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KFTC has sent a letter with a brief statement of solidarity for an action planned by OccupyCincinnati and OccupySuperCommittee in support of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies from the federal budget. The action focuses on the so-called federal Super Committee that is tasked with eliminating $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit. Ohio U.S. Senator Rob Portman is a member.

The letter, signed by Chairperson Steve Boyce, stated in part:

The grassroots membership of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth stands in solidarity with our neighbors in Ohio and people everywhere who are using non-violent direct action to advance a vision for a more just and sustainable future. We applaud and support the growing movement to end federal subsidies for Old Power fossil fuels; stop the destruction of our land, air, water and health; and hold corporations and political leaders accountable.

We would like to share KFTC’s vision statement with you, as it expresses many of the values and goals we share with this growing movement:

We are working for a day when Kentuckians – and all people – enjoy a better quality of life. When the lives of people and communities matter before profits. When our communities have good jobs that support our families without doing damage to the water, air and land. When companies and the wealthy pay their share of taxes and can’t buy elections. When all people have health care, food, education, clean water and other basic needs. When children are listened to and valued. When discrimination is wiped out of our laws, habits and hearts. And when the voices of ordinary people are heard and respected in our democracy.

The Northern Kentucky chapter took time on Wednesday to work with students to help make sure more people in their communities are engaged voters by teaming up with student groups at Thomas More College and Boone County High School.

On Wednesday, from 11 AM - 1 PM a couple of members visited Thomas More College to help the Thomas More College Political Science Club with a voter registration drive. During the time students took the time to ask their classmates if they are registered to vote, and learning more about what Kentuckians for the Commonwealth is working to achieve in Northern Kentucky.

That evening, from 3 - 6 students from the Boone County High School National Honor Society joined KFTC members at the Boone County Public Library in Florence to help register voters. Though they were unable to register to vote themselves, the NHS members were excited about the chance to make a difference in their community.

In addition to the voter registration table last week, the National Honor Society will be doing voter registration with members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth every Wednesday through the voter registration deadline from 3-7 at the Florence Branch of the Boone County Public Library.

The Northern Kentucky chapter of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth held a Singing For Democracy of their own Sunday at Madison Avenue Christian Church. The event, which was attended by over 40 people, featured Mike Barry and Tayna Fogle as masters of ceremony, discussed the issues of voting rights for former felons, and featured regional Gospel performers.

The event was a collaboration between People Advocating Recovery and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and featured speakers from recovery programs in Lexington, Louisville, Covington, and Florence. Their stories, which dealt with their own personal relationships with addiction in their lives and the lives around them, served as a reminder of the inequities and stereotypes people who suffer from the disease face.

Each of the speakers on the program spoke about what made them become an activist on voting rights and recovery. Charlotte Wethington recounted her loss of her son Casey, and how she was able to memorialize him through working to enact reforms in drug treatment laws; Tayna Fogle told her story of not only fighting to recover, but then having to fight to get her voting rights restored twice due to a clerical error; and Kim Moore of CHANGE Recovery House for Women spoke of the difficulty of dealing with reentry for one of your children after fighting for your own recovery so hard.

Members and attendees were hopeful that Northern Kentucky politicians would take notice of the movement in Northern Kentucky, and realize the resource that many people who are in long term recovery are for the community. The organizations hope to work together again soon to continue to highlight the need to expand and protect Kentucky's democracy.

You can also find more pictures of this event on KFTC's Flickr site. 

We haven't said a lot on this blog lately about field work related to our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society... but that's not for lack of a lot of good field work, which we'll take a brief moment to talk about.

Tayna Fogle, a former felon spokesperson and leader with KFTC, has continued to crisscross the state talking visiting churches, job fairs, community festivals, ally meetings, and other events to talk to people about this issue.

One of the recent stops was at a meeting of our friends at the Bluegrass Reentry Council where new former felon spokespeople Melinda McPherson and Christa Hughes (bottom-right) passed out information and talked to people.

Keith Coleman (right-above) also spoke to the group about the challenges of reentering society with a felony in his past. 

     

Central KY KFTC members are continuing to talk to their city council about a resolution in favor of restoring voting rights to former felons, and they will table this weekend at the Roots and Heritage Festival to talk to people about it.

Northern KY KFTC Members have a Singing For Democracy Gospel Fest coming up soon on Sept 18th.

Jefferson County KFTC members also have a big community tabling event coming up at the Rally For Recovery and Sept 24th, at which we'll talk to over a hundred former felons, plus other advocates of recovery.  

And finally, on the statewide level, we're increasingly interested in engaging in the Secretary of State's race which has become a polarized space around the issue of voting rights for former felons and others.  We might soon launch a campaign to raise up statements made by candidates and make our own arguments about what a healthy democracy looks like in Kentucky.   More on this soon.  

While the Northern Kentucky chapter has taken on hillside over development as a local issue in Northern Kentucky, due to the concerns in increased erosion and excess run-off, especially in older and low income neighborhoods, the chapter has not yet taken a position on the ballot initiative this Fall that could do away with the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission. However, many members have expressed concerns over the intentions of some of the organizations targeting the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission. 

Sean McDonald, a citizen who resides in Covington, wrote in yesterdays Cincinnati Enquirer,

"The home builders in Northern Kentucky see an opportunity to benefit their businesses at the expense of ordinary citizens (“Supporters rally behind NKAPC“). They want a weakened planning commission in Kenton County – or no planning commission at all – so they can build what they please, where they please, with whatever materials they choose, no matter how adversely these actions affect the environment or the needs of the general population.

KFTC members from the Jefferson County, Central Kentucky, and Northern Kentucky chapters met up in far western Kentucky this weekend to challenge "politics as usual" at the rowdy Fancy Farm picnic - a blisteringly hot festival full of pork, sweat, partisanship, booing, theatrics, costumes, and stump speeches. 

But between all of that challenging landscape, we had a lot of opportunity to talk to politicians, local folks, and political buffs from across the state who drove long hours to the event. 

"Tired of Hot Air?," we said.  "Come get a fan!"

And they listened.

And not just because of the blistering heat, but because so many people told us that they were, in fact, tired of the hot air and the partisanship, and the attack politics.  Even the people who came out to this event seemed to genuinely hunger for real policy discussions instead of the the political theater that's the norm there.

We also talked to people a lot about our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.  We met many former felons and their family members and found Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who were proud to wear our lapel stickers in favor of voting rights. 

KFTC members were approached by many folks from the media, to talk about our decidedly un-Fancy Farm presence at Fancy Farm.

We also got to build connections with allies and likely allies on a range of issues, including unions like AFSCME, the Teamsters, UFCW, and others. 

In all, we passed out all 600 fans we had, plus 200 stickers, KFTC newsletters, and more, had a lot of good conversations, and were a strong visible presence for candidates and others.

KFTC Member Reactions:

"I was not at all prepared for the Fancy Farm speeches.  I guess I had heard before that it was a giant heckle-fest, but I had forgotten and was totally shocked when the "boos" started emanating unsolicited (aside from the politicians being guilty of not being on the same "side" as the folks booing them) from the mouths of people who had until that point been sitting around me, perfectly friendly, polite, and smiling.  Watching and (sometimes) hearing the speeches did however remind me of why I love being a member of KFTC.  I felt that the people I was sitting with were the only folks in the crowd who were cheering and booing ideas, not parties.  The heckling is still not my idea of good political discourse, but I wasn't under the impression that any of my fellow KFTC members perceived this behavior to be beneficial either.  Before the speeches began though, I think we all had opportunities to have good conversations with people of all political leanings about restoring former felons' voting rights, and having good conversations about building a better Kentucky always feels like progress to me, and it always feels like time well-spent."
                      - Shekinah Lavalle, Jefferson County KFTC Member

"On the one hand, this is more entertaining than pro wrestling at the county fair. On the other, the future of our Commonwealth, and it's citizens, shouldn't be treated like pro wrestling at the county fair. KFTC was there to point that out."

"For all the fun, festivities and BBQ nachos, most of the candidates were like the old James Brown song; 'Talkin' Loud, and Saying Nothing.'"
                       - Danny Cotton, Central Kentucky KFTC Member

Links:

- Fancy Farm videos, from Bluegrass Politics

- "Fancy Farm Speakers Line Up in Support of Coal," from WFPL

- "Grimes, Johnson Spar Over Homeless Voters Issue at Fancy Farm," from WFPL

- KFTC Fancy Farm Picture Gallery

As part of a strategic planning effort, Kentucky's economic development cabinet is gathering input from Kentuckians about our vision for the economic future of the commonwealth over the next five years through public forums held in different cities across the Commonwealth. Jefferson County members participated in one yesterday in Louisville.

Common themes emerged as the nearly 100 people present answered the question: "What are the biggest economic challenges faced by Kentucky today?" Consistent answers were poor education, inadequate tax structure, lack of public transportation, and Kentucky's national image.

Several participants mentioned that the legislators in Frankfort seemed out of touch with the types of innovations and policies needed to move Kentucky forward, including small business incubation models and renewable energy policy. Christina Shadle of Greater Louisville, Inc. noted "nearby states have great models for green incentives that we could learn from."

KFTC member Peggy Wenker felt like the forum was important and was glad she attended. "I think we need new incentives for small businesses - more entrepreneurship. And, because there is no money that Kentucky specifically sets aside for women and minorities in business, people give up easily." She said she liked many of the ideas, but looked forward to seeing a specific plan with concrete ideas about how we accomplish those things.

Peggy also mentioned that she would have like to see the Cabinet hold a forum during non-business hours. "It seemed like everyone there knew each other. I'd like to see more regular people participate in conversations like these, but you would need to hold one of these at night."

There is one more forum in Northern Kentucky - plan to attend if you live nearby: Thursday, August 4, 9 a.m. – noon ET, The METS Center, Auditorium, 3861 Olympic Blvd., Erlanger.

You can also contribute your thoughts online. Fill out a survey at http://www.kentuckysunbridledfuture.com/. Click on the button that says “Provide your input.” Then click on the small underlined link that says, “resident survey.”

Kentucky's Primary Election is just one week away on Tuesday, May 17th. 

The Primary will decide which Republican and Democratic Party candidates will face each other in the General Election this November for positions the positions of Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, and Agriculture Commissioner.  Polls are open from 6am to 6pm.

Learn much more about the election, candidates running, contact information and much more at www.KentuckyElection.org

KFTC members and friends will continue to mobilize voters in these last 7 days.  Upcoming events include a phone bank in Northern Kentucky tonight, a Scott County phone bank on Thursday, a phone bank and test of our automated dialing system in Lexington on Monday, and some community events to pass out Voter Guides this weekend.  Come on out or contact your local KFTC organizer to get involved. 

Northern Kentucky member Jeff Hampton recently submitted to the Kentucky Enquirer, and had published today, a letter to the editor about the current shortfall in the medicaid budget.

The solution to the Kentucky budget deficit is presented as a stark choice between either Governor Beshear’s plan to borrow money from next year’s budget to offset the $140 million deficit in the State’s Medicaid budget or the Senate’s plan of draconian across the board cuts that hurt our kids through education cuts and our seniors through cuts in medical care funding.

There are other possible solutions that can and should be considered. One of them is an overhaul of Kentucky’s antiquated tax structure in which those most able to pay taxes actually pay the least (about 6%) while middle and lower income earners pay the most (from between 9 and 11%). Why are all of the solutions offered, both Democratic and Republican, sacrifices from those least able to afford them while those most able to help escape from their civic responsibility to pay their fair share?

If it is class warfare to say this, I would only respond that the rich have been waging it for the past 40 years and have been winning hands down.

Jeffrey Hampton

Morningview

You can also read the letter here, and can also post on the story.