THE PUBLIC MIND: WHAT WILL WE USE FOR THE FOUNDATION OF CAPE'S GROWTH?

To The Editor:

This town is really in a building process! New homes, new businesses, new restaurants and new industry. Even new roads and bridges, expansion in every direction. In most instances this growth is for the good of the community. If not now, then in the future.

Sometimes it is hard to grow. Things change and decisions have to be made that hurt a certain part of the community. With Vision 2000 this community's leaders come together and agree that planning is important, not only in road and city boundaries, but in business, parks and recreation, schools ... even the ministers are looking into the spiritual aspects of life in our community.

A major consideration in planning is what to build with?

The Mississippi bridge - cable and steel or concrete.

Lexington - concrete or asphalt.

Parks and recreation - a softball park, general park, or soccer park.

Another consideration is what to build on?

As a Christian, I believe what we build on and with will determine our future. God's word teaches us the materials we need to build with and unsuitable materials we should avoid.

There are over 80 Christian ~churches in Cape's city limits. This shows a large Christian congregation in this community.

As Christians we willingly choose to follow Christ in our daily lives. Not always perfectly but with Christ's model as our ideal. We plan our life in and around the teachings of Jesus, learning and growing daily. As we grow, we begin to see the truth and laws of our God and the reasons behind them. Realizing everything God has said and done is in our best interest and in the future will bring about even more good things. In essence we see the goodness of God.

Looking at our community, we see the blessings of God to us: a good location, fairly steady economy, good schools, a state college, two excellent hospitals, friendly neighbors, plenty of churches ... yes, we have much to be thankful for.

But Christians do not wear rose-colored glasses; we also see the bad as well as the good.

We know about the unemployed, the homeless, flood problems, drug and alcohol addiction, crime, child abuse, pornography and many more problems facing our community.

As we think about our city and what it will someday be, let's look at some other cities and see what they have built with.

St. Louis - manufacturing and the river.

Dallas - cattle and oil.

New Orleans - import and export.

Chicago - crime and manufacturing.

Hollywood - films.

Las Vegas - gambling and prostitution.

The question I ask today is what will our city build on? Will we build on Biblical principles like hard work, truth, decency, patience and honesty? Or will we build on unfair gain, deceit, indecency, impatience and dishonesty?

As Christians I believe there is only one answer. To build other than God's way will sooner or later prove to be a great mistake.

Bruce Collier

Cape Girardeau

Below is a cartoon Mr. Collier submitted to accompany his letter.