Letters to the Editor: Celebrate virtual library; turned off by Trump supporters
Virtual library going strong
The 20th anniversary for the Kentucky Virtual Library (kyvl.org), and the Kentucky Virtual University was celebrated on Nov. 3. Attendees were ex-Gov. Paul Patton, who funded the initiative, Lee Todd, ex-president of the University of Kentucky, who launched the programs on Nov. 1, 1999, and Aaron Thompson, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, who oversees KYVL. And, there were those who dreamed and built the KYVL to level the playing field for all Kentuckians.
During these 20 years, Kentuckians have conducted over 750 million searches on KYVL-licensed databases, and requested to have over three million books or articles delivered to the library near them. It all started with a meeting, I, along with three university library directors, had with the governor’s budget director in 1996 about including our virtual learning initiatives in the governor’s “Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997”. Right after our launch, we received a check of $250 from a librarian in Elizabethtown as a donation for his gratitude that his users could access the resources that were beyond his budget.
Patton drove six hours roundtrip from Pikeville to my house in Lexington to show us that he cares for programs such as KYVL that are doing good for all Kentuckians. He assured us that he will continue his efforts to help elevate educational levels for all Kentuckians. We were so very lucky to have him as our governor back in1997.
Ling-yuh W. (Miko) Pattie, Lexington
McConnell vs. Constitution
Sen. Mitch McConnell says he will stop this Trump impeachment dead in its tracks when it comes before the Senate. Isn’t it in the U.S. Constitution that if the House impeaches a president, a trial has to be held in the U.S, Senate with the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding? Didn’t know Mitch had that much power to override the Constitution. Of course, Mitch wants you to send him some money, too, for his campaign. Gotta love our strong defenders of the Constitution.
Bob Sutton, Springfield
Trump supporters a turn-off
Not only could President Donald Trump shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and be forgiven for it by his base, Evangelical Trump supporters could witness him suddenly sprout a pair of horns out of the top of his head, watch his feet morph into hooves, and watch a 5-foot-long tail sprout out of his tail end, and still support the man.
This is one of the many reasons why America’s Sunday morning church attendance has declined over the past several decades to the low it is at now. If Evangelical Christians want people who work 40 or more hours a week to wake up early every Sunday morning to attend church, they need to practice what their pastors are preaching and stop listening to and following behind a known liar like Trump.
Nobody is going to let so-called Christians, who blindly support Trump as they’re watching him get crazier by the hour, convince them they should wake up early on the only day many of them have off to attend services. These supporters need to stop telling people that they support Trump, because it makes them look like huge hypocrites. And that makes many people not want to attend church.
Yolanda Averette, Lexington
A wanna-be dictator
President Donald J. Trump is an above-the-law dictator who would like to be a full-blown dictator like his comrades Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Why is Trump cozying up to them? U.S. citizens and other nations in the world deserve to know the answer. When Trump meets with Putin and Kim separately in private, one has to wonder what, in general, are they discussing?
During the 2016 presidential campaign, I remember Republican nominee Trump saying nuclear weapons were made to be used. Trump says he doesn’t want war. I don’t believe or trust anything he says. He has lied to us so many many times during the first three years of his chaotic, bizarre presidency.
If Trump thought that going to war before the 2020 election would help him be re-elected, I believe he would do it. President George W. Bush took us to war in Iraq in 2003, right before the 2004 election. It helped Bush win re-election.
A vote for Trump in the 2020 election is a vote for four more years of Trump-style dictatorship.
Paul L. Whiteley Sr., Louisville