RUST COMMENTARY: TEEN CHALLENGE PROVIDES AN ISLAND OF HOPE

The MID-AMERICA TEEN CHALLENGE TRAINING CENTER is impressive not because of its facilities ... but because of its people ... and their attitude.

If one wanted to see what a Christian oasis would be like, this would be one of the places to visit.

I visited the facility last weekend during the annual strawberry festival. I got there 35 minutes before the event closed. Carrying my umbrella in a light rain, I stayed incognito and toured the church, the prayer area, the kitchen facility before some of the staff stopped and inquired who I was (since they preferred all guests to be accompanied) and offered their assistance.

The 312-acre farm is the second stop on the road to recovery for the students who are using a Christ-based program to turn around their lives.

The taped program Bible study (which permits advancement after testing one's understanding) ... the harmonious and uplifting singing and professional music group ... the GED opportunity for high school equivalency testing and achievement are just a segment of the "tough love" format.

Many of us have benefited from the polite and professional services of their General Work Experience Program which helps the students develop proper attitudes and habits of work.

Through their strawberry farm (strawberries are now on sale at their Independence Street location), their lawn service ( ... they mow and mulch the lawn at my home and at the church I attend), apple picking, etc. they learn perseverance, responsibility (and manners).

As a result they become productive, taxpaying, Christian citizens during this nine-month program. They then work through other Teen Challenge centers to enter back into society.

A brochure summarized the program and results:

"Mid-America Teen Challenge in Cape Girardeau, Mo., is one of 250 Teen Challenge centers worldwide that meets this tremendous need with positive results. This regional training center, in operation since 1969, helps men without hope find deliverance from the bondage of drug addiction, alcohol abuse and other life-controlling problems. Hundreds of lives are touched each year through this dynamic ministry.

"In 1975 the Department of Health, Education and Welfare released results of an extensive study showing that 75 percent of Teen Challenge graduates were drug free after five years of living in society. More recent studies, have confirmed exceptionally high rates of success.

"Mid-America Teen Challenge is located on a 312-acre farm, five miles north of Cape Girardeau. Teen Challenge is a non-profit, tax exempt, religious program under the direct supervision of a local board of directors."

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At a recent small group meeting, Cape Girardeau's chief of police, RICK HETZEL, stated the rise of methamphetamines has reached epidemic levels in Southeast Missouri as the preferred drug. The big problem is the ease of producing the drug with over-the-counter ingredients and the lack of knowledge of its harmful effects.

Drug and alcohol abuse are facts of life in our society today. Among the reasons for more prisons are the following statistics:

* 168,000 individuals were arrested in 1991 for drug trafficking.

* 61 percent of inmates in federal correctional facilities were there on drug or drug-related charges, up from 16 percent in 1970, an increase of 281 percent.

* In 1991 the federal government alone spent $42.78 for each man, woman and child in the United States in an attempt to control drugs.

But national statistics pale in significance when compared to the individual tragedies that result from the effects of drug and alcohol abuse.

- Marriages and families are torn apart.

- Children and spouses are physically, emotionally and sexually abused.

- Lives are cut short due to overdoses, AIDS and other drug-related deaths.

While billions are spent each year in a noble attempt to rehabilitate those in need, one study estimates that there are over 2 million drug addicts who want treatment but do not know how to obtain it!

Teen Challenge is an answer.

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When I opened to Page 11 of the May 23 issue of HUMAN EVENTS, a leading conservative weekly newspaper ... I ran into a story on Missouri state Sen. PETER KINDER, Illinois U.S. Rep. JERRY COSTELLO (now considered an "unindicted co-conspirator") and a U.S. representative from across the river in Southern Illinois, GLENN POSHARD, who surprised many people with his recent upset victories and who has announced a bid for governor of Illinois.

Some excerpts from Kinder's article which was headed "Straight from the Heartland, Right Kinder Guy?"

" ... an even greater treat was dining with the legislator that conservatives have of late dubbed "the busiest man in Jefferson City," State Sen. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau. The 43-year-old Kinder met with me a week after what many consider his finest hour in his five years in the Legislature: the shepherding to passage of the Senate Bill 275, Missouri's ban on partial-birth abortions, thus making the Show Me State the 11th of the 50 to enact what President Clinton has vetoed on a national level.

"Only two days before we met, the Cape Girardeau legislator had followed up his pro-life triumph by taking a lead in the battle for fellow conservative GOP Sen. Franc Flotron's historic bill to give tax deductions to parents of children attending private and parochial high schools. Opponents charged that the bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 18 to 13, violates the state's ban on using public money to "aid any church, sect or denomination of religion."

"In rancorous debate that drew statewide headlines, Kinder, a Protestant, fired back: "We're clinging to a vestige of 19th century bigotry. It was a viciously bigoted amendment in our constitution ... of anti-Catholic bigotry ... that is wrong today."

"Attention to Kinder ... comes less than a year after Clinton, Gov. Mel Carnahan and other Democrats gave Republicans an across-the-board shellacking in Missouri. They are particularly interested because the GOP is lacking an obvious candidate for governor in 2000, when Carnahan must, by law, step down.

"The times, note party activists, are very much like 1968, when the GOP held almost no major offices. Two young lawyers named John Danforth and Kit Bond were tapped to run for attorney general and auditor respectively. Both won and later went on to serve in the U.S. Senate.

"'I'll certainly take a look at statewide office in three years,' Kinder told me. 'Remember, I supported term limits before Missouri enacted them and will get out when my second term is up (in 2000). So it will be up or out for me.'" -- John Gizzi, Human Events

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While speaking politically, the rumors are that Scott County Judge TONY HECKEMEYER is planning to run for Congress against JO ANN EMERSON.

Emerson has been all over the district during the recent recess, will be well financed and certainly expects to be challenged by someone.

The KIT BOND versus Attorney General JAY NIXON race for U.S. Senate will carry national attention ... (Carnahan will be 67 at the end of this term) ... there is talk about three-way race for the Democratic candidate for governor ... Lt. Gov. ROGER WILSON, State Treasurer BILL HOLDEN, and Secretary of State BEKKI COOK. This should remind all of a recent similar three-way Republican state primary for governor.

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.