The Kentucky Resolutions
Freedom: The Promised Land
Written on February 8, 2010
Last year Kentucky was ranked 47th in national rankings for Frankfort's horrible ability to accurately track each and every penny from Obama's stimulus funds giveaway extravaganza. This year, Kentucky was 2nd in stimulus transparency. That's a tremendous improvement, and a positive statistic about Kentucky.
Another statistic, that can be positive, is that Kentucky's #1 cash crop is Marijuana. It can be a positive statistic because Marijuana very well could may be our saving grace, if we're smart, and act now. Marijuana ought to be able to pull us out of this rut our state's leaders have seemed content with tolerating for years since the days Robert Kennedy visited Appalachia.
Kentucky, compared to other States in the US, is also #1 for fastest growing prisons, #1 for child deaths in child abuse cases, #1 for total amount of cancer deaths, #1 state with the poorest mental health, and Kentucky is the #1 State in the US for tooth decay.
[click the Title for the whole thing]
Don't get me wrong Kentucky. I'm Kentucky, through and through, born and raised here, and as long as you plan on fixing the problems, it's okay to point them out. I love Kentucky and I am saddened at the image we have created for ourselves. We can do better, so we will.
More failing statistics for Kentucky: We are the 2nd worst State for poorest physical health; we're #10 in air pollution; #9 in most work related deaths; #8 with premature deaths (which is the central litmus test for a society's civilization level); #8 with the most cardiovascular deaths; the 6th fattest State; #1 for animal abuse; Kentucky is 3rd with the most children in poverty (25% of our children are poor); we're 2nd with the most preventable hospitalizations; 37% of our kids are fat; 31% of our adults are fat, which has increased from 10% in 1990, which is alarming since Kentucky's number of obese people has tripled in a short amount of time.
Kentucky is 44th in wealth. So we're poor. Kentucky is 41st in overall health. So we're sick. 40% of us don't even know how to read, and Kentucky is 47th in education. So we're dumb.
We Kentuckians, in general, compared to other states, are poor, sick, and dumb.
Kentucky is also the 3rd highest state for having the most smokers, and in the 61st District, we are #1 in smoking and smoking related deaths in the State of Kentucky. That means the 61st District is the worst district in one of the worst smoking States. When it comes to smoking, the 61st District is the worst of the worst. And Kentucky is the 4th highest state with binge drinking, which is pretty remarkable since 70 of Kentucky's 120 counties are dry. Prohibition never ended in Kentucky. That's why we've got moonshiners. Nothing can stop a Kentuckian from getting their drink on.
So not only are we Kentuckians poor, sick, and dumb, but we Kentuckians are also drinking and smoking till we get fat and our teeth fall out.
Okay. So Kentucky's got problems. OMG, man alive, boy-o-boy, do we got problems. But if every Kentuckian that is reading this right now agrees that we all need to do better, and we should start with ourselves, that would be a good start. That means you've heard about Kentucky's flaws, and instead of getting mad at the messenger, you are committed to making our state a better place. That's good. Just as politicians should tell the truth to the public, and treat them as adults, the public should take themselves more seriously, and treat themselves as adults who can handle the truth, because we can only solve our problems if we acknowledge them.
Instead of being proud of being backwards, let's work hard to put ourselves right side up.
I think everybody should take responsibility for letting Kentucky slip this far into the ditch, but mostly, I blame those in power. Because those in power can make macro-level changes for the masses. Not only Steve Beshear and the General Assembly, but those folks who are pulling the strings on Frankfort's puppet show, and the “owners”, the big corporate business interests that control just about everything in Kentucky.
But I also blame the older generations that hasn't fix these problems for years. We've had the same problems for over 50 years now. Appalachia still looks the same as when Robert Kennedy visited over 40 years ago. 60% of Letcher County doesn't even have running water. That's the standards of a 3rd World Country, not the Richest Country in the World.
It's the youth who points out that the Emperor isn't wearing any clothes. The 60's started with the college students. It's time again for the baby-boomers to listen to new baby-boomers. Ask them about that Internet thingy... it's not just a fad. We know more than what we they let on.
I didn't start the fire. The fire has been burning since the world's been turning.
Mostly I blame those politicians and capitalists that have been in power for the last 50 years. I blame the system. The status quo. The current establishment has been an abysmal failure. Capitalism forever maintains a poor working class to do the work that the Owners don't want to do. Poverty is institutionalized into Kentucky's system, therefore Kentucky continuously makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer. In Kentucky, we have a divide. We have the haves, and the have-nots. The elite, and the rest of us, the poor and working families which represent over 90% of Kentucky's total population.
I'm sure Royce is a personable person. Being in politics, you probably should be. But being nice isn't as important as possessing a vision and having a logical philosophy when it comes to the creation of public policy. Royce has been in Frankfort for 18 years now and counting. Royce is a career politician. Royce is the reason why we need term limits. Royce Adams is the Establishment. Royce Adams is the System. Royce Adams is responsible for not fixing Kentucky's problems, and even exacerbating some. Royce Adams won his last election with 10,000 votes. Politically speaking, Royce Adams only needs Grant County's 10,000 votes to win. Royce doesn't need Owen or Gallatin County. They're irrelevant to him.
Kentucky, we are stuck in a rut. We are stuck in a ditch. We need to quit digging the hole deeper, and just get a tractor and a chain and pull ourselves out. Kentucky needs fundamental change. Frankfort needs some new blood and some bold and fresh ideas. Some folks have been critical of me, calling me inexperienced, and an amateur. Well the Founding Fathers were amateurs, and they came up with the Bill of Rights, so that turned out pretty good. And I have the same political experience that Royce Adams did when he ran, in 1991, when I was only 10 years old. Consider this: those in Frankfort have not got Kentucky out of this rut, and they've got years and years of experience. Maybe experience is the problem: the experience of tolerating inequality and corruption, of compromising your values and principles.
Kentucky has been poor, sick, and dumb for way too long now, and we've got to use some common sense with the direction our state is headed before it implodes inside-out on its hypocrisy. And to Kentuckians, we are the ones that allowed these so-called “representatives” to rob us of our taxes without fixing our problems. We the People are not holding our representatives accountable. We aren't calling them on the phone, yelling at them, or getting petitions signed and enforced, or going to public meetings, or just staying in-the-know, or doing the bare essentials, like voting. We need to remember all of the things our social studies teachers taught us about government and power, and use those strategies and tactics. And some of us still need to wake up. We the Public have all of the power. We're the majority. We hold all of the cards. We're the ones in the driver seat, if we collectively were alive, awake, and aware. It's like we're a sleeping giant, and until we wake up, there's nothing that will be done, because you can't move a sleeping people.
It's time to wake-up, Kentucky. It's time to wake-up.
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