This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 29, 2013 - For the Beacon's fifth birthday, we've asked people to share five favorite things from over the years.
- Race, Frankly. An intention of the founders was to avoid avoiding, and if there is one issue or condition that afflicts the region that is studiously avoided it is race. Our work with Bob Archibald and the staff of the Missouri History Museum shattered stereotypes and was involving on myriad levels. By any measure, if only the fact that so many men and women became available to their fellow citizens for human and humane nourishment, Race, Frankly was a huge success. If you'll indulge me I'd like to add - 1a. The Barroom Conversations. Again, when two or three are gathered together to talk seriously and confidently about conditions that are troubling and pathological, there is success of a rare sort. For a very long run through three saloons, this program, a Beacon creation, became an important part of the lives of a number of people.
- Worlds Apart is Robert Joiner's distinguished body of work on access to health care. As with race, the question is why -- in a region distinguished not only by the quality of medicine provided but also by the sheer heft of it -- is its delivery such a persistent problem. Joiner brought that discussion forward, and our Beacon Quarterly -- now a collectors' item -- and the articles published on the site brought glory to our young publication.
- The political reporting of Jo Mannies, Robert Koenig and Jason Rosenbaum. One remembers the Akin business, but it's not the high-profile stories that give meaning to the notion that journalism is the rough draft of history, but the dogged, day-to-day reporting on politics and government in glorious and wretched detail. I would put our report up against any in America, and I am proud indeed to call these reporters my colleagues.
- H.M.S. Pinafore. I had something to do with this, so forgive my giving three cheers, hooray, much less one of my Beaconian high fives. The Beacon "Pinafore" was, however, the strangest ship in all the British fleet ever, and I loved every minute of helping to launch it, from casting to performance -- and everything in between. It set a new standard for topsy-turvy, as well as for funds-raising galas in St. Louis. It was an evening never to be forgotten and it brought in a lot of dough for the treasury. Bragging here ceases.
- Dale Singer's detailed, accurate and nuanced reporting on the Missouri History Museum crisis. In regard to this critical situation, Singer put journalism back on its proper hysteria-free track. His fair and impartial coverage of a sad moment in the history of a remarkable, resilient institution was exceptional.