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Opinion

  • MY WORD: Removing unnecessary...

    Every time Howard Pearce and I had an opportunity for a serious discussion, which was rare, I would often say something like “that isn’t fair.”  He would say, “Life was not meant to be fair.”

    He never got around to explaining why. That’s rather like saying to a child who asks one those inscrutable questions, “It just isn’t” or “Because I said so,” then end the discussion by hiding behind a newspaper.

  • Letters to the Editor: June 11, 2014

    In support of prayer at public meetings

     

    Ms. Allewalt [My Word, “For the benefit and blessing of the council – Musings on the Prayer Issue,” The Sentinel-News, May 28, 2014] it seems, never experienced a public prayer she liked in public meetings or governmental service meetings.

  • WHAT WE THINK: It’s time to find a...

    Like the inevitability of the flowers blooming each spring, we await the annual gauntlet of driving through our town’s streets.

    Each year as the weather warms we’re inundated with charities lining up at stoplights, buckets in hand and crazy hats on their heads, seeking donations from drivers.

    It’s not that we mind giving to charity or even traffic slowing down as most cars proceed with caution around those seeking donations for their charity. Although we do question if this is the best way to collect money.

  • MY WORD: Climate change – where is...

    Recently the head of a United Nations panel warned, "If the world doesn't cut pollution of heat-trapping gases, global warming could become out of control." A group of Nobel laureate scientists predicts dangers are going to become worse as time passes.

    Cris Field of the Carnegie Institute for Science in California reports, "We live in an area where impacts from climate change are already widespread and consequential." Other climate scientists say, "Nobody around the world is immune."

  • What we think: Changes to the fair...

    At first glance we were surprised to see the changes to this year’s Shelby County Fair.

    Shortening the time the midway and its rides are open seemed questionable.

    But after thinking about it for a while, we understand the changes.

    While nothing beats a corndog, funnel cake and fresh squeezed lemonade from the fair, we have noticed attendance waning on several nights over the last few years, especially the weeknights.

  • MY WORD: A vacuum in leadership

    Nature abhors a vacuumaccording to Aristotle and Sir Isaac Newton. 

    They were talking about physics, saying that no object or no place can be truly empty.  They argued that every place and everything is filled with something.  The same rule applies to geopolitics and global leadership. 

  • Letters to the Editor: June 4, 2014

    A new look at politicians

     

  • We congratulate: Our graduates on a...

    We could not be happier for our county’s nearly 500 graduates.

    They’ve been told that the best is yet to come, but like many things you’ve heard from your parents and those older it’s difficult to comprehend.

    They see the freedom and the potential as they move into a life of work or college, but they don’t see the failures that are sure to come.

    We can offer them wisdom and guidance, but those failures will be key as they learn who they want to be and how they want to contribute to society.

  • We congratulate: New distillery,...

    When Diageo announced its intention to open a full scale, large operation distillery in Shelby County we were both pleased and a bit surprised.

    While officials had commented that large distilleries were looking at the area, we were starting to think that it might never happen.

  • MY WORD: How Japan used WW II to...

    Here’s a brief history of the American auto business since World War II.

    Some of us remember when “made in Japan” was a synonym for “junk.”

    Early in WWII the Japanese captured an intact American fighter plane. Their studies showed the plane – probably a P-40 like General Chenault and his American Volunteer “Flying Tigers” used in China before Pearl Harbor – was so far superior to anything they had.

  • MY WORD: “For the Benefit and...

    During the hot summer of 1787 in Philadelphia Penn., the delegates to the Constitutional Convention came to a rut in the road. The group, whose goal fell nothing short of drawing up the legal framework for a whole new nation, had fractured into exhausting squabbles.

    One delegate, Ben Franklin, decided to try to focus everyone’s attention on that goal and gave a speech proposing that if they could not come to an accord on their own, they might need some divine assistance in the form of a prayer led by outside clergy.

  • Letters to the Editor: May 28, 2014

    Supports Moffatt, Fairness Ordinance

     

    To the Editor:

    In response to the comments of Reverend Fred Moffatt regarding a Fairness Ordinance, allow me to offer an “amen.” 

  • MY WORD: Remembering separate but...

    I don’t know how the following is connected to conservation, but bear with me.

    In A chapter in Klanthhammer’s book “Things that Matter,” there is a passage about collective guilt – which is never far from my mind – that triggered memories of “separate but equal” laws.

  • WE CONGRATULATE: The few, the proud...

    Each year we get more and more excited by the opportunity placed in front of us to be a part of the system that appoints our local, statewide and national leaders.

    Then each year we get more and more disappointed by the apathetic approach communities across the country take in electing leaders.

    While our Primary Election on Tuesday was a small one, we fail to understand why all registered Democrats and Republicans are not out voting.

    But to those of you that voted, which was expected to be about 20 percent of registered voters, we say kudos!

  • WHAT WE THINK: It’s time to update...

    As we cast our votes and watched voters fill voting precincts – well, at least the few that turned out Tuesday – we couldn’t help but notice how many locations were placed in schools.

    According to Kentucky Revised Statute, school cannot be in session if a school is used as polling precinct.

    We understand that schools cannot have voters wandering the halls and common areas while in session. The safety issues for students would be a logistical nightmare.

  • WHAT WE THINK: Do bus drivers need...

    Based on the number of phone calls we have received, we’re not the only ones upset that Shelby County Public Schools did not seem to do more to punish Garnetta Stivers, the bus driver that allowed two students to walk home the morning of May 5.

    Several parents called our offices asking why more wasn’t done and how this happened.

    Our simple answer – We don’t know.

  • NEIHOF: Helping students find a...

    Eighty-seven percent of teens recently reported on a Gallup Youth Survey that their lives have an overall purpose, and a powerful impulse to serve other people and society as a whole pervades many of the comments of those interviewed.

  • Letters to the Editor: May 14, 2014

    Bible disputes need for Fairness Ordinance

     

    I would like to reply to an article in last week’s edition by Rev. Fred Moffatt. Let me try to address each point individually.

  • MY WORD: Don’t label conservatives

    Because I label myself a conservative you probably automatically assume I’m a card-carrying member of the NRA.

    Wrong. Don’t own a firearm. Not particularly fond of the taste of wild game and Dad forcefully once made the point I should never kill anything I wasn’t going to eat unless it was trying to eat me. There is nothing in our home worth killing someone to prevent its theft—except us. That’s where we draw the line.

  • WE SUPPORT: The idea to make the...

    All it took was bringing in a distillery that immediately left, but we believe our county officials are truly ready to get the ball rolling to make our county wet. And to that we say thank you.

    Too many businesses have come in and requested annexation into Shelbyville simply so they could sell packaged alcohol.

    We are not opposed to property owners having the ability to be annexed into the city, but something as simple and silly as the ability to offer sell packaged drinks doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to us.