as it is to the lives of nearly five and a half million citizens in our state.

It isn't that we purposely ignore the annual ritual that occurs in the chambers of the Missouri House of Representatives, for most of us respect state government even if we fail to recognize how important it is in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. The state's responsibilities for the care of its citizens are enormous, far beyond average recognition or comprehension.

The State of Missouri is responsible for the protection of your basic constitutional rights; it is responsible for protecting your home, neighborhood and city; it is responsible for educating your children from kindergarten through college; it is responsible for the care and health of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children; it is responsible for the quality of foodstuffs purchased to feed your families; it is responsible for providing direct care to the poor; it is responsible for job training for the disadvantaged; it is responsible for treating many of the life-threatening diseases known to medical science; it is responsible for the incarceration of society's criminals; it is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the public services that transport you to work; it is responsible for providing the courts that dispense both justice and protection of society; it is responsible for the effectiveness of treatment and prevention programs of each addictions as drugs and alcohol; it is responsible for operating the largest network of medical services within the state; it is responsible for consumer protection in such wide ranging fields as insurance, utilities and the professions; it is responsible for protecting you from scofflaws whether they operate a car or gambling casino; it is responsible for policing those whose products or services can threaten your safety; it is responsible for the environment. Even this list is incomplete; our state provides services that escape any notice or recognition at all.

After the presidential impeachment beginning and before the arrival of the pope, the Governor of Missouri outlined a plan of action for all of the state's responsibilities, including the amount he has estimated will be needed to finance them for the next fiscal year starting five months from now. How many Missourians could estimate within a billion dollars the figure cited by the governor? The number would probably fit nicely within the room where he delivered his speech.

Perhaps we are the best informed citizens in history, as claimed, but perhaps it is also wise to borrow a current phrase and ask what your definition of "informed' is.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.