All across the Commonwealth, KFTC members participated in events today celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

We also took some time to raise awareness of our Voting Rights campaign to challenge archaic laws in Kentucky that still disenfranchise 1 in 4 African Americans.

In Lexington, ten KFTC Members marched in the powerful MLK Freedom March with our banner starting at 10am, passing out voting rights handbills throughout the route. 

This is an important event for us to be at every year,” said Jerry Moody, A dedicated Central Kentucky KFTC leader who made the long march despite suffering a stroke just over a month ago.  “Building solidarity with community groups, particularly people of color groups, is key – and this is a good way to do that.”

 In Louisville, KFTC member Tayna Fogle was part of a motorcade with Wayside Christian Mission, inviting people to sign postcards to legislators about voting rights. 
In Perry County, members participated in a breakfast with a keynote speaker, followed by a march from Consolidated Baptist Church.  They took the opportunity to re-connect with the local NAACP chapter about our big voting rights lobby day in Frankfort on March 4th. 

Harlan County KFTC members participated in similar community events several days ago. 

In Scott County, KFTC members participated in a march and community event at Gano Baptist Church for the first time, with ten members participating over all.  At the community tabling event late in the evening, we connected with lots of new people in the community, including Scott County NAACP allies and three dozen people signed postcards about voting rights. 

Homer White remarked that it was one of the best community tabling events we’ve had in Scott County and many other members agreed that we should be involved every year. 

"We passed out a lot of information and had a lot of great conversations with people," Truman Hurt from Montgomery Creek reflected. 

During the festival, Perry County KFTC members had an information table and circulated petitions about protecting our mountains and streams, creating a state-level earned-income tax credit, and restoring voting rights for former felons.

A number of people were excited about KFTC's new bumper sticker "Friends of Mountains and Miners."  This included KFTC members who have been supportive of mine safety and new folks who have miners in their families are also concerned about mountaintop removal mining.  It was a great way to engage people in a conversation about what KFTC considers responsible mining and the possibilities for future economic transition.

The festival was also a great opportunity to illustrate the range of different issues KFTC works on.  State Senator Brandon Smith stopped by the booth at one point to chat with local members.  Members asked him to continue his support for KFTC's voting rights campaign and were interested to learn about his work as the new chair for the Commission on Poverty.

"We made a lot of contacts who we can follow-up with, and we got 5 new Perry County members.  Overall, this was a great festival!" Truman concluded.

It was 28 years ago that KFTC became "official."  According to the book Making History: The First Ten Years of KFTC,

"Twenty-six people from 12 counties formally organized and named the Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition on August 17, 1981. They also agreed on a statement of purpose:

The Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition is a group of community based organizations and individuals promoting more effective and efficient community services through a fair and equitable taxation system throughout the state of Kentucky, with a particular interest in coal counties.

Also at that meeting, members "passed the hat for the first time. They netted KFTC's first funds, $38.

This Hazard meeting was not the first meeting of this group of people who were coming together from across eastern Kentucky. The group had met on several prior occasions to explore the possibilities of working together on common issues. Shared concerns included the quality of (or lack of) community services and public education in coal counties (which suffered from gross inequalities in the tax system) and the rights of landowners.

Many of the people involved were organizing in their respective home counties around these and related issues. The decision to launch a new organization was based on the understanding that the issues were all related and shared a common underlying roots cause: "the inequality of life with a single dominant industry – coal – that was not contributing its fair share."

"People, especially in eastern Kentucky, were getting to know each other. All around the region there was a loose network of people who had worked together with each other in various ways over the past 15 years or so. What we didn't have in those days was a structured connection between us. There was a no interlocking of these community-level efforts, until KFTC" — Herb E. Smith

Thanks to everyone who is helping KFTC continue to make history! If you're not a member click the here or Join button at the top of the page and become a part of the next 28 years!

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth strongly believes that we need better candidates if we want better decisions made in state and local government – and we want YOU to seriously think about what it would be like to run for office or to help one of your friends run.

Come to a powerful, energetic weekend at the beautiful Hindman Settlement School where we’ll build skills, connections, and confidence to work on elections or run for public office.

Led in partnership with Wellstone Action, a national center for training and leadership development for progressives, workshops topics will include campaign planning and budgeting, telling your story, grassroots voter contact, fundraising, base-building, stump speeches, developing a winning message and more.

For more information and to register online, Click Here.

     

A number of Canary leaders worked together to put on a tour about the impact of outlaw coal mining in Perry County several staff from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), including Peter Lehner the executive director, Julia Bovey, Federal Communications Director, and Patrice Simms, one of their head lawyers.  NRDC is a national environmental organization that works on coal issues and renewable energy.  This organization is a part of the Reality Coalition, which seeks to break down the myth about clean coal.

KFTC members wanted to illustrate the problems with the non-enforcement of coal mining laws that are supposed to protect miners and the environment and the devastation of mountaintop removal and other radical strip mining.  They also highlighted the problems with the falsity of carbon capture and sequestration and how NRDC’s support of these measures will likely result in billions of dollars of additional investment in the coal industry.  Eastern Kentuckians from Floyd, Harlan, Letcher and Perry Counties proposed a better investment would be in creating jobs in Eastern Kentucky around renewable and energy efficiency.

“I was pleased to meet an ally and hope that we can create better relationships to get more help on local, state, and federal issues.  I hope NRDC can be a great ally in our fight to stop mountaintop removal and valley fills.  I also hope that with what they saw and heard they took a way a better understanding of how this issue affects our communities,” Patty Amburgey, a member from Letcher County reflected.

Tom Fitzgerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, also presented to the delegation.  Jim Welch, Vice Chairperson of the Brown-Foreman Co, and his wife Marianne, both supporters of KFTC were instrumental in the success of this event.

You can check out Julia’s reflections and some video footage take on the trip Here

Last week about 20 KFTC supporters recently gathered for an informal house party in Perry County. People ate good food, shared fellowship, played music together, and discussed the upcoming legislative session.

Members also took some time to reflect on why they have value KFTC. From these reflections, a series of Haikus were born. Here are some of the creative gems that were born out of this exercise:

Empower people
Education excitement
Haikus for justice

Motivate justice
Fantabulous hopes and dreams
Wonderful action

Calm before the storm
Family community
starry wonderment

Warning rebuttle
We must rise up for action
Of the earth’s power

Freakin’ progressive
Empowering Kentucky
Cool KFTC

Community voice
Warning of earth’s rebuttal
We will scream out loud

Clean coal is bullcrap
KFTC rocks my socks
Motivated folks

Simple liberty
Can be attained with action
With people power

KFTC members participated in a number of Martin Luther King Jr. Day events across the state earlier this week, often making connections between King's legacy and the campaign to restore voting rights to former felons in Kentucky, a practice that takes voting rights away from 1 in 4 voting age African Americans in Kentucky.  

Members passed out information, had conversations with people, and otherwise celebrated the spirit of King's life in solidarity with ally organizations

In Lexington, Doug Rigsby, Tayna Fogle, and others got Restoration postcard to legislators signed after the Unity Breakfast at Heritage Hall and before the MLK March.  Afterwards, members had a powerful Open Mic Night at Al's Bar in honor of MLK Day.

Members in Perry County, Louisville, and Springfield, and in many other communities had other events honoring King's memory. 

   

   

This Monday Perry KFTC members attended events in Hazard honoring and celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, including a Diversity Breakfast at the Hazard Community and Technical College. Natalie Gibson, who is the Diversity Director for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, spoke on the theme of “Live the Dream.” Ludrenia Hagans-Sheperd, president of the local NAACP chapter and professor at HCTC, spoke about the challenges of getting access to education of African Americans and the legacy of African Americans educators in Eastern Kentucky.

Following the breakfast, the NAACP chapter hosted a march from the college to Consolidated Baptist Church in Hazard. At the church, KFTC members shared fellowship and reflections with NAACP members and others in the community.

“Now, maybe more than ever, we need the leadership to carry on Martin Luther King Jr.’s mission of seeking justice for everyone. There is growing income disparity that impacts all people and a justice system that disproportionately incarcerates African Americans,” Lyle Snider reflected.

KFTC members also talked about our restoration of voting rights campaign and encouraged people to come to Frankfort for the lobby day on February 10th. A number of new people expressed interest in the campaign and looking forward to participating in the lobby day.

This past Wednesday the Governor finished up his series of town hall meetings about the budget crisis in Hazard.  The governor talked about the issues with the deficit, described the cuts to different departments from earlier this year, and how the additional shortfall of $456 million would be resolved.  He also talked about his desire to limit additional cuts to education, healthcare, and public safety and the proposed increased to the cigarette tax.

The coal industry also came out in full force and attempted the focus of the discussion to mountaintop removal, valley fill permits, and the governor’s recent statement opposing the elimination of the stream buffer zone.

Several local KFTC members spoke on a range of topics, which included appreciation for the governor’s action regarding the stream buffer zone rule.   KFTC members also spoke about the role of government in helping to diversify the local economy through green energy and to fund important services, like education, medical assistance, and community projects.

We need more green jobs in Eastern Kentucky, like the wind turbines on Black Mountain, and solar energy.  We need to create other options for the day when the coal runs out.  Also, a single payer healthcare system would be good for Kentucky by providing healthcare for everyone,” - Russell Oliver

It seems to me if we care about healthcare; we should care about protecting the environment.  Those two things go hand and hand.  Also, when you look at the tax system in Kentucky people on the lowest end pay the highest percentage of taxes, and people making the most pay the least.  That’s not fair.  We should be asking more of the people who are most able to pay,” - Chris West

Teams of KFTC members are out in both Perry County and Harlan County this morning distributing Voter Guides in shopping centers and in the streets. 

Harlan County had a large phonebank yesterday and members in both counties continue to make calls today.. 

“I feel like we made a lot of really great contacts with people we should really keep in touch with,” said member Carl Shoupe, pictured here from an earlier voter registration event.