For Kentucky's Orphan-People--
The Tight-Belt of Governance Tightens Like a Noose
On Valentine's Day, just this past Thursday, the Commonwealth of Kentucky House of Representatives hosted a get-together for the have-nots-- with the meeting of the Sub-Committee on Human Resources. I attended this convening-- and came away in a peculiar mood-- as if I had been one who attended a party hosted with some august ambivalence-- a congress of waifs celebrating an "Orphans Valentines Party" presented by a few well-intended hosts, with ambiance-- music-lights-decoration in minor-key.
The stimulus for this get-together was for imperiled folk-- those living close-to-the-wire-- the brain-injured, the severely retarded, the chronically-mentally-ill, and seniors-- all faced with short-change budgeting and short-change treatment by the system-- to speak up for themselves-- TO BE HEARD. This "HEARING" made discomforting listening to anybody with the least sense of conscience and decency-- I shall here recount the disconcertions that "hit me" there-- shocking and catastrophic words that were stinging to hear. But I went away wondering whether all this maroon-note-lamentation on the Love-Day 2/24/2008 was indeed HEARD by the great and august body of the power-elite after all. I shall explain in a few extra words...
This assembly was well-attended by the needy-- there were in excess of 150 people there-- an overflow crowd that had to be accommodated by channeling a number of attendees to a side-room-with-television-monitor. I did come early-- but it was crowded for the people-attending-- standing room only. Herein came testimony from those affected by the gutting of programs for the truly-wounded of Kentucky-- the autistic just-looking-for-a-home, the mothers-facing-death-and-then-incapable of-dressing-feeding-clothing-the-retarded-son, the devastated-mentally-ill-who-with-cuts-will-not-survive-make-it, the wives-of-brain-damaged-carwrecked-professionals-now-vegitating.
This assembly was under-attended-- in my studied estimation-- by representatives in the Kentucky House of Representatives-- I counted two such Reps-- one was the Louisville-Human-Cause-Champion Reginald Meeks-- and by another whom I could not identify despite some watching-previously of General-Assembly news on Kentucky Educational Television.
To me this dearth of Representatives and surfeit of needy-folk was most-telling: for I happened in early, to the meeting of some kind of sports-testimony for another committee like an hour prior to the Human Resources Sub-Committee meet: there the situation demographically was opposite. The Officials behind the bench hearing-witness were in abundance-- and there were guys at the table talking about some nifty plans for letting golfers play at Valhalla in Louisville during the Riders' Cup horse-race thing this year. The attendees were under-represented-- I had absolutely no trouble finding a seat.
From these presents, it is not hard to infer the priorities of this fast-women-and-pretty-horses-State. Kentucky does love its fine old horsey traditions-- and has always been "dark and bloody" (as the legend is that evicted Native Americans called this place) on the receiving end for the have-nots. True-- the Louisville Courier-Journal (CJ) sent in Deborah Yetter-- who functions as the social-action reporter for this organ-- who turned out a grabbing piece about how those affected by the nothingness of fiscal impossibilities imposed by shortfalls in the budget this year-- implying how there portends to be camps-on-the-street of the infirm-- a community adrift with milling suffering people-- in the "cold Kentucky rain" unless some effective remediation takes place.
This made good "copy" in the CJ-- I read the online version doing my pauper-best to be well-informed via PC-- and even made a couple of comments to the Yetter publications on this sore-topic. But I am under zero illusion that this state-- beyond the FEW in-power like those manning the House Human Resources Sub-Committee then-- and the MANY who will just have to get rained/snowed-upon. We cowboy-rednecks in this wacky place REALLY DO seem to care about horsies and basketball and korn-likker and to-backer more than the suffering of people. While I read and was animated by the Yetter story on these issues, I doubt if there will be much hullaballoo from very many others... who seem the-much-more-concerned about the new stadiums that will have been built, and fightin' for the honor of ole Kaintuck' to make it all the way to the NCAA.
I attended this hearing in the anticipation that I might be able to get-a-word-in-edgewise about the dropped-out drop-dead situation of those I see on the streets in Louisville, those beneath the services provided by agencies, the hard-core nitty-gritty Untouchables who are seemingly left to die-- without the blessings of NAMI, the mental health centers, the day-care drop-in centers-- whose station is not mine, as I by pluck and huff-puff managed to pull myself from homelessness to this station-- not plush by any means-- but at least dry to rains and semi-warm in winter-- and with a viable landlord-- and this magic-box my PC-- from which I can connect to a world which seems never-to-have-heard-or-care of Untouchables of my ilk. But I in fine did not get the opportunity "to talk" -- so impacted was the waiting-line-of-testifiers with stories at least as grim as mine...but that is "par for this Unbridled State Golf Course."
I would like to express words in a certain sense of grief about the during-before-and-after of this "Orphans' Valentines Party." The arrow-of-time to accommodate the sequence of these events-- the elite-well-attended sporty committee with few "folk"-- the under-attended-by-elite well-attended with "folk" Human Resources Committee-- and the blip-in-the-most-conscientious-newspaper in this state-- augurs to be like a FLASH and FIZZ-- easily forgotten for coming news here of March-Madness-basketball, then the Derby, then baseball football and back-to-basketball-again-- will probably spell short-retention of the blood-and-guts issues ABUNDANTLY VOICED in this hearing.
The Sub-Committee meeting was focused on the possibility of raising the tobacco tax a few pennies-- we are as tobacco-producing state holding at 46th nationally on the cigarette tax-- which for all the crises limned by these hapless on whom I report above is supposed to send-some-help. But I truly have some doubts. First of all, this is a to-backer nuts state-- and secondly even a substantial boost (an unlikely event in view of the lobbyists) will not do much to comfort-the-afflicted; comfort-for-the-comfortable will be the more-likely status quo eventuality to these proceedings. There is talk of casino gambling-- and while I kinda grate at the thought of some of the misadventures incumbent with the high-living-gaming-set, it is true that "the people" do not really seem to mind forking out their fortunes on a bet as opposed to forking out some pennies for the-clobbered-in-society. Grudgingly therefore, I do support gaming-- which our Gov says will double our state revenues. But then: the Baptists and Holyrollers and the Gaming-Mafia of other states are ganged up politically against even this slim hope.
What [!!!] a "Maroon Valentine" we have received-- we Untouchables in this Unbridled State! The next thing I expect to hear will be that our bodies-- upon demise from Kentucky hypothermia-- will be composted to avoid the expense to counties of interment/cremation of the intestate. But then, the indigent in Kaintuck have always been left-to-die after disfranchisement-- Daniel Boone being one of the first in this regard-- kicked out of holdings in Kaintuck to die in Missouri -- then to have his holy bones brought back for memorial-as-hero in Frankfort cemetery. Some of my own kinfolk were 'Missouri-ed' also. Some were abolitionists in Boone County drafted by the Confederate Army-- "to fight for our lost cause of slavery." My great-grandmother on my mother's side was committed to hard labor at Central State Hospital status post partem depression-- and when she couldn't work having acquired TB-- she was interned to Eastern State to have her leg-rot-of-with-tubercular-tumors in seclusion-- and of course the state was KIND and USUAL enough to send her abandoned-thereby son a bill "for therapeutic services rendered."
SO STAY AWAY FROM THE DARK & BLOODY STATE-- LIKKER/TO-BACKER-CRAZY KENTUCKY-- ONCE YOU GET TRAPPED IN HERE-- YOU NEVER EVER GET OUT OF HELL!!!
--Vernon Lynn Stephens, MSSW
D.S.M. IV-TR # 296.44
Telephone: 1 (502) 561-5419 anytime for mental health issues.
Email: freethink@insightbb.com anytime for mental health issues.
posted by Louisville Hermitage @ 2:59 PM
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