Sadly, I Think This Speaks Volumes

UPDATE: By midweek the Herald-Leader had tracked down the Pikeville city manager who said he had authored the plaque's wording, and that it was an innocent mistake; especially since he wrote "its" and the computer software changed it to the incorrect "it's."

Well, we all know haste makes waste, although how an engraver can leave out an "e" on "the" and NOT catch it is beyond me.

As to the computer software screwing up, boy do I believe that. I don't trust "spel checkur" at all, having seen too many "historic sights" and "scenic sites". among many others.

What we are all scared of is a national reaction which typically goes something like this: "those ignorant hillbillies are at it again"--and well we might. First word I got of this was last Friday when a former staffer of mine, now retired in another state, spotted it on an obscure website neither of us had ever heard of. And for 3-4 days all local media, so far as I know, ignored the story--or worse, didn't catch the mistakes!. If they were really concerned about the national reaction, they would have tried to head it off as soon as possible. They didn't.

So now, in my humble opinion, "its" going to keep coming back to haunt us, just as "th" Hatfield-McCoy feud does.

I'm Just Sayin'...


Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?

BEYOND STUPIDITY!

Are we happy the Cats won the SEC?

Let's Celebrate--torch a couch.

Are we pleased they made the Final Four?

Let's Celebrate--chuck a couple of beer bottles at the cops!

Are we delirious they're the new National Champions?

Let's Celebrate..burn a house or garage or car!

This is not celebration; this is not letting our team know how great we think they are--Brow and Jones & MKG and Teague are probably cringing at the national news coverage of how some UK students celebrated their victory--this is not just dumb, this is beyond stupidity--casting a shadow on all UK students, the school, Lexington & Kentucky, and, on one of the greatest teams in UK history.

Needlessly, because there are many ways to celebrate that don't include destroying property and injuring innocent people.

As for the guy who said "we won, houses should burn", OK, what's your address? We'll be right over! That's entirely logical, and also beyond stupidity. And this is the guy that I am paying taxes to educate? A future leader of the Commonwealth? Jail bird, more likely.

At the very minimum he, and all those convicted of setting fire to property, overturning cars, injuring police and firemen should be brought up on whatever appropriate charges there are before the designated UK body--in addition to what the courts decide. And yes, expulsion should be considered.

Because, if we don't get a handle on this now, what sort of beyond stupid "celebration" will we have when UK ties and exceeds the UCLA record?

Go Cats!

Down "celebration!"

I'm just sayin'...

WHO'S INADEQUATE?

Our governor sent the legislature a budget he called "inadequate" for Kentucky's needs, but all he felt he could do under today's financial straits.

60 days later the legislature sent it back to him for signing, still "inadequate", maybe even "ugly."

Part of this situation will continue until the economy gets better--but, when it does, our legislators have been known to go hog-wild, spending not wisely but too well. Part of the problem is what they call "structural imbalance", part is due to our antiquated tax structure; and while some say a few steps were taken to address the first, nothing was done about the second, except one more commission named to study the problem and report.

In short, as too often happens, things were "put off", especially a basic need to revamp the way our election districts are revised.

It is, after all, an election year..when legislators sweep issues, problems under any convenient rug, including yours and mine.

Lift that rug, shake it out in the sunshine of this election year; remember what was NOT done, and hold their feet to the fire with your primary and general election vote, and your questions and comments to them in forums and individual meetings. That's the way democracy is supposed to work, but too often doesn't. Only you can change that.

I'm just sayin'...

GATED COMMUNITIES ARE UNDEMOCRATIC---POSSIBLY ILLEGAL

Why can my tax dollars go places in Lexington I can't???

I have gone to some gated areas in our town, talking to the gatehouse guard
about entrance--and while I almost always had a reason for admission, I
have been turned away. This galls me. As a taxpayer (and you, too) I help
pay for: the roads in such communities and their upkeep, fire and police
protection for its members. My tax dollars enter; why can't I?

The same is true of some areas in Lexington, one near where I live, where
street parking is restricted to those who live along that street. Again, I
helped pay for those streets, curbs and sidewalks; I help pay for fire and
police protection; why shouldn't I be able to park there? (Has this ever
been tested in the courts?)

I have resisted offering a motion to my own neighborhood association (whose
streets are much narrower, with higher traffic than the nearby area!), or
suggesting to the Fayette County Neighborhood Council that all 130 of its
member groups do the same. That would just be ridiculous and tie up parking
even worse than now. But, why do we allow it anywhere?

That approach, and of "gated communities" in my book are fundamentally
UN-democratic and highly exclusionary. It is "us against them" and the basis
for the exclusion is, 99.44% of the time, money. Not my idea of the American
way of life.

Gated communities should not be permitted unless they are willing to pay
totally for streets and fire and police protection; and all the other civic
amenities our taxes support. I could not argue against that; thogh I think
it is still UN-democratic. And, as Grouch Marx once said: (read gated community
for club); "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a
member!"

I'm just sayin'...

TO MY FELLOW PROCRASTINATORS

I guess to err is human; to put things off may be even more so.

And I am, or can be, a procrastinator.

I just wish public officials would be better about this; those chickens come home to roost, and cause problems for the rest of us.

Two items in the continuing debate over budgets,on the city and state level, come to mind. Because properly funding pensions of public employees were put off for years, both by Lexington and Kentucky, that bill has now come due and it is much higher than it would have been had the job not been put off at the time. And we, you and I, pay the higher bill.

Same with "deferred maintenance." Our new UK president has properly complained about dorms and offices needing repairs and upgrades, because scheduled repairs were put off in years past. Now the bill is higher. And who pays that higher bill? Students, parents, Kentuckians.

Mark my words: while an attempt is being made, seriously, to get state and city pensions under control, some things will be put off, again, probably maintenance issues; for streets and highways and schools; you name it.

Darn, I wish my elected officials weren't such procrastinators...but 'tis easier to not raise taxes by putting off needed expenditures and pass the higher bill on to later officials and taxpayers than to deal with it now.

It may be human nature..as well as political expediency..but drat, I wish they were better people than the rest of us, even me.

Now, let me end writing this: I've got to go figure out if I can put off working on my taxes to another day, not as nice as this lovely spring morning. I think I'll wait til the next stormy day.

I'm just sayin'...

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY

Two thirds of the tornado deaths in Kentucky and Indiana took place in mobile homes.

Yet, for years the Kentucky legislature has failed to require tie-down straps on such homes. (There are some minimum federal requirements, but no state rules.) Why? Officials know that tie-down straps do make such homes safer. So, after Brandenburg in '74, and many other places in the intervening years, to West Liberty in '12, why no such requirement?

Lobbying by the "manufactured housing" industry would be my guess. If that upsets you, and I hope it does, ask your local representative, senator, or county Judge-Executive to get such straps passed into law. It's late in the session this year; but it will be even later in the next session, because while we have a tornado season every year, our legislature hasn't gotten the message since '74, and won't even now unless citizens insist. They lobby, we vote.

And speaking of voting, they're at it again. You would have thought the legislature would have gotten the message after the Supreme Court, unanimously, in the quickest session in recent memory, held the legislative redistricting plan to be illegal. But no. Not at all.

The court indicated the new maps split too many counties, beyond limits set forth in our constitution. Many, myself included, have urged a bi-partisan commission to propose new maps every 10 years for an up-or-down vote--as many other states do. But no. A senate proposal would amend our constitution to RAISE the number of counties that may be split and still have the new maps be legal. More "incumbency protection."

If passed by the legislature,(please tell your local representative "Hell No!"), and voters this fall, then--once again, when Republicans control the Senate, Lexington's Kathy Stein could be sent to Siberia, and if the Democrats control the Senate, David Williams would need long-johns. Neither deserve that fate. Nor does Democracy.

Let's end this farce and get on to voting on some serious issues such as the constitutional amendment which IS on the ballot; preserving our rights to hunt and fish, which as you all know, have been under serious challenge.

I'm just sayin'...

LESSONS FROM THE TORNADOES

"A tornado is the most violent and unpredictable form of Nature."

I learned that lesson during 9 years in Indiana, a state with more tornadoes than here, covering a few of these tragic events. As a reporter in a small station, I doubled as weatherman occasionally; just reading the AP reports from the weather service, not predicting, in the very early days of TV weather coverage.

How different things are today! How very much better last week when many of us prepared ourselves and families for taking precautions as the 3 Lexington stations did a marvelous job of trying to keep us safe.

Weather is a staple of local TV, but only because station management spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment and people annually. I hired the first meteorologist on Lexington TV, and the second, backed totally by station management; and it spread to the other two. In time, jockeying for the latest generation of weather computers became an important factor in local TV news leadership. The results really showed last week--in one of television's greatest ironies.

TV succeeds, financially, on attracting the most viewers so commercials may be sold at a higher rate. Yet, during severe weather, there are no commercials! Regularly scheduled programs are taken over nonstop by weather/news coverage. At a time of maximum audience, when commercials could be sold at a premium, the stations devoted themselves totally to operating "in the public interest, convenience and necessity" as their charter provides.

Thank you WTVQ management and weather staff! Thank you WLEX management and weather staff! Thank you WKYT management and weather staff, where long time chief meteorologist T.G. Shuck signed off after 20 years on the very day of the twisters!

Hail and Farewell, T.G. (Welcome back Chris Bailey) And again, thanks to local TV station management and staff for a job well done and for savings lives I have no doubt.

I'm just sayin'...