IN TRIBUNE STORIES, TODD SMITH REVEALED A BIT OF HIS CHARACTER

TAMPA - A bricklayer can point to a building and say that is mine, the
work of my hands, my time, my life. A doctor's legacy is wrought in
flesh and bone, the baby delivered and grown, the heart patient who
recovered.

And a journalist's life is traced in words - thoughts and
observations, opinions, strung together, one story at a time, with no
more rhyme or reason to the sequence than life itself. Taken as a
whole, they form accidental chapters in an open-ended book.

And if the writer is dedicated to the work and equal to the task,
those stories will chronicle events as honestly as the frantic pace of
the job allows.

Todd C. Smith was just such a dedicated writer, whether he was
covering a county zoning hearing in Tampa or the dark realm of cocaine
smuggling in South America. Pause a moment and consider a few passages
from his short, bright career.

When Todd worked at The Tampa Tribune, he spent most
of his time covering county government and local politics;
but he also took a trip for the newspaper to Colombia to
report on drug trafficking. The trip produced a two-part
series that started Sept. 10, 1989, and was titled
``Colombia: Among Assassins.''

It begins with the funeral of a young man who was killed, like Todd
would be two months later, in a case of mistaken identity. Listen to
the opening lines:

``Medellin, Colombia - at the center of a throng of mourners is young
Frank Libardo Escobar's coffin, gliding eerily on a stretcher along
the walkway of the Itagui crypt.

``Leading the cortege are about two dozen drunk young men, some
weeping, some with eyes bulging in stupor. ...

``A `mafioso' had been killed earlier this year. Escobar, 22, had been
gunned down the night before in retribution. But friends say Escobar
was the wrong man, killed in a case of mistaken identity.

``Escobar's pregnant widow pulls the coffin lid open for another look
and then wails as the coffin is hoisted up. The crowd joins in a song,
then disappears quickly. ...

``Here is cocaine violence in its most lawless form.''

``Death begets death - such is the equation of the Colombian drug
culture. Violence is only one aspect of a proud, democratic country
with a friendly, charitable people. but violence pervades every level.''

He interviewed the families and friends of the murder victims,
cowering judges, complacent wealthy businessmen. He rode with police
trying to curb assassinations, and returned in the end to the funeral
of the young man gunned down by mistake.

``At the Catholic Church of the Fallen Jesus Christ, a baby-faced
padre is giving the funeral mass. ... `I know there are some of you
with hate in your hearts. I know you will go out tonight and kill,'
says Father Nevardo Catano.

``Catano sounds like he has delivered this message before. `Money has
replaced God. Power has replaced God. And for this God is very
disturbed by this present world.'

``He closes by borrowing from Martin Luther King Jr. `What bothers me
is not the violence, or the violent ones, but rather your
indifference.' ''

Smith ended the series with this observation:

``A Medellin man said, over lunch at a shopping mall allegedly built
by drug kingpins, that drugs and violence had not affected his life.
`It's not our war,' he said.

``He was wrong. This war allows no bystanders.''

That is the theme that runs throughout his reporting, whether writing
about Colombian mayhem or the county commission. His was a fight
against indifference and complacency.

``This war allows no bystanders.''