Letters to the Editor: J.D. Crowe was great musician and ‘a world class human being.’

J.D. Crowe ‘world class’

J.D. Crowe and I were as different as two people can be. I met him while teaching music during graduate school at Carl’s Music Center in 1970. He taught banjo (surprise). I started at Holiday Inn West the week before he went to Holiday Inn North.

I’m a jazzer, but have the utmost respect not only for what J.D. did for bluegrass music but what he did for other musicians, the music business and most people he met. I sincerely enjoyed our monthly lunches over the last five years.

He was a GREAT Musician. He was a world class human being.

I’ll miss you, dear friend.

Russ Lay, Lexington

Protect scenic area

Warehouses don’t belong on Peaks Mill Road in Frankfort. Buffalo Trace Distillery should find a better site in an area already zoned industrial.

Currently zoned agricultural, Peaks Mill ought to stay that way. After all, it’s the most scenic road in the county, curving along the Elkhorn Creek through historic farms, by stone walls, and past the cliffs and ridges that overlook the creek. Our most lovely and fertile rural landscape deserves protection from development.

Changing the zoning of this area to industrial would make a mockery of goals and policies in the Comprehensive Plan. People want a beautiful Peaks Mill, not a Peaks Mill industrial complex.

Trina Peiffer, Frankfort

Fund daycares

In the back of our minds, we know why child daycare is not affordable for most working families.

Think about our public schools, for example. Few working families can afford tuition. That’s essentially why we fund our public schools with local taxes.

The public purpose of public education is a better-educated citizenry who can compete in the global economy. Most of us would much rather have an educated and competitive citizenry than a citizenry locked in poverty.

We know that public education is labor-intensive. We know that the training of teachers is comprehensive and expensive. We know that quality assurance and documentation of individual achievement is time-consuming and expensive.

The various costs of providing child daycare are very similar. So far, most providers have tried to reduce costs by holding down the pay of daycare workers. They’re doing this to make child daycare more affordable for us. But, it’s not working very well because the training, assurance, and documentation costs remain pretty high.

What we really need is an economic model for child daycare that is similar to the economics of our public schools. Our reckoning is long overdue. We owe this to our children and grandchildren.

Tom Louderback, Louisville

Really protect kids

I read where state Rep. Nancy Tate and some of her colleagues want to ban the mailed abortion pill. On this issue I see nothing but dumbness. How can you be anti-abortion and anti-children at the same time.

Facts:

1. Kentucky ranks the highest in the nation for child abuse (three years in a row) and child neglect. We have been in the top rankings for over a decade.

2. One in six children in Kentucky faces hunger every day, leading to poor health, obesity, and poor academic achievement. Some 200,000 of these children live in poverty.

3. Mental health problems caused by the items above have been linked to child suicides.

4. Kentucky has one of the highest parental incarceration rates. Oh, and we are 41st in quality of life.

As always, some politicians speak out of both sides of their mouth. They give life and take away life; blessed be the names of our legislators called hypocrites.

Jim Dunn, Burgin

Pett cartoon

I am deeply disappointed in the Herald-Leader for publishing Joel Pett’s recent cartoon. I realize that we live in a country that allows free speech but for him to make a political statement on the backs of those who have lost so much in the past week is in very bad taste and lacks caring and compassion. I usually overlook his liberal opinions because of the right to free speech but this crosses the line. If the Herald-Leader wants to keep subscribers like me, it needs to give more thought to what is published.

Pam Melton, Frankfort

Lawmakers ‘hypocrites’

Sen. Rand Paul finally came out of hibernation to try to do something. Of course, it’s something that goes against his libertarian “the government should do nothing” principles. He demanded that the federal government give disaster relief funds to the victims of the massive tornadoes in Kentucky. Apparently forgetting that he is a small part of that government. His libertarian cohort Rep. Thomas Massie, notorious for his rifle Christmas card, did the same. Shocking considering that no matter how big a natural disaster occurred anywhere outside of Kentucky they both are on the record opposed to any disaster relief payments, dismissing such payments as socialism. Let those non-Kentuckians left with nothing due to natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes pull themselves up by their bootstraps. What hypocrites.

In this Christmas season Paul and Massie should be reminded that the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is a main teaching of Christianity. Paul and Massie instead reject the Golden Rule and believe in what I call the inverse Golden Rule, “Expect others to do as much as possible for you while you do little or nothing in return.”

Kevin Kline, Lexington

Aid tornado victims

Thank you to the Herald-Leader for the stories about the tornadoes in Western Kentucky. I want to give a suggestion to help the many families in need. It is great to see how great things are being done by loving people. Find a person in one of the areas hit and get a couple of families and go see them and give them a $100 Visa card. My wife and I found an apartment owner near Western Kentucky University and went and with the help of others we handed out many of these. We will continue to go back and help these renters. They were so grateful and they had great testimonies on how God had saved their lives through the tornado. One man found his child under debris in her upstairs bedroom without any injuries. Then he tells how the tornado tried to suck him up he held on as his roof was being torn apart. Then he went across the street and two-thirds of the brick apartment building was destroyed. He found seven people stranded in the hallway with no way to get out as the stairs were destroyed. He found a ladder and rescued them. He praised God for saving them.

Ron R. Bodager, Lexington

Clarification

When reading my letter to the editor regarding the recent front page photo of the Chinoe Road Christmas decor, I noticed a word I had not included in the original: BLESS. The words GOD and AMERICA were in red and blue and jumped off the page. The word BLESS was in white and blended with the rest of the fantasia. I honestly did not see it, and had to drive by the location to make sure it was actually there. It was. There is a huge difference in the message between GOD ...... AMERICA and GOD BLESS AMERICA. One equates the two. The other begs for mercy on the country. There is no doubt much controversy over whether a God is one that actually intervenes in human affairs. Many people believe it, many don’t. Nevertheless, those who do were no doubt offended by the letter, and I offer my apologies. It was not meant to offend, but to point out the fact that the United States is in fact a theocracy, not a true democracy.

Dominic Martina, Lexington

Manchin right

Every American owes Sen. Joe Manchin a big thank you for his vote against the socialist, immoral “Build Back Bad” bill pushed by the faction who now controls the Democratic Party. Senator Manchin, an old-line Democrat, has saved every family, person, and business from the negative tentacles of bigger government, higher inflation, and the dictatorial control of the Internal Revenue Service (87,000 new agents). Manchin has proven that he is a statesman more in line with John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The paradoxical thing is how President Joe Biden was able to get decent Democrats to vote for this monstrosity. It was Biden’s way to pretend like he’s doing something as his presidency fails. America doesn’t need not more government, bigger taxes and less freedom; we’ve suffered enough under this political incompetent. He’s clueless. Thanks, Senator Manchin, for saving America.

Robert Adams, Lexington