After election, Democrats in Kentucky and the nation need to do some serious soul-searching | Opinion

Democratic introspection

Kentucky Democrats who are still angry about last year’s election need to pause and reflect deeply, if you ask me. Think outside the box as well.

Many of us are tempted to blame the previous president and our candidates for president and vice president in 2024. I think that would be mostly counter-productive. Consider that none of them are likely to run again.

If we seriously want to win elections again, we need to re-examine our state and national political parties. Wringing our hands over what drove so many voters to cast their votes against us will get us nowhere. What we really need to do now is ask why our state and national party does not appeal to the majority in the present hour.

We can begin that realization by renewing our subscriptions to the newspapers and news magazines, paying more attention the TV news, and participating in the social media.

Tom Louderback, Louisville

Reality and inevitability

Reality prevails over willing ignorance, over deceptions, lies and fraud, and when it does, it generally does so with catastrophic results upon those who have denied it. One need not be prescient to understand that inevitability. We do not forge either collectively or through any one that regards themselves as a singular master either our reality or destiny, it remains as it is and will be its own path.

The best we can do is to carefully respect and adapt to reality. If we are to do so meaningfully we must do so with the aim of compassion accepting diversity (because that is the reality), accepting equity and equality (because inequity and inequality are not only adaptive, but also self-destructive), and inclusively (because our meaning becomes meaningless without each other).

If we let hate, fear, deception, ignorance and vanity rule us, reality will overwhelm us leaving us in an oubliette being less than forgotten but well-rid.

If we let love, courage, honor, intelligence and virtue rule us, reality will be embraced and kept in our ongoing awareness and memories well-lived.

We are not in a “Golden Age.”

We are in a darkness with Pyrite lit by a candle of deception and even that flame will dull and dim as hope leaves from the soul that enlivens each of us.

Robert Moreland, Lexington

Better planning

In support of Linda Blackford’s recent column on the city and the school district doing a better job, bear with me for a moment.

Many years ago, when conducting a compliance inspection for Kentucky OSHA at a small plant, the plant manager commented he was considering hiring a consultant to improve the production. There were about 50 employees making a single product. Over the years, I have wondered why he did not consider sitting down with the employees and brainstorming with them. Who better to make suggestions or to point out a problem with a suggestion?

There is a new (kidding) concept called Risk Management where there is brainstorming to dream up likely scenarios and also, very importantly, unlikely scenarios where something goes off the rails. Good brainstorming includes the people closest to the rails. I have never seen this addressed.

Some of us carry flash lights, first aid kits, fire extinguishers, multi-tools and extra winter clothing in our cars - just in case. Some individuals most likely don’t carry anything because they don’t think this way.

My concern is some government entities, including schools, may have a, “Naw, that will never happen” mindset.

Bennie G. Patton, Berea

Snow removal

We all knew the storm that hit us two weeks ago was coming. Meteorologist warned every state in the country that a once every decade snow/ice/storm was coming. The roads were terrible! Even highly used streets like Broadway/Harrodsburg, and other major thoroughfares stayed jacked up for days! Streets that were normally salted and plowed remained untouched throughout the entire episode.

I drove around every section of Fayette County and couldn’t believe my eyes. Busy city roads remained covered in snow and ice until mother nature intervened. On Sunday morning, I jumped into my car at 6:30 a.m. to check out the roads. Not a snowplow or salt truck in sight! When I saw a salt truck, it didn’t look to me like it was dispersing any salt and the plow wasn’t down. Then I saw six more trucks in different sections of town, all with their plows up and not seemingly dispersing any salt! It appeared to me that those trucks were driving around Lexington wasting gas and not doing anything to the streets!

I got the feeling they were angry with the city about something, and this was their way of protesting against the Fayette County government. What other reason could it be? They should be fired.

Yolanda Averette, Lexington

Student lawsuit

Many thanks for writing in detail about the student-led challenge to current Kentucky public education support. Between 1990 and 1993, I served as the Ky. Dept. of Education Arts and Humanities Unit Director and participated in the day-to-day work of reforming curriculum and assessment in all subjects. (The inclusion of the arts in a complete education by the Rose decision placed the arts, normally neglected and unfunded, into the mainstream.)

Those were exciting years and it was good to see the improvement in student outcomes, bolstered by important administrative changes such as Student Resource Centers. That investment into the public education of more than 90 percent of Kentucky’s youth was rewarded with better teaching and student performance. The students have challenged us once again to invest in their, and Kentucky’s, future. It is timely that Kentuckians have just rejected the use of public funds for private education – a path that would only lead to less funding and less education for the overwhelming majority of public school students.

Louis DeLuca, Berea

Abortion fatalities

In her recent column, Linda Blackford wrote, “In the two years since the Dobbs decision overturned the right to abortion, something has become very clear: Women are dying.”

She may be overlooking the fact that in the 52 years since Roe v. Wade something was apparently less clear: babies were dying. Millions of them.

Blackford goes on to say, “In Kentucky, We’ve been lucky so far, we don’t yet know of a fatal result of the state’s abortion laws.”

Every abortion, without exception, has a fatal result.

Steve Pruitt, Lexington

Edited by Liz Carey