It’s not easy being a Kentucky Wildcats fan, but after 30 years we still are | Opinion

Wildcat fandom

It’s very difficult not to be a University of Kentucky Wildcat fan after having lived in Georgetown/Lexington for 30 plus years.

We continue to follow Kentucky even living here in Tennessee. So do others. From time to time, we meet other Wildcat fans in the dentist office, eye doctor, etc. There’s great camaraderie whenever we do.

However, there can be a problem. It’s true with whatever we tend to overly elevate ... eventually there will be disappointment because we’re dealing with people, whether it’s sports, family, politics, whatever.

We don’t like to hear this, but “pride does come before destruction.”

At this point in Kentucky, it’s okay to eat some humble pie, realizing there are other great teams with great coaches. And it’s okay to make needed changes, but cruelty should not be an option. Cruelty only backfires.

This Christmas and always let’s elevate the right One. He is our hope.

Let’s insert joy into our world instead of grump, or in some cases, cruelty.

Belinda French, Columbia, TN

Following Trump

TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP! All three Republican aspirants to fill U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., seat are falling over themselves to identify with President Donald Trump. Reports of the reckless and dangerous things Trump says and does dominate the news media 24/7. The outrage is constant and growing.

Trump fails in every measure by which to judge a President of the United States. He lies routinely and fails to deliver on his campaign promises. He refuses to acknowledge his failures. As examples, Trump: continues to contend that the 2021 election was rigged; deploys the National Guard to supposedly bring “order” to our cities under false pretenses; utilizes the U.S. Department of Justice as his personal law firm, appointing friends and inept lawyers to positions of responsibility, and directing the FBI and DOJ to “investigate” his personal enemies; violates the law of the sea and declared “war” on Venezuelan drug traffickers without provocation, sinking boats in international waters, and killing all survivors; and ruined our farmers’ markets by his reckless use of tariffs.

No candidate, who supports Trump’s conduct, is worthy to sit in McConnell’s Senate seat.

D. Craig Dance, Lexington

Venezuelan attacks

I’m no admirer of Nicolás Maduro Moros’s, president of Venezuela, 12-year, autocratic rule, and it would be no surprise if narcotics-linked corruption permeates Venezuela’s government. Such corruption permeates the region, yet President Donald Trump’s recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s drug trafficking conviction reveals one set of policies toward pro-western leaders, but another for everyone else.

The video by Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin and others, tells military personnel they need not, indeed must not, carry out unlawful orders, when striking boats in the Caribbean suspected of smuggling drugs to our country. These patriots question the legality of these strikes, a call that grows louder with subsequent strikes to kill shipwrecked survivors. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is even against these strikes. What happens when US forces are the ones clinging to the sides of boats?

The term “narco-terrorist” is also problematic. The people in those boats are not terrorists seeking to destroy us. They are largely poor, and smuggling is likely all that’s available to them. Americans must acknowledge that those boats are transporting a product of high demand in our country. Where is our administration’s all-out effort to reduce that demand? That effort would help reduce how many drug-laden boats even ever launch.

Kelli Carmean, Lexington

Trump policy

These two definitions are from the Oxford Dictionary. They are self-explanatory and need no further comment for clarity.

KAKISTOCRACY: Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

TERRORISM: The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against citizens in the pursuit of political aims.

Cheryl Keenan, Lexington

American mistreatment

In 2025, what country is the world’s richest by total net household wealth? The United States, with about 4 percent (342 million people) of the world’s population, is first with $163,117 billion. China, with about 17 percent (1.4 billion people) of the world’s population, is second with $91,082 billion. China is about four times the size of the U.S. with slightly more than half the wealth.

In 2025, which country has the most billionaires? The United States is first with 902 billionaires. China is second with 450 billionaires.

It is difficult to grasp the basis for President Donald Trump’s assertions that the U.S. has been so badly mistreated by the rest of the world that he must seek revenge. Have we been mistreated so badly if we have more wealth and more very wealthy people than any other country in the history of the world?

Marilyn S. Daniel, Versailles

Apocalyptic America

Now the people who voted for President Donald Trump have just begun to wrap their minds around the magnitude of their actions on that Tuesday in November last year. The past 11 months have been worse than anything anybody could have ever imagined.

He is everything bad in life. He’s a dumpster fire on top of a worst-case scenario. It feels like the end of the United States. Things are so bad. The United States has never been here before. After Trump got elected, people immediately began to lose their livelihoods, as their cost of living doubled. Then Trump upped the volume on taking away children’s, old people’s, and disabled people’s healthcare, in addition to a huge cut in housing assistance. Today, grocery prices are at record levels. Living expenses have doubled, and people are losing the ability to feed themselves and their families. It feels like the end of America. Things are apocalyptic bad. Our country is in disaster mode. And the people it was meant to destroy are moving right along.

Yolanda Averette, Lexington

Stopping Putin

The ghost of former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is alive and well living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. in Washington, D.C. (a.k.a. the White House) as the ghost once again considers giving up land of another country in response to a foreign aggressor.

One would have thought Chamberlain’s ghost learned his lesson from Hitler after Hitler took over Austria, then Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, then the rest of Czechoslovakia, and then Poland. Following Hitler’s playbook, Putin has taken over parts of the country of Georgia, then Ukraine’s Crimea, and now trying to legitimize taking 20 percent of Ukraine by force.

Supporting Ukraine now, against this aggressor, is the only way to prevent an even larger war!

Joe Crouch, Lexington

FCPS Audit

This is absolutely ridiculous that they are spending money that they are short of to have an independent auditor examine their books. This is what Alison Ball is doing!

It’s only a ruse to deflect their incompetence and culpability. They should save the money, let the State Auditor do their job, and see what happens.

Diane Kerr, Lexington

Edited by Liz Carey