837. A generational end.

Of all of the brothers and sisters of my grandparents, my earliest memory of any of them is of Aunt Virginia Lee Lewis Sharp, my maternal grandmother's youngest sister, who passed away this morning in Bokeelia, Florida, where she and her family have lived since the 1970s. As I was growing up, she was a constant presence when we visited my great-grandparents' farm on Old Louisville Road in western Franklin County, usually in the kitchen and making sure every one was fed, but especially her dad, my great-grandfather, Robert Lewis, Sr.

Of my four grandparents, I never met any of the siblings of my paternal grandfather, U. G. Noble. I know he had two brothers, Robert (or R.G.) in Millington, TN, and James (or J.G.) in Bakersfield, CA. I also know he had two older half-sisters, Helen and Louise, who were twins. I believe he had two much older half-brothers who were also twins. As he was the youngest of all of these siblings, and he was born in 1906, I presume they are all deceased.

My paternal grandmother, Grace Lee Noble, had one sister, Mary Lee Hiner, who I remember as an very elegant, well-to-do lady. Aunt Mary, who I believe lived in Shively, died in 1981.

My maternal grandfather's siblings were all well-known growing up. My grandfather, Dan Hockensmith, died in 1983. His closest brother Milford (of Frankfort) died in 1990; sister K. Lorraine McKnight (of Nashville, TN) in 1991, his step-brother Luther Raymond Crutcher (of Crestwood) in 1995; sister Anna Louise Roberts (of Louisville) in 2000; brother William (of Springfield, MO) in 2010; sister Mildred Smith (of Clarksville, IN) last October; and youngest brother Lee Roy (of Paducah) in December.

My maternal grandmother, Vivian "Tommie" Lewis Hockensmith, was from a large family and I was close to most of her siblings. We visited my grandmother's family often growing up, mostly in Frankfort, but also in Lexington, Lawrenceburg, Versailles, Shelbyville, Bagdad, Waddy, Graefenburg, Alton, Switzer, Stamping Ground, Bridgeport, and most points betwixt and between. I have many cousins - second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cousins, removed and so-forth, some of whom I actually know - all through Franklin, Anderson, Woodford, and Shelby counties.

Of my grandmother and her siblings, in order of birth, Henry died in 1995, my grandmother in 1976, Robert, Jr. in 2008, Frances in 2017, Billy in 2018, Charlie in 2016, Elbert "Egg" in 2017, Lura Edith in 2013, Harry (who died as a child) in 1931, Dorothy Ann in 2012, Virginia Lee today, and Jimmy Carroll late last year. My mother and her uncle Jimmy, who were close in age, grew up together and were very close. Of those who grew to adulthood, my grandmother died the earliest at the age of 59 in 1976. There were some interesting characters among the Lewis family - businessmen and women, politicians, farmers, teachers, and engaging story tellers.

Today draws a close to the generation of my grandparents' siblings. I have wonderful memories of all of them, and I miss them.

Jimmy, Virginia Lee, Walter (Virginia Lee's husband), Lura Edith, Glenda (Jimmy's then-wife), Garnet (Lura's husband), great-grandfather Robert Lewis, Sr., Sarah (Elbert's wife), Elbert, Frances, my grandmother Tommie, Dorothy Ann, Jake (Dorothy Ann's husband), Joann (Billy's then-wife), Virginia (Henry's wife), Billy, Henry, Garnett (Charlie's wife), Charlie. Missing: Bob.  Sadly, with the exception of Aunt Glenda, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Jake, everyone in this picture, which was taken in 1975 I believe, is deceased.

835. The Obituary of Darryl T. Owens

Darryl T. Owens

Louisville - Darryl T. Owens was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937. He grew up in Fort Hill and recalled those days fondly. Stressing religion, family and education, his mother Dorothy Minter Owens raised a son who quietly became a giant as a civil rights leader, public servant and a man of many firsts.

Owens graduated from Central High School and left Kentucky to earn a bachelor's degree from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. There he pledged the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and forged lifelong friendships.

"At Central State, we were lucky because everyone was invested in our success," Owens said while receiving a lifetime achievement award from the University. "They pulled our coats when they needed to. My friends and I joke about writing a book 'I am glad they didn't mind their own business. ' Our business was their business. They knew how hard the world would be and they knew that we were the ones who needed to go out into the world to make it a better place for less fortunate black people."

Go out into the world he did. Owens was accepted into Howard University Law School in Washington, DC where he earned a Juris Doctorate degree in 1962. Owens returned home to Louisville where he opened his law practice in 1965.

Owens devoted his life to public service and civil rights. As an attorney, political candidate and government official, he broke racial barriers by becoming the first African American to gain recognition on many fronts. He pounded on doors to assure access for those who had been left out and—once inside—worked to ensure that those rights endured.

From 1965 to 1969, Owens served as the first black assistant prosecutor of the Louisville police court. Ultimately, he would become the first black assistant Kentucky attorney general and the first black president of the Legal Aid Society. Owens served as NAACP President, Louisville branch from 1970 to 1976. He also served on the University of Louisville Board of Trustees, the Louisville Urban League and local and state government advisory committees.

He served as a juvenile court judge in 1980 and served as the trial commissioner of Jefferson County Court. He was a member of the Kentucky Workmen's Compensation Board and, from 1976 to 1983, Owens was instrumental in obtaining government grants to assist chronically ill patients, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), the Big Brothers program, homeless programs, vocational educational programs and various parks in Kentucky.

Owens was the first African American elected to the Jefferson County Fiscal Court. For 21 years, he served on the Jefferson County Fiscal Court representing C District. Then in 2005, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives to serve District 43. Owens also became chairman of the Judiciary Committee during his time in the House. He introduced important expungement legislation. House Bill 64 included language to help ex-felons get jobs by expanding offenses that can be expunged and making it easier to remove felonies from their permanent record. Owens sponsored another bill to help reinstate voting rights for former felons.

He was a strong believer in the transfer of knowledge to future generations. One of his mentors was Georgia Powers, the first African-American and first woman elected to the Kentucky Senate. "In the olden days, if they had a meeting, everybody showed up," Owens once told an interviewer. "We showed up and we marched. We had leaders who we trusted. Young kids now don't understand the sacrifices that others have made so they can do what they do. That's our fault. We haven't told the story."

"Dedra and I always thought our father was bigger than life," said Debbie Owens, his oldest daughter. "Even during his illness, he had an ability to build relationships - doctors, nurses, techs and caregivers. They all loved him. He never lost his sense of humor. We laughed and loved until the very end."

He is survived by his wife Brenda Lucien Owens, daughters Deborah Owens (Ferguson Evans) and Dedra Owens of Washington, DC; stepson Desmond Sweatt and sisters Patricia Herring of Cleveland, Ohio, and Leslie Tucker of Phoenix, Arizona.

A viewing service will be held on Monday, January 10, 2022 from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage located at 1700 West Muhammad Ali Boulevard, Louisville, KY 40203.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 10:00 am at St. Stephen Baptist Church located at 1008 South 15th Street, Louisville, KY 40210. Live streaming of the service will be available on St. Stephen's website www.ssclive.org.

Masks are required for attendance at both events.

The family welcomes donations for the Darryl Owens Memorial Fund, in lieu of flowers . Checks should be mailed to the Central State University Foundation, P. O. Box 64, Dayton, OH 45401-0064. Donations can also be made directly by visiting www.centralstateuniversityfoundation.com

W.T. Shumake & Daughters Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

Copied from the Courier Journal.

© Jeff Noble, Louisville, Kentucky, January 8, 2022.

 

832. On the passing of State Representative Darryl T. Owens

My friend Darryl T. Owens passed away yesterday after a long illness.  He was 84.  For many years he represented me in the General Assembly as the 43rd District State Representative.  He had previously served as a member of the Jefferson Fiscal Court for "C" District.  I've known Darryl for thirty-eight years and supported him in nearly every one of his elections, the exception being when he ran for Mayor of Louisville in 1985.

Darryl is mentioned in more than a dozen posts here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River at Milepost 606. You can search his name in bar at the top left of the blog and go read about our various interactions.  He was a firm yet fair person willing to do almost anything for anybody, especially if it meant taking on authorities.  He loved addressing inequalities and working to solve them.

Among the entries herein is one dated March 2, 2013, where I have posted an address I made to the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee on a number of topics, one of which mentioned the work of Rep. Owens.  I have copied the pertinent paragraphs below.  I've also included a link to his bio on the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights website.  It tells much more than I can say in one post.

Here is part of my speech to the KDP SCEC:

On a different matter, and in the other house of the General Assembly, I am also concerned and dissatisfied.  Two days ago, the Kentucky House, in the name of religious freedom, passed a law which subverts the gains Kentucky and a few - very few - of its local communities have made with regard to civil rights protections for lesbians, gays, and others.  In the name of religious freedom, which I would call religious preference, something forbidden by the United States Constitution, our House passed a law by an overwhelming vote – seven Democrats voting no and the balance of the Chamber in favor – which could strip away discrimination protections in the name of religious freedom.

Two attempts were made by my representative in the House, Darryl Owens, to amend the bill, one passed and one was not called for a vote - both in the name of protecting the gains made in civil rights over the years, and especially in the cities of Vicco, Covington, Lexington, and Louisville.

Each of these bills now head to the other Chamber where both will likely be passed. Each bill needs work and if passed as written I would hope Governor Beshear would give the General Assembly more time to think through their votes by vetoing these horrible pieces of legislation.

Here is the link for the KCHR website for Rep. Owens bio:  Biography of Darryl T. Owens

Darryl leaves a large legacy of work behind and will be missed.  Please keep his wife Brenda and their family in your thoughts.  Rest in Peace and Power, my friend.

© Jeff Noble, Louisville, Kentucky, January 5, 2022.

824. Another "Antifa" Terrorist and Traitor to America caught in Nashville

Another one of those "Antifa" people, Eric Gavelek Munchel, 30, was arrested this afternoon and booked into a Nashville jail about two hours ago. This is the "Antifa" guy with the zip-ties, allegedly carried to tie people up so they could later be taken to the gallows that had been erected on the Capitol's South Lawn to be hung.

Those of you who continually try to dismiss this aggression against our Capitol as an expression of First Amendment Free Speech are ignoring what is clear to nearly every public safety agency not just in America, but around the world. Those who were in the Capitol illegally, however they gained entry, had as a goal, the overthrow of the United States Government and the murders of Vice President Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among others. The woman who was shot, being celebrated as a martyr by the right, was breaking and entering and had been warned by the police to back away from the door. She disregarded a command from an officer of the law and continued her aggression. She is not a martyr. She died as a criminal and should be posthumously charged.

As I said in a post on Wednesday, and as is becoming very clear, the Trump Campaign assuredly, and possibly several Republican members of Congress, and perhaps the Republican National Committee, coordinated the efforts at the overthrow of America. In a separate post, I suggested that cameras in the Capitol, of which I can tell you there are many, coupled with all the videos posted to Facebook and Instagram, will allow most, if not all, of these terrorists to be caught, arrested, and prosecuted by Federal authorities.

There is much talk about the one single "John Sullivan," an Antifa guy on the inside, who "led the insurrection." Those of you Trump supporters who are pinning your hopes on that single person are going to be greatly and gravely disappointed. He, too, will find his actions captured by the myriad cameras in the hallways of Congress. We'll know what his role was. This was not Antifa. This was the traitor Donald Trump and his family and his campaign attempting to overthrow the government.

Eventually, Trump will be charged with sedition, irrespective of whether he is impeached or removed under the 25th Amendment. Between now and the 20th, all Americans, all across the Republic, need to be fully aware of their surroundings. Trump and his supporters are planning another coup for Inauguration Day. This time the newly re-formed Capitol Police, the District of Columbia Police, the National Guards of the District of Columbia, the States of Maryland and New York, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, all will be prepared to mete justice to any attempts at insurrection and sedition.

© Jeff Noble, Louisville, Kentucky, January 10, 2021.

819. Mary Margaret Mulvihill, Rest In Peace

Mary Margaret Mulvihill passed away the day before yesterday. She is someone who I've known of all my adult life although we haven't always been political friends. I did not know her the first time she ran for elective office, but in her next four races, I did not support her.

I first heard her name in the 35th LD elections of 1976, a three-way contest between her, the incumbent Ernestine Roach, and my uncle, Don Noble. I was 15 years old at the time. Ernestine, who lived in the subdivision behind my high school, won that race. As a note, Uncle Don died in 2005 and Ernestine died seven years ago today. That LD election began my involvement in City of Louisville politics as a "Stansbury Democrat" and put me on opposite sides with Mary Margaret.

My first long conversation with her was in April 1984, on another 35th LD election day, a race she won, in her dining room in North Audubon. She made me precinct captain of H-121 - the old 17-4, my precinct in Camp Taylor. I also came to be friends with her husband, Eamon, an Irishman who came to America in the early 1960s, who passed away in 2015.

Over a long period of time, I came to understand Mary Margaret's role in the formation of TARC, the social justice politics of Louisville and Kentucky, and the stern and effective way she served both in and out of public office, never ever stopping. When I decided to run for 35th LD Chair in 2000, despite a sometimes rocky relationship, I asked her to run with me as my Vice-Chair. (I remember going to Bellarmine's Knights Hall where she was attending a "B" District Commissioner debate with Dolores Delahanty and making this ask. It wasn't easy and she didn't make it any easier, but she did accept and with that acceptance brought together, at least in the 35th, two long-running factions of Louisville's Democratic Party under one tent.) We won that race over two other tickets, both of whom dropped out of the race before the election was held.

In the last twenty years, Mary Margaret has kept up her hard work in every way possible ultimately seeing the election of her son, Patrick, as Councilman in the 10th District, which overlays a large part of the 35th House District. I've mostly interacted with her in recent years through Patrick. Knowing Patrick since his days as a Little Leaguer at Germantown, I've supported him in his races for office, even when some around me haven't. While I haven't been in a district where I could vote for him, I do have property there and he has had a sign on my property in each of his elections. I know Mary Margaret is very proud of his accomplishments.

Mary Margaret has long been part of a group of leaders in Louisville - her, Suzy Post, and earlier this month Sue Speed - that is slowly passing from us and their work and devotion will be deeply missed in the future. May she Rest in Peace. ✝️

803. Burrel Farnsley, 1946-2017

Burrel Farnsley's memorial service took place today at Christ Church Cathedral.

Burrel and I have been friends for decades. He has regaled me with many stories about his youth, his family ancestry, his father (and especially his time as mayor and his Friday afternoon Open Houses at City Hall), his ownership of the Schenck Mansion with Sandy Speer up in Vevay, unending theater talk, and lots of the history of the United States, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Episcopal Church. I was a natural pupil for his history lessons.

After his loss to John Yarmuth in the 2006 Democratic Primary, he came and volunteered at our campaign headquarters and somehow became my responsibility. He wanted to do a special Voter Registration Drive to prove a point on voter turnout. He chose two precincts in Smoketown, L111 and L112, and I created the voter lists for him. His goal was to knock on every door of those listed and if the person whose name appeared on the rolls was not the person who answered the door, then he would offer to register whoever answered. If no one answered he left them an already-stamped envelope with a voter registration card to be returned to our office so we could track the results.

I drove him over to the area around Shelby and Breckinridge streets most every day and dropped him off and picked him up later in the day. He'd have a handful of new registrants. We kept track of the all of new voters registered due to his efforts and sent them a letter ahead of the election encouraging them to vote. At the time both precincts voted at the old Presbyterian Community Center.

As it turned out, voter turnout was up, not significantly, but up, in both precincts. Once the voter rolls were updated, we could see that many of Burrel's new registrants were also new voters. His plan was a success.

Burrel and I continued our friendship through the years as his illnesses and demons began to take a toll on his body. He continued to call the office through October from various places, the last being a nursing home in Indiana. Unfortunately, I did not take the last of the calls he made to the office. I regret that now. 

May he rest in peace. O God, Grant to him eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon Burrel. May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Here is his obituary as posted in the Courier-Journal on January 2, 2018 by Legacy.com.

Burrel Charles Peaslee Farnsley, who was born on September 13, 1946, died on December 30, 2017. 

Burrel attended Atherton High School and he graduated from the Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut. He also attended the University of Louisville. Burrel was a devoted Episcopalian and was a member of the Church of the Advent. He had also been a member of Calvary Episcopal Church. 

Burrel worked in the family's publishing business, the Lost Cause Press. A lifelong Democrat, he sought his party's nomination for mayor, Congress, and Senate. 

Burrel is survived by his brothers and sisters, Sally Bird of Arlington, VA, Ann of Vevay, IN, Alexander of San Diego, CA, and Douglass (Eliza), of Louisville, by his nieces and nephews, and by many friends. 

Burrel was predeceased by his parents, Charles and Nancy Farnsley. Charles Peaslee Farnsley was mayor of Louisville from 1948 to 1953. From 1965 to 1966, Mayor Farnsley was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Burrel was brilliant and will be missed by his family members and by his many friends. Burrel's family expresses their gratitude to the staff of Riverview Village for the outstanding care they provided during his final month. Visitation will be 4 - 7 PM Tuesday at Pearson's Funeral Home, 149 Breckenridge Lane. A Memorial Service will be 1 PM Wednesday at Christ Church Cathedral, 421 South Second Street.

Burrel's ashes will be buried in the Farnsley family lot at Cave Hill Cemetery. Pearson Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. In lieu, of flowers, memorials may be made to Calvary Episcopal Church or Christ Church Cathedral.

799. Thank you, President Obama. Good Luck, Mr. Trump.

Eight years ago tomorrow on a very cold morning I stood in line with Jessie Phelps, Brandon Jewell, Chris Hartman, Christa Robinson, and over one million of our close friends as we waited for the new president to take the Oath of Office. I had voted for Barack Obama in both the Primary and the General of the previous year. I had met him at Slugger Field in 2006 when he made a campaign appearance for then-candidate John Yarmuth who was running his first (and successful) race for Congress, of which I had a part as an adviser, a role I still have in the Yarmuth for Congress campaign apparatus.

I was as excited as I have ever been at the onset of a new presidential administration. I was hopeful for all those people, those million-plus who spilled out into the National Mall on that cold morning, and for those people with whom I had waited in line to vote at the L-113 polling place on S. Shelby Street two months earlier, and especially hopeful for the minorities in the crowd and the young folks who had pushed Barack Obama’s popular vote to over 51%, the first of Obama’s two 51+% elections, the only president to have such a margin twice since Dwight Eisenhower. We were all very hopeful, very excited. It was a good time to be a liberal Christian Democrat, labels I still hold dear, labels I know President Obama also holds dear.

Looking ahead to his departure I wanted to reflect on the eight years which have had mixed results on many fronts. No one can doubt that many people have prospered. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has improved over 150% during his administration, outperforming all but three other presidencies, those of Clinton, FDR, and Coolidge. The job force has seen an increase for 75 straight months. Under President Obama, estimates are that about 15,000,000 new jobs have been created, making him the third best president in this regard in modern history, behind Clinton in first and Reagan in second. More than a few of those jobs came about building and rebuilding parts of America’s infrastructure as part of the “Stimulus Plan” known officially as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. You can see real literal concrete improvements in most any community in the Republic, whether rural, suburban, or urban. However, it must also be acknowledged that many of the jobs created since 2009 have lacked the buying power of the jobs they replaced. Automation and cheap labor overseas have taken a toll on American labor. Kentucky has seen its share of jobs gained in the automotive and related industries while we have also suffered with losses in the coal mines. Obama, and specifically the EPA, gets blamed for the coal losses but that’s simply a GOP selling point. Twice as many coal jobs were lost under Reagan as were lost under Obama. We’ve lost coal jobs under every president, Democrat or Republican, during the last 30 years with the single exception of George W. Bush’s terms of office. It should be said that even in Kentucky the job indices are looking good. The last jobs report dated November 2016 indicated unemployment was below 10% in every Kentucky county save one, Magoffin, for the first time since 2007.

The bright light shining on the Obama administration has been the Affordable Care Act, signed into law on March 23, 2010. Before any discussion of Obamacare, I would ask how many people were complaining about their healthcare costs before Obamacare? Most people would have to admit they were. To be sure, there are problems with Obamacare. The Congress has had almost seven years to resolve those problems but has chosen not to. Could it be that they weighed the good with the bad and determined the good outweighed the bad? I don’t know. For all the talk from everybody on the GOP side to repeal Obamacare on Day One “root and branch” that hasn’t happened and we are quickly getting to Month Two. Obamacare has its detractors, a small few of whom have legitimate complaints about it but many of whom dislike like it mostly because it is Obama’s plan. Personally I’ve always considered it the first step to a more socialized system of healthcare delivery, true healthcare, as opposed to an insurance system, but few people either in favor or opposed seem to understand that distinction. Like so many things, people are either for or against based on the idea that it belongs to Obama. As of tomorrow, it will belong to the new president.

There are other issues where Obama has, in my opinion, done the right thing. Approving federal dollars for stem-cell research might be at the top of that list. The long-term ramifications of this research are unknown but it may be helpful for many generations to come and anytime you can “pay it forward” on such a large scale should be considered a good thing, an honorable thing. Science played a large role in the Obama administration. His Science Fairs for middle-school students were, in a word, cool. I am hopeful that science finds as great or a greater role in the upcoming administration.

I have liked the steady calm delivery of the president. I have liked his passion and emotion. I have liked what I think is his honesty. I have liked his level-headedness and his willingness to speak to Americans across all social and economic boundaries. In listening to him I am convinced that while he is far more intelligent than most of us, he has taken great efforts at communicating with as many people as possible in a way they understand. He is an honest successor to President Reagan as a great communicator.

An honest assessment of the president must include those areas where I find fault with him. Those are mostly on the foreign policy front. Admittedly, I am not all that smart when it comes to foreign policy. A lot of foreign policy in my mind is intertwined with military policy where I believe in a small but strong military but also believe in as little war as possible. The Obama for whom I voted in 2008 seemed to be more aligned with my views on this front than the Obama who served eight years as Commander-In-Chief. Yes, Osama Bin Laden is gone but so are lots of innocent civilians. Yes, we are out of Iraq but we are deeper than ever in Afghanistan. I do not wholly approve of drone warfare although maybe I need to know more about it. I do not completely understand Syria, the Arab Spring, and our responses to that but I do not approve of what we have done or are doing. We misread the events involving Russia and Ukraine and I’m not sure we know where we stand with either country.

And that brings us to Russia.

Russia, the remnant country of the former USSR.

All my life we have been taught that Russia is the enemy. We waited to see who would blink. We crawled under our desks in grade school imperiled by the Cold War. We implored Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” We have been at odds with Russia for decades. Now suddenly we aren’t. Suddenly we’re okay with Russia. I don’t get that. I don’t get that military people I know suddenly have a newfound love for Russia. No one can quite explain it or maybe they just don’t want to.

In the very early morning hours of November 9th, a few short minutes after Hillary Clinton conceded the previous night’s election, I posted a congratulatory note on my Facebook page to President-Elect Trump. I had just gotten off the phone with my longtime friend Preston Bates who, while not supporting Mr. Trump, had precisely nailed the Electoral College down to the First Congressional District of Maine and its separate balloting from the rest of the state a few days earlier. While it is disconcerting to me that in a race where 74,074,037 voted against someone for whom 62,979,879 voted that the lesser-voted candidate won, that is our system. We are a federal Republic of states and our states vote for president, not our residents. I’ve never complained about the Electoral College to my recollection; this isn’t the time to start.

I am hopeful that the new president builds on the job gains made under President Obama. I am hopeful that the new president sees a 150% increase in the Dow Jones Average just as President Obama has. I am hopeful that the new president continues the $831 Billion commitment on infrastructure found in the Stimulus Plan of 2009. I am hopeful that the president continues to work with our science and technology community to find new treatments and medical procedures for those in need. I am hopeful for lot of things. And while I do not share the new president’s agenda in many regards, I do not want him to fail as I do not believe we have the resources to recover.

To “make America great again” is a noble goal. I believe we are a great nation but that there was a time when we were even greater. And in those days there was one major difference, something which has been taken from us and this is the resolve and the idea that the government can and should be a vehicle for the collective improvement of we, the people. To “make America great again” will require a lot of coming together as opposed to tearing apart. And it will require money. Lots of money, first to get out of debt and then a lot more to do the programs the new president wishes to implement.

America is in debt. We first went “deep in debt” under President Reagan when he borrowed-and-spent the Republic down so much as to tripling the National Debt while he was in office. Even Obama hasn’t done that. And beginning with Reagan, who enjoyed a federal tax rate on the wealthiest earners of 50% for most of his presidency, we’ve been lowering that rate and exempting more and more people from taxes. If we go back to the “great times” of Nixon, Ford, or Johnson, that rate is 70%. Lots of people look to Eisenhower as president during America’s golden era. The rate then was 91%. To make America great again will mean paying for it. We are getting the government we are willing to pay for. Simply changing presidents will not make America great again; changing our attitude toward the government will.

So, farewell and thank you, President Obama. Thank you so much. You brought us hope and it mostly worked. And thank you too to Mrs. Obama and Sasha and Malia for their class and graciousness. Finally, Good Luck, Mr. Trump. You’ve made a lot of promises. You will need a lot of luck and hard work to deliver on those promises. That starts tomorrow – or, as you have indicated, Monday.

793. Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.

There's an old saying, "Everything in moderation, including moderation."  It's been attributed to many people including Ben Franklin and Oscar Wilde.  It comes to mind of late when thinking about the Duke Boys and their car, the General Lee.  I'm just not all that clear that taking the Duke Boys off the air accomplishes much.  Understand, this doesn't affect me.  I stopped watching TV in 1984, about six months before the Dukes of Hazzard series came to an end.  Then I think about places like Gettysburg and Perryville, both of which I've visited and both of which are celebrating battle anniversaries today.  People from Kentucky on both sides of a war fought and died acting mostly on orders well above their rank. In my post of June 28th I mentioned my unsettled and unsettling self-to-self discussion on the Old South, revisionist history, censorship, and the potential of book burning.  I'm still having that discussion.  Censorship is a big problem for me.  Book burning, deleting history from our history, is also a big problem for me.  How can we learn from the past if we have relegated it to the rubbish heap?

790. When We All Get To Heaven - a tribute to Wendell Ford

There's an old Methodist hymn that many of us know - When we all get to heaven.  It is very loosely based on the passage from the Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 14, Verse 2, the familiar scripture relating the many rooms of the House of God according to his son Jesus.  Well, maybe it is.  The writer, Eliza Hewitt, wrote it in the 1890s and along with the composer, Emily Wilson, was a regular at Methodist Camp Meetings in New Jersey.  If you've ever been to camp, you know there is a lot of fellowship, a lot of praying, and a lot of singing going on amongst friends close and not-so-close - like a big family reunion of those folks you only see at weddings and funerals.  Today's occasion for a blogpost was a funeral service of sorts, the State Memorial Service of the late Wendell Hampton Ford, former State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, Governor, and United States Senator, and a personal if somewhat distant friend.  Ford died January 22, 2015 at the age of 90.

I posted on Facebook a few days ago my first introduction to Wendell Ford in 1971, a rally for the election of Wendell Ford and Julian Carroll held at the old Okolona Democratic Headquarters followed by a parade out to Southern High School and another rally.  There would be many more meetings including one about six months later as I served as a page in the Senate, serving then-State Senators Tom Mobley and Walter Huddleston.  During the week, on February 18, 1972, I dropped into the Governor's Office and introduced myself to everyone.  I was 11 years old at the time.  Governor Ford sent me a letter later than day recounting my visiting his office as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.  After visiting every-so-often with my grandmother, who probably did consider it second nature, I can only say I was following in her footsteps.  I still have that letter.

Through the years, Governor and later United States Senator Ford has been a friend, inspiration, mentor, and, for an abbreviated period, boss - twice.  In 1980 I worked under the direction of a lady from Jeffersontown who was one of his campaign bosses - I can never remember her name but I can always remember those big '70s style glasses she wore, along with wigs that were never quite where they should be.  She introduced me to "working a rolodex."  She had quite a rolodex.  Later, for a brief period in the mid 1980s, between one of those periods of unemployment at City Hall, I was offered a chance to work in the Senator's office in the District of Columbia.  I made a visit, got cold feet, and returned to Louisville.  It is one of the capital mistakes of my lifetime.

Over the years and especially since his retirement from elective office in 1998, Senator Ford has become one of the icons of Kentucky's political history, ranking up there at the top with Henry Clay, Alben Barkley, and, giving credit where it is due, Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr., the only person serving longer than Ford as a United States Senator from Kentucky.  He has been the hero of nearly every Democratic campaign, the one person Democratic candidates seek out above all others for an endorsement.  He had most recently endorsed Jack Conway in his race to be one of his successors in the Governor's Office.

Yesterday and today, Wendell Ford became the twenty-first person to lie in state in our State Capitol, depending upon who is counting, who they are counting, and if they are counting all of our capitol buildings.  And today was the official State Memorial ceremony marking the life and death of this beloved statesman and politician.  It was beautifully delivered by Governor Steve Beshear, eulogist Thomas Preston, Lieutenant Governor Crit Luallen, cantor Colmon Elridge, and musicians from the Owensboro Orchestra. And that gets us back to that Methodist hymn, When we all get to heaven.

I have been enamored of our State Capitol and, indeed, our State Government since my very early visits with my grandmother as a little boy in the 1960s.  I remember the first time I was a page around the age of 7 for then-State Representative Tommie Riddle of Okolona.  I remember returning there when our neighbor at the end of the street, Dottie Priddy, was elected as a State Representative in 1969.  And I have a great fondness in my heart and soul for the time I spent in Junior KYA and KYA while a student at Durrett from 7th through 12th grades, and later as an Adviser for Lexington's Morton Junior High School while I was student at UK.  Then in 1980, with the help of Dottie Priddy, I got to go to work for the Legislative Research Commission, the official staff to Kentucky's General Assembly.  I was, in my mind, working in heaven.  I have never lost my passionate feeling for this wonderful body, working in a beautiful building, in what has been and remains one of my favorite cities on the planet.

Over all these years, I have come to know many, many people associated with that building.  Governors, lieutenant governors, other statewide electeds, and a lot of the folks who helped to put all those people in office.  Through involvement with the Kentucky Young Democrats (and thanks to Dale Emmons and others, the Young Democrats of America), I established friendships and relationships which have remained in tact over the decades.  I see them at political events, BBQs, football and basketball games (mostly in Lexington), and other sundry places, some planned, some unplanned.  Most of us gather the first Saturday in August for food and fun at Fancy Farm.  There are other events where any number of these folks might show up - the Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, Court Days in Mount Sterling, St. John's Picnic in Paducah, or the old Guidiglis family picnic in northern Kentucky, something I have lost track of.

Today's gathering in memory of Governor Ford brought all those people together, a sort of "When we all get to heaven" occasion.  There was plenty of rejoicing at seeing old and new friends and relaying and relating stories of the great man whose coffin was lying in state before the larger-than-life statue of Kentucky's president, Abraham Lincoln.  We were all there.  I saw former governors Carroll, Brown, Collins, and Patton.  I saw three congressmen, Yarmuth, Rogers, and Guthrie - but only spoke to one - a nice chat with Congressman Guthrie about how the 2012 redistricting plan wasn't quite put into practice.  We both laughed.  I saw Mary Sue Helm, who now works for Secretary of State Grimes, but for me is someone I've known since 1979 when we both worked in the office of then-Jefferson County Clerk Bremer Ehrler.  I saw Adrian Arnold, a former member of the House.  We chatted briefly.  Mr. Arnold came to the House in 1974, the same year as Steve Beshear.  Wendell Ford was governor at the time.  Later I stood behind James Kay, one of Kentucky's newest members of the House elected from Woodford County.  I saw my councilman, Metro Council President David Tandy, along with my senator, Gerald Neal.  I saw a number of my old Young Democrat friends, starting with Dale Emmons and Earl M. "Mickey" McGuire, who took me to my first YDA convention.  I saw many of my fellow members of the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Committee, a body I sought office to every fourth year from 1980 to 2000 before finally winning in 2004 (and being re-elected in one fashion or another in both 2008 and 2012).  And while I didn't speak to him, the most powerful Republican in the Republic, and arguably the second most powerful man on the planet, the aforementioned Mitch McConnell was seated forty feet away, in a much more prominent place than mine.  I did say hello to former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chou, wife of the senator.  Both large city mayors were there although I only spoke with Lexington's.  Many current and former statewide electeds were there, including Alison Grimes (and her father, with whom I had an extended conversation outside the Governor's Office), Todd Hollenbach (father and son), John Young Brown (father, son, and grandson), Bobby Babbage, Ben Chandler, and old John Stevenson was upstairs in a wheelchair.  And the thing is, he touched all of these people and many more.

It was, in a word, heaven.  That isn't meant sacrilegiously.  I do believe in an afterlife which involves heaven.  But today was close.  It was quite a gathering.  The state's powerful and less-than-powerful, all together in a place they presumably love.  It is, I will note, the second such gathering of a place's powerful and less-than-powerful gathered together to pay respect to a deceased leader the likes of which we won't see again soon which I've attended in the last few days.

Rest In Peace, Senator Ford.          

(picture by John Rogers of Glasgow, Ky.)

1. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
   Sing His mercy and His grace;
   In the mansions bright and blessed
   He’ll prepare for us a place.
   • When we all get to heaven,
     What a day of rejoicing that will be!
     When we all see Jesus,
     We’ll sing and shout the victory!

782. Rest In Peace, Mr. Bradlee

An homage, with notably explicit language, to the great Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, who died today, from "All The President's Men," concerning an event which changed politics, journalism, and the government itself:

"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing was riding on this except the, uh, First Amendment to the Constitution, Freedom of the Press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight."

 He was right. RIP, Mr. Bradlee.

774. Where will Fred Phelps spend eternity?

My personal theology as to where Fred Phelps (and everyone else) will spend eternity. I, a Christian, do not believe in Hell. Historically (at least) four different words were used in place of our current English word Hell as it appears in Scripture, none of which adequately or absolutely describes the eternal fire often preached from the pulpit. I believe in the wide berth of God's Mercy. I believe Jesus when he said "in my father's house are many rooms." My belief is one of those rooms is reserved for Fred and others like him. Yes, he is vile and hateful. He is, like the rest of us, also a child of God. Thoughts (especially from other Christians)?

773. To See or Not To See - Bill Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States of America, will pay a visit to Kentucky tomorrow and it is not his first time here.  Like many, my first introduction to the president was in 1988 when he addressed the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, a marathon speech which lasted thirty-three minutes.  I can't honestly say if I was impressed or not.

That was July, 1988.  Skip ahead three years and nine months and the same guy was making a visit to Louisville, now the Democratic nominee for president in the election to be held about five weeks later on November 3rd.  There had been a presidential debate scheduled that evening in Louisville, a debate which had been cancelled by Mr. Clinton's Republican opponent, then-president George Bush, now referred to as George H. W. Bush.  Clinton came to Louisville anyway and spoke on a chilly evening on the steps of the Kentucky Center for the Arts.  Here is a link to his speech that afternoon.  http://www.c-span.org/video/?32822-1/clinton-campaign-appearance.  If you follow the link, you will find the speech and if you look over the soon-to-be-president's right shoulder, you will see a political mentor of mine seated two rows behind the speaker, the late Cyril Allgeier who served as a local municipal legislator for twenty-two years.  Rest In Peace, Cyril.  But, I digress.

At the time I was a member of the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee as the At-Large Member from the 35th Legislative District.  As such I was allowed to be in an up-close rope line before and after several events that night and it was in the course of one of those that I had a brief chance to meet Mr. Clinton.  Pretty cool although he was, at that point, the fourth man I had met who was or would be president.  The interesting thing was I had not supported him in the 1992 Primary, where instead I was a supporter of the former (and current) governor of California, Jerry Brown.  In the Kentucky Primary held May 26, 1992, Brown ran third.  Governor Clinton carried the state's Democrats with 56%, followed by a 28% showing for "Uncommitted," followed by Brown with just over 8%.  Paul Tsongas, Tom Harkin, and Bob Kerrey filled out Kentucky's ballot. 

That was my first meeting of Bill Clinton, arguably one of the most popular presidents in history and the last Democrat to carry Kentucky, something he managed to do not once but twice.  During his presidency, the president made two more visits to Louisville, in 1996 when he spoke at Louisville Male High School and in 2000 when his speech took him to duPont Manual.  For the 1996 visit, I was seated with Kevin Hollenbach Holtz, the current State Treasurer's aunt, and we made our way around the campus eventually meeting not only the preisdent but also his Attorney General Janet Reno.  The campus was familiar to me as, in a former life, it had been the Sallie Phillips Durrett High School, from which I graduated in 1978.

The 2000 visit of the president came on October 30 at Manual High School in support of then-State Representative Eleanor Jordan's campaign for Congress.  I was intimately involved in that visit and had a hand in choosing the venue.  The president was introduced by my friend Rushi Sheth, who was at the time president of the duPont Manual Young Democrats and a junior in high school.  Rushi has also served as an At-Large member of the Louisville-Jefferson Democratic Executive Committee from the 48th Legislative District.  He was 18 at the time.

Since Mr. Clinton left office I've been fortunate to meet him two more times.  One of those was purely by accident by simply being in the right place - Lexington - at the right time.  It was brief and since I was somewhere I was not supposed to be, which created some little problem for his host, I will say nothing more.  The other was an October 2006 visit to Louisville in support of the Kentucky Democratic Party, at the time being led by Chairman Jerry Lundergan, a good friend of many years.  Thanks to the good work of Jonathan Hurst, who has long been an associate of Chairman Lundergan's, I was invited to a backroom meeting where once again I got in about forty-two seconds of conversation with the 42nd president.  I made a pitch for my then (and current) political employer John Yarmuth.  At the time John was the Democratic candidate for Congress, a position he was elected to a month after this meeting and has since been reelected three times.  He is currently seeking his fifth term in the Congress.  As a plus at the this meeting, I had my picture taken with the president.  Neither of us look too good as we were both recovering from severe illnesses at the time.  The unframed picture is among a stack on the top of the far right bookcase in my living room.

Tomorrow's visit comes in support of Alison Lundergan Grimes, the current Secretary of State of Kentucky, a candidate for the United States Senate, and the daughter of my friends Charlotte and Jerry Lundergan.  Charlotte and I serve together as members of the Kentucky Democratic Party Executive Committee.  The Lundergan's are two of the nicest people I have ever known, active in a great many charities in Kentucky, and owners of many ongoing business interests throughout Kentucky and also in Florida.  I have been to their home many times and expect to go again.  Heck, I may even see Bill Clinton there - you just never know.

I'll be sitting out tomorrow's visit by the president.  I am hopeful whoever takes that small seat which I could have had will enjoy the day, the speech, and the opportunity.  As Cyril Allgeier used to say, "I'll see it in the movies." 

772. From Kennedy to Johnson

I do not remember "where I was." Like the president's son, in whom I had later placed my hope for a renewed Camelot, I had just celebrated my 3rd birthday. In adulthood, I formed the personal opinion that I favored Bobby more than John and Teddy more than Bobby. My very first vote in a Presidential Primary, 1980, was for Teddy. But today we remember a self-described liberal, from a very wealthy family, who many feared because he was a minority being a Roman Catholic, and whose time was shortened by hate. The torch has passed. Rest in peace, Mr. President.

 --- and ---

Fifty years ago today my favorite president took the Oath of Office on-board Air Force One, administered by U. S. District Judge Sarah Hughes, the only woman to ever administer the presidential oath. To be sure, the administration of LBJ did not turn out as expected, its goals not fully reached, its aspirations for the poor and underrepresented not fully completed. But for a war, perhaps, this could have been Camelot - not the glamor of the Brahmin and Hyde Park elite, but the idea that every American had a president and administration working for them, irrespective of race or class, or the other divisions of the day. All the way with LBJ.

P9. PRAYERS FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST July 24, 2011

The following were the Prayers of the People written for Advent Parish for July 24, 2011 - the ninth in a series.  This particular date was special for me marking to the day the 20th Anniversary of Rob's death.  

 

See Entry #736 for a full explanation.

 

 

 PRAYERS FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

July 24, 2011

O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will.

READER:  By these prayers, we seek an understanding mind and the ability to discern between good and evil in serving your will and one another calling upon you saying, O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will. 

1)  We pray for all people throughout the world, asking that you make steady their footsteps, find them rescue from their oppressors, and help them in their weaknesses, praying O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will. 

2)  We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and as a community we pray for the needs of the Diocese of Port Elizabeth, South Africa in the Anglican Communion.  We pray also for Saint George’s Community Center in the Diocese of Kentucky, and for our neighbors at Highland Baptist Church in the Highland Community Ministries.  We pray for all those who believe in your commandments and have been welcomed into the family of faith by you who sent Jesus to us, praying O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will.

3)  We pray in particular for our city and its people.  We pray for our mayor Greg and all those charged with governance here, and in Frankfort, and in Washington.  We pray for those in our midst in need of proper housing, sufficient employment, encouraging health, and the support of friends and families as they walk through the paths of their lives, asking that your countenance shine upon them, making them whole, praying O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will. 

4)  We pray for those whose needs have not been met, whether by their own actions or the inactions of others.  We pray they may find the talent, time, and desire to help themselves even as we assist them by our Advent ministries.  We pray knowing that even the least among us are to you as important as the highest of angels, of rulers, and powers.  For those who are infirm of mind, body, or spirit, especially [sick-list names], we ask that you restore them to the innocence and vigor of a child of God praying O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will. 

5)  We pray always for those who travelled before us the paths of life and suffering, of devotion and friendship, of support and concern, no longer in our presence; and for those families, friends, and they have others left behind, knowing that by clinging to your commandments in this life we will know and work with them together in eternity.  We ask especial prayers for [names of deceased go here], praying O God who searches our hearts, Teach us your will. 

CELEBRANT:  O God of Solomon and David, your words go forth giving us light and understanding.  Hear our prayers this day and always, for we know that neither death nor life, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from your love and understanding; we ask these prayers in your name.  AMEN.

 

765. Guess who's coming to dinner!

The question was asked on Facebook by a Kentucky political site, "Which politician would you wish to have dinner with and why?"  I offered the following lengthy answer, or four answers, living and deceased for both Kentucky and the Republic.

Here are the responses.

National (deceased) - John Hay, secretary and biographer to Lincoln, later US Ambassador to Great Britain, and later US Secretary of State under McKinley and Roosevelt, and a native of Salem, Indiana.

Kentucky (deceased) - James Wilkinson, American soldier and statesman in the mid to late 1700s in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Laid out and named the streets in Frankfort, was involved in a scandal with Spain over Kentucky and access to the Mississippi River, friend of presidents and vice presidents including the notorious Aaron Burr. Teddy Roosevelt, 65 years after his death, said of him, "In all our history, there is no more despicable character." He is buried in Mexico City.

National (living) - George H. W. Bush, who had the best-ever resume upon running for the White House - not that I voted for him (I didn't), had served under a known traitor (Iran-Contra) and early-on recognized that Trickle Down was, as he called it, voodoo economics. He lived through the transformations of both political parties, saw his sons elected governors of two different states and one elected president, and was himself the son of a US Senator. And he wears cool socks in his old age.

Kentucky (living) - this one is difficult. I remember my conversation with the late Frank Burke, mayor and congressman, just before his passing on the 20th century political history of Louisville which was fascinating. That would have been my answer. So my answer may need to come from a politically related person and not a politician. In that respect, I would turn to journalism and narrow my choices to Al Smith or David Hawpe. Hawpe and I are friends so that can be arranged. That leaves Al Smith as my answer.

What are your thoughts?

762. A little road trip - and an excuse to post

Thanks to my friend Keenan Wilson, I made a short road trip out into the heartland of the Commonwealth today.  Keenan, from Radcliff in Hardin County, today joins the ranks of college graduates turned over from their in loco parentis overseers to face the world.

For Keenan, the overseeing college was Saint Catherine College, a Dominican based school just outside of Springfield, Kentucky at the dead end of the old US 150, a couple of miles west of downtown and about 58 miles southeast of Louisville.

For his persistence in getting an education, Keenan was today awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree during the 81st Commencement Ceremonies at the school, which was initially founded in 1823.  Congrats to Keenan.

I had made him the promise of attending the ceremonies thus giving me an excuse to pursue a favorite hobby, driving the old roads and highways of Kentucky.  This trip covered very little in the way of a new route, although one of the main routes along the way has been rerouted on some new land, this being US150 beginning right at the college's property west of town.

The new US150 winds around the north side of Springfield and a new roundabout was built at the college's formal entrance, connecting the new road with the old road and the college.  The ceremony began with College President William D. Huston explaining the delay in beginning the commencement was due to an accident involving a semi-trailer in the roundabout, something he said was getting to be all to common.

I can only think of a few roundabouts in Louisville.  The most famous one encircles Enid Yandell's statue of Daniel Boone at the entrance to Cherokee Park, at Eastern Parkway and Cherokee Road.  As an historical note, I would add that location is neither the original entrance to the park nor the original location of the statue.  There is another roundabout in my friend Preston's subdivision in far northeastern Jefferson County, where Hunting Creek Drive begins on one side of the circle and splits into Westover Drive going east and Deep Creek Drive going south.  There is a "sort-of" extended roundabout in front of the Louisville Zoo along Trevilian Way, a signature project of the current councilman representing that area, Jim King.  Another roundabout has been planned for many years in "downtown" Fairdale, connecting Fairdale Road, Mitchell Hill Road, West Manslick Road, and Mount Holly Road.  I am sure there are others here and there.

So, my purpose today was to get from here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606 to there, at the new roundabout on the old US150, just west of Springfield.  The road travelled today is one often travelled; the most direct route from here to there - essentially out I-65 to the Clermont exit (also known as the Bernheim Forest exit, and gaining popularity as the Jim Beam exit) which is KY245.  KY245 runs along a northwest-southeast corridor from KY61 (Preston Highway) on the west to and through the northside of Bardstown where it serves as a by-pass of sorts, ending at US150, the Springfield Road, on the southeast side of Bardstown.  At one time this road ended at N. Third Street in Bardstown, the road to Louisville, but it was pushed through about twenty years ago.

From the southeast side of Bardstown, the road to St. Catherine used to be a straight shot since the college is located on what was the main road into Springfield.  Recently, however, US150 has been routed around the north and east sides of Springfield along a new mostly two-lane concrete highway with wide emergency lanes and even wide shoulders.  I followed the new road as far as KY55, or Bloomfield Road, which I took into town and angled back to the west to the college, making my first encounter with the new roundabout from the east, and entering the college proper.

Although this entry is about the roadtrip, it would be disrespectful at this point not to acknowledge (again) the graduation of my friend Keenan.  For the school, this was a day of firsts.  In addition to their Baccalaureate program, this past year they introduced a "Commander College" program for Washington County high school students and the first of this class also participated in today's program.  Another new group of students included those receiving Master's Degrees, the first year of completion for this program as well.  But, I digress.

Upon leaving the ceremony, as is my wont, I travelled a different path getting back to the Derby City.  Returning (almost) to town, I took a right onto KY55 and proceeded south on a road officially known as the Western By-Pass, but usually just called the By-Pass.  Further south the old road joins from town and it is known as Lebanon Hill Road - the road into Lebanon.  Once in Lebanon, KY55 is known as N. Spalding Avenue for a distance and along this distance is the historic antebellum home Myrtledene, built in 1833, at the southwest corner of Saint Rose Road and N. Spalding Avenue.  The home is operated as a Bed and Breakfast by the innkeeper, James Spragens, and is somehow, I'm not clear how, affiliated with the family of a young Republican banker friend of mine, Sean Holleran, formerly of this town but now residing in Evansville.

I followed KY55 into town on N. Spalding and out of town on W. Main Street, where it joins US68 and heads southwest towards Campbellsville.  Not too far along the way, I turned right on KY426 and headed west.  This was the southernmost point of today's journey so far.  I followed KY426 west to its intersection with KY84, which would be my main road west to begin the northward trip home.

KY84 is a long sometimes meandering and sometimes straightway road, running through Raywick and Howardstown and around the hills of Cecil Ridge, then crossing the Rolling Fork (of Salt River), which was running high itself due to the recent rains.  KY84 eventually joins US31E between Bardstown and Hodgenville at a wide place in the road known as White City.  US31E/KY84 follows Main Street into town and around Lincoln Square - another roundabout - and follow south out of town along Lincoln Boulevard.  At Tanner Road, KY84 breaks off to the west and shortly thereafter becomes Sonora Road, the road which will take us to I-65 and the return trip northward.  There's about nine miles between this turn-off and Sonora but our travels only takes us about 8 1/2 miles to the intersection with I-65 North, about equally south as the corner of KY55 and KY426, and the return trip through or around Elizabethtown, Colesburg, Lebanon Junction, Shepherdsville, Brooks, and Okolona, to Louisville.

A very pleasant ride in the heartland of the Commonwealth.

751. On the passing of Melanie Denise Lewis

MELANIE DENISE LEWIS (1972-2012)

We buried Melanie today.  She was 40.  Melanie was the mother of two of my three nieces and two of my three nephews.  She and my brother had an off-again, on-again relationship for nearly twenty years.  It wasn't all pretty and it wasn't all bad.  Melanie had demons like all of us and the cause of her death at such a young age may have been related to one of those demons.  Ultimately it was a stroke which ended her young life.

Over the years, Melanie was sometimes quiet around me but never rude.  I can attest that she was a good cook.  For a few years, she and my brother lived in my home - and I never went hungry.  Later, when they lived on Harlan Avenue, I was often treated to a plate of fried chicken, green beans, sweet potatoes, greens, and lots of other good cooking.  I never turned it down; it was always good.

But I know she caused problems for my brother over the years.  For most of the last ten years, he has raised the youngest three of their children on his own.  While she wasn't present in the house, she was never far off, never more than a few blocks away.  She saw her children on a regular basis, including the day before she fell ill with the stroke.

It is never good when a parent has to bury their child as Melanie's mother, Vera, did today.  Nor can it be good that my youngest nieces and nephews, ages 9, 11, 13, and 17 today laid their mother to rest.  It was very sad.  While there are lots of reasons to wish this day had never happened, she is now at peace.

May her soul and the souls of all the departed rest - rest in peace.

749. Reflections

It has been not quite a month since I've written.  The entries are getting further apart than I have ever intended.  Two, maybe three, things are driving this - my general ennui about much of everything and not feeling well at all, something that has been going on since well before the last entry.  And then there is Facebook, an instant gratification vehicle for writers in search of an audience, something all writers are in search of or we wouldn't be writing.

So, let this entry serve as a catch-up of things, and a reflection of those things.  I had prepared but not posted a different entry #749 entitled "Charlotte on a whim."  Its purpose was to explain how I came about attending the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte the first few days after Labor Day.  That entry, if posted, would have included a discussion about the drive to and from the destination, which took me, briefly, from Louisville to Lexington to Knoxville to Asheville to Charlotte.  The return trip was similar but, in keeping with the well-established rules, not exactly the same path.

While the entire visit was fun, there were highlights.  I got to meet, for the second time, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, whom I had met the first time in 2010 not long after his election.  But his role in national politics has risen considerably since that first meeting at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio.  Naturally, indulging in Facebook-instant gratification, I posted a picture of the handsome young mayor taken in front of the Capital Lounge, an upscale eatery at 2nd and Tryon streets in downtown Charlotte.  Hanging out with my congressman, John Yarmuth, I got to meet a few members of the House and one member of the Senate, Al Franken of Minnesota, and, again, there is a Facebook pic.  It was all a happy event.

My return home and subsequent weeks were fairly uneventful leading up to what would be yet another birthday on September 23rd, my 52nd.  As many of my seven faithful readers know, I do like to celebrate birthdays, or birthweeks, or even birthmonths if I can get away with it.  That had been my plan.

*****

Earlier today I drove out to Evergreen Cemetery, a well-established tract of land just south of the Watterson Expressway along the eastside of Preston Highway, first established about 100 years ago.  My purpose was to find the grave of a dear friend, Curtis Lee Heckel, who was buried Monday.  I had attended his visitation on Sunday but could not make the funeral the next day.  Curtis, who was 24, died in an automobile accident very early Wednesday morning, September 19th.  The accident occurred on IN60 near Carrwood Road just outside the town of Borden, Indiana in northern Clark County.  One other person was killed and two others were injured.

All the happiness of the previous month evaporated in an instant with his death.  I had seen him about seven hours prior to his death at the downtown McDonald's at 2nd and Broadway.  He was with the other three persons who were still with him the next morning.  While he wasn't driving, it was his car which crossed the center line headed eastbound (back toward Louisville) and was struck by two different oncoming vehicles.  I visited the site Friday afternoon looking, darkly, for mementos, one of which had a connection between the two of us which I located in the weeds along the roadside.

I had not visited a crash site in over 21 years.  The last one was located at the intersection of Standiford Lane and Preston Highway, immediately in front of Evergreen Cemetery where Curt has been laid to rest.  That was for another friend, Rob Spears, killed in an automobile accident early on a Wednesday morning, July 24, 1991.  I have never forgotten Rob in all of these years and often visit his gravesite at Rest Haven Cemetery in southcentral Jefferson County.

The bend in the road where Curt lost his life is one I have seen many times over the years, including once with Rob 22 years ago.  My brother lived in Borden for a while and I visited him several times.  On one of those occasions, Rob, at my brother's request, drove my brother's 1986 Firebird back to my house from Kevin's mobile home.  Another friend, Keith Dickerson, lived in Borden off and on for a while as he worked the farmlands up on top of Saint John Hill, home to the various orchards of the intermingled Stumler and Huber families.  Again, I made the trek back and forth several time between here and there.  I always notice the highway sign on westbound (but technically northbound) IN60, right after IN111 comes to an end at Bennettsville.  It reads "Borden 9, Salem 23."  Those two numbers represent my birthday.  A small thing, but the sign remains.  I noticed it again as I went to see the site where Curt died.  I will miss him.  I still miss Rob.  Rest In Peace, Curtis Lee Heckel.  Good night, sweet prince.