Food Stamps

When Laura Matherly pulls up to the checkout with her groceries, she pays with her plastic card like so many other people do. But Matherly's card isn't a credit card ? it's an Electronic Benefits Transfer card, EBT for short. Matherly is a food stamps recipient, though no one gets actual stamps anymore. She said she is legally blind and supports herself and her son on a disability check. "Disability doesn't make ends meet," she said. "If there wasn't food stamps, I would have to do something to make ends meet.

Dear Editor, Recently I went to Community Action in Stanford for some assistance. The woman told be to come back the first of May - like that's going to help now. The InterCounty Energy bills are out of hand. You sit in your house afraid to turn the heat up because you can't afford to pay the bill. You go for help and they tell you what they'll pay, maybe, but you can call two or three other places and they'll help. If you had money for phone calls and money for gas you wouldn't need to run all over for help.

The subject today is the euphemistically titled "stimulus package" of nearly $800 billion (more than $1.3 trillion, with interest, over 10 years). Commentators have reported that this "package" represents the largest government spending bill in the history of the world. Its stated purpose is to end the recession by creating jobs and stimulating consumer spending; however, nobody who has read this 1,100 plus-page spending measure can put a number on the jobs it will supposedly create or how consumers will react to it. Is this just a pig in a poke?

Editor's note: Taken from the Danville 911 records, the Police Blotter represents a history of the initial calls and the information used by the dispatcher to send officers to investigate complaints. It is not necessarily an indication of what the officer found upon arrival at the scene, or of how the complaint may have been dealt with. FEBRUARY 18 3:51 a.m., vehicle stop on West Main Street; prisoner in custody. 4:39 a.m., caller from High Street residence wants to speak to an officer about receiving harassing text messages from a cell phone and she doesn't know who it is; extra patrol requested.

The numbers and facts were staggering, Jessamine County Deputy Superintendent Owens Saylor said following a Kids Count presentation at The Providence School. "Still the challenges that are out there with the percentages that are astounding to me," he said. He was reacting to the message delivered by Providence students Adrianna White, Paul Clem, Kelsie Scott and Amber Whitaker about issues imperative to the success of local children and youth. The event was highlighted by the release of Jessamine County data from Kids Count.

A local church's outreach ministry has quickly become an outlet for many local families trying to make their food dollars go further in a volatile economy. Last May, Bethel Harvest Church joined with Angel Food Ministries to provide boxes of food to 40 needy families with children at Rosenwald-Dunbar and Warner elementary schools. Ministry coordinator Kathee Norris said after the success of the school ministry, church members decided to expand the program. "We wanted to help people, and we knew Southland Christian Church provided food for the kids during school but when school was out they didn't get any, so our desire was to help make sure the kids got food those three months too," Norris said.

When most people think of hungry children, the first that come to mind are probably those living in impoverished third world countries. But you don't have to look that far away to find children who live every day not knowing if they're going to have anything to eat. It is happening across this country as well, and Jessamine County is no exception. According to statistics from Kentucky 2006 Kids Count, Kentucky ranks sixth nationally with 20.7 percent of all children living in poverty, and 77 percent of all families eligible for food stamps, and more than 198,000 currently receiving them.

Those of us who dimly remember the gas lines of the 1970s tend to view commodity price spikes as the temporary work of international villains. But anyone still expecting the return of cheap oil is in for a long wait. Rising energy prices are mainly the result of unprecedented global prosperity - a rising billion in China and India determined to own automobiles and air conditioners. This increased demand for oil, natural gas and coal has almost nothing to do with the policies of America or the designs of OPEC.

When I read the news this weekend that one in 10 Americans are now using food stamps, I was flabbergasted. In some states, the numbers were even worse. Here in Kentucky, it is one in seven. One shudders to think about the new America we apparently live in. As the world's richest nation, we have a moral obligation to help those who cannot help themselves. But that is where the taxpayer's buck should stop. Are they seriously telling us that 10 percent of the American population and 14 percent of Kentuckians can do no better for themselves?