A Matter of Justice

Louisville Courier Journal Editorial

Kentucky voters may yet get a chance to consider a constitutional amendment that would restore voting rights to certain categories of felons, once they've served their time.

But the possibility of that happening in 2008 looks slim indeed. Earlier this year, a proposal to restore felons' voting rights passed the state House, then died without a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fortunately, Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, who sponsored House Bill 70 along with Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington, is determined to keep hope alive. He believes the proposal can muster the three-fifths majority needed in both houses of the legislature to put it on the ballot.

However, as The Courier-Journal's Joseph Gerth reported the other day, getting the job done isn't going to be easy.

For one thing, there will be the expected resistance from a gaggle of Frankfort lawmakers who want no part in appearing to be weak on crime. In addition, even if Gov. Steve Beshear supports such an amendment, he may be pressed by opponents to resist it -- opponents whose help he will need in putting an expanded gambling amendment on the ballot.

It is easy for politicians to oppose restoring the vote to convicts -- even those who have paid their debt to society. There is not much of a constituency for ex-prisoners.

Some harbor racial motives for not wanting ex-felons to vote, but they don't have to admit that. They can just talk about how undeserving criminals are. Others oppose restoration of voting rights on the assumption that, just because so many criminals come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, they likely will vote Democratic, but, publicly, they can posture against giving criminals this kind of "break."

What these and other opponents should remember is that it's called the "justice" system for a reason. It prescribes punishment, but it also, in most cases, holds out the possibility of rehabilitation and re-entry into legitimate society.

Read the Complete Editorial in the Louisville Courier Journal here

            By Wendell Berry

With my son and David Maehr, a member of the University of Kentucky's Forestry Department, I recently paid a visit to Pioneer Forest, which is to the south of its headquarters in Salem, Mo.

Pioneer Forest consists of various tracts, totaling about 40,000 acres purchased by Leo Drey, mostly in the early 1950s. Most of the tracts at the time of purchase had been severely degraded by bad logging. From the beginning of Drey's tenure, Pioneer has been a commercial forest, continuously logged. There are seven "active timber sales" in various stages of work.

The difference between this and nearly all other commercial forests, and what makes this one worth going to see, is that for the last half century, by Drey's prescription, Pioneer Forest has been sustainably managed.

Sustainable, like organic and natural, has become an empty word, useful mainly for misrepresentation in marketing. But I have looked closely at examples of sustainable forestry in Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia and Missouri, and those particular examples make sustainable again a respectable adjective.

Sustainability, in forestry, rests on the single principle of keeping the forest ecologically intact. That is to say that, after logging, the forest remains an "uneven-aged stand" of trees in their natural diversity of species and sizes, and the canopy remains unbroken except for scattered small openings that allow for natural regeneration.

                     For the complete Op-Ed in the Herald-Leader, click here.

   In KFTC, hitting a big goal often means throwing a big party to celebrate!  We have a LOT to celebrate across the state as 2007 draws to a close and the Central Kentucky Chapter threw a huge bash last night with over 60 members participating, great food, games, live music (compliments of Hot Jam Trio!), and stories. 

   Members cited victories, memories, stories and accomplishments too numerous to repeat, but including:

   - The creating and phenomenal work of the UK KFTC student group on campus

   - The Legislative Mountain Witness Tour just a few weeks ago

   - Winning a Minimum Wage increase victory in Frankfort this year

   - A great campaign against the Special Session and subsidies for liquid coal that brought a lot of attention to Mountaintop Removal Mining.

   - Registering over 1,300 voters and contacting over 10,000 voters three times leading to the General Election in a campaign that included great voter guides, door-to-door work, events, phone banks, and so much more!

   - Bringing over 200 citizen lobbyists out to I Love Mountains Day

   - A tremendous year of over 100 community outreach events including tabling at festivals and special events across the city.  The Fourth of July and the Roots and Heritage Festival

   - Passing the Restoration of Voting Rights Bill out of the Kentucky House and laying a lot of groundwork to get it through the Senate in the coming year.

   - Building a 2,400-person group on Facebook as a totally new method of reaching out to youth

   - Great Concerts including the Last Waltz, Concert For The Commonwealth, and Bluegrass Green-Earth

   - An energetic campaign for Robinson Forest to raise awareness and deter future stripmining plans for the forest. 

   - Immigrants Rights ally work in support of KCIRR, including lobby days in Frankfort and public testimony in Lexington.

   - A KFTC presence at Fancy Farm, led by CKY members. 

   - The evolution of our website including this very blog!

    But perhaps the biggest news of the evening was that KFTC hit our incredible expansion goal of reaching 5,000 Members and $200,000 in grassroots fundraising at the end of a three-year push.  Members took a lot of pride in hitting the goal and were all-smiles, talking about what kind of impact we can collectively make in the coming year with that much added strength and support.

   It'll be a huge year ahead, with a 60-day Legislative Session and extremely lively elections on the local, state, and national levels and lots of important ground work in the service of democracy.  But for now, take some time to celebrate a year done good.  You've earned it!

For the last three years members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth have pursued the goal of doubling the size of our membership and increasing our annual grassroots fundraising budget to $200,000.  We are now happy to announce that, as of this past Friday, we have surpassed these goals.  This is truly a monumental moment for us, as our organization has never been as large as it is now.

And what does this mean for our issue work?  As an immediate result, when the General Assembly convenes next month our strength in Frankfort will be greater than ever before.  We'll be able to go into the 2008 legislative session with over 5,000 members and a larger budget for direct lobbying for our issues.

   Looking ahead to the General Assembly in January, KFTC has a number of priority campaigns such as our Streamsaver Bill, restoration of voting rights for former felons, and progressive tax reform.  But we also support allies on such issues as immigrant rights and LGBT rights / Fairness bills. 

   One bill to take away the abilities of Universities to provide benefits to domestic partners has recently been filed.  Below is a story from the Lexington Herald-Leader.

New try on ban of partner benefits 2 Democrats are behind idea now

Two Democratic state lawmakers are dredging up a controversial proposal to block public universities in Kentucky from extending health benefits to unmarried, live-in partners of the institutions' employees.

 The move by state Reps. Richard Henderson of Jeffersonville and Ancel Smith of Leburn already has raised eyebrows among members of their own party -- especially considering that new Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has repeatedly promised to veto any such bills.

For the complete Herald-Leader story, click here.

Also, consider monitoring our Fairness ally organizations from across the states to stay in contact with them and support their work.

Kentucky Fairness Alliance

Bluegrass Fairness

Fairness Campaign

by Toby Wilcher, Madison County

I vividly remember the horror I felt as I watched news coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Of course, I had a vested interest since my daughter and granddaughters were living in New Orleans at the time. Throughout those long, torturous days immediately after Katrina, as the news from New Orleans turned more gruesome, I was aghast at our government’s insensitive and inept response to this disaster, as I am sure many of you were also.

Now, over two years later, our government continues to turn a deaf ear to the needs of tens of thousands of New Orleans residents who long to return to their homes and rebuild their lives. In an attempt to “gentrify” New Orleans, over 4500 public housing units (most of which received little or no damage from the hurricane and subsequent flooding) are being razed to make way for mixed income housing and other kinds of development. At the same time, there are about 52,000 families that will soon be facing eviction from FEMA trailers and tens of thousand others scattered throughout the country. Families who have lived in New Orleans for generations are now separated and will continue to be apart unless our government makes and honest and just effort to ensure that affordable housing,including an adequate amount of low-income housing, is available for these displaced residents. Current plans call for less than 1,000 low-income units to be built. I don’t know about you, but I see this as a gross example of injustice against poor people and poor people of color.

Senate Bill 1668, The Gulf Coast Recovery Act, is currently stalled in the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Sen. Jim Bunning is a member of that committee.  We are his constituents.  He should hear that we support our friends in New Orleans, and that we want him to support the Gulf Coast Recovery Act. I urge each of you to contact Sen. Bunning and ask him to please support Senate Bill 1668. He can be reached at the Senate message line at 202-224-4343 or by fax at 202-228-1373.

For more information about the Gulf Coast Recovery Act and the efforts of social justice organizations to ensure that our government keeps the promises made in the aftermath of Katrina, see Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s website.

Other groups working on this issue include: Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, All Residents Together, Amnesty International, Brave New Foundation, Center for Social Inclusion, Churches Supporting Churches, Color of Change, Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Network, Louisiana Diasaster Recovery Committee- Gulf Disaster Response, Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Inc. MoveOn.org Political Action, People's Hurricane Relief Fund, People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, PolicyLink, St Bernard Survivor's Village and Oxfam America.

I have watched my daughter try to rebuild her life post-Katrina and understand the struggles she and so many others have had to endure. My heart breaks for all of them.

The Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance (KEJA), of which we are a member, has been operating a blog since this past spring.  It is a great place to go to find stories, analysis, and news articles related to our economic justice work.  There are also a number of posts about the impact of the effect of federal economic policy on our state and local issues.  Give it a look.

Here are some of the more interesting posts:

• A willingness to pay for what matters

• High Tuition Costs Hurt Low Income Families

• High Price of Being Poor

• An “Imaginary” Candidate We Can Get Behind

• End the War on the Poor

• No one does it alone — the necessity of taxes

• Talking taxes

   Despite finals week, more than two dozen UK students and activists from KFTC, as well as UK Greenthumb, Kentucky Heartwood, and Sierra Club members, came together to rally one last time this semester, just prior to the UK Board of Trustees meeting, to encourage board members to protect Robinson Forest and to move away from the proposal to log it.

   They lined the first floor of the Patterson Office Tower lobby and chanted, holding signs as the Board of Trustees entered one by one to attend the meeting high above on the 18th floor.

I'm glad that students are rallying together and showing opposition.  Robinson Forest isn't just an environmental issue for the people in Knott, Perry, and Breathitt Counties - it's a human rights issue,          - Joan Braun, a UK KFTC Member 

   Many members of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth from counties touched by Robinson Forest have participated in the campaign by writing letters, emails, and faxes to the UK Board of Trustees members, giving them a perspective from the communities that this logging will directly impact. 

By and large, it seems that the board has a tendency to ignore UK students and community - most recently on Robinson Forest, but also on UK workers that want to organize.  It's not a good trend.       - Joe Gallenstein, UK KFTC Co-Coordinator 

 
   Through conversations with board members, it seems unlikely that we'll be able to halt this particular experimental logging proposal, but the Board of Trustees has come back to the issue of Robinson Forest time and time again over the decades to look at strip-mining and/or logging different sections.  Many fear that the move to log parts of Robinson Forest is a prelude to another strip-mining action, first weakening the basis of the Lands Unsuitable for Mining status by reducing the environmental value of the forest, then challenging that protective status.

   Students say that if the board tries that, they'll be ready and the campaign this semester laid down a lot of the foundation for a powerful deterrent to mining. 

We have enough energy and enough fight in us to get our voices heard, no matter what they put in our way."      - Scott Beckmeyer, UK Greenthumb activist

Environmental organizations allied to protect Robinson Forest had an opportunity to meet with UK Board of Trustees members yesterday to send a clear message about their opposition to logging Robinson Forest.  Students said they felt like the dialog  was helpful, especially in regard to the long-term protection of the forest.  Still, it seems unlikely that the Board will move from its current plan to cut a substantial portion of the forest as an "experimental" logging job.  The Herald-Leader covered the story, as excerpted below. 

UK board hears pleas for moratorium on logging Robinson Forest

By Andy Mead, Lexington Herald-Leader

The University of Kentucky's Board of Trustees spent more than an hour Monday listening to pleas to block proposed research logging in Robinson Forest.

But Mira Ball, the board's chairwoman, said afterward that there doesn't appear to be enough sentiment to do that if the issue comes up at Tuesday's full board meeting.

In a related area, UK President Lee T. Todd said the university had postponed sending out requests for proposals for logging companies to fell the trees. He also said he had met Friday with U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, who is opposed to the logging.

Todd made it clear, however, that he still favors allowing trees to be cut to study methods of protecting streams during logging.

"I am very aware that this is not something everyone is going to agree on," he said.

Those pleading for a moratorium on logging included students and Wendell Berry, a celebrated Henry County author who is a former UK English professor.

Berry said the project the university is considering -- which could cut most trees on up to 1,000 acres of the 10,000-acre core of the Eastern Kentucky forest -- is a far cry from sustainable forestry.

Read the full Herald-Leader story here.

Ronnie Ellis, a journalist who attended our recent mountain witness tour with the members of the House A & R committee, wrote a fantastic op-ed about his experience and the people (KFTC members) he met.

Rep. Harry Moberly is right: It’s one thing to listen to testimony about mountaintop removal — it’s another to witness its effects firsthand.

But the physical evidence at Montgomery Creek in Perry County pales compared with the eloquence of those who spoke to lawmakers Monday during a tour of a mountaintop removal site. McKinley Sumner, Evelyn and Sam Gilbert, Truman Hurt, Ricky Handshoe and Carl Shoupe aren’t your everyday environmental activists. They aren’t in all cases the most worldly or sophisticated spokespeople for a cause. But they have lived the experience of coal — most of them from both sides.

“I have a complicated history with coal,” author and musician Silas House said. “My family was able to rise above poverty in large part because of the jobs provided by the coal industry.” His mother was proud to be a coal miner’s daughter and his grandfather lost a leg to coal mining, but six months later returned to the mines and worked in them another 20 years.

Read the whole piece here.