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Opinion

  • We congratulate: The Prathers’...

    We love to compliment generosity. In a world too often littered with complaint and hate and costly fences around ugly air conditioners, it is, well, a breath of fresh air when someone takes a step for the greater good.

    With that in mind today we congratulate the giving spirit of Don and Greta Prather, who saw an opportunity to help the downtown Shelbyville city center project by purchasing and donating a ramshackle house on an adjacent property.

  • EARLIER: MY WORD: Clarifying the...

    The article The Sentinel-News published from Raymond Broussard (“The trouble with Catholics’ cause,” My Word, July 11) reflects a serious misunderstanding of both the teaching of the Catholic Church and the impact of the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate.

  • MY WORD: The life she can remember

    Twenty years ago, Aug. 7, 2012, we said a final goodbye to our mother, Mrs. Jesse L. Puckett. That is the name she preferred. She was never Ella Puckett. For the last 12 years of her life, she really didn’t know who she was. I had written a column in 1989 to mark Mother’s Day.. a column I thought was fitting even today for all those other families dealing with Alzheimer’s.

    She is remembered by most for being prissy, smelling like Tabu, always wearing high heels, enjoying the latest fashions from Lawson’s and hunting for bargains at A&P.

  • Kindergarten is the first day of...

    Dear Savannah:

    Wow, big day today. Little emotional around the house. Lots of lumps in throats, nervous smiles and anxious rushing around.

    You probably think the first day of kindergarten is all about you, but, well, it’s not. It’s all about everything.

    Because just like when your older brothers and sisters took this first small step on a seemingly endless walk along the path to education, it is overwhelming for those of us who love you and want that walk to be nothing but a dance through a rose garden.

  •
    What we think: Building fence is...

    A lot of you apparently want to vent about the 13-foot screen being built around the air-conditioning unit outside the Shelby County Judicial Center, and we don’t blame you.

  • We congratulate: Rousing jubilee to...

    The 23rd Shelbyville Horse Show steps off tonight, and there will be some pressure on its organizers. Because like any great opening act, the jubilee that proceeds the competition to rev us up for the show was powerful this year.

    The Shelby Development Corporation organizes this 3-day preliminary every year, but we can’t imagine any festival having been more successful than the one completed this past Saturday with a rousing evening on Main Street.

  •
    This is a 200th birthday for the...

    In 1812, on a couple of acres of northwestern Shelby County, members of Dover Baptist Church first assembled and discussed heavenly guidance in the prairies of what was then the nation’s western environs. Kentucky was only 20 years a state, and the congregation surely must have prayed for divine intervention in its growth and the safety of its settlers.

    This Sunday, that 200th birthday will be celebrated at Dover, and a lot of folks I know will be there – most notably, I predict, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. They are always there.

  •
    Is there any way to make sense of...

    A guy buys weapons that Marines typically use. He stockpiles more ammo than the National Guard Armory. He applies his advanced intellect to build a lethal mousetrap in the apartment building where he lives.

    Then he dons armor and opens fire with as semi-automatic assault rifle, killing a dozen people and almost 58 more who are sitting calmly and happily watching the latest episode of Batman at a big-screen movie complex.

    That would seem more like a movie plot within a plot, wouldn’t it?

  • What we think: There’s more to know...

    We were pleased to read last week that the special taxing districts in Shelby County – about 18 of them – appear to be well ahead of the state’s curve for operating in the light of public view.

    That Shelby County Fiscal Court is diligent and timely in its collection and forwarding to state officials the budgets for these organizations is a truly significant and important caretaking of our precious tax dollars.

  • We congratulate: Shelby County...

    We have on more than one occasion focused on the lack of diversity in leadership of public education in Shelby County and have been frustrated by what we see as a homogenization that does disservice to the diversity of students in our 10 schools.

    It is not our intent to offer a backhanded compliment – because there is work to do on this issue – but we were pleased to see progress in the latest round of hiring of principals and assistants.

  • MY WORD: Let’s be clear about...

    Last week in The Sentinel-News, there were many responses to the health-care debate, telling us all about the health-care reform and why it must be defeated. As one who knows health care intimately and at its most basic level, let me give you the reasons it must/should be implemented.

  • What we think: We will be watching...

    The probability that an outlet mall will be built at Simpsonville now seems to be virtually certain.

    There are formal plans to be specified and a lot of concrete to be poured, but the original proposal by the Horizon Group is well down the road to government approval.

    Add to that the stretch-run proposal by Trio Properties, and what we appear to be watching is strangely reminiscent of I’ll Have Another and Bodemeister rushing down the stretch, with the only question being which one will cross the finish line first.

  •
    What we think: We should...

    Donald Cubert Sr. was not a classic politician but, rather, a civic-minded person who became involved in the electoral process.

    Mr. Cubert, who died on Saturday, was known for his kindness to people and his commitment to the city of Shelbyville, which he served for decades not only as a city council member and interim mayor but also as its delegate on countless boards, committees and ex officio projects.

  • Shelby will have its day in new...

    Here’s what I heard a man saying on talk radio this morning. He was talking about the new high school basketball hall of fame that is being constructed in Elizabethtown. He was moaning – my word – about how Fairdale High School had no one in the first induction class.

    He spoke about how the school dominated boys basketball during the late 1980s and ‘90s – which it did – and then he said,  “We had two or three guys who went on to play Division I. We should have someone in there.”

  •
    How did Andy Griffith have such an...

    In the eight awful days since God summoned angel Andy Griffith to the top of Mount Pilot and told him his baritone was needed among the heavenly hosts, I have read perhaps 10,000 words, watched about six hours of episodes, introduced a neophyte to What It Was Was Football and immersed in countless Internet comments about how this sole and soulful if sadly unacclaimed actor possibly could have risen to be an icon for two generations.

  • What we think: We are ery tired of...

    We are getting sick and tired of seeing our beautiful roads and highways used as trash depositories for the lazy and inconsiderate.
    Yes, we are talking to you, those of you who find it appropriate to roll down your windows – though on these days of triple-digit highs, we would think you wouldn’t – and give a heave-ho to the refuse of your lunch, dinner, breakfast and the beers you illegally consume while driving.
    Yes, you know who you are. What you do is detestable.

  • We congratulate: The example set by...

    We have sung the praises of the late George Cottrell and his contributions to his family and community, but we can’t let his latest gift pass without using it as an encouragement to others.
    You likely read the story last week about how Mr. Cottrell’s family, beneficiary of a large-hearted community that purchased a handicapped-equipped van to carry Mr. Cottrell’s wheelchair during his final months of life, reached out.

  • A piece of fiction that makes you...

    Maybe this happens in your profession or in some aspect of your life: a moment when you want to stand up before the world and say how proud you are of what you do.

    That’s how I feel today – oddly not because of some magnanimous piece of journalism but because of an hour or two of pure fiction.

  • What we think: Health-care law...

    Thursday was perhaps the most important day this century for Americans. The Supreme Court’s affirmation of President Obama’s sweeping health-care reform will have far-reaching impacts on all our lives, possibly even helping to save some of them.

    But we believe history will tell us that the days – even the hours – following that momentous announcement will prove even more significant.

  • We congratulate: The new hope for...

    What wonderful news for little Addison Miles and her family.

    Their months of anxiety and fear have been answered by a match from an individual who may be able to provide a life-sustaining bone marrow transplant for Addison in her deadly battle against a form of leukemia.

    There was a very real fear that Addison would not see her first birthday because of the difficulty in finding a match for a transplant.

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