An Important View Of The US Constitution

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post about Virginia Colonial Governor Berkeley, I have been reading a surprisingly wonderful book by Bob Deans called "The River Where America Began: A Journey Along The James".  While the book is about the history of the settlement of the James River Region in Coastal Virginia and the role it played in the early history of colonial America and the American Revolution, Deans also periodically provides his own insightful examinations of the history of democracy in America.  The short section of the book which I quote below is one of the most pertinent of those insightful examinations.  

The Constitution was never meant to settle for all time every imaginable dilemma the US government might confront.  Its genius was, and is, that it allows each generation of Americans to resolve its own issues.  It was designed to be a living document, showing the way for government to evolve with the times, while remaining true to those principles upon which the nation was founded and still holding inviolate the rights of the people as sovereign, goals the document set forth in its opening lines: "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."  (Deans, p. 219) 

 In both instances of the quotation in the indented paragraph above, truer words were never spoken, first by the Founding Fathers, and secondly by Deans.  Although there is now widespread disagreement about the interpretation of the words in the US Constitution, they are nearly always universally recognized as just that, some of the best words ever written in history especially the history of democracy in the world.  And Deans' own words in the first section of that paragraph are just as true as the original words in the US Constitution.  When Deans says that the US Constitution "was designed to be a living document, showing the way for government to evolve with the times, while remaining true to those principles upon which the nation was founded and still holding inviolate the rights of the people as sovereign", no one, in a discussion of the Constitution, could have hit the nail on the head more soundly.  Yes, the US Constitution is and should forever be a living document but it should also always still hold inviolate the rights of the people as sovereign.  There have been several instances when the living document were necessarily changed to further insure the rights of the people, beginning with the original ten amendments, The Bill of Rights, on December 15, 1791.  There have also been a few considerably more modern and necessary changes in the Constitution in order to insure the rights of the people.  The Thirteenth Amendment passed in January 1865 and was necesssary to abolish slavery which it is interesting to know was one of the most divisive issues in the formation of the new United States and, at least, a major partial cause of the US Civil War.  The Fifteenth Amendment, passed four years later in 1869, made a necessary and gallant attempt to guarantee the vote to all citizens of the country regardless of race, color, or prior history of slavery.  Yet, even today, there are widespread attempts in most Right Wing Radical Repugnican held states to infringe the right to vote for many million people because of a variety of factors which might make them more likely to vote in a rational manner against Repugnican candidates.  Those various factors include race, color, national origin, level of education, and profession and state legislatures in many of those aforementioned Right Wing Radical Repugnican states have instituted a variety of ID laws and other strictures on the right to vote in order to suppress the votes of such people.  The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, finally guaranteed the right to vote regardless of sex which was necessarily intended to give all women the right to vote.  But more than one hundred years later, in 2022, those very same state legislatures include many women in the groups they attempt to make voting less likely or easy for.  The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, finally passed in 1962, outlawed poll taxes as a requirement for the right to vote.

Yet, after all these, and the remainder of the twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution were passed we still find ourselves in a situation in this country which makes it necessary that, sooner or later, more such amendments must be passed to ensure both that the rights of the people shall be held inviolate and that the US Constitution will continue to be a living instrument.  We are still fighting out way, as a country out of those four incredibly dark and dangerous years from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021, when the White House and the country were being held hostage by a TRAITOR who was living illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia.  The Fourth Section of the Twenty-fifth Amendment needs to be rewritten in stronger, more crystal clear terms to make it a necessary act for members of the cabinet to take action to remove an unfit occupant of the White House.  Recently, despite the knowledge among several members of the cabinet at the time that the occupant of the White House was unfit, a majority of those cabinet members could not be induced to agree to take the necessary actions which would have removed TRAITOR Trump from the White House and removed the ever present danger he represented from the country.  The language in that amenment must be clarified or we will see another instance, at some time in the future of this country, when an unfit, illegal occupant of the White House may well destroy the country.  

Yet, despite the 200+ year history of the US Constitution as a sacred and living instrument, on December 4 ,2022, that very same TRAITOR, the former illegal occupant of the White House publicly called for the suspension of the Constitution as a means for him to regain his illicit and illegal residence in the White House.  With these words: "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Not even Benedict Arnold or Aldrich Ames, previously the arguable two worst traitors in the history of the country never uttered such clear cut words endorsing TREASON as those used by TRAITOR Trump. Such blatant, public TREASON on the part of TRAITOR Trump was not even used when he incited the January 6th incident of TREASON, Sedition, Domestic Terrorism, and criminality.  For this statement alone, he deserves to be prosecuted even if he had never committed any of the hundreds of TREASONOUS, Seditious, and simply criminal acts he committed before December 4, 2022.  Such acts, such words, and such crimes have now lead to multiple attacks on the US power grid, the aborted attempt to kidnap and murder the governor Michigan, and hundreds of other Right Wing Radical crimes.  

The response to all these acts, all these crimes must be that we, as a people take the actions necessary to guarantee that the US Constitution will be forever a living instrument and subject to any necessary changes in order to control and curtail such sedition and treason from such criminals as TRAITOR Trump and those Right Wing Radicals who step forward to volunteer to be his co-conspirators. 

Christmas On Beaver When Times Were Hard!

 On Beaver Creek, the times were hard.

We had no taters, had no lard.

All the way from Allen to Kite,

Times were tough, money was tight.

It wasn't any better from Martin to Wheelright.

Both forks were suffering, it felt like a blight.

The mines were down, people were leaving.

Old grandmas sat crying and grieving.

Miners were headed to places off yonder

While mothers of children would sit and ponder

How to feed four, or five or six

Hungry mouths with nothing to fix.

Christmas was just about a week away

And children had learned not to say

Old Santa's name by night or day. 

This had become a mighty hard life

For hardworking husbands and every young wife.

There would be no toys under green trees.

Adults were praying on bony knees.

Smoke houses were empty of the last meat.

The canning was gone, nothing to eat.

Squirrels were in hiding in the highest trees 

Too far to shoot the ones you did see.  

Rabbits had been killed till few were around

And  they all hid warm underground.

Old men were selling their best coon hound

Nothing to feed them, nothing to go around. 

A lot of dry cows were already beef

And acorns were sought under every dry leaf.

Real old men and their real old wives

Said this was the worst time in their lives.

Christmas was less than a week off

And lots of people had started to cough.

Hungry people get sick a whole lot quicker

With nothing to eat and no pot licker.

But somewhere off in them big cities

The ones who had left bought a few play pretties,

Loaded them up with flour, lard, beans, and rice,

They were bringing it home and didn't think twice.

On Beaver they knew they had poor kin

And letting them starve would be a great sin.

In Kendallville, Cincy, Chicago, and Dayton

That Friday afternoon they all were waiting

For quit time to come and time off to start

So they could come home and touch grandma's heart.

They loaded all the good stuff they all could afford

Filled up their tanks and thanked the Lord

They still had good jobs near Christmas day

So they come home and proudly say

We didn't know what you need but thought we should

Bring a few things and maybe we could

Help out some in these hard times,

Sing a few carols, recite a few rhymes,

Cook a few dishes on Christmas day

And thank the Lord while we all pray

That times get better and the mines start up

And grandpa can buy another bluetick pup.

Granny can see her way till spring

And hoe in the garden and softly sing

Those Old Regular songs she likes so much

That she sings with her own special touch.

Maybe the children can get new clothes

And  John L. Lewis will speak out for those

Who need to work now right here on Beaver

So nobody else will have to leave her

To go up north to some strange town

Where family and friends are never found.

We'll all come back to Beaver some day

Settle right in and always stay

On the old home place with the little old house

Where we can be as warm as a mouse,

Right here on Beaver, the creek we love

Which was a gift from above.

Right here where home is in our souls

Where we want to stay until we grow old

Right here on Beaver, both left and right,

Where we can sleep warm every night,

With the peace of Christmas in our lives

With husbands, sons, daughters, and wives.    

Roger D. Hicks, December 24, 2022

Colonial Governor Berkeley And The Modern Fight To Destroy Public Education

I am in the process of reading a book by Bob Deans entitled "The River Where America Began: A Journey Along The James" which covers the history of the James River in Virginia from about 1600 to 2006.  The book is well written although I had never heard Bob Deans' name mentioned before as an author although he has published at least three books.  Not only is the writing quite good but so is the research which is as good as just about anything I have read in quite some time.  The list of resources is actually about ten pages long which is rare today even in works which are labeled as historical nonfiction.  I will write in more length about the book when I have completely finished it but I found a little section which I cannot resist writing about immediately because of its logical application to American politics.  

On page 142, in a section carrying the subtitle "To Virginia Or Be Hanged" there is a discussion of the life and work of Virginia Colonial Governor William Berkeley who was governor of the colony twice from 1641 to 1652 and from 1660 to 1677.  The author quotes and comments on some of Berkeley's writing which can be applied to American politics today with just as much pertinence as it carried when it was written in the late 17th century. 

"...Berkeley was no democrat, at least not the way future Virginia leaders would define the term.  "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing" in Virginia, Berkelely reported to a royal commission in 1670, explaining that educated people were hard to control and  a free press exposed government to critics.  "God keep us from both."  (Deans p. 142)

Governor Berkeley wrote those words to the king or his subordinates in 1670 and, yet today, those words are just as pertinent to what is happening in America and American politics as anything which can be discussed.   I take note here of Bob Deans' use of the uncapitalized form of the word "democrat" and recognize that his choice to do so is appropriate since, during Berkeley's time, there was no Democratic party in America and the appropriate meaning of the word was simply a believer in or practitioner of democracy. But in today's America large numbers of the Republican party are openly and unrepentingly propounding the same views Berkeley did in his 1760 communication to the royal commission.  Many members of the Republican party attempt to cater to the uneducated segment of the populace and openly work on a daily basis to defund, deconstruct, and destroy the American educational system.  

The Kentucky Supreme Court just a few days ago was forced to overturn a law passed by the Kentucky state legislature, controlled by Republicans, which would have made it legally acceptable for public education funds to be diverted to charter schools and church controlled private schools of all stripes.  That action, if the Supreme Court of Kentucky had allowed it to take effect would have literally allowed all forms of fringe groups and individuals to steal public education funds from public education students and would have made it possible for "schools" teaching all forms of Right Wing Radical and religiously based misinformation while being funded with money paid by all tax payers regardless of their support or lack of support for such fringe beliefs.  We also see daily attempts all across the nation by Right Wing Radical groups, especially Right Wing Radical Repugnican groups to ban books, to restrict the teaching of long proven history, and to violate the Separation of Church and State, a criminal misinterpretation of the US Constitution which was recently perpetrated by the Right Wing Radical majority on the US Supreme Court. Just this week, a meeting of the Clark County Kentucky Public Library Board was hijacked by Right Wing Radicals who were attempting to ban books at the library or to force many, if not all, books with even mild sexual content to be placed in restricted circulation status. To her eternal credit, the librarian, Julie Maruskin, spoke out against book banning but sadly the board did vote to restrict the particular book in question as described in this quote from WKYT-TV 27 in Lexington:

“I do care about restricting books in a public library. I cannot do it. There is no way. It will never be one book,” Maruskian said.  Ultimately the board voted four to one to restrict the book to the adult section for “sexually explicit material.” (WKYT-TV 27. December 21, 2022)

Even more sadly, I am willing to bet that it won't be long before the board, by a similar vote of 4 to 1, will unjustifiably fire Julie Maruskin.  

Just as Governor Berkeley wished he could wipe out public education and the free press in colonial Virginia, these modern day Right Wing Radicals are attempting to do the same.  They must not be allowed to do that and every loyal American is duty bound to fight their attempts to do so.  Their efforts in state and federal legislatures and courts must be actively opposed.  They must be defeated at the voting booth.  Their aberrant laws and executive actions in such attempts must be confronted in both the courts and the media.  They cannot be allowed to win this battle which Governor Berkeley began in 1760.  It is up to the average American to oppose such efforts on a daily basis.  

In a more recent blog post, published on December 27, 2022, I discussed another aspect of Bob Deans' book under the title "An Important View Of The US Constitution" which can be found at this link. 

The Right Wing Radical Repugnican Clown Car In Kentucky

 

I took a drive to Frankfort town.

I had to see what was going down.

I took the exit off the interstate,

Drove right up to the Capitol gate,

Circled on around the square, 

Had to see what was there.

I saw a car in front of a body shop,

Twelve colors of paint from bottom to top,

Red, brown, yellow, and a sickly green,

Strangest car I'd ever seen,

A big elephant sitting on the hood,

A body man working to make it look good.

He had a big R painted in my view.

I wondered what he intended to do.

I circled back to park at the shop

That car was just too funny, I had to stop.

I said, "Hey, feller, that looks like work,

That old car's got a lot of quirks,

The tires are worn, two are flat,

What can you do with a car like that?"  

He grinned and said, "I reckon you're right.

But I got offered money just last night.

All I have to do is paint it several colors

And I'll make ten thousand dollars."  

I asked about the rust and all them dents,

That car wasn't worth more than ten cents.

The body man said, "I'll just cover that up,

Get the motor running like a turpentined pup.

This car's got a job all through twenty three,

All over the state this car will be.

It'll run from the Big Muddy to the Tug.

Selling a scam like bad likker in a pretty jug."

I asked, "What do  you mean?  What are you saying?"  

"This car is their hope Republicans are praying,

It's their campaign car is what they're saying.

They've already got a dozen takers,

Idiots, criminals, scammers, fakers, 

They'll climb in and ignore the weather.

They're planning to ride a dozen together.

There's a half dozen men waiting to ride,

And one or two women are climbing inside.

They want to turn this state around.

They want to drive it into the ground.

They've already put sales tax on everything.

Cut taxes on the rich and got them to sing.

Put all them bills on all the poor

And they've got plans to do a lot more.

They say they'll kill all the good jobs,

Quit feeding people corn and give them cobs, 

Hide all their good tricks under the law

And make this the worst state you ever saw.

There's Mike Harmon the Auditor of Public Accounts

Who knows to what he might amount.

There's even a man named David Cooper

He wants you to believe he's a super dooper.

He can't say what he might do

But he's really trying to fool me and you.

Eric Deters used to practice law

Until he was arrested over what witnesses saw

When he chased his nephew around the town,

The boy says he's lucky he never was found.

 Alan Keck is mayor in pretty small town

But says he's the answer to keeping Kentuckians down

He wants the front seat in this clown car

Says prior mistakes are never a bar

To being the governor of this great state

He'll fix it all and won't be late.

Ryan Quarles wants to drive the car

All over the state both near and far.

He says he's a farmer with a big education

Says Harvard won't ever hurt his reputation. 

Robbie Smith is a teacher without much of a plan

But he swears he's a qualified man, 

Says he just wants a term of one year

Then run again to allay all our fear,

Wants to change a whole lot of things

But seems to have lost the list that he brings."

The body man said "these candidates keep talking

But in this car they might be walking.

If I get it painted and I get it sold

The tale it will tell will always be told

About how Kentucky was bought and sold.

There's even a couple of women who want to drive

And swear all the state will arrive alive.

There's Savanna Maddox from Scott County

Who says she can win without paying a bounty

For votes from people who are willing to sell

In order to see Kentucky become living hell.

Ooops! Maddox admitted she was wrong.

Kentucky can't be bought for a song.

Her short campaign didn't go well.

She couldn't turn Kentucky into living hell.

But the question now is did she sell

Out to someone with money who could spell?  

She announced her campaign on June 6

On December 20 she admitted she didn't know enough tricks.

Six & a half months was way too long

For such a campaign which was always wrong.

Daniel Cameron who fights daily against good

Swears he is the candidate Kentucky should

Put to driving the state into the ground

As if enough evidence hasn't been found

To send him home after four years

Of driving all sane Kentuckians to tears

With losing law suits against every good work

He says anything positive he'll always shirk.  

But the strangest candidate of all

The one who would answer any outrageous call

Is the one whose record proves most daft

The former ambassador Kelly Knight Craft

Who worked for two years daily to do naught

For the man Putin and Russia bought

Because her husband spent coal money 

To get a do nothing job for his honey.

The body man laughed and said "that's all

If nobody else tries to answer the call

To be governor of Kentucky after next fall.

But they say Bevin, you remember old Matt,

Is tired of staying at home getting fat

On money from pardons for all takers,

Rapists, murderers, thieves and fakers.

Matt might jump in the race

And give all the others a bitter taste

When he reminds the voters what you get when you do

What the Republicans want you to.

But this clown car will be full in old 23

With the worst crowd of clowns 

The state could ever see."

But then he smiled and said over his grin,

"It won't matter to me who wins.

I'm leaving the state when I finish this car.

I'm going away just about as far

As it is possible for me to travel

Before this clown car blows up and scatters gravel

In the face of every voter dumb enough to do

What the Republicans want them to do."

I shook my head and dried a tear, 

And left old Frankfort with a lot of fear

Of what could happen in the next election

If the common sense of voters takes a defection

And leaves us all out of our senses

Following this clown car without defenses, 

Listening to liars, fakers, and shills

Trying to ruin Kentucky with horrible deals.  

So vote with caution in the upcoming year

Remember the man who calms all your fear

Stick with the man whose been proven just dandy

Vote Straight Democratic! Vote For Andy!  

Roger D. Hicks, December 18, 2022. 

Visiting Jerry's Restaurant Paris, Kentucky!

 Yesterday, Monday, December 12, 2022, my wife Candice and I traveled from our home to Paris, Kentucky, to visit and eat in the Jerry's Restaurant there which is the last operational Jerry's Restaurant in the United States.  The same family has owned the restaurant since the original franchise and opening dates in 1961 and just last year they celebrated sixty years in operation.  The Jerry's franchise was invented and originated in Lexington, Kentucky,by Jerry Lederer who opened the first Jerry's in 1946 and began franchising the restaurants in 1957.  The Paris restaurant opened just four years after the franchising program began.  The company once had restaurants in nearly every medium sized city in both Kentucky and Indiana with other widely spread across the Midwest.  They functioned as middle class and working class dine in and carry out restaurants with a standardized menu of hamburgers, sandwiches, steaks, and desserts.  Their three best known items were the J-Boy, a large hamburger; the Champ Sandwich, a hot ham and cheese sandwich on a long bun; and the Hot Fudge Sundae which was composed of vanilla ice cream between two thin slices of chocolate sheet cake topped with warm chocolate sauce and a maraschino cherry.  These items were supported by a wider variety of hamburgers, sandwiches, and spaghetti based items.  The franchise lasted until about 20 or 25 years ago when it began to wither and die with one restaurant after another either closing permanently or changing names, menus, and operational identities.  My wife Candice had never been inside a Jerry's Restaurant despite having lived in Kentucky since 1992 before most of the chain had closed.  I suppose that is my fault.  

 

A few days ago, we had a conversation in which Jerry's came up and decided to travel to Paris so Candice could actually visit one of the restaurants.  I have quite a few positive memories of the restaurants in Prestonsburg, Lexington, and one or two other Kentucky towns.  We left home in time to reach Paris at about the end of the traditional lunch hour at 1pm and drove down the old Paris Pike from Winchester, Kentucky, which is a wonderful drive on a two lane road which begins near I-64 and wends through the persistently spreading high dollar suburbs of Winchester which have been steadily eating up some of the best cattle farms in Central Kentucky.  As you reach the edge of the bedroom community a few miles from Winchester you will see a few of what used to be wonderful old to ancient farm houses, now abandoned and waiting for those farms to also be developed.  Thankfully, the development has not spread all across Clarke County and a few miles from Winchester, the real cattle farms are still operational and you realize you have returned to the traditional agricultural landscape which has been the real bread and butter of Central Kentucky since about the early 19th century.  As you reach the Bourbon County line the view improves immensely because Bourbon County where the economy has been more supported by the Thoroughbred horse industry and government and the populace have taken far more interest in preserving the traditional agriculture based economy.  Shortly after crossing the county line, real Thoroughbred farms begin to appear and are the main use of land literally to the city limits of Paris.  

 

The Jerry's is located on US 68 at the southern edge of town where it has always been.   The historical sign still stands 61 years after being erected in the edge of the parking lot.  The sign on the front of the restaurant is still the historical sign and the two corners of the building constructed from hand laid stone still give the appearance which Jerry's Restaurants always showed.  We were amazed on a Monday, early afternoon, the parking lot was relatively full and the dining room was packed to the point we had to wait for fifteen minutes before being seated.  But inside the building the great majority of the original decor is gone and has been replaced by more modern signage furniture, and general appearance.  The wait staff are highly efficient, friendly, helpful, and give the wonderful impression of a small town restaurant where most of the customers are regulars and both the staff and customers know each other.  The menu has the aforementioned three items from the traditional Jerry's menu but is mainly the typical dine in restaurant menu you might encounter in a working class to middle class establishment anywhere in the Midwest or Southeast.  There is fried chicken, chicken livers, cat fish, pot roast, hamburgers, a few steaks, hamburger steak, salads, and desserts.  I had open faced pot roast which was acceptable but not exceptional, well done, appropriately served, and adequately portioned.  Candice had the hamburger steak which is the typical quarter pound of ground round, done to her specifications, served with her choice of several sides, and much like you would find it anywhere in America.  For dessert and for old times sake, we shared the Hot Fudge Sundae and it was just as I remembered it from sixty years ago, warm on top, cold in the middle, a great combination of ice cream, chocolate cake, and chocolate syrup topped with a maraschino cherry.  I honestly wish I had chosen the Champ Sandwich in order to compare it to my memories and I might well return there in the future to do that.  The trip was worth the time and money but just a bit short on fond memories.  The servers are professionals and worthy of respect for having survived the last three years in what had become a dangerous job.  The owners are to be commended for having found a way to survive when all their peers in the Jerry's business are now long moved on to either retirement of other enterprises.  If you have fond memories of a Jerry's anywhere in America, it would be worth your time to visit this last one in America.  

 

The photograph below is of the long defunct Jerry's Restaurant in Hazard, Kentucky, and is from the WSGS Radios Facebook Page.  This photo shows the typical standardized architecture of all Jerry's as they were franchised and built. 

 The photograph below is of the front of the Jerry's Restaurant in Paris, Kentucky, which stills shows that standardized architecture of all Jerry's construction.  This photograph is by the blog author, Roger D. Hicks. 

 The photograph below is of the traditional Jerry's Restaurant sign which is still proudly displayed by the Jerry's in Paris, Kentucky, and states the fact that the same family has owned the restaurant since its franchise date in 1961.  This photograph is by the blog author, Roger D. Hicks. 

An Auctioneer's Thoughts About Top Secret Documents In A Storage Unit

 In a story dated December 7, 2022, "Rolling Stone" discussed at length the fact that attorneys for TRAITOR Trump had turned over to the FBI at least two government documents with classification markings which had been found by those attorneys or their staff during a search of a storage unit rented by TRAITOR Trump near his Mar-A-Lago property.  This story also appeared in nearly every other national news paper and on all the major television news channels when it was released to the press.  As all of you know, after more than a year of unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with TRAITOR Trump for the return of all classified government documents in his possession, the Department of Justice finally had to obtain a search warrant for Mar-A-Lago and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of documents which belonged to the US government were retrieved by the FBI.  Many of those documents were classified at the highest security levels in use in the American intelligence communities meaning that they were supposed to never leave secure facilities and never to be viewed outside the most secure viewing rooms.  I am sure that many of you actually believed that was the end of that as far as his possession of illegally obtained and retained government documents was concerned.  I would suggest that this return by his attorneys of two more documents in a rented storage facility justifies the service of search warrants on every property TRAITOR Trump has owned, rented, or visited since at least January 20, 2017.  The possession of each of those individual documents justifies an additional separate felony charge for illegal possession of classified material.  The possession of these documents and the year long refusal to return them to the government after the National Archives learned of their existence most likely also justifies charges of espionage.  But, when Special Counsel Jack Smith does make the move to indict and charge TRAITOR Trump it is highly unlikely that the incredibly large number of possible felony charges will be levied against him.  What is most likely to happen is that Special Counsel Jack Smith will build a half dozen to a dozen rock solid cases on the most important charges with the possibility of a few lesser charges to leave room for plea bargains.  

 

But what I really want to discuss here is the existence of such documents in a rented storage facility which was an unbelievably danger location for them to have been illegally stored and shows the ultimate level of disrespect by TRAITOR Trump for the value of the classified information contained in those documents.  I want to discuss this location of the documents from the unique viewpoint of a licensed and experienced auctioneer.  I have held an auctioneer license for many years in Kentucky and was also licensed for a few years in the neighboring state of Indiana.  I have conducted several hundred auctions during those years and I have also conducted numerous auctions of the contents of unpaid storage facilities. For a period of several years, I also regularly bought and resold the contents of unpaid storage facilities in the eastern half of Kentucky, parts of Southern West Virginia and the Cincinnati area.  During that time I customarily bought the contents of three or four storage units a week and resold the individual items in my auction house. During that time, I admit that I never found classified documents in an auctioned storage unit.  But I did find nearly every other form of personal and confidential papers in those units. Examples would be marriage, birth, death, divorce, and military discharge papers; parole papers; and many other forms of highly personal documentations of nearly any imaginable life event. First and foremost for those of you who have seen even one episode of any of the popular cable television auction shows, let me tell you in no uncertain terms those shows do not represent the reality of either the broader auction business or the specific business of selling the contents of unpaid storage units at auction.  

So let's talk about the specifics of the sale at auction of the contents of unpaid storage units.  As we start this discussion, I am certain many, if not most, of my readers will say "but Donald Trump would never face the sale of his storage unit contents for non-payment".  You are dead wrong if you say that.  Even Fox News, which is usually the most clearly biased major reporting agency toward TRAITOR Trump, reported in a June 2016 article that "Dozens of Law Suits Accuse Donald Trump of Not Paying His Bills..."  One day before the Fox News story, USA Today also published a  nearly identical story about TRAITOR Trump not paying his debts to hundreds of contractors at his various businesses.  Four years later, as TRAITOR Trump was about to leave the White House for good, the website northjersey.com reported on a long standing problem of unpaid bills at his New Jersey casinos.  What these stories, which are just three of the dozens of such published stories, tell us is that TRAITOR Trump has a long standing history of not paying his just debts.  So, you say, "what does that have to do with classified documents in a storage facility near Mar-A-Lago"?  As a licensed and experienced auctioneer, I can tell you that this has everything to do with the level of risk to the US government and the US intelligence community and presented a vastly increased level of that risk because of what happens when ANY RENTER of a storage unit anywhere in the United States fails to pay that rent on time.  All storage unit owners single source of income is the rent of units and they do not tolerate nonpayment of the rent.  Also, in nearly every state, those storage facility owners are both regulated and protected by laws covering how they can and must conduct the sale of such contents.  But in many states those laws are incredibly vague and nowhere near airtight.  In most cases, the facility owner must have proof of the unpaid debt and proof of a reasonable attempt to contact the owner of the stored materials about the need to pay that debt.  In some specified amount of time, the property in the storage unit reverts to ownership by the storage facility and its owners.  Then, in the most ethical storage facilities, the owners contact a licensed auctioneer and contract to have the contents of any unpaid units sold at auction.  In some states, the renter is allowed to pay the debt up to the scheduled time of the sale.  In others, the time to pay the debt is much shorter.  The most ethical auctioneers will advertise the upcoming sale in a local medium such as the print newspaper and hold the auction on site at a specified date.  The most ethical practice to sell those contents involves keeping a lock on the doors of the units until the moment of the sale at which time the facility owner unlocks each unit, opens the door, and the auctioneer allows the potential buyers to briefly view the contents from outside the unit without ever going inside touching anything in the unit.  When the auctioneer accepts bids, pronounces the contents sold to the highest bidder, and the bidder pays for he unit, that bidder owns everything in the unit and the sale is irreversible.  What that bidder subsequently does with the contents is then nobody's business except theirs.  But there are also unethical facility owners who sometimes open the units on the sly and view and cream the contents for the most valuable items and removes them for their own collections or private sales.  Additionally, most of the buyers of unpaid storage units are regular sellers in venues such as flea markets, yard sales, auction houses, used furniture stores, or variety stores.  Almost none of those buyers have any personal interest in anything they buy and sell.  It's a matter of making a profit.  Any item in any storage unit anywhere in America, if that rent is unpaid, can be bought by any stranger who appears at the time and place of the auction with enough cash to buy a unit's contents.  And, if you think TRAITOR Trump would always keep the rent paid on a storage unit, you are an incredibly naive human.  

Simple non-payment of rent is not the only possible precipitating action or inaction which can result in the sale of storage unit contents.  Owners also often die suddenly and TRAITOR Trump is an elderly obese man who is also distrustful enough of everybody he knows that he may well never tell another soul about any or all of his properties, their locations, and any regular bills which must be paid to protect those assets including a rented storage unity in which he most likely new he had stored illegally obtained government secrets. It is not unusual at all for the heirs or executors of deceased storage unit renters to fail to learn about the existence of such storage before the unpaid rent prompts the sale of the contents.  The level of risk presented by those classified documents having been in a rented storage unit is incredibly high and far more than high enough to justify Special Counsel Jack Smith to obtain search warrants for every other facility which TRAITOR Trump has controlled, owned, rented, or stayed in since January 20, 2017.  And that is exactly what Jack Smith and the Justice Department should do. 

"Kentucky's Last Frontier" by Henry P. Scalf--Reflections On The Book

 

Henry P. Scalf was a newspaperman, genealogist, and Appalachian writer who lived from 1902 until 1979.  For many years, he worked for the "Floyd County Times" in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and wrote on nearly every subject that a small courthouse town newspaper might cover.  He was also an avid student of the history of Eastern Kentucky and wrote and published several works which ranged from several pamphlet sized works including one about Jenny Wiley, an early Eastern Kentucky pioneer woman who was captured by and escaped from a band of native Americans, and about a half dozen genealogical books during his lifetime.  Much of his writing, documents, and books are in the Special Collections Department at the University Of Pikeville Library which I have used more than once in my research. I own one of his dozen or so self-published genealogical books about the Stepp-Stapp Families of America.  His best work was done in the fields of newspaper writing and genealogy.  Most of his books and pamphlets were self published in small editions and can be difficult to locate on the open market.  

I was able to purchase an autographed copy of the book we are discussing here, "Kentucky's Last Frontier" which was self published as a hardback in 1966 with a foreword by the eminent Kentucky historian Thomas D. Clark.  My copy of the book was part of the estate of another Kentucky newspaper writer, Helen Price Stacy and I was lucky enough to buy several works by other regional writers from her collections after they had passed into the hands of a friend who buys and sells antiques.  The book covers a "12-county area, centered by the Big Sandy, Licking, and North Fork Kentucky rivers...With a few southeastern counties of the state, it constituted "Kentucky's Last Frontier."  My copy is, sadly, not in great condition but due to the difficulty of finding a copy in any condition, I was glad to find it.  The book covers a large segment of the history of Eastern Kentucky from the times of early settlement to about 1955 or so.  It is possibly, at least partially, derived from earlier newspaper articles written by Scalf.  While the book is a wonderful resource for the student of Eastern Kentucky and Appalachian history, it does have several weaknesses including Scalf's unique style of documentation of sources and inclusion of notes.  Many times in the book, quotations are not clearly identified in the text and there is a section of notes which covers 109 pages in the back of the book and the notes are not cited in the text by any currently recognized system.  But these issues are offset by the fact that the Bibliography is 6 pages long and well documented.  Any reader with the desire to read all those documented sources would have a strong background in the history of the region up to the time this book was published.  

The book is composed of 25 chapters which are presented chronologically from an opening chapter about the geologic and prehistoric origins of the region to the final chapter about, in part, the widespread coal, oil, and gas extraction in the region which has served to greatly damage the beauty of the land.  There is a fine discussion of the consequences of the 1957 flood which devastated the region and, until the recent Eastern Kentucky flooding of the summer of 2022.  While the book can be a slow read, it is well worth the effort to find and read a copy if you are a student of either Eastern Kentucky or Appalachian History.  I know that there are copies in both the University of Pikeville library and at the library of Big Sandy Community and Technical College.  I suspect there might also be a copy in the collections of the Johnson County Library in Paintsville since they own a large, publicly available but non-circulating regional books.   I hope you can locate a copy if you are interested in the area which it covers. 

A Year To Be Moderately Thankful For!

 

Ever since June 16, 2015, America had little to be thankful for until the results of the November 2020 presidential election were finalized and President Biden was sworn in and the nation was once again in safe hands after four years of having a TRAITOR living illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Putin and Russia.  But, after the election was settled, we were still due to face an act of Insurrection, Domestic Terrorism, and TREASON on January 6th, 2021.  The consequences of that act on January 6th are still playing themselves out both in the nations law enforcement and judicial communities and it will be at least 20 to 30 years before the end of the appeals, prison sentences, and further insurrections play themselves out.  America will continue to suffer for at least another generation due to the TREASON of TRAITOR Trump.  The moral, ethical, and legal damage which has been wrought on the psyche of the nation will continue to be serious damaging for at least a generation.  Many of the individuals who have been participants in all those acts of insurrection, sedition, domestic terrorism, and treason are currently raising children who have been exposed to the arcane, violent, and deeply destructive ideas of their parents, just as all parents deeply affect their children's thinking, and those children are likely to carry on their parents' traditions of ignorance and violence for years to come. 

But on November 8, 2022, this country and a majority of its voters delivered a message to TRAITOR Trump and his many co-conspirators that we will not accept that kind of insurrection, terrorism, and treason.  In the best electoral performance in about 40 years by the party of a sitting president, the Democratic party has held onto control of the US Senate, actually gaining one seat and possibly two based on the pending outcome of the runoff election in Georgia, and nearly held control of the US House.  But the House was lost by just a few seats and the Right Wing Radical Repugnicans and other co-conspirators of TRAITOR Trump will assume control of the US House in January 2023 and will do everything in their power to obstruct the positive works of President Biden and the Democratic party. They will end the incredibly important work of the January 6th Committee and do everything they can to destroy any evidence it has gathered on the insurrection and any other crimes of which the committee members have become aware.  They will bury the TRAITOR Trump tax returns which the US Supreme Court has finally just ordered to be released to the House Ways And Means Committee if TRAITOR Trump even delivers those tax returns before the new congress assumes control in early January.  I am betting that TRAITOR Trump will simply refuse to deliver the returns and will bet that the wheels of justice will run too slow for him to suffer the legal consequences of any criminal referral which the current chair of the House Ways And Means Committee might send to the justice department by the end of the year.  Both he and Kevin McCarthy, a proven co-conspirator, will do everything they can to prevent the truth from ever coming to light about the insurrection of January 6th. It is highly likely that several of the very members of congress who are suspected of assisting the terrorists of January 6th will now assume key positions in the very congress their previous efforts sought to obstruct and destroy. 

But, the newly appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith will also have a lot to say about the January 6th insurrection, the clearly treasonous attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the theft of highly classified documents from the White House and the high likelihood that they were passed on to Russia and/or other foreign actors who are opposed to the very existence of the United States.  The fact that the White House and the Department of Justice are in the hands of Democrats and Jack White is on the job are one of the major events of the past year that we have to be moderately thankful for.  It is no accident that when the FBI sought the warrants that  led to the discovery of hundreds of US government documents in the hands of TRAITOR Trump at Mar A Lago that the law cited in those warrants was the Espionage Act.  It is no accident that Jack Smith, the person chosen by Attorney General Merrick Garland is an experienced war crimes prosecutor who is accustomed to dealing with and successfully prosecuting rouge government officials all around the world.  The case against TRAITOR Trump has always been about TREASON and Russian Espionage.  Jack White and the team he is assembling to conduct this investigation and prosecution will track the story to its logical end.  They will indict TRAITOR Trump for every crime which they uncover and, at the very least, it will include the crime of mishandling and illegal possession of classified government secrets.  It is also highly likely to include TREASON and espionage for the sale or uncompensated transfer of those documents to Putin and Russia and is just as likely to include crimes committed during attempts to sell those documents to other foreign countries, especially those countries which either have or are seeking nuclear weapons and the technology related to them.  And no one should ever forget that the list of such countries includes Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan.  Thankfully, Jack White and the staff he is assembling, with the assistance of the entire US intelligence community, will pursue all possible crimes to the logical ends of the investigations and they will successfully prosecute all offenders.  

We are also incredibly blessed to have control of the US Senate which will stop many of the efforts of Kevin McCarthy and his co-conspirators to destroy the goals of President Biden.  A bicameral legislature is one of the greatest inventions of early political strategists and the American Founding Fathers in particular.  That concept has saved this country from many mistakes over the past two and a half centuries and there is no doubt it will save us from many as long as Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House and Democrats retain control of the White House and US Senate.  

We are also greatly blessed by the fact that, in general, voters all across the country had the wisdom to elect Democratic US Senators and Congress members,  state officials including governors, secretaries of state, and state attorneys general.  In Michigan and Arizona, in particular, we won nearly every office and that delivered a strong message to people such as the Right Wing Radicals who plotted to kidnap and assassinate Governor Whitmer.  We are blessed to have her in office in Michigan.  Nevada reelected US Senator Masto.  Arizona elected a Democratic governor, two US Senators, and most of the other officials in the election.  Now Georgia is faced with the decision to reelect Senator Warnock or to elect a markedly, terrifyingly incompetent and unqualified opponent.  In Georgia, the effort to elect Hershel Walker to the US Senate is a clear cut litmus test about just how deeply damaging the Right Wing Repugnican Party is willing to be in order to gain another vote in congress.  Walker is definitely the most unqualified candidate to ever be nominated for a senate office in this country.  

But two years ago, Georgia stepped up and did the right thing for the state and for America.  I believe they will do it again in the senate runoff election.  Yes, we have had a year for which we can be moderately thankful.  But we have also had a year in which the potential damage to America and American Democracy was as high as it has ever been since the times of Benedict Arnold.  We must continue to fight against TRAITOR Trump and his co-conspirators until they are all in prison where they should have been many years ago.  We must continue to fight to elect Democrats in every office in the country.  Literally, we are in the fight of our lives to save America and American Democracy.  Thank God, we won most of the important battles of the past year. 

Shrinkflation From Zesta Saltines Owned By Kellogs!

 

I was raised with Zesta Saltine Crackers, have eaten them all my life, and we always sold them in our country store when I was growing up.  I had always thought they were the best saltine crackers I had ever eaten and nearly always bought them unless a store I was in had none of that brand.  But this week, I got a serious surprise and another example of what is known as "Shrinkflation" and/or "Skimpflation" since major corporations began cutting back during and after the Covid pandemic on the goods and services they provide.  What happens is that packages get smaller, less comes in a container, prices go up, and the end stage customer is always the one who loses in the long run.  I have previously written about "Skimpflation" and "Shrinkflation" on this blog.  But I got a real surprise this week when I bought Zesta Saltine Crackers which are owned and produced by Kellog's.  

I brought home two boxes of the crackers and opened one last night to have a few as a snack before bedtime.  The boxes are the same size they have always been.  But when I opened the box, I was somewhere between surprised and shocked to see two and one half inches of free space between the ends of the sleeves of crackers and the end of the box.  Yes, I actually got out my tape measure and measured the empty space in the box.  I even opened the second box of crackers today to verify that it was also short on crackers and big on air.  It is!  The company didn't change the size of the box.  They just stopped filling it up to capacity with crackers.  The boxes are 9" x 4" x 4" for a total of 144 cubic inches of crackers.  When you multiply the missing 2 1/2" of free space at the end of 4 sleeves of crackers you find that you are paying for 40 cubic inches of crackers which you are not getting.  You are actually paying for 40 cubic inches of air which you can normally breath for free in most places in the world.  Believe it or not, that is 27.7% of a box of crackers which does not contain any crackers.  

This is, perhaps, the worst example of "Skimpflation" and "Shrinkflation" I have seen since the pandemic began.  It is definitely a shining example of what those two new aspects of corporate greed are all about.  Since the pandemic began, many major store chains, including Kroger, Wal Mart, Dollar General and others have decided to make their customers work for them without pay by installing self checkout lanes, getting rid of many of the employees who needed their  jobs the worst, and making record profits.  Gasoline companies and the store chains which sell their fuel have artificially driven up the price of gasoline products to rates never before seen in America.  And, you can bet your ass, they are already working on other ways to charge you more, give you less, and induce you to work for them for nothing while trying to convince you they are doing you a favor every time they use "Skimpflation" and "Shrinkflation" to steal money out of your pockets.  Anytime you see one of these things happening to you and every other customer in America, make a phone call, send an e-mail, tell your friends, confront corporate greed which is what all of this is about. 

Spot

During a major reorganization of my basement in preparation for the installation of a new heat pump, I discovered a large stash of old writing I had done many years ago, some of it actually from my days as an undergrad at Morehead State University.  Part of it good enough, in my opinion, to be used on this blog and one or two pieces, with some major edits or additional work, could probably be fit to submit to actual literary journals.  This is one of the pieces which I think fits into this blog. It is both about the first good dog I ever had and about my development as a human being. 

 

I always loved my dogs.  My youngest sibling was nearly nine years my elder.  Therefore, I grew up virtually as an only child and found much of my companionship with animals.  When I was about ten, my dog Spot was killed by a car driven by the local barber and magistrate.  Unlike most people who run over dogs, the individual who ran over Spot stopped.  

At the time, my mother and I were the only ones home.  The culprit came into our little country store, for his first visit since his last campaign, to inform me my dog was dead.  I ran to the corner of our property where Spot lay bleeding profusely under an apple tree.  The area surrounding my dog was covered with recently fallen apple blossoms, spattered with coagulating blood.  Even I could not deny that my dog was dying.  

Crying uncontrollably, I ran back to my mother for help.  But even she, who usually solved my problems, could not change the situations.  Before leaving, the man apologized and promised faithfully he would find me another puppy.  For reasons which I still cannot fathom, I chose to believe him.  

In an effort to help me deal with my grief, my mother suggested that we make fudge.  She insisted that I do much of the work.  Somehow during this process, I was able to ignore my pain.  I don't remember the taste of the candy.  But I do remember the experience and the lessons I learned from it.

I never became an inveterate candy maker and the man never returned with another dog.  His memories of the incident were probably short lived; mine are indelible.  I have never forgotten how a child feels when told a lie.  I will always remember the caring way my mother helped me deal with the loss.  On many subsequent occasions, I have been able to emulate her ability to heal.  At every opportunity, I strive to avoid repeating that man's mistake.  Without having known, he taught me a lesson for life.  

I am convinced he could never have made an equal impact on me through conscious effort.  I am equally convinced he would have never made that effort.  Yet he stands in my life as proof of the fact that many of our values are learned through experience not observation.  And many of our best teachers never intended to be.  Finally, after thirty-five  years, I am able to thank him for the experience. 

Some Thoughts On "Crossing The Bar" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

There was a clue on "Jeopardy" quite a while ago about the poem, "Crossing The Bar" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, which is one of the most well known poems about death other than possibly "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant. Because the language is a bit simpler and the poem much shorter than in "Thanatopsis", "Crossing The Bar" was for many years one of the most often printed pieces on the back of funeral memorial cards in Appalachia. I have a sizeable collection of such memorial cards and wrote about them in the blog post at the preceding link. I have probably seen it on the cards at a hundred or more funerals in my life. It is a great little poem and, in it's own way, a major part of Appalachian history and culture.

 

With the recent massive flooding in Eastern Kentucky and the still unfinished search for the likely dead, many more of those memorial cards in being printed in several of the most Appalachian counties in Kentucky.  One of those is my native Knott County and, luckily, so far I have not heard of anyone being among the dead from my relatives and acquaintances.  I also have deep ties to Floyd County which has had severe flooding especially in Wayland and Garrett on Right Beaver Creek and all up Left Beaver Creek, all of which lies in Floyd County.   I spent the first 6 years of my life on Steele's Creek in Floyd County just a mile from Wayland and still have many friends and relatives there.  The next 17 years of my life were spent on Right Beaver Creek at Dema in Knott County just about three miles from Wayland.  Most of my closest friends during my teenage years were from Wayland including my two cousins, more like brothers, Jack and Johnny Terry.  It is horrible to think of having anyone die in a flood and it is just as horrible to know that several thousand people in about 7 counties in Eastern Kentucky are now homeless because of this flood.  So, in memory of the dead from the Eastern Kentucky floods of July 29, 2022, here is the complete text of "Crossing The Bar".

 

Crossing the Bar

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar.

 

 

 

The Genius Of Joel Pett And The Inability Of Appalachians To Understand It

 

A few days ago, the Lexington Herald-Leader published this cartoon as part of their ongoing coverage of the Eastern Kentucky flooding and it literally caused a storm of strong, often totally irrational, comments about how horrible the cartoon was, how little Joel Pett understands Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia, and how "he done us wrong".  First of all, let me tell you about Joel Pett's resume as a political cartoonist and a little about my resume as an expert on Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia before I tell you what I think about Joel Pett, his work in general, and this cartoon in particular.  Joel Pett, after having done freelance cartoon work for about 15 years, following his graduation from Indiana University, began working as the staff cartoonist for the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1984.  His cartoons regularly appear in many of the best national newspapers including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe.  He has won the 1995 Global Media Award and the 1999 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.  But those are not the greatest awards his work has earned.  Joel Pett has actually won the Pulitzer Prize, count them, ONE< TWO<THREE>FOUR times,  and was a finalist for the Pulitzer twice more.  That's not bad, folks!  He has also been chosen at times as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prize.  

Now, let me tell you a little about myself and my qualifications to speak on the subject of Appalachia, Appalachian Culture, poverty, and Eastern Kentucky.  First of all, since Knott County Kentucky is the worst hit of the counties being discussed in the news about the flooding, I was born and raised in Knott County.  I grew up in a country store where for many years my parents dealt, on a daily basis, with a broad selection of Knott Countians.  I grew up walking up to ten miles a week to sell Grit newspapers, garden seeds, Cloverine Salve, and Rosebud Salve to my neighbors.  I graduated from Knott County High School, not the new Knott County Central High School.  I grew up in the KCHS in the photo below which was built by the WPA in 1939 on Caney Creek which just a few years before was having mail delivered by mule back.  

I attended Upward Bound for one year on the Stuart Robinson Campus in Letcher County at Blackey.  I attended it another year at Alice Lloyd College on Caney Creek in Knott County.  I also attended, but did not graduate from Alice Lloyd College.  I also attended the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College in Beckley, West Virginia, but did not graduate from that institution which was primarily a training ground for young Appalachian writers, several of whom have gone on to become respected writers on the subject of Appalachia.  I received a Bachelor of Social Work degree from Morehead State University and a Master of Education Degree in Counseling and Human Development degree from Lindsey Wilson College and served as an adjunct instructor in the same program for about 3 years for LWC.  I have worked as a door to door salesman out of Logan, West Virginia, primarily in the counties of Logan, Mingo, Boone, Lincoln, Wayne, Wyoming,  and McDowell in West Virgina, and in the counties of Pike and Martin in Kentucky.  I have worked as a mental health and substance abuse therapist in Montgomery, Breathitt, Jackson, and Wolfe Counties.  I also  have a Kentucky auctioneer license and have held auctions, several hundred actually, in Floyd, Letcher, Johnson, Magoffin, Morgan, Fayette, and Kenton counties in Kentucky.  I am a regularly published writer on the subject of Appalachia including professional articles on the subject of Culturally Appropriate Counseling in Appalachia.  I tend to believe that most judges would accept me as an expert on Appalachia and Appalachian Culture.  

Now that you know who Joel Pett and I both are, let's talk about the cartoon above, which has caused so much ire in Eastern Kentucky.  The cartoon is very simply and directly worded and drawn as a cartoon version of several well known photographs of Eastern Kentucky residents clinging to roofs during the recent flooding. The language in the cartoon is simple, direct, and a bit unnerving I will admit.  It says just eight words and they are powerful words.  "When it rains, it pours on poor people."  Since the cartoon talks about poverty, let me add one more resume line for myself to prove I am also an expert on poverty.  I worked for 8 years at the Hope Center in Lexington, Kentucky, which is a large, inner city homeless shelter.  I know poverty, both in the city and in the country.  

To help us understand what poverty means in Eastern Kentucky let's look at the reality of poverty in the counties which have been involved in this disaster.  Floyd County has a 32.4% poverty rate.  Breathitt County has a 32.5% poverty rate.  Knott County has a 32.1% poverty rate.  Letcher County has a 31.1% poverty rate.  Perry County has a 28.9% poverty rate.  Johnson County has a 25.0% poverty rate.  Pike County has a 23.8% poverty rate and yet in the 1970's was often touted as having more millionaires per capita than any other county in the country due to the coal boom. These are some of the highest poverty rates in the entire nation.  Nearly a third of the population in all these counties are below the poverty level.  So now let's look at how poverty works and just how precise Joel Pett was in this cartoon in getting directly to the point of the consequences of a major disaster in an area where such a large percentage of the population is poor.  

Poor people have little or no resources, weak social support systems, and little recourse to supportive means when times get hard.  Times don't ever get any harder than when your living quarters and every thing you own have been washed down Troublesome Creek, Squabble Creek, or Beaver Creek and you and whatever is left of your family are clinging to a tree or a barn roof in a muddy flood.  Poor people never live in the best houses in the best locations in any community. They live in poorly built houses and trailers in low lying land where the better off locals didn't want to build a house but were perfectly happy to gain some side income by placing rental property in bottom land they no longer farm.  Poor people rarely own their own homes and almost never have renters insurance because, if at the first of the month, you have a choice to pay either your rent and utilities or your renter's insurance, you pay what keeps a roof over your head and some basic food necessities for the next month.  Poor people often have poor to no credit ratings.  When everything you own has been washed down a muddy stream, you can't run out to the Ford dealer and buy a new truck or car.  You can't run down to the local bank and borrow money for a new double wide on higher ground.  You do damn well to buy two changes of used clothes at Goodwill for each member of your family.  Poor people don't have large amounts of savings and often have none. Poor people often don't have computers or internet.  If they have a telephone, it is usually a prepaid phone and often out of minutes. When you live from paycheck to paycheck, you can't suddenly find a new place to rent, pay a deposit, buy a full replacement of clothing, food, utensils, and bed clothes for a family.  You can't just get up, dust yourself off, say "well, that was a pretty bad little storm", and trot off to another set of living quarters in new Levis.  Poor people rarely have life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, or any assurance that they can survive a blowout on the 20 year old car they are driving to a minimum wage job, or a new refrigerator if the old one dies. When a family member dies among the poor, they usually have no life insurance, no savings, and no way to pay for a funeral and this flood has caused far too many funerals.  I personally know several funeral home owners who often bury people on credit with little or no down payments and hope they will be paid someday and be able to survive in business by getting paid by other concerned contributors and the profits they earn on high dollar funerals for the well to do.  I also know one less compassionate undertaker who will not touch a body until he has enough money in hand to cover the cost of his materials or has a mortgage on a piece of hillside land.  That is how the poor get treated on many occasions. The reality of poverty is that when you are poor, you are poor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and, if it's leap year February 29 is just another day of poverty.  

So that should bring us back to Joel Pett's cartoon and the reality of being poor in a major disaster.  Those eight words, "When it rains, it pours on poor people", have caused a great deal of ire in Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia.  I had one friend who, despite growing up poor in Floyd County attempted to compare Joel Pett to J. D. Vance, the worst enemy of Appalachian people since Harry Caudill.  That is like comparing Mahatma Gandhi to Adolph Hitler.  I saw another lengthy diatribe from a woman on social media who kept ranting about being a "proud hillbilly" and how ignorant Joel Pett is.  I am certain that woman has no idea that the word "hillbilly" is never a matter of pride.  It is just as defamatory, demeaning, and debilitating as the "N" word, the "K" word, the "Q" word, or the "C" word. It is a cultural and ethnic epithet and no member of any cultural or ethnic minority should ever resort to referring to themselves by the same misnomers their detractors use. When I confront people of any ethnic or minority group about their use of these cultural and ethnic epithets in reference to themselves, I frequently hear them say it is an appropriation of the words which empowers them.  By the same logic, which is deeply flawed, we could say that any suspect in a police interrogation should eventually confess whether or not they committed the crime in question. Using such a word about oneself with a note of pride in the voice is a sure sign the user is uninformed and unlikely to benefit from future enlightenment. What I have seen in the hundreds of comments about Joel Pett and his work falls into two categories.  The poorly educated, ill informed, and less fortunate commenters think Joel Pett made a personal attack on them, their families, and their pet dog.  The better educated, better informed, and more fortunate Appalachian commenters see the truth in Joel Pett's eight little words and are glad he is speaking out in defense of the poor of Eastern Kentucky as they try to pull themselves up by the boot straps one more time in the face of a horrible disaster.  The cartoon in question is another case of Joel Pett hitting the nail on the head with his art work and his words.  That cartoon is another example of why the best newspapers in the country regularly publish his work. That cartoon is another shining example of why Joel Pett has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times and won it four. That cartoon is a masterpiece.  Those eight little words are right on point.  "When it rains, it pours on poor people."  That cartoon is proof, once again, that Joel Pett is a genius. 

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury--Reflections On A Science Fiction Classic

 

When I was in my high school years, I used to read a lot of science fiction, and westerns, at least for a few years, and have read most of the early classics.  For some reason or other, I missed out on "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury but read and loved his other classic novel, "Fahrenheit 451" which is actually solidly in the field of dystopian literature and less of a pure science fiction novel.  In fact, I had reread "Fahrenheit 451" with my wife in April of 2019 and wrote about it in the post linked above.  At that time, I was reading a lot dystopian literature because of the terrible political disaster which had been unfolding in America since June 16, 2015, and which is still unfolding before our eyes.  But somehow, I never had taken up Bradbury's other classic, "Something Wicked...".  

 

A few weeks ago, I decided to correct that error in my reading and ordered a copy of the 2017 Special Edition whose cover is pictured above.  I am truly glad I did.  I also read this one with my wife in a practice we have carried on for several years now in which I read out loud to her each day as she washes the dishes.  In addition to the original text, this edition of the book also has a roughly 70 page section of "History, Context, and Criticism" at the back of the novel.  It is well worth reading, both for the classic work itself and for the section of "History, Context, and Criticism".  The book apparently took Bradbury several years to bring it to fruition, first as a short story, and then as a novel in which he greatly expanded the text, renamed key characters, merged at least one character into another already in the text, and turned what must have been a pretty nice short story into one of the best known and loved novels in all of science fiction.  The novel does have some detractors who primarily quibble about the style which is unique.  But, in my opinion, that style is one of the best aspects of the book.  Most of the chapters are very short with only a few exceptions, usually in the later sections of the book.  The writing style is very crisp, short sentences, rapid interchanges between characters, and little extraneous narration or description.  But it is a wonderful book.  I do remember in the first few chapters that I also questioned the style but as I began to fully understand what Bradbury was accomplishing with the style I came to love the book.  It is every bit as good as any other classic science fiction or fantasy novel I have ever read.  It is better than most.  In fact, I will go so far as to say this novel is better than many highly praised novels in the greater body of what we sometimes droolingly call "great literature".  

The three protagonists are two twelve year old boys and the father of one of those boys who is 53 or 54 years old and, to his son, seems to be incredibly old and unlikely to be understood.  I laughed when I saw the writing about this age difference in light of the fact that my own father, whom I loved dearly and still do, was 64 when I was born but saw me grown before he died and will always be a major influence on everything I do, or have ever done.  The boys, on a forbidden midnight jaunt in the neighborhood, see a carnival hauled by an ancient train, pull into and set up in a meadow near an abandoned railroad crossing at the edge of their sleepy little Midwestern town.  They become fascinated by the carnival and its owners Cooger and Dark, who are, naturally, the villains in the novel.  As the story progresses, the boys realize that the carnival is evil and on a mission to destroy them and anyone else with whom it comes into contact.  Finally, Will's somewhat aged father, Charles Halloway, joins the boys in their effort to save themselves and the town from the carnival and its evil proprietors.  Two mechanical portions of the carnival also play heavily into the suspense of the story.  The merry go round and the hall of mirrors are tools which the proprietors use to practice their evil on their unsuspecting victims.  Charles Halloway, his son Will, and Wills' best friend Jim learn the truth about the carnival and manage to snatch their collective bacon out of the fire just in time.  Bradbury builds the suspense throughout the novel in a way that is slow, methodical, relentless, and terrifying.  It is a masterful piece of work.  I won't spoil it for you by divulging too much of the plot.  But take my word for it, it is well worth your time and money. 

The Death Of Janet Lee Messersmith & Its Connection To The Ashland Sanitary Milk Company

 

A few days ago, I stopped at a small yard sale one of my neighbors was having and the only thing I found to buy was an antique milk bottle from a company called Ashland Sanitary Milk Company in Ashland, Kentucky.  I had grown up in a country store in Knott County within and hour of Ashland but I had never heard of the company.  I got home and dug into the internet to see what I could learn about the company.  The only thing I could find other than one or two other such bottles which had already been sold on E-bay or Amazon and this story about a judgment from the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1930 which involved the death of a young girl, about 11 years old, named Janet Lee Messersmith.  I read the judgement of the court and I was touched by the story of the needless death of the little girl.  Next I went to the wonderful website Find A Grave, where I regularly do volunteer work and research and quickly found the grave of Janet Lee Messersmith.  But she has no obituary on the website and her memorial there does not list her parents by name.  Oddly, their names are not listed in the judgement of the court of appeals either. I have also been unable to locate an obituary in the newspaper archives of the Big Sandy region. It all makes the kind of interesting story which you find if you do research into the lives and deaths of people who have been long dead.  It is a shame for stories like this one about Janet Lee Messersmith to be lost forever.  Please help me remember it and pass it on into the future. 

The gist of the story told in the Court of Appeals judgment is that Janet Lee Messersmith had gone shopping with her mother who was driving a car and returned to their home on Blackburn Avenue in the city limits of Ashland.  The mother parked the car with "the right wheels of her machine over the curb so as to leave it parked with as little of the machine out in the avenue as possible. According to Mrs. Messersmith, she alighted from the car by the door at her left and stepped into the street, and then assisted her daughter to alight through the same door."  The mother said she started across the street toward the house and her daughter was standing on the sidewalk when the truck struck her.  Oddly, the driver of the truck is named in the court's judgment despite neither parent being named.  Claude Ireson, the driver of the truck, had stated in the courts in Boyd County that "When he got within 10 or 11 feet of where they were, the child darted across the street. Her mother screamed, and he tried to avoid hitting the child by cutting his car to the right, thinking the child would go back. If he had been 6 inches further over he would have missed her. His left front fender struck the child."  Regardless of what the truth was, Janet Lee Messersmith had been killed brutally and suddenly literally in front of her mother.  Elwood Blair, a neighbor, had testifed that he heard the noise of the trucks brakes and went to his window where he saw the truck approaching and he corroborated the mother's testimony that the truck was going about 40 miles an hour which Claude Ireson, the driver, had disputed.  In any case, the Boyd County court rendered a judgment of $15,000 in favor of the family.  The judgment of $15,000 was, in the middle of the Great Depression, a very sizable award in any sort of civil suit regardless of the circumstances.  The Ashland Sanitary Milk Company appealed the ruling of the court to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.  It could be surmised, that even in 1930, the legal fees could have cost the company a large portion of any judgment, $15,000 or otherwise.  Thus the case of Janet Lee Messersmith came before the Kentucky Court of Appeals.  The court ruled in favor of the family due to what it determined to have been two technical errors by the court and upheld the judgment of the Boyd Court.  

But, from my point of view, the story is the real issue of interest.  A little girl, about 11 years old, having what can be assumed to have been a happy day shopping with her mother was suddenly killed in a somewhat unusual way by being hit by a milk truck owned by a company whose products this mother most likely used on a daily  basis.  It is likely that the last glass of milk Janet Lee Messersmith ever drank, probably within a few hours of her death, was sold by the company who truck would kill her later that day. What I would most like to see come of this story is the following: 1) that someone who reads this can tell me who Janet's parents were; 2) that we can find their memorials on Find A Grave and edit all three so her parents are connected to her memorial; and 3) that the name and horrible death of Janet Lee Messersmith will not be forgottn.

 Below, I have cut and pasted the entire judgment of the Court of Appeals.  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Decided November 18, 1930.

Appeal from Boyd Circuit Court.

R.D. DAVIS and WAUGH HOWERTON for appellant.

GEORGE B. MARTIN and MARTIN SMITH for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY JUDGE CLAY

Affirming.

On June 29, 1929, Janet Lee Messersmith, a girl about ten and a half years of age, was struck and killed by a Dodge motor delivery truck belonging to the Ashland Sanitary Milk Company, and driven by one of its employees. This action by her administrator to recover damages for her death resulted in a verdict and judgment in his favor for $15,000. The Ashland Sanitary Milk Company appeals.

Janet Lee Messersmitn lived with her parents on the south side of Blackburn avenue in the city of Ashland. Blackburn avenue runs east and west, is a paved street, and is about 20 feet in width from curb to curb. It has no sidewalks, but a level space of about 5 feet has been left on either side for that purpose. The Messersmith lot is 40 feet in width and is higher than Blackburn avenue. The entrance to the house, which is about the center of the lot, is by means of a concrete walk about 5 feet in width. Traveling from the west on Blackburn avenue toward the Messersmith residence there is a descending grade for a considerable distance. The accident happened about 4 o'clock on a bright afternoon. Accompanied by her daughter, Janet Lee, Mrs. Messersmith had driven her Dodge sedan car downtown to do some shopping. On her return she had a lot of groceries and provisions in the machine. On reaching a point in the street opposite her residence, she ran the right wheels of her machine over the curb so as to leave it parked with as little of the machine out in the avenue as possible. According to Mrs. Messersmith, she alighted from the car by the door at her left and stepped into the street, and then assisted her daughter to alight through the same door. She then started across the street. When she got to the middle of the street she saw the truck coming about 200 feet away. She had driven an automobile for nine years, could look at a car and tell at what speed it was going, and she judged that the truck was going between 40 and 45 miles an hour. Her daughter was standing on the sidewalk when she was struck by the truck. At the time she was struck the truck was going pretty fast, but. the driver had his foot on the brake and had probably reduced the speed to some extent. Elwood Blair, a mechanic who worked for the American Rolling Mills, was in bed at the time, and his attention was attracted by the noise of the brakes on the truck. He then went to the window, and in his opinion the truck was running about 40 miles an hour after the brakes had been applied. On the other hand, Claude Ireson, the driver of the truck, testified as follows: He first saw the little Messersmith girl and her mother when about 150 feet away. The mother was standing at the car, seemed to be getting something out of it, and the child was standing just slanting back from the mother. They were both on the north side of the street and on his left. When he saw them he raised his toe off the accelerator. At that time they were making no effort to cross the street. When he got within 10 or 11 feet of where they were, the child darted across the street. Her mother screamed, and he tried to avoid hitting the child by cutting his car to the right, thinking the child would go back. If he had been 6 inches further over he would have missed her. His left front fender struck the child. When within about 30 feet of the child he put his foot on the brakes. At that time he was going between 18 and 20 miles an hour. He did not know that the child was going across the street. At the time of the accident the car was slowed down to about 15 miles an hour. The reason he took his foot off the accelerator about 150 feet back was that he was afraid they might start across the street, and there might be danger of hurting some one. He could see the child and he thought that they would see him. At the time he put on the brakes he was between 10 and 15 feet of where Mrs. Messersmith was standing. Running at 15 miles an hour he could stop within 20 or 25 feet. He cut in toward the telephone pole for the purpose of stopping. His main purpose was not to hit the child. Russell Rose testified as follows: He and some other children were playing in an open field about 100 feet north of the point of accident. When Mrs. Messersmith drove up, she got out, started up the steps, looked back and told Janet to stay there. Janet came right on. He then looked over at the milk truck and it hit her. The front fender struck her first. Janet was in the street and was carrying groceries across the street. The truck ran about 20 feet after it struck her. The witness concluded his direct examination as follows:

"Q. 40. Did you see the little girl get out? A. Yes, Sir.

"Q. 41. Which side did she (decedent) get out? A. She got out on — the opposite side her mother did.

"Q. 42. When the little girl first got out where did she go? A. She went around back of the car.

"Q. 43. Back of their car? A. Yes, Sir.

"Q. 44. After she came around behind the car, how soon was she struck by this car. A. I just don't know how long it was — just."

The first error relied on was the failure of the court to give an offered instruction presenting the sudden appearance doctrine. In this connection it is insisted that appellant was entitled to such instruction not only on the evidence of Ireson, the driver, but on the evidence of witness Russell Rose. Whatever may have been the view of the court in years past, we have been inclined in recent years to confine the sudden appearance, in so far as infants are concerned, to cases where the injured infant leaves the sidewalk or emerges from behind another vehicle or other obstruction, and appears on the highway in the path of the on-coming vehicle so suddenly that the driver thereof in the exercise of ordinary care could not have prevented the collision with the means at hand if he had been running at a reasonable rate of speed. Metts' Adm'r v. Louisville Gas Electric Co., 222 Ky. 551, 1 S.W.2d 985. Whether, in view of the driver's evidence that he saw the child standing by her mother in the street when 150 feet away, we would hold that the sudden appearance instruction should have been given if the witness Rose had actually testified that the child came from behind her mother's machine and rushed suddenly in front of the approaching truck, we need not determine. As a matter of fact, he did not say how long it was after the child came from behind the car before it started across the street. Thus there was no evidence tending to show that she was not standing by her mother in full view of the driver, as he repeatedly testified, when she started across the street. Clearly the circumstances were not such as to call for a sudden appearance instruction. The street was only 20 feet in width. The mother and child were standing in the street on the south side of the car in plain view of the driver of the truck, and only a short distance away from the path of the truck. The situation was such that the child might be expected to move in the pathway of the truck at any time. Notwithstanding this fact, no warning of the approach of the truck was given, and just before the accident the speed of the truck was about 15 miles an hour according to the driver of the truck, and from 40 to 45 miles an hour according to other witnesses. It would be a harsh rule were we to hold, in the face of such clear evidence of negligence, that appellant could escape liability on the theory that the child appeared so suddenly in the pathway of the truck that the driver could not have avoided injuring her if he had been running at a reasonable rate of speed.

Another error relied on is the alleged misconduct of counsel on the voir dire examination of the jurors. The facts disclosed by the bill of exceptions are these: Norman Berry, who was on the list, was asked to state his occupation. He answered that he was in the real estate business. Thereupon counsel for plaintiff inquired of him in the presence of the remaining members of the panel whether he wrote any insurance in connection with the real estate business, and he answered that he did not. John S. Hager, another member of the list, was asked if he had any connection with the Ashland Sanitary Milk Company. He answered that he had no connection with the company other than it was a customer of his, and he bought milk from them. He was then asked by counsel for plaintiff what kind of a customer it was of his, and he answered, "Insurance." Counsel inquired what kind of insurance he wrote for the defendant, and he answered, "Fire, theft and casualty." Thereupon counsel for plaintiff called counsel for defendant, and also the prospective juror, John S. Hager, to the desk of the court, and there privately, and not in a tone to be heard by other jurors, inquired of Hager if he was on this particular risk through any policy of insurance in any of his companies. Thereupon counsel for the defendant moved the court to discharge the entire panel of eighteen because of counsel's reference to insurance in the interrogation of the two jurors, which motion was overruled. In the case where we condemned the practice of interrogating prospective jurors with reference to accident insurance, the jurors were asked whether any of them owned any stock in the insurance company which carried the indemnity policy on defendant's mine, and on objection the attorney for plaintiff stated that he had been informed that the coal company carried insurance in a company that would pay any loss that might result to the defendant on the trial of the case. W. G. Duncan Coal Co. v. Thompson's Adm'r, 157 Ky. 304, 162 S.W. 1139. It will thus be seen that counsel for plaintiff in that case not only brought directly to the attention of the prospective jurors the fact that defendant carried accident insurance and that the loss would fall on someone else, but inquired whether or not any of them owned any stock in the insurance company which carried the indemnity policy on defendant's mine when it was wholly improbable that such was the case, thus evincing a lack of good faith in propounding the question. A different situation is presented in the case under consideration. Naturally counsel for plaintiff would not want on a jury any one who had written indemnity insurance for the defendant, or any other insurance that would place him under obligation to the defendant. As real estate agents generally conduct an insurance business, it was not improper to ask Berry if he wrote insurance, and so far as he was concerned the matter ended with his answer in the negative. As Hager conducted an insurance business in the city where defendant's plant was located, the preliminary questions were not out of place, and as counsel for plaintiff was careful not to ask in the presence of the other jurors whether he carried the particular risk, we see no reason to doubt counsel's good faith in the matter. We therefore hold that the trial court did not err in refusing to discharge the entire panel.

Another contention is that the court erred in admitting the photograph of the deceased. It is insisted that its admission was prejudicial, in that it presented to the jury a very beautiful young girl, and was thus calculated to excite their sympathy and prejudice. It may be conceded that the admission of the photograph without proof of its accuracy by the photographer was technical error, but in view of the fact that the health, strength, mental capacity, and personal appearance of the child were fully discussed and presented to the jury by other witnesses, we are not inclined to hold that the admission of the photograph was prejudicial.

Still another contention is that the court erred in not granting a continuance on account of the absence of the witnesses, Hobart, and Aderine Pope, for whom subpoenas had been issued and returned, "Not executed," with the notation that they had gone to Arizona. In the affidavit it was stated that if the witnesses were present they would testify that they lived on Blackburn avenue across the street from the home of the deceased and within a few yards of the scene of the accident; that at the time of the accident they were playing in a field about 100 feet north of the point of accident where defendant's truck struck deceased, that they heard the brakes of the truck go on and that they looked up immediately and saw the truck, and that it stopped almost immediately after the brakes went on; that it went only a few feet after the brakes were applied; and that the deceased was struck while she was in the street and not on the curb. It was further alleged that defendant had had no opportunity to take the depositions of the witnesses because he did not know that the witnesses had left the jurisdiction of the court; that if the case were continued to the next term of the court defendant could either have them present in court or take their depositions as it desires one or the other to be done. There was the further allegation that the true and proper effect of the testimony of the witnesses could not be had without their personal presence in court. It being alleged in the alternative that defendant could either have the witnesses present at the next term of the court, or take their depositions, it is at once apparent that there is no showing that their actual presence could be had. That being true, the only way to secure their evidence was by deposition. Rarely, if ever, is the evidence of an absent witness taken by deposition as strong as that contained in an affidavit for continuance. In view of these considerations, and of the fact that the affidavit for a continuance was permitted to be read as the depositions of the absent witnesses, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse a sound discretion in refusing the continuance.

Lastly, it is insisted with great earnestness that the verdict is excessive. The case is not to be determined by decisions of the long ago. Within recent years the purchasing power of money has decreased, and the courts are inclined to uphold larger verdicts than they were accustomed to approve years ago. The deceased was sound in health and of fine mental attainments, with all the opportunities that are now open to the members of her sex. In a case of this kind it is the province of the jury to assess the damages, and our duty to give effect to its finding unless we can say the verdict is so excessive as to strike us at first blush as being the result of prejudice or passion. This we cannot do.

Judgment affirmed.

Whole court sitting.

Ashland Sanitary Milk Co. v. Messersmith's Administrator, 236 Ky. 91, (Ky. Ct. App. 1930)