“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;”>At the end of the moving Memorial Service conducted for the late Paul Reiter on Saturday at Carmel of St. Joseph Carmelite Monastery, one of Paul’s sisters told the overcrowded chapel of mourners that there would now be a “Salute” for Paul. The many mourners from Paul’s St. Louis American family could be forgiven if we imagined, for a moment, that Paul’s blood family had borrowed our laudatory term for a celebration of excellence. Over the many years of our “Salute” programs, Paul has faithfully delivered hundreds of copies of the paper to the annual events. It was possible to imagine that the celebratory reception following Paul’s service was being styled a “Salute.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>And then, the Color Guard outside the chapel fired a gun. It came as a shock to many of us who did not realize that there would be a military salute. Of course, Paul was a U.S. Navy veteran, and it was a fitting and powerful tribute – particularly as the men conducting this part of the ceremony approached Paul’s son, Christopher Reiter, saluted him, and thanked him for his father’s service.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>And yet, that burst of gunfire had an unsettling effect. It was impossible to forget – it is impossible to forget – that Paul lost his life from a burst of gunfire. If authorities have charged the right man, Paul was shot dead by a petty thief who already was a career criminal at age 18. Crime and gun violence in this metropolitan area, and especially in the city of St. Louis, are tragically common. While we applaud the police for acting swiftly to apprehend a suspect, and wish prosecutors the best in serving justice, we don’t pretend to believe that punishment for his killer will do anything to compensate for the aching loss of this special person, Paul Reiter. Also, it is possible to solve this crime and punish this criminal. But rampant crime and violence are endemic in this community because of underlying problems that we all know well.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>The mission of the newspaper that Paul Reiter delivered for 22 years is built around strategic responses to these underlying, chronic problems: poverty, unemployment, inadequate schools, absent or ineffective parents, street drugs that are more readily available than drug abuse prevention programs, churches that shelter themselves from the poor rather than serving their needs, legislators much more willing to fund police and prisons than early childhood education programs, structural racism that continues to stress and hamper black youth, and too frequent reluctance of the black community to take greater responsibility where responsibility is due.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Losing someone like Paul – who did so much in so many ways to better this community and the larger world – through such a senseless act of petty crime has challenged many of us with despair. It is now that much harder to do the difficult things we had set out to do, with Paul’s avid help and support. But it is not an option for us to seek vengeance as a balm, nor for us to turn our backs on what we need to do just because it will be more difficult, and much less fun, to do it without Paul Reiter. Rather, it is time now to go back to what we were doing: addressing the perennial and entrenched problems that leave peace and justice unfilled dreams in this city and this world.
