Larry L. Rose

Sunday, November 7, 1999

Voices of Diversity

We've called it solution-oriented reporting. Our lighthouse logo, the symbol of Scripps Howard Newspapers, puts it this way: "Give them light and the people will find their own way."
   The unusual headline on Page 1 today begins a week of articles and reader interaction on race and ethnic issues in South Texas. It'll end Saturday with a community forum at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
   KRIS 6 News also will be looking at diversity issues during the week, with a focus on education.
   We want to shine light on the escalating use of racial epithets, offer a place to let off steam and encourage suggestions on how to focus on issues rather than personalities or race.
   Each day there will be a question on the Sound Off line, an open Editor's Hotline for general comments or thoughts on the series, and locations to send e-mail, forums and chat groups on our Web site, caller.com.
   Participation has varied in other initiatives. After our news stories shed light on a Crossley school scholarship program that had not reached expectations, the public responded by more than doubling the funds available. After a "Scared in School" examination of trouble in middle schools a number of years ago, we connected 20 schools through our audiotex system so that parents could get school information and leave messages for their children's teachers through the Caller-Times' Teacher Line. Schools were using it in a big way but now some are using it much more than others. And last week, in honoring more than 220 South Texas students in our Distinguished Scholars program, only 36 of the 46 schools we invited submitted nominees to the recognition program, which ran in the newspaper for 10 days.
   Participation is the key to this week-long public forum.
   In shining light on school-board expenses, including a chart of individual restaurant visits back through 1993 and other records work, the newspaper's examination hasn't helped the board find its own way out of the morass. Focus on the expense investigation has shifted to focus on ethnicity. Major players now are members of the community, and from the names below the letters to the editor, many are lining up along Hispanic and Anglo lines.
   Some Anglo callers and writers, diverted to the racism debate, don't want to admit that more and more population growth almost will guarantee that officeholders are going to be Hispanic. This region is returning to its roots, a majority Hispanic area that grew from Spanish land grants.
   If there were issues of racism on the board worth discussing, why weren't they aired long ago?
   Or why not wait until the school board financial investigation is over, then focus on racial issues? Or was obfuscation the reason for bringing race into the discussion?
   There are many questions. We're going to open our pages for a public discussion and hope the participation is high, the responses provocative, the Saturday panel enlightening and we all can feel better for talking about it.
  

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