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2 - November 08, 2012 News Outlook
Your Hometown Newspaper
OPINIONS
Heaven Is
A Lot Like
Kentucky
By Charles Mattox
Insanity laughs under
pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves...
one more chance
Why can't we give love
that one more chance
Why can't we give love
give love give love give love
give love give love give
love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old
fashioned word
And love dares you to
care for
The people on the edge of
the Night
And love dares you to
change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure
Excerpted from the
A HAP..MONIOUS OUTCOME
song "Under Pressure"
written and performed by
Freddie Mercury, Brian
May, Roger Meadows and
John Deacon of the group
Queen, and with the col-
laborative efforts of David
Bowie. The song was re-
leased in 1981.
As the years slowly roll
by I am reluctantly begin-
ning to acknowledge my
immortality.
My days are numbered,
dear reader, just like
yours.
I grow increasingly old,
and slightly more decrepit
with the passing of each
season.
No complaints here. I
Should have bit the dust
many times, many years
ago.
If you were to write my
life's history in a math-
ematical equation, the fact
that I am still alive, simply
would not add up.
I lived dangerously
there for a pretty-good
while and I am still prone
to occasionally commit
acts of near galactic stu-
pidity.
Every moment of every
day is a blessing and there
are no guarantees in this
good life.
Such has been the case
throughout history.
Material things can
make our lives more pro-
ductive and more comfort-
able, but life isn't always
about a contest of comfort.
Life isn't always about a
contest at all, simply a gift
to be cherished while we
can in whatever circum-
stances we find ourselves.
You and I know folks
who are such control
freaks and so greedy they
actually think "they can
take it all with them when
they go," but like Old Pete
told me one time years ago
in the scrubby, near desert
wastelands that surround-
ed Fort Hood Texas, "I've
yet to see a hearse with a
luggage rack, son."
Old Pete was "a
good'un," as my folks
would say of a man who
could be trusted and had a
little grit.
Old Pete "saw the el-
ephant" near the Chosin
Reservoir in North Korea,
long before we met. When
an old person used to say
they 'saw the elephant',
well, it meant they saw
battle. Few acts of carnage
in the annals of American
history can compare to the
frozen Hell American sol-
diers witnessed near the
Chosin Reservoir.
It was a hellhole to be
sure.
I don't know how much,
if any, documented com-
bat action my father saw
at the end of World War
Two or the front end of
Korea, or those years in
between along the DMZ
where he was a military
Police Officer, all I know
was his stories about his
military service were few
and far between and how
incredibly cold the Korean
winter could be, so cold
that when you urinated,
your urine would turn to
ice cubes before it hit the
frozen ground.
That's about all my fa-
ther would say of the place.
That and the .45 Colt
pistol was the best weapon
ever made.
We do our best and hope
the next generation does a
little better and lives with
more joy than we did, and
struggles less.
• molding that clay," on the
endless summer days he
would spend with the lo-
cal and regional youth on
the baseball diamonds
scattered across Fleming
County.
Raising five kids, work-
ing a factory job, raising a
crop of tobacco and scour-
ing the woods and streams
to help put food on the ta-
ble would be enough work
for four men, but some-
how, without complaint,
he always managed to
volunteer to coach youth
baseball.
And his teams didn't
lose very much.
Dad was never very
good at losing.
Baseball, like hunting
and fishing, remained a
passion for him until his
twilight years.
He remains the stan-
dard I hope to parallel one
day as whata man should
My mih'tary service and be, though I know that day
life in general, has been a
cake-walk compared to my
father's.
Dad had some pretty
hard bark on his exterior
but he always made time
to give a little something
back to the younger gen-
erations of his sons and
daughters age.
My sister and I used to
say-"look at him out there,
will never come and on his
worse day he was twice
the man I could ever be-
come on my best day.
He did things his way
and along those same
lines, so too do I.
I donated a fairly rare
Native American axe to
the Fleming County Cov-
ered Bridge Museum last
week. The axe is made of
granite, polished to the
hilt and could fall a small
tree if properly attached
to a handle, in just a few
strokes. Yeah, the bit is
still fairly sharp after 2;000
years without being used.
It felt good to donate the
axe, might spark an inter-
est in some young person
some day and lead them
to follow along the broken
trails that I've followed in
search of knowledge and
understanding you can't
find in most books; the
kind of knowledge and
understanding you can
only find in the solitude of
the wilderness amid the
ancient landscape where
folks similar to you and I
used to make their home
thousands of years ago.
There is a lot more that
connects all of us than
separates us, dear reader;
All of us.
I doubt that I will ever
make that complete and
harmonious connection
that I witnessed my father
make with his world. A
world that was exponen-'.
fially harsher to him than
mine have been to me.
But I will continue to try.
I hope your days are
filled with actions that will
lead to a harmonious out-
come as well.
By Cecil Lawson
I spend a lot of time
in the column writing
about community, and
_,f.h#, rog,par,t, I think
we're better,, ,off with
strong communities and
.d_nse
of community.
Politics is a big, if un-
acknowledged, part
of what community is
about. Because we live
in a society where de-
mocracy is the norm, we
are always going to be
pondering and debating
on how to slice up the
public pie flat is our tax
dollars and ather public
resources.
Rarely arewe all going
to agree on how to go
about doing this. This
is why we've adopted the
idea of majority rule. At
the same time, we agree
that we have certain in-
alienable rights that ex-
ist regardless of what
the majority agreesto
do.
The civil fights strug-
gles of the 20th and 21st
centuries are a recogni-
tion that more and more
minority groups arerec-
ognized as having the
same rights as everyone
else.
We have institutions
that set up certain ways
we go about doing the
public's business - that's
what the U. S. Constitu-
tion and the various state
constitutions set up for
US.
• Our representative
bodies make the laws
that govern how we in-
teract with each other,
and our executive of-
ficials, from the presi-
dent on down to the city
worker and county road
worker, make sure that
we follow those laws.
Our court system ex-
ists to settle disputes
over what those laws
mean.
That, in a nutshell, is
how our American de-
mocracy works. Com-
plain as we will about
taxes, corruption, and
lawyers, the fact is that
it's a pretty good system
as far as forms of gov-
ernment go.
I'm sitting here• and
writing this •column on
Monday afternoon be-
OR THOSE WHO SAT THIS ONE OUT
fore the November elec- own opinion about the seriously. I'm one of
tion. I have a purpose in politics or the govern- them, and sure most of When an apple a day isn't enough,
mind. ment. They might want my readers are as well. call the Physician Referral Line
There are plenty rather want to watch Most people will not fail
enough people out there something on TV or read to take part. Matching you to
- politicians, advertisers, a good book or build a But there are plenty of the right physician
community organizers, chair, folks among us who may at the right time
civics teachers - tell- As Veteran's Day ap- not. They have their
is our specialty.
ing you to get out and proaches next week, choice, too. It's a ques-
vote. I don't disagree some might make the tionable choice some
with them. You probably argument that our vet- days, but we should re- Call today--
should get out and vote. erans and lost soldiers spect it. the service is free!
It is the most obvious fought for our freedoms, ,-
'aoent: wleti:deraoc - including the right to
racy goes into action for vote, and that we owe
the average person, them is to get out and
h] s','f';bu are .... erclse'ff/at rigiit. ....
going t 9 vote, then think, There. is something to
choose wisely, and cast be said for that, but peo-
your ballot. Do this ev- pie go off to war for lots
ery time you have the of reasons other than
opportunity, just patriotism, and gov-
But at the same time, I ernments get involved in
have something more to situations that have little
add. or nothing to do with de-
I don't think we should fending freedom.
fuss at people who don't But I think even the
vote. most battle-hardened
People don't vote for solider would tell you Natural gas heat brings your
a lot of different rea- that he fights even for family together in total
sons. I've heard a great the unthinking person comfort. When the outside
number of reasons given in his own country who temperature falls, electric heat
during this most recent doesn't vote. He fights pumps struggle while natural
presidential election to for the grateful and the gas furnaces bring a steady flow
not vote, both good and ungrateful, of warm air. Over half the
bad. We don't always have homes in the nation are heated
I don't think you re- to exercise our rights with natural gas, and natural
ally need a reason to not to be able to hold on to gas is gaining in popularity
vote. them. They remain self- every year.
One of things I think evident truths.
we are probably just So no, I would say, let's
now, at this point in our not condemn the person There are several good reasons for this, starting with dependability. The natural
national history, begin- who doesn't vote. He or gas pipeline system ensures the safe and reliable delivery of energy to your
ning to recognize is the she may or may not have home: It's comforting, in more ways than one, to know you and your loved ones
notion that our freedoms his or her reasons, but can depend on natural gas.
include the freedom to that's not up for the rest
NOT participate in the of us to decide. Natural gas makes a house feel like a home with warm, comfortable heat no
political process. I would say that the matter how cold it is outside. When it comes to value, natural gas is clearly the
As a life-long student more fundamental right choice. Natural gas is also the cleanest fossil fuel. With the need to reduce the
of politics, I have learned we have, at the basis of amount of pollutants being emitted into the air and water, natural gas is better
that not everybody is in- them all, is to choose to for the environment than other sources of energy.
terested in political mat- participate in the politi-
ters. Some people like cal life of our communi-
sports more, or church, ty. It's that choice, that You're probably doing your part. Bundling
or taking care of their intention, that brings newspapers, saving gasoline, recycling glass
children. Some people community to life, and and more. You are concerned about costs
work a lot. Others sim- it's what makes democ- and saving our earth's valuable resources.
ply don't like matters of racy work. Using natural gas helps to conserve our
natural resources for future generations. It's
public interest. Those places where interesting to note that most of the new
That's perfectly al- democracy failed, such electric generation projects being planned in
right, as Germany after World the the U.S. will be powered by natural gas.
I've heard many, many War I, or Rwanda in 1994, It's an available and abundant fuel that takes
people say that, if you are places where the a vital place in our society today.., and in the
don't vote, then you people gave in to both future.
don't have anything to apathy and extremism,
complain about after the leading to the violent, So the next time you want to heat things up
election is over. murderous exclusion of choose natural gas. For this and generations
I've always thought others who "weren't like to come.
there was something us."
wrong with this line of Democracy didn't fail
thinking, and it's finally in those places because
occurred tomewhy, people didn't care or
Complaining is, for didn't take part. It failed
good or ill, one more because the majority got Delta Natural Gas Company, Inc.
kind of free speech. And swept up in "fashion-
complaining about the able" ideas about their 3617 Lexington Road
government is a long- own purity. Winchester, KY 40391
established American There will always be www.deltagas.com
pastime, people who take voting,
Not everybody Wants and more broadly, the
to be bothered with the political life of the com-
effort to establish their munity and the nation
@