Idealists will sing the old Beatles tune “All You Need is Love,” but reality proves that while love is what you need the most, the tools to deal with money, or the lack thereof, help keep it alive.
So, it’s appropriate that a workshop about finances also addresses relationships. This is the kind of proactive social work we need to see more often.
Where do we find people like these?
It's a question always pondered when we lose someone who has chosen service to our country or community. It's a question that has no doubt been asked many times in Clark County this week upon the news of the death of Navy Petty Officer Second Class Taylor Gallant, a 2008 graduate of George Rogers Clark High School.
By all accounts, Taylor had his sites set on service to his country since his days at GRC, where he was remembered as among the brightest of students. He ended up in what the Navy itself described as "an elite group of men and women." He died Jan. 26 in a training exercise off the coast of North Carolina.
So, where do we find men and women like Taylor Gallant? Right here at home. Nurtured by family, developed by good teachers, inspired by an allegiance to his country. May God bless us with more like him.
We offer our condolences to his family and friends, and we hope they find some comfort in their pride of his service.
Just when we thought Richie Farmer could not disappoint us further, he strikes again.
We learned this week that Farmer, fresh from the embarrassment he was as an agriculture commissioner and candidate for lieutenant governor, has filed for unemployment. Never mind that he is ineligible.
Under state law, one cannot receive those benefits as the result of losing an election or choosing not to run for re-election. Elected officials are not eligible, period.
Farmer's salary was $110,000 a year. Were he eligible for unemployment, he would draw $415 a week.
Farmer became ag commissioner not because of his expertise in the field but because of his high profile career as a University of Kentucky basketball star. He then went on to spend the state's money foolishly and extravagantly, to treat us to a very public and nasty divorce, to snub his nose at us by hiring his girlfriend to a state job paying $60,000 a year and now to suggest he deserves an entitlement.
Who is giving this guy advice? Apparently, no one. It's safe to say he has fouled out.
The battles over legislative and congressional redistricting in Kentucky have again elevated the politics of nasty.
Leaders in both parties have demonstrated, to no one's surprise, that their interests are more of both a personal and politically personal nature than in actually serving either their local constituents or the state as a whole.
There is no other explanation for the gerrymandering being attempted, and those involved don't even appear terribly interested in denying those allegations. Gov. Steve Beshear showed some of the same attributes by signing the legislation, and that was a failure in leadership.
It has become abundantly clear that we cannot trust leaders in either party to be leaders at all. And it's time some form of interference be constructed to assure that the legislature doesn't continue to abuse its constitutional responsibilities in this regard.
There are a couple of proposals that would require the legislature to appoint an independent body, balanced in its party persuasion, to come up with future redistricting proposals, at the same time allowing the constitutional obligation of the legislature to be fulfilled.
The sooner the better.
