MORE PROGRESS THAT'S WORTH A MENTION IN OUR COMMUNITY

Tomorrow and Thursday the Show Me Center will host the highly touted "New Trends in Agriculture" conference. This event offers us all, whether within or without the agri-business community, to learn more about our state's largest industry and surely among our most productive. "New Trends" promises to be worthy of inclusion in the schedules of busy people. Congratulations and thanks to chairman Dr. Taylor Bahn and to the energetic committee he heads, which has been at work on this for months. For those of you who can't make it, we'll provide news coverage.

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If you missed one of the finest uses to which television has ever been put, you're going to get another chance. Beginning tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m., the Public Broadcasting System will re-air its acclaimed series "The Civil War." This moving and unforgettable series established a new benchmark for excellence in the educating potential of television. Watch it.

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In Sunday's offering concerning new, soon-to-commence or expected construction projects in our immediate area, a few glaring omissions deserve mention. (Well, OK, I said that Sunday's was "a partial listing"). Most embarrassing (because it was on my list and yet somehow failed to make the 30-inch article) is the large, new Shop n' Save grocery store about to be opened by the Wetterau company on Silver Springs Road. Also, there's the new Cybertel communications building under construction at Broadway and Kingshighway next to the Burger King.

Then, two coming construction projects that went unmentioned here Sunday loom as real 800-pound gorillas for Cape. One is the long-awaited Cape LaCroix-Walker Creek Flood Control Project. At $30 million, this project will be a major expenditure in our town, and will help alleviate the multi-millions in flood damages such as we suffered during the heavy rains of May, 1986.

A little later, we'll see a $70 million+- expenditure some time this decade for the new Mississippi River bridge. Hearings have been held and right of way acquisition for this project has already begun.

Also, on the south side, the Erlbacher/Blattner family interests are cooperating with the city in extending Minnesota Street south to connect with Wilson Road near Shawnee Park, which gets so much for its soccer fields.

Still more progress for our community. With probably more announcements coming later this year.

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If you followed the remarkable sequence of cancer surgery and heroic comebacks that former San Francisco Giants pitcher Dave Dravecky suffered, perhaps you'll respond as I did to the following excerpts from a recent Jeff Gordon column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Dravecky has supplied his own inspirational chapter in the annals of sport and life:

"But as his arm has deteriorated, Dravechy's poise and dignity remain unswerving.

"... Consider the all-night prayer vigil after he suffered his broken arm.

"`The one thing that amazed me most ... was that not once did he whine or complain,' former teammate Greg Litton told the San Francisco Examiner. `Anyone would be down. But his faith is so strong he can handle it.'

"Before Dravecky was diagnosed with cancer, his faith was introduced intimately to St. Louis. In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Dravecky numbed the Cardinals with a two-hit shutout.

"He began at least one post-game interview thusly: `The bottom line is the Lord gave me good health.'

"Some wondered how he reconciled turning the other cheek with throwing high and tight.

"`They say Christians don't have any guts,' said Giants manager Roger Craig. `But this man is a Christian, and he knows how to pitch, and he ain't afraid of nothing.'

"Least of all, discussing his faith. He elaborated with or without prompting. `As far as I'm concerned, Christians are the most intense, the most aggressive athletes that there are today,' Dravecky said then. It's just a shame that they get the rap of being weak and meek, so to speak.'

"... What could be more sobering than the words of Dravecky after his arm was refractured in the Giants' pennant celebration in 1989, aborting his thoughts of yet another return.

"`Now I will have the opportunity of being like everyone else, he saidat the time, `to play catch with my kids.'

"Of course, Dravecky will never be like everyone else.

"... `My wife Jan and I are at peace right now,' he said in a statement. `We know that there is a reason for everything.'

"`We'll let him know we're thinking about him and praying for him that we love him, basically,' former Giant teammate Kevin Bass told the Examiner. `He touched a lot of lives.'"