by Howard Myers

Reprinted from Peaceways, the newsletter of the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice.

On Sept. 15 Bob Koester of Ball State University spoke at the University of Kentucky, describing his school’s transformation from burning coal to becoming a geothermal energy driven campus. Their geothermal project is the centerpiece of Ball State's commitment to being carbon neutral by 2030, demonstrating how a modern-day research university adapts to today's energy climate.

For the number crunchers, Koester described how to finance this transformation by leveraging endowment dollars, industry grants, and state and federal dollars. That investment is paying dividends at multiple levels:  for example, once implemented, the geothermal system will save $2 million annually.

Also, major energy businesses are partnering with Ball State, drawn by the university’s commitment to sustainability. And the university’s curriculum prepares their students for jobs in the green economy.

Each month students, staff, community members, faculty, and the president meet as a committee of 30 to assess progress toward their 2030 goal. Demonstrating sustainability of another kind, today the students, faculty, and community drive an effort that began with the leadership of the university’s administration. Ensuring a sustainable future makes Ball State a very good neighbor indeed: the region is getting positive quality of life reviews because of that vision and initial leadership.

I left the presentation convinced that the UK Administration and Board of Trustees now have a blueprint. The question is: do they have the courage to embrace a carbon neutral future?

Zombies Can't Vote!

But you CAN!

Don't be a zombie! - learn about the candidates at www.KentuckyElection.org and vote on Tuesday, November 2nd.

This is a quick reminder of our fun, zombie-related voter mobilization work tonight at the Thriller Parade in Lexington, the Zombie Crawl in Covington, various events in Whitesburg, and the Thriller Performance in Scott County.

Some of our members will be dressed up as zombies - but zombies shuffle around slowly and people don't readily accept things from them.  So we could use non-zombie volunteers too!

Lexington - Meeting Saturday at 6:30pm at Phoenix Park.  We'll then pass out handbills through the showcase at 7pm at Centrepointe Field and the Thriller Parade beginning at 8:30pm.  For more information, call Dave Newton at 859-420-8919.

Covington - Saturday from 3pm to 6pm downtown.  For more information, contact Joe Gallenstein at Joe@kftc.org or 859-380-6103

Georgetown - Saturday evening at 8pm downtown.  For more information, contact Dave Newton at Dave@kftc.org or 859-420-8919.

Letcher County - Saturday evening in Whitesburg.  For more information, please call Willa Johnson at 606-634-8691

Zombies and humans are also invited to make signs to bring along with us.

Watch the blog the tomorrow for pictures and reports.

Scott County KFTC members gathered in downtown Georgetown this morning for their second to last voter mobilization phonebank day.

Having called through all of their local lists, our folks started to call through our statewide list of New Power Pledge signers. 

Upcoming Scott County KFTC Events

Zombies Can't Vote, but You Can... - Saturday, October 30th at 8pm, there will be a small reenactment of Michael Jackson's Thriller video downtown Georgetown on Main Street.  We'll be there to pass out a special kind of handbill to encourage people to get out and vote. 

Scott County Voter Mobilization Phonebank #7 - Monday, November 1st at 6:30pm at the Meeting House on Georgetown College's Campus.

Election Day - Tuesday, November 2nd. Polls open 6am to 6pm. Scott County KFTC members will base out of the Lock and Key on Main St. in Georgetown to give rides to the polls and otherwise mobilize voters throughout the day.

Scott County KFTC Chapter Meeting - Thursday, November 4th at 7pm at the Georgetown Public Library.

Arty Pie Party! - Rosanne and Tim's pie, art, and music house party - Saturday, November 13th starting at 7:30pm at the home of Rosanne Fitts-Klarer and Tim Klarer.

The new Madison County Office has been buzzing recently. It's election time and that means phonebanking. 

We've had about a dozen members come out and share their time working to make a better democracy. With this much help, we've made some serious head way on our lists.

Thanks to all the members that have come out this past week including: Bill Stolte, Tress Spencer, Patrick Dunn, Michael Dunn, Margaret Ricketts, Amy Hogg, Steve Boyce, Zac Danneman, Saxon Brown, and those that will join us this weekend.  

Two short months ago, KFTC’s Steering Committee launched a political action committee called the New Power PAC to communicate with voters and candidates about the opportunity to create clean energy jobs and affordable, renewable energy in Kentucky and about the harm done by our dependence on old power fossil fuels.

At a press conference in mid-September, KFTC’s then-chairperson K.A. Owens declared:

Over the coming weeks we will communicate directly with thousands of Kentucky voters. We will make sure voters know candidates’ positions on New Power issues, including the opportunity for clean energy and the true costs of coal. We will take our message to the broader public with print, radio, television and electronic ads. And we will demonstrate to candidates that there is a significant base of support for new power and a brighter and cleaner future in Kentucky.

By now, you may have received or heard some of the ads distributed by the New Power PAC. At the bottom of this post you can find several samples of ads that are running in many media markets before the November 2nd election, including several radio spots that played on the UK sports radio network and many local radio stations throughout the fall. With a week to go before the fall election, the New Power PAC anticipated spending over $126,000 in this election cycle, the majority of that going to advertising and direct communication with voters.

Our New Power mailers were sent to more than 33,000 mailboxes, reaching almost 52,000 people. And our newspaper ads were sent to a circulation of more than 615,000! On top of these print communications, hundreds of thousands more people had the opportunity to hear our radio ads throughout the state. And these numbers don't even include the tens of thousands of folks who received calls and emails from us or talked with us about voting and New Power at festivals, tables, even zombie walks!

“We hit the ground running this fall, and we will only gain momentum in future election years,” noted KFTC member Megan Naseman, who is pictured on a New Power ad sent to voters in the 6th Congressional District. “Also, true to KFTC’s form, this (media campaign) is only one piece of our work.  After the elections, we’ll keep lobbying and meeting with officials. We hope that our work through the PAC will let officials know what broad support there is for New Power.”

______________________________________________

New Power Ads

• Randy Wilson radio ad
• Cari Moore radio ad

	Lexington Herald Leader Full Page (PDF)
	New Power Newspaper ad (PDF)
	New Power College Newspaper ad (PDF)
	New Power and John Yarmuth ad in LEO (PDF)
	New Power and Greg Fischer ad in LEO (PDF)

______________________________________________ New Power Mailers	New Power and Rand Paul’s tax plan mailer (PDF)
	New Power and Ben Chandler mailer (PDF)
	New Power and Marty Meyer mailer (PDF)
	New Power and Lynch mailer
______________________________________________ New Power Emails	New Power and Jim Holbert (PDF)
	New Power and Ed Marksberry (PDF)

Hello.  My name Patrick Dunn.  I am from Berea, Kentucky.

Mountaintop removal coal mining is where they mine coal from the ground by lopping the tops off of mountains and dumping the mining waste in the streams and valleys below.  1.2 million acres of land have been flattened by mountaintop removal – including 500 mountains.

I care about mountaintop removal because it affects so many things.  It creates many environmental problems.  It destroys every living thing in the area and and it will never grow back the way it was before.  In fact, only 4% of MTR sites have been “reclaimed.”

But the real problem is how it affects people like Makayla and her family – and the thousands of others living near mountaintop removal sites. 

It also costs our state more money to give subsidies to coal than what coal gives back to our state.  $115 million a year to be exact.  If we used that money to fund renewable sources we wouldn’t have to have mountaintop removal.

And Kentucky produces today double the amount of coal we produced in 1979 – with only 1/5 of the work force. Mountaintop removal eliminates coal-mining jobs, not create jobs.

And coal is a finite resource anyways – there are other good sources of energy that will give us the power we need.

I wish our candidates would say that they support the Clean Water Protection Act proposed in Congress.  But I haven’t heard them mention it once.

This bill would protect communities and water quality by outlawing the dumping of mining waste into streams.  It is a common sense bill – a simple way to protect our water.  You don’t dump stuff into our water.  If its not clean, its dirty.  Period.

The Balagula Theater company in Lexington approached KFTC a couple of months ago about a fundraising opportunity for local community organizations. If we promoted their production of the play Marx in Soho, we would benefit from the tickets sold on the nigh of our choice. Members were excited about the opportunity to not only raise money for our work but to promote an amazing play written by Howard Zinn.

about the play

Marx is back! The premise of this witty and insightful "play on history" is that Karl Marx has agitated with the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to clear his name. Through a bureaucratic error, though, Marx is sent to Soho in New York, rather than his old stomping ground in London, to make his case.

Howard Zinn, best known for his book, 'A Peoples History of the United States', introduces us to Marx's wife, Jenny, his children, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, and a host of other characters.

KFTC promoted the event and the turnout was fantastic, especially considering that it was the last night of the play. There were so many folks there that people had to sit in folding chairs in the back of the restaurant. We raised $306 for KFTC and developed a relationship with a local theatre company.

The Bluegrass GreenExpo will be held this weekend! It is the largest collection of Green Products, Exhibits & Resources ever assembled in Kentucky.

When: Saturday, October 30, 10am - 6pm
 and Sunday, October 31, 12pm - 6pm

Where: Heritage Hall at Lexington Center

Cost: FREE!

This expo aims to connect the people of Kentucky with information and resources that will help us create more healthy, sustainable and prosperous communities, to connect businesses and organizations with similar goals to work together for the benefit of our communities and to connect state and community leaders with information and resources that can help them in making decisions that benefit Kentucky's people, communities and environment.

WENDELL BERRY headlines a panel discussion on coal & KY's energy future on Saturday 10/30 at 10:30 AM.

This panel will be followed at 12:15 by a set of songs by multi award-winning singer-songwriter
Mitch Barrett. Mitch plays again Sunday 10/31 at 3 PM.

Other attractions include a trade show, workshops, activities for kids of all ages and renewable energy exhibitions and demos.

Our Jefferson County chapter has been hammering away at our voter mobilization calls.  They have a big list, and lots left to go, but have gotten some great work done. 

Tonight in Lexington, we had our sixth Singing For Democracy Gospel Fest in less than a year. 

These events have focused on raising awareness of our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society by bringing together churches and other organizations.

This one also had a strong voter mobilization message - calling on everyone who does have the right to vote to use that right - and calling on everyone to mobilize as many people as they can to get out and vote on Tuesday.

The performances and speakers were just incredible - with a wide range of music and dance, choirs, solos, powerful speeches, and personal stories. 

About 140 people attended the event, and many committed to call friends and neighbors to ask them to vote.  A few also volunteered to come to the last of KFTC's voter mobilization phonebanks. 

Thanks to Van Berry, Tayna Fogle, Pastor Joseph Owens, Mike Barry, Bettina Wright, Candi, Antioch Baptist Children's Choir, Julia Johnson, Total Grace, Anointing In Motion, Voices Of Bethesda, and Pastor Rodney Mason for performing and/or otherwise helping to make the event a success!