Opinion

The recent Kentucky High School Feedback Report appears to show that educators in Shelby County are doing something right.

Certainly we were encouraged to see that our graduates are outpacing the state in attending college, and we were overwhelmed to understand that more than twice as many of them actually are sticking around for a second year and hopefully beyond.

The most recent data, for the 2011-12 school year, wasn’t broken down between our two high schools, but about 270 of the 429 students from the county who graduated went on to college.

Several weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made a statement at the Plymouth Community Renewal Center in Louisville regarding his support for the restoration of civil rights to felons who have completed their sentences, including the right to vote.  In a political climate rife with ugly partisanship and disagreement, this call for common-sense legislation aimed at removing unjust and immoral limitations on participatory self-government resonates with people across the ideological spectrum for several obvious reasons.

Fairness has a unique definition to all who profess to embrace its precepts. Some of us take fairness for granted – thinking every situation is or at least should be fair to every individual – and others simply fight for expanding its meaning from a posture of both perceived and endured injustice and social awakening.

This fall, Congress has an important opportunity to create jobs and grow the economy by passing a long-term, comprehensive Food, Farm and Jobs Bill. The Farm Bill impacts every American, every day by providing a wide range of programs that strengthen our nation.

Oh, Pleasureville.

I can’t say after Monday night’s meeting that I’m surprised, really. Disappointed, but not surprised. And that, in itself, is a fairly sad commentary on what happened.

You see, you had a chance to do something good. You had a chance to do something that really matters. You had a chance to lead the way in Henry County – and a corner of Shelby County.

But you sat on your hands, looking quietly and somewhat awkwardly at the table while the motion to approve a Fairness Ordinance died for lack of a second.

There are not enough ways to say thank you to the veterans who have served our country and continue to serve. Veterans Day, to be celebrated on Monday, gives us a chance to create ceremony for this purpose, but we don’t think it ever could be enough.

Set aside the long-term commitment to preserving our life, liberty and freedom. Set aside our veterans’ efforts to rid the world of danger and nuisance. Set aside the overall public safety of the United States.

We were maybe 7 years old when we first heard that elegant accent, something so foreign as to be indefinable to our uncultured, tone-deaf ears. All we knew was that this wasn’t the flat twang heard all around Shelby County, which in those days was dead to any sort sound of elsewhere.

But those of us who hung around Simpsonville soon learned that the words and dialect of a friend’s mother were in fact the King’s English, perfected in the British Isles and brought to America to sing for us on just about any occasion.

An amazing decision could be made on Monday night in the small, partially-in-Shelby County city of Pleasureville, where the city commission will take up second reading of a proposed Fairness Ordinance.

You may recall that this is a measure suggested to address specific non-discrimination procedures for housing and employment, among others, based on race, religion, creed, color or sexual orientation.

When you visit historic sites – particularly those that dealt with the founding and discovery of our great nation – do you conjure what that place must have been like for the persons who first trod in your footprints? Have you wondered about the hardships they experienced, how they first encountered the vistas you so simply accessed?