Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Editorials

September 25, 2009

In Your View — 09/27/09

Learning more about the Colonels

I have always found it an honor to be a Kentucky Colonel. I have a very nice document “suitable for framing” which says that this is the highest honor awarded by the commonwealth of Kentucky. The list of honorees reads like Who's Who: John Glenn, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, among others. Even Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a Colonel. It is a noble affiliation.

But with that being said, I was embarrassed by the lack of knowledge I possessed regarding this extraordinary organization.

Every year the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels provides funding to Kentucky charitable organizations and educational institutions. The Colonels financial support comes from individual Colonels all over the world and from contributions made by Kentucky citizens.

Their mission statement notes that the Colonels are “irrevocably dedicated to and is organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes.” The Kentucky Colonels is a 501 (C)(3) non-profit charitable organization which does much good by aiding and promoting the Commonwealth and its citizens.

During a ceremony last week, the Colonels handed out over $400,000 to 54 Kentucky organizations. CAReS’ work in Boyd County was acknowledged by the Kentucky Colonels with a grant which will fund its Healthful Living project. The Colonels' benevolence will go a long way toward educating our clients about the benefits of a clean and wholesome lifestyle.

Until last week, I only knew two things about the Kentucky Colonels. One was a conventional, more stereotypical view of the order and the other that I was one. Obviously, that has all changed and it is humbling.

Kathleen J. Schneider, Economic Development, CAReS

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Help get Glen Beck off of Fox News

I am consistently amazed at what is called “news” these days, especially on cable news TV stations.

FOX “news” in particular never runs a story that is not accompanied by opinionated facial expressions, snide remarks or some other clue as to how they feel about issues. This is wrong.

The American people are being swayed and many don’t even realize they are being duped. Not only are they being duped by drug, oil, credit card and insurance companies but by “newscasters” like Glen Beck. This man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who continually distorts the truth. He is a dangerous and scary person who is truly stoking the flames of racism and paranoia.

He even creates and promotes his own political events under the pretext of validity. He is a clown and needs to be stopped. His misinformation is dangerous to our society and he needs to stop! He is obviously on the side of big money while saying he’s against big government. Please help get this hateful person off the air.

Paul Callicoat, Huntington, W.Va



Indigenous people snubbed by U.S.

In President Obama’s speech to the United Nations on Sept. 23, he spoke of a “new direction.” Two years ago, four nations voted against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States of America. The Australian government has since reversed its vote and now support the international human rights standard toward indigenous people.

The American Indian Movement asks the question of the Obama administration: Will it recognize and support the international standard approved by the vast majority of the world’s nations?

The United Nations 64th year brings world leaders together to our sacred homeland to discuss the effects of the world’s problems to humankind. The American Indian Movement respects the right of all world leaders to speak, including Evo Moralas, president of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran. We respect the right to speak at the United Nations of all the world leaders visiting our homeland.

We often talk in terms of the first world, or the west; or the second world, the east; or the third world, or the non-aligned nations. Another important dimension to this concept is the fourth world of natural and indigenous people — peoples whose populations oftentimes go beyond geo-political boundaries. While these struggles have been going on for hundreds of years, the international community has, for the most part, ignored this reality.

One of the greatest crimes against humanity occurred right here in the United States. Support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People is a start to right this great wrong.

Clyde Bellecourt, co-founder , American Indian Movement, Bill Means, International Indian Treaty Council, Chief Terrance Nelson, Vice chairman, American Indian Movement



If it’s not made in U.S., don’t buy it

When are Americans going to wake up and quit buying things from overseas? That’s the only way we can put our people back to work.

Don’t buy anything if it doesn’t have “Made in America” on it. If we all work together, we can stop the moving of American jobs overseas.

It’s a shame our forefathers had to struggle to get America started and now it all goes overseas. Please, before you buy anything, check to see if it’s made in the U.S.A. Our government could stop all this trade from overseas by putting a big tax on things coming over here.

It looks like some in our government are trying to overthrow our Constitution and way of life. We are in worse shape now than we have ever been. Now they are trying to make us buy health insurance. I am 78. Do you know what it would cost me to buy health insurance? Try to buy it and you will see. Social Security is going bankrupt and they are trying to do away with our freedom and religion.

What do our children have to look forward to? How are they going to feed their children with no work? They can’t raise their own gardens and have no money to feed and raise their own livestock.

Come on, people, let’s work together and take America back.

Iris A. Cordial, Flatwooods

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Editorials
  • Charles Chattin

    Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
     

    February 10, 2012

  • Try again

    It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.

    February 9, 2012

  • 'Asset poor'

    More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.

    February 7, 2012

  • Safer mines

    The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.

    February 7, 2012

  • Not far enough

    For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
    Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill  hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
     

    February 6, 2012

  • Not their job

    The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.

    February 6, 2012

  • Keeping FADE

    Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.

    February 4, 2012

  • Needed changes

    The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden  end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.

    February 3, 2012

  • Released early

    While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
     

    February 2, 2012

  • Obese children

    Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.

    February 1, 2012

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