SPARSE TURNOUT HEARS NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AT UNIVERSITY

WARD CONNERLY, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, chairman of the California Civil Rights Institute and a member of the University of California Board of Regents, spoke to a disappointing crowd of about 75 people Monday night on the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

However, his calm, articulate discussion of getting beyond race by strengthening our schools and more specifically the family ... kept the audience intensely interested in what he had to say.

This author of the new book "CREATING EQUAL" should have been heard by more blacks (only two in attendance), other minorities (though Connerly, who is black, doesn't like that term) and college students and faculty in general.

Connerly, who has drawn large crowds to speeches on other university campuses including Harvard and Yale, said it was unusual to have so few students and faculty (probably less than seven) attend one of his speeches.

Our story in the Tuesday newspaper covered the bulk of his speech. I cannot do justice to his delivery, calm manner and patient listening and response to questions, but here are a few of his comments:

- I believe race is irrelevant. We should practice getting beyond race ... and there are a large number of multiracial people who agree.

One out of every three marriages in California is interracial. Some people say you have to use race to get beyond race, but Connerly disagreed.

- On the census form there are 15 different racial choices, and if you check more than one -- but check black as one -- then you are counted as black.

- The 1960s civil rights movement's goal was to try to get all Americans treated equally without regard to race.

- Republicans have always been timid about discussing the issue of race.

- There is no excuse for anybody saying that he or she can't get an education ... certainly not race.

- There's an act of love in admitting what the problem is and trying to solve it. The family is the root cause of underachievement, but we also need to improve our K-12 educational system.

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Power corrupts: Germany's once-dominant Christian Democratic Union Party was fined a staggering $21 million in February for massive violations of campaign-finance laws. The case principally concerns former Chancellor Helmut Kohl's secret slush funds, which were funded by as-yet-undisclosed sources. Observers fear that the political vacuum created by the party's troubles will open the way for extremists groups, such as Austria's now notorious, virulently anti-immigrant Freedom Party, whose recently resigned leader, Jorg Haider, had made sympathetic noises about Nazi Germany. (No one is fooled. Haider will still pull his party's strings.)

The scandal, though, is the ugly symptom of something more basic: Political corruption is endemic when governments are as economically dominant and intrusive as those in Europe today. In the United States, government at all levels directly takes 30 percent of our GDP. In Germany it is 47 percent; France 54 percent. And the regulatory tentacles are far tighter and more extensive in most European Union nations than they are here. When the state is so crucial to the prospering or faltering of many businesses, it is no surprise that the political system is riddled with interests bearing gifts and donations.

The real cure is not more laws and more fines but extensive deregulation and deep tax cutting.

By the way, genuine campaign finance reform in the United States would allow individuals to give as much as they wanted to a candidate or party as long as there was full and prompt disclosure. Cumbersome rules favor incumbents and established interests, which goes against the spirit of a free, entrepreneurial society. -- Steve Forbes, Forbes magazine

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A look back: In 1977, David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace authored "The Book of Lists" published by William Morrow & Co.

There are many wonderful things in this nearly 500-page book that will surprise you, interest you, amuse you and educate you.

It is also interesting to see, with a perspective of 23 years, what we were all thinking so long ago.

Here are some:

Achievers at an advanced age: At 81, Benjamin Franklin effected the compromise that led to adoption of the U.S. Constitution. At 89, Albert Schweitzer headed a hospital in Africa. At 91 Adolph Zukor was chairman of Paramount Pictures.

Estimated IQs: Thomas Jefferson, 145. Napoleon, 140. George Washington, 125. Abraham Lincoln, 125. Beethoven, 135. Voltaire, 170.

Former jobs of famous people: Sean Connery, bricklayer. Perry Como, barber. Golda Meir, school teacher. Elvis Presley, truck driver. Babe Ruth, bartender.

American lawyers who never went to law school:

Abraham Lincoln, Clarence Darrow, John Jay, J. Strom Thurmond.

Rank in their West Point graduation class: U.S. Grant, 21st of 39. Robert E. Lee, second of 46. William Westmoreland, 112th of 276. Dwight Eisenhower, 61st of 168.

Dog that bites the least: Golden retriever.

A new name for an old place: Zaire (the Belgian Congo). Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Istanbul (Constantinople). Thailand (Siam). Iran (Persia). Chicago (Fort Dearborn).

Rarest autograph and the value if auctioned: Julius Caesar, $2 million. Christopher Columbus, $500,000. Abraham Lincoln, $150,000. Joan of Arc, $125,000.

Never graduated from grade school: Mark Twain, Claude Monet, Thomas Edison, Charles Dickens, Andrew Carnegie.

High school dropouts: Henry Ford, Steve McQueen, Al Pacino, Will Rogers, George Gershwin.

Most popular main dish in America: Fried chicken.

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Six billion: Much ado was made recently about the world now having 6 billion human beings. There were the usual doomsday cries of those who are always eager to jump on the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it bandwagon. Those types really have been coming forth as the world prepares to enter a new millennium.

Yes, many of the 240,000 babies born each day face a future of poverty and illiteracy. But it should be noted that people live longer and healthier lives than any generation in history.

Yes, the world's population has doubled since 1960 and increased by one billion people in the past 12 years. But the rate is gradually slowing and food production is keeping pace with the additional billions. In several parts of the world, there are food surpluses.

There are famines in some parts of the world, but they're not from a lack of resources as much as they are the result of civil wars or political incompetence by undemocratic regimes that create social and economic injustices. On the other hand, good government can enable even the poorest countries to cope.

Although there are potential dangers, the biggest of which may be access to water, the world still has the capacity to increase food production.

So what does reaching the six billion mark mean? Not much. Despite predictions during the past couple hundred years of ecological collapse, famine and nuclear war, none of that has happened and most of the world is better off today than at any time in history. That the world has six billion people is actually a testimony to advances made by science and medicine. Life expectancy has increased and the death rate has decreased.

The year 2000 will surely disappoint the doomsday crowd as they wake up and the world is still turning and we're still here. And yes, we'll still have to go to work and face the same old problems we do today. There will be challenges and there will be opportunities, just like today. -- Arkansas Business Journal

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