ASHLAND — Know your farmer, know your food

It is really unfortunate to see a disaster like the current recall on more than half a billion eggs. It is also no surprise that these eggs came to our area from half a country away.

It is a great thing I get my eggs from a local Greenup County farmer! I've never had to worry about salmonella poisioning! My farmer works hard to make sure the eggs (and fruits and veggies) provided are in top condition not only for good business practices, but to keep her reputation, something extremely important in small towns!

This recall should be another wake-up call to the importance of local food! We need to continue to ask questions like:

‰ “Does big agribusiness have the consumer's interest at heart?”

‰ “Why am I buying eggs and produce from other areas, when it is produced right here in our own county?”

‰ “Why do I question how my food was grown, when I can go to a local farm and see for myself?”

Know your farmer, know your food! Support your local farmers and let them know how you appreciate their hard work at keeping their community fed and healthy!

  Bethany Deborde, Rolling Hills Folk Center, Helping Hands' AmeriCorps VISTA



27 years of  service comes to an end

I am an Ashland native and proud of it. My grandmother, mother, aunt, brother, cousin and daughters have worked for King’s Daughters. We have seen it transition from King’s Daughters Hospital into King’s Daughters Medical Center. It is where I was born, candy striped, took nursing clinicals, had my children and managed my personal health care. It is also where I made the decision to practice my nursing career. These were the choices that I made.

We all make choices every day. I was proud of mine. Many times over the years I have been approached about job opportunities. Each time I  smiled and told them that I was happy with my employment. It was home and “home is where the heart is.”

This is where I met many lifelong friends and we have shared good and bad times together. We have gone through weddings, funerals, births, triumphs and failures.

I made my choices. But KDMC also had to make choices. On July 27, 2010, one of those choices was to terminate 27 years of dedicated service. I’ve come to work sick, worked overtime, volunteered for numerous activities and dedicated a faithful service to the facility because “there is no place like home.” Just imagine being “homeless.”

I thank my family, friends, co-workers, patients and physicians who have graciously expressed their sorrow. My choices and my memories

 Donna Owens, RN, BSN, OCN, Greenup  

 

Employees ordered to dump food

I sympathize with Krista Stephens on the issue of throwing away unsold food. However, this policy is neither new nor unique to this area. During the Depression in Southern California, wholesale farms refused to give their surpluses to the needy. Instead, they would pile the unsold vegetables in a shallow field, dowse them with gasoline and burn them, while the hungry stood and watched.

 My stepmother in the 1960s faced a similar situation. She was the  manager of the bakery in a large supermarket, part of a chain that no longer exists. At the end of the day there would be unsold bread, cakes, pies, cookies, doughnuts, etc. and she was ordered by the store management to throw the goods in the garbage bins. The store was located in a run-down part of  the city that had once been prosperous, but urban flight had changed the population and there were many homeless in the area.

My stepmother, being the last person out of the bakery at night, bagged the unsold goods but did not put them in the dumpster, but rather in the trunk of her car  and distributed them to the homeless in the area. Needless to say, she was fired from her job.

I can promise you none of the unsold baked goods ever made it into our home. She did what she thought was morally right, but as we  have learned, all too well, large corporations are not interested in doing what is "morally right" but rather what can be written off as a loss for tax purposes.

Krista can be assured that  she is not alone. I belong to two  private organizations that donate left over food to shelters. There are people  who care and they do something about it.

 Carol Spence, Ashland

 

Vets cemetery is truly beautiful

This is in reference to Charles M. Whitt’s criticism of the Northeast Kentucky  Veterans Cemetery in his letter published, Aug. 31. I served during the Korean War and I am honored to have my name on a list to be buried there. If he would go by and see what a beautiful cemetery it is, he might change his mind.

I also am partial to the “dead” land Mr. Whitt refers to. The cemetery is part of our family’s old home place.

I love those old dead hills. Atta girl, Tanya Pullin!

 Bobby Joe Stringer, Ashland 



Paul far from the mainstream

  The Republicans again nominate another inexperienced candidate  who is far out of the

mainstream of American politics and is prone to frequent gaffes.

 Prescription drugs not a problem in Eastern Kentucky? Coal Miners don’t need safety regulations

and accidents sometimes “just happen”? Hurting farmer's during an economic  recession and cutting off benefits to those who have lost their jobs?  No thanks, Rand Paul.

 We don't need another Sarah Palin in Kentucky.

Dan Taylor, Huntington, W.Va.