October 2013 - balancing the scales

October 3, 2013

Eastern Kentucky chapters host fellow KFTC members

NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID LEXINGTON, KY. PERMIT NO. 513

Democracy alive at the largest KFTC annual meeting everpg. 11

Change Service Requested

Volume 32 Number 6

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth P.O. Box 1450 London, Ky. 40743

balancing the scales

pg. 8

Fall Campaign kicks off with new tools and resources pg. 10

The Voting Rights Issue in Kentucky: What it is and why it matters pg. 15

Many more Kentuckians now have access to health care pg. 9

Hundreds attend pipeline hearing but not allowed to speak pg. 13

Judges places temporary halt on mining at Stacy Branch, Lotts Creek pg. 16

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Table of Contents Executive Committee Corner page 3 Ethan Hamblin wins Youth Warrior Award page 3 Member Commentary The abridgment of the right to vote in 21st Century America, Part II

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Local Updates Water testing workshop connects with community health issues page 5 Eastern Kentucky chapters learn about wild edibles and medicinals page 5 Say Hey Smoketown: chapter opens new Louisville Office page 6 Rowan chapter feeds crowd at music festival page 6 Author of book on racial politics to visit Lexington page 6 Madison County chapter ends busy summer on high note page 7 Community members learn to speak with their pens page 7 Eastern Kentucky chapters host fellow KFTC members page 8 Northern Ky Loves Democracy page 8

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth is a statewide grassroots social justice orga­­ni­ zation working for a new balance of power and a just society. KFTC uses direct-action organizing to accomplish the following goals: • foster democratic values • change unjust institutions • empower individuals • overcome racism and other discrimination • communicate a message of what’s possible • build the organization • help people participate • win issues that affect the common welfare • have fun

Economic Justice Update Many more Kentuckians now have access to health care Editorial: My State Needs Obamacare. Now.

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Grassroots Fundraising Update Fall Campaign kicks off with new tools and resources

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KFTC membership dues are $15 to $50 per year, based on ability to pay. No one is denied membership because of inability to pay.

Membership is open to anyone who is committed to equality, democracy and nonviolent change.

Democracy alive at the largest KFTC annual meeting ever Awards from the 2013 Annual Membership Meeting

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KFTC Steering Committee

Bluegrass Pipeline Campaign Update Hundreds attend pipeline hearing but not allowed to speak page 13 FAQs: correcting claims in misleading ads page 14 Voting Rights Update The Voting Rights Issue in Kentucky: What it is and why it matters 50th anniversary of March on Washington

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Canary Project Update Judges places temporary halt on mining at Stacy Branch, Lotts Creek Mill Creek residents still looking for relief after destruction of water

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New Energy and Transition Update Clean Energy Collaborative winds down, hosts public forum A new energy future is being built in Benham by town residents Vision, leadership and participation critical for transition

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Sue Tallichet, chair Dana Beasley Brown, vice chair Megan Naseman, secretary-treasurer Carl Shoupe, at-large member Steve Boyce, immediate past chair

Chapter Representatives Homer White, Scott County Christian Torp, Central Kentucky Lisa Bryant, Rowan County Ben Baker, Northern Kentucky Shekinah Lavalle, Jefferson County Alan Smith, Southern Kentucky Rutland Melton, Harlan County Katie Pirotina, Perry County Meta Mendel-Reyes, Madison County Elizabeth Sanders, Letcher County Nina McCoy, Big Sandy Lee Ann Paynter, Wilderness Trace Leslie McBride, Shelby County Alternates: Rosanne Fitts Klarer, Scott County; Greg Capillo, Central Kentucky; John Hennen, Rowan County; Rick Traud, Northern Kentucky; Nan Goheen, Jefferson County; Travis Lane and Jeanie Smith, Southern Kentucky; Clair Stines, Harlan County; Russell Oliver, Perry County; Steve Wilkins, Madison County; Josh May, Letcher Coun­ ty; Virginia Madison, Big Sandy; Leah Bayens, Wil­ derness Trace; Joanna Mackens, Shelby County. balancing the scales is published by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and mailed third class from Lexington, Kentucky.

Reader contri­butions and letters to the editor should be sent to 250 Southland Drive Suite #4, Lexington, KY. 40503 or tim@kftc.org.

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Executive Committee Corner

Carl Shoupe is the newest member of the KFTC Executive Committee, elected at the Annual Membership Meeting in August to serve as the at-large representative. Though he is well known in KFTC, he takes a little space here to tell about himself.

by Carl Shoupe

I live on the banks of Looney Creek in Benham, deep in the hills of Harlan County. I’m proud to say I’m a former Marine – I spent my 19th birthday in Vietnam. I came home from the war and went into the coal mines, and shortly after was crushed in rock fall by a threeton boulder. I was fortunate to survive. Eventually I became an organizer with the United Mine Workers.

I come from a long line of hard-working Appalachian people. My great grandfather worked in timber.

My grandfather and father were coal miners, making me a third generation coal miner. And I’m proud to tell you that my son is one of the best underground miners I know.

I’ve been involved with coal in some capacity all my life. When I say involved, I have fought all my life with coal companies to create a better workplace and accountability. My father before me was wounded on the picket line working towards the same end. I know about coal mining, and I know firsthand what the role it’s played

in the past and what it’s doing to our communities.

These issues are personal to me. Mountaintop removal and hollow fills have destroyed the streams I played in as a boy, the streams I used to catch crawdads in, and the streams that were clean enough to drink from.

Because of the way the industry is allowed to operate, these streams are no longer there. My grandchildren are increasingly being deprived of our mountain way of life.

That’s unacceptable.

I got involved because the issues affect me and my family personally, but increasingly we know that it is not just me in Benham, or people in Harlan County or even just eastern Kentucky that are affected. What we do here in the mountains is affecting everyone downstream.

We recognize that we all have a stake in what the coal industry is destroying – the health and well-being of all Kentuckians.

In my community, we are looking to the future and trying to diversify our economy, as we have since I first joined KFTC. We’re still involved in several actions concerning the lands unsuitable for mining and protecting our water supply; we still have to keep our ear to the ground concerning the mountaintop removal issues.

But I can see attitudes changing. The possibility for change is being talked about. People are realizing we have to do something.

In Benham we are trying to get a sustainable energy project going. We recently had a meeting with representatives from the local power board, community members and a bunch of other organizations. We had a real open discussion about possible avenues to help decrease the cost of energy for our citizens and the city. We discussed

Ethan Hamblin wins Youth Warrior Award

The Marguerite Casey Foundation has awarded 22-year-old Ethan Hamblin, a Berea College senior and KFTC member, of Gays Creek (Perry County) the Sargent Shriver Youth Warriors Against Poverty Leadership Award.

While interning at the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky in Hazard, Hamblin established the Youth Leadership and Philanthropy Initiative to spur local youth to invest in enhancing their community. In the program, high school students participate in grantmaking, fundraising, nonprofit engagement and community service.

Hamblin also serves on the steering committee of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth (STAY) Project, which provides Appalachian youth with the skills, resources and support they need to make lasting change at home.

“We must promote young New Power,” Hamblin said in an interview with KFTC last year. “Our society must ask itself, how are we encouraging young people to run for political office and be more politically aware? As we explore the possibilities, young people will become

more politically charged by showing up at rallies, attending legislative hearings, and vote on Election Day.” As one of 14 young persons to receive the award, Hamblin will receive $5,000 in recognition of his vision, passion and dedication to improving the lives of families in his community. He was nominated by KFTC.

Whether organizing youth to invest in making their communities better, speaking out about youth homelessness, fighting for immigrant rights, or helping young people gain access to good jobs, each of the 14 Sargent Shriver Youth Warriors Against Poverty Award winners has a unique and inspiring story that the Marguerite Casey Foundation hopes to share with other youth and communities, the foundation said in a press release.

Each is a local hero whose work is a powerful example of Sargent Shriver’s call to “serve, serve, serve!”

Of the award winners, Marguerite Casey Foundation President and CEO Luz Vega-Marquis said, “Their activism, born out of necessity and rooted in personal experience, is fueled by their belief in a better tomorrow for themselves, their families and future generations.

These young people are passionate and courageous and poised to take the reigns as a new generation of leaders.”

The Marguerite Casey Foundation is a national, independent grantmaking foundation dedicated to helping low-income families strengthen their voice and mobilize their communities.

a broad range of things regarding sustainable energy.

People are willing to work outside the box to make Benham a model for eastern Kentucky.

Ever since I’ve been involved in KFTC, our goal has been to talk about sustainable energy and renewable energy. We’ve been talking about getting a wind project here for years. We’ve had to concern ourselves much of the time with protecting our community, but I’m excited that we’re using the end of the Kentucky Utilities contract with the Benham Power Board in 2016 as an opportunity to pursue some of our initial goals.

As I said at I Love Mountains Day, I believe in Harlan County’s bright future, in Kentucky’s bright future, in Appalachia’s bright future. But we must do more than want it. We have to dream it. We have to build it and protect it, together. We have to demand it and work for it every day. We have to organize for it and we have to vote for it.

I’m ready to do my part. And I believe I am blessed to have the opportunity to do so.

KFTC Offices and Staff MAIN OFFICE Morgan Brown, Robin Daugherty & Burt Lauderdale P.O. Box 1450 London, Kentucky 40743 606-878-2161 Fax: 606-878-5714 info@kftc.org

FIELD OFFICES Louisville Jessica George, Jerry Hardt, Alicia Hurle Carissa Lenfert, and Colette Henderson 735 Lampton St. # 202 Louisville, Ky 40203 502-589-3188 Whitesburg Tanya Turner P.O. Box 463 Whitesburg, Ky 41858 606-632-0051 Central Kentucky Tim Buckingham, Jessica Hays Lucas, Beth Howard, Erik Hungerbuhler, and Heather Roe Mahoney, 250 Plaza Drive Suite 4 Lexington, Ky 40503 859-276-0563

Northern Kentucky Joe Gallenstein 859-380-6103 Floyd County Jessie Skaggs 154 North Lake Drive Prestonsburg, Ky 41653 606-226-4159 Bowling Green Denney Breeding 270-779-6483 Berea Lisa Abbott, Beth Biss­ meyer, Amy Hogg, Sara Pennington and Kevin Pentz 140 Mini Mall Drive Berea, Ky 40403 859-986-1277 Teri Blanton 118 Baugh Street Berea, Ky 40403 859-986-1648

e-mail any staff member at firstname@kftc.org except for Jessica Hays Lucas -- use jessicabreen@kftc.org, Beth Howard -- use BethHoward@kftc.org, and Beth Bissmeyer -- use BethBissmeyer@kftc.org

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Member Commentary

balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

The abridgment of the right to vote in 21st Century America, Part II

by Christian L. Torp

This is Part II focusing on the recent Supreme Court decision and how it effects the Voting Rights Act You might have been curious as to what I meant when I asked what the motto of the Wobblies meant in Part I of this series without giving any context. What it was was that Part I of this series was originally subtitled: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” Unfortunately, that didn’t make it in due to space restrictions, but we all pay the price for our pervasive faux democracy that politicians pander in support of.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act (hereinafter VRA) has been in the news lately because of the Supreme Court case Shelby County Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General, Et. Al. (www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/1296_6k47.pdf). This is a case in which Shelby County, Alabama, sued the U.S. Attorney General for a declaratory judgment (legal pronouncement) that sections 4(b) and 5 of the VRA are unconstitutional as a matter of law and permanently barring their enforcement.

Section 4(b) of the VRA defined a “coverage formula” by which states or political subdivisions “that maintained tests or devices as prerequisites to voting, and had low voter registration or turnout, in the 1960s and early 1970s” were determined to be “covered jurisdictions” and thereby applicable to section 5 of the VRA, the effect of such coverage being that no change in voting procedure could take place until it was approved or “precleared”

by Federal authorities.

Shelby County lost their initial suit in the United States District Court for Washington, D.C., the court having found that the evidence before Congress in 2006 for the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act, which reauthorized the VRA for another 25 years, was adequate to reauthorize Section 5 and continue the coverage formula provided in section 4(b). Congress found that “[t]he Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting, ‘an insidious and pervasive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of our country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution.’ South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 309.”

Thereafter Shelby County appealed the case to the D.C. Circuit Court, where the Court accepted Congress’s finding that litigation based on §2 of the VRA, which banned qualifications or prerequisites to voting based on “race or color” was inadequate in covered jurisdictions and that §5 of the VRA was still necessary, thereby accepting the Coverage Formula found in §4(b).

After losing twice, Shelby County reached the last leg of its journey and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court, which had voiced concern about the “continued constitutionality” of the Act in a 2009 case in which a Texas utility district sought to bail out from the Act’s coverage (Northwest Austin Municipal Util. Dist.

No. One v. Holder, 557 U. S. 193 http://www.law.cornell. edu/supct/pdf/08-322P.ZO), granted Shelby County’s petition for certiorari, the legal writ asking the Supreme Court to hear a case.

An interesting aside is that even the denial of a Petition for Writ of Certiorari can have the force of law as it evinces an unwillingness of the Supreme Court to change things from how they now stand – as soon as Shelby County motioned the Supreme Court, things were going to change, the VRA was either going to get a little stronger, a little weaker, much stronger or destroyed.

The good, the bad, the ugly... and the predictable

Shelby County Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General, Et. Al. actually has three opinions, the majority opinion of Justice Roberts, a 2005 Bush appointee after the death of prior Chief Justice William Rehnquist, joined by Justices Scalia, Kennedy and Alito; a concurring opinion written

by Justice Clarence Thomas; and the dissent of Justice Ginsburg joined by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan.

Roberts’ majority opinion struck down section 4(b) of the VRA, finding that while “voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that” … “the conditions that originally justified these measures no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions.” The effect of this being that while the VRA was not struck down, it was castrated. “Our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in §2. We issue no holding on §5 itself, only on the coverage formula. Congress may draft another formula based on current conditions.”

Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion is really the heart of the matter. At the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom I saw a sign that read “Justice Thomas, you could have saved Section 5.”

Thomas not only green-lighted the evisceration of the VRA, he “[f]or the reasons stated in the Court’s opinion … would find §5 unconstitutional.” That while “our Nation has changed” and while “[t]he conditions that originally justified [§5] no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions” the “circumstances in the covered jurisdictions can no longer be characterized as ‘exceptional’ or ‘unique.’”

Further, if legislation “enacted to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting, ‘an insidious and pervasive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of our

New Power News Roundup: Citing Racial Disparities, Senator Rand Paul Favors Restoration of Felon Voting Rights, by Philip Bailey, WFPL-FM, September 16:

Acknowledging racial disparities in U.S. drug and sentencing laws, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is calling for the restoration of felon voting rights in state and federal laws.

country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution’” are no longer “exceptional” or “unique” then why is the discussion not about applying the coverage formula of §4(b) and the pre-clearance requirements of §5 to the whole nation, all of its states and political subdivisions?

Finally, the dissent of Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan held that “ the very success of §5 of the Voting Rights Act demands its dormancy.” That Congress undertook a huge process and produced a “voluminous record” in its study for the 25-year reauthorization of the VRA in 2006. Most succinctly, that the VRA, which was originally predicated on the post Civil-War Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th and 15th), the 14th giving Congress the “power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article,” was to be enacted and enforced by Congress, who overwhelmingly supported the 2006 reauthorization in both Houses or the unelected and unaccountable Supreme Court.

The dissenters then go on to repeatedly give current and widespread examples of how the VRA has been used up to the present day and why it continues to be necessary. That “After a century’s failure to fulfill the promise of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, passage of the VRA finally led to signal improvement on this front. ‘The Justice Department estimated that in the five years after [the VRA’s] passage, almost as many blacks registered [to vote] in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina as in the entire century before 1965.’”

Visit www.kftc.og/righttovote to read the rest of this article focused on “How we got here” and “What does it mean?”

Why invest in Kentuckians For The Commonwealth?

Your donation to KFTC supports the important work we do to build a stronger democracy, including supporting constituents in talking to their legislators, monitoring activity in Frankfort while legislators, and giving members opportunities to take action on important bills. You also support our work to educate voters about where candidates stand on the issues we all care about.

Contributions to KFTC are not tax-deductible. Make your check payable to the Kentucky Coalition if you wish your contribution to

balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Local Updates

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Water testing workshop connects with community health issues

Thirty people from nine counties in three different states came to Whitesburg in September to learn how to do basic tests of local streams, talk about water quality issues in the mountains, and learn how to get involved with work around the region related to clean water.

The water testing workshop, sponsored by the Letcher County KFTC Chapter, The STAY Project, and Headwaters, Inc., was the fourth in a series of workshops held around eastern Kentucky this year as part of KFTC’s Community Science and Public Health Project, which works to make the connection between water and health, and to build the case for clean water.

Held at Appalshop, the workshop began with a screening of the short film Before It’s Too Late created by youth interns of Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute 2012 documentary program. The film highlights water quality issues in Letcher County communities and two of the film’s creators, Ellie Hogg and Jade Slone, were on hand to talk about the process of making the film and to answer questions.

After reviewing the basics of water testing, participants divided into groups

and headed out to put what they learned into action. Groups tested water at various locations in downtown Whitesburg, Cram Creek and Crafts Colley.

Data collected through water testing is then used to learn about the quality of streams and is uploaded to a publicly accessible website that helps prioritize where additional lab tests are needed to address local pollution and health concerns.

In the afternoon, members from each of the workshop sponsors – KFTC, The STAY Project, and Headwaters, Inc. – talked about the work they’re doing around the region, how folks can get involved and ways they’re organizing to address clean water issues.

“Organizing is talking to each other, learning together like this, and making things better for all of us,” said KFTC member Katie Pirotina of Perry County.

“Maybe people don’t know others care about our water. Some people might think they’re the only one. We need to find them.

That’s why we’re here.”

If you have concerns about the quality of water in your area or have questions, please contact Jessie Skaggs at jessie@kftc. org or 502-387-9616.

As a follow-up to the 2013 Growing Appalachia conference, members of the Big Sandy and Rowan County chapters organized a Collecting Wild Edibles and Medicinals workshop on September 8 in Floyd County.

Led by Rowan County member Cody Montgomery, attendees hiked the hills around Wilson Creek in Floyd County and learned about the species located in the area, how to locate their habitats, specific uses for herbs, and how to prepare certain plants for personal use.

“There is an abundance of useful plants in our hills,” said Montgomery.

“Virtually everything has one use or another for humans, and certainly every plant is beneficial to life as a whole.”

Whether medicinal or culinary, plants can provide an opportunity to save money through medicinal use or earn money

by creating a marketable product. Many attendees talked about how excited they were to learn these uses of plants native to the region.

“Connecting directly to the wild edible and medicinal plants of your native mountains is an ethereal experience,” said Donna Williams of Prestonsburg.

In March of this year, the Big Sandy chapter hosted the fourth annual Growing Appalachia conference, a day of workshops about small-scale farming, energy efficiency, renewables and other small business opportunities. Montgomery led the workshop on Collecting and Marketing Wild Edibles and Medicinals at the conference, and many people who attended wanted to build on what they learned and gain more hands-on experience, which led to the workshop in September.

KFTC’s series of community water testing workshops successfully concluded after the most recent one in Letcher County. Others were held in Floyd County, Harlan County and Perry County with participants attending from all over eastern Kentucky. Participants learned basic principles in the classroom and then applied them in the field by testing water in their community.

Eastern Kentucky chapters learn about wild edibles and medicinals

Planning for the 2014 Growing Appalachia conference is getting underway and will be of interest to anyone wanting to learn how to save money, earn money or even start a small business using sustainable ideas.

Workshop leader Cody Montgomery (left) shows attendees how to use Jewelweed or Spotted Touch-Me-Not in treating poison ivy. By cutting open the nodes on the bottom of the stalk, it exposes an aloe-like substance that can be used to relieve irritated skin.

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Local Updates

Say Hey Smoketown: chapter opens new Louisville Office

by Travis A. Rountree

The Jefferson County KFTC Chapter opened its doors to the community for the first time in its new location at 735 Lampton Street in the Smoketown neighborhood east of downtown Louisville on September 28.

With the gate open, community members strolled into the grassy area that was alive with music and welcoming chapter members.

Everyone gathered in the sun to listen to folks representing different community groups around the area.

Chapter leader Becki Winchel welcomed the crowd to the new space, inviting attendees to visit the information table and eat the delicious food that members had so graciously provided for the event.

Local filmmaker Lavel White spoke about his new documentary based on the historic Sheppard Square area in Smoketown.

In the new facility guests viewed the first fifteen minutes of White’s film titled, More Than Bricks and Mortar: The Sheppard Square Story. The film showcases the historic community and spotlights the powerful role it has played in the Louisville area.

Before watching the short film, guests were invited to take a look at the new office that includes KFTC offices, a shared conference room for community meetings and a full yard for community functions.

In addition to White, other community organizations spoke at the event.

These included Network for Community Change, Women In Transition, Kentucky Jobs with Justice, and the Shelby Park Neighborhood Association.

Along with community organizations, Jefferson County KFTC members spoke about local issues the chapter is organizing around.

KFTC member Ryan Fenwick addressed environmental justice, specifically the air quality issue in Rubbertown.

Flaco Aleman addressed voting rights and pointed out that Kentucky is one of four states that permanently bars voting for those who have a felony conviction. Shekinah Lavalle spoke about economic justice issues.

Lastly, local and state government representatives attended the event including State Senator Gerald Neal and

Gil Reyes, an aide for U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth.

Reyes spoke of Congressman Yarmuth’s interest in seeing our organization and community members talk about their community together in one space.

The event proved to be a success as it raised $342 and 13 new members, but the real success was getting everyone together on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to talk about local issues offered on the Smoketown vision board.

The Jefferson County chapter and community members both look forward to joining together on future events to make a difference in such a historic neighborhood and the greater Louisville area.

Community members from across Louisville attended the open house for the new Louisville KFTC office in Smoketown.

Rowan chapter feeds crowd at music festival

by Annie Adams

The Rowan County chapter held its annual fundraiser at the Old Time Music Festival July 27-28 in Morehead. This was the fourth year the chapter worked the festival, held at Jaycee Farm, and the third year it served as the sole food vendor.

More than a dozen chapter members helped to set up tables and tents, and almost the same number staffed the food and merchandise stations during the festival. The main food station, set up by the chapter’s resident grill master Ted Withrow, served hamburgers, hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches (with slaw), fried taters and the fundraiser’s most popular menu item, soup beans with corn bread.

On Saturday, this station even added fresh corn on the cob from the farmer’s

market.

The other station, a vegetarian oasis overseen by Doug Doerrfeld, served bean burritos, Brazilian black bean soup, Indian chickpea stew, and, on Saturday morning, breakfast burritos.

Festival-goers in search of something a little sweet could purchase slices of watermelon, homemade cookies, and even chocolate biscotti with cashews.

Under canopies donated by the Big Sandy and Berea chapters was a site specifically devoted to KFTC goods and information. Attendees who wished to purchase KFTC merchandise could choose from the usual hats, T-shirts, CDs, bumper stickers and books, as well as artisanal bowls hand-crafted by the chapter’s own Cody Montgomery.

The glazed bowls, all inscribed with

“KFTC” on the bottom, were a steal on their own (only $10) and an even better deal coupled with a meal: for a mere 12 dollars, customers could get a generous portion of homemade soup or soup beans in beautiful stoneware.

Thanks to the great weather and good attendance, the chapter had one of its most successful fundraisers. Not only did it manage to sell out of a number of menu items without having to turn any potential patrons away, but it also earned rave reviews: when Withrow stepped up to the main stage Saturday night to announce that the food tents would be closing within the hour, the crowd gave him, and the KFTC workers, a standing ovation. By providing good food at a fair price, the chapter was able to raise $1,435.52 for KFTC.

On November 9, Dr. Jakobi Williams will be in Lexington to talk about and sign his book, From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.

Williams is a former faculty member at the University of Kentucky and is now an associate professor at Indiana University.

His book focuses on the history of the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the context of the long history of racial segregation.

“The story of the Illinois Panthers is a multifaceted one. So too is the chapter’s legacy, touching on race, poverty, and

politics in Chicago and the nation.” Dr. Williams said.

“Fred Hampton’s conviction that the Panthers had to ‘unite with as many people as possible’ ... lay behind the three most significant elements of this legacy: the ILBPP survival programs (free breakfast, medical clinics, etc.), its influence on racial coalition politics (particularly through the Rainbow Coalition), and its ongoing effect as a catalyst for 21st century racial and political conflict in Chicago.”

Hampton was a charismatic, highly effective and visionary leader of the ILBPP (Illinois Black Panther Party) whose life

was cut short with his brutal murder on December 4, 1969, at the age of 21.

The ILBPP formed the first Rainbow Coalition, years before Jessie Jackson trademarked the name. They laid the groundwork for Harold Washington’s defeat of the Daley political machine in Chicago in 1983.

Williams will read at the Wild Fig Bookstore, 1439 Leestown Road in Lexington, at 4 p.m.

This event is sponsored by Central Kentucky Restoration of Voting Rights Campaign, KFTC and the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice.

Author of book on racial politics to visit Lexington

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Local Updates

Madison County chapter ends busy summer on high note

For some, summer is a time for taking a break. But work did not slow down this summer for the Madison County chapter.

From starting a new work team to leading workshops at the annual meeting to organizing a successful annual event, this summer was a productive and fun one for the chapter.

Many chapter meetings this year have incorporated some sort of exercise or discussion centered on the issue of racial justice and white privilege. With the leadership of Steering Committee Representative Meta Mendel-Reyes, these have been important thought-provoking activities, giving people a safe space to talk with others and dive deeper than they might otherwise.

While the chapter is continuing to use chapter meetings for these discussions, a new work team recently formed to explore how to further engage and take action for racial justice.

At their first meeting this summer, members developed a list of ideas and actions, ranging from hosting a Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) training to taking a civil rights tour as a group.

Making a stronger push as a chapter for House Bill 70 (the voting rights restoration bill) was another popular idea, and progress is already happening there as the chapter has invited Sen. Jared Carpenter to its October chapter meeting to discuss voting rights.

The August KFTC annual meeting had great representation from Madison County. Several members co-facilitated workshops on topics ranging from campaign finance reform to regional movement building. The chapter also had four members who received special awards in recognition of their work: Mendel-Reyes, Steve Boyce, Steve Wilkins and Carey Henson. (See article in this issue about annual awards.)

Summer went out with a bang with the chapter’s annual fundraising event on September 14. Held at HomeGrown Hideaways on the outskirts of Berea, the Friend-Raiser brought out 75 guests, including veteran members and new friends. During a potluck, members Wilkins, Carey Henson, and Kate Grigg spoke to the crowd about KFTC’s work.

Wilkins spoke about the importance of growing KFTC’s membership to build grassroots power, while Henson spoke about KFTC’s impact on her life.

“KFTC has become my extended

family,” said Henson, emphasizing the importance of community and friendship in organizing.

Grigg spoke about the connection between KFTC and allies, such as Bereans For Fairness, and how critical it is to have the chapter’s support in pushing for a local fairness ordinance.

For the rest of the evening, Carla Gover and Danny Hess took the stage, performing folk songs and ballads. As the sun set, attendees made their last bids in the silent auction, the winners walking away with items as diverse as a rain barrel, handmade baskets, hand-knit slippers, a frozen pasture-raised turkey, and concert tickets. One lucky person even won a 25-year lease credit on a solar panel in Berea’s Solar Farm. The chapter recruited several new members and raised more than $2000, making it the most successful Friend-Raiser to date.

As fall sets in, chapter members are excited to keep this momentum going and are already making plans for another great season for social justice in Madison County.

HomeGrown Hideaways once again provided a beautiful backdrop for this year’s annual Madison County Friend-Raiser held on Sept. 14. More than 75 people attended and the chapter raised just shy of $2,000.

Community members learn to speak with their pens William Morris said, “History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.”

On a Saturday morning earlier this summer, people across the community came together and created. The Central Kentucky KFTC Chapter and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning hosted a writing workshop to empower people to use the written word to effect social change.

“Our Voices Matter: Writing as Activism” was taught by Marianne Worthington, a poet, editor of STILL magazine, KFTC member and professor of communication arts at the University of the Cumberlands.

The workshop was a space for community members to gather and be empowered by reading examples of activist writing, generating new work through writing exercises, sharing their work in a community workshop setting, and talking about ways to get their writing into the world.

“One of the tenets or purposes of the workshop is to share the thought that words and language and writing skills are empowering,” Worthington

said. “Sometimes when we feel the most helpless, writing can help us overcome because it forces us to think straight and logically and even creatively about problems.”

“The workshop taught me that writing is a form of empowerment, a way for my voice to be heard,” said Meta Mendel-Reyes, who has been working on using writing as a means to further her activism.“ In KFTC, we focus on speaking – to a state senator, to a reporter – and that’s right. But some of us speak more loudly through our pens.”

That morning Mendel-Reyes was able to produce a new piece of writing through one of the writing exercises in the workshop that she used on the We Are Not Trayvon Martin blog. She wrote: The Color of Tongues She lies there, black hair framing her brown face, wearing a lacy white dress.

“She looks so young,” we say to each other in a whisper, as we file past the coffin.

Afterward, each of us approaches her husband, warily, as if afraid to catch the contagion of death.

Driving to the wake, Carlos had told me the story. Sometime after giving birth, Lucia

felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She called for help, but no one spoke Spanish, and the little niece who was the family’s only interpreter was in the restroom. By the time a nurse realized something was wrong, Lucia was gone.

In death, we all speak the same language.

Language can be, literally a matter of life and death. You could say that it wouldn’t happen today, when almost all hospitals provide interpretation. “No fumar/No smoking” everywhere you look.

But has the injustice really disappeared or has it taken on another guise? The mother reaching helplessly for her child as the Border Patrol drags her away. The young man whose papers are demanded, just because of the color of his skin.

Discrimination speaks its own language – the slow death of not being heard due to the color of your tongue.

The workshop was a great opportunity for members and community members to come together and speak with their pens, and it provided a space for more people to become a part of KFTC. KFTC gained 15 new members that morning and people created work that can help move KFTC’s work forward in the years to come.

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Local Updates

Eastern Kentucky chapters host fellow KFTC members

The Northern Kentucky and Scott County chapters paid a visit to Letcher and Harlan county members in September for a Mountain Witness Tour.

The chapter members were accompanied by a blogger named Stormy and her daughter, allies from the Georgetown Col-

lege Sustainability Initiative, and members of Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition.

They began the weekend by visiting Wiley’s Last Resort on top of Pine Mountain in Letcher County. Owner Jim Webb and his close friend Scott Goebel, a member of

Elmer Lloyd shared his story of how a coal company ruined his fishing pond.

He also talked about his greenhouse and discussed local food.

Northern Ky Loves Democracy

Last year the Northern Kentucky chapter celebrated Northern Kentucky Loves Democracy, aimed at registering new voters and engaging all voters with candidates actively seeking office.

This year the chapter decided to do it again. But with no elections in Kentucky, the event will instead focus on helping people meet their elected officials, as well as raise awareness of the disenfranchisement of more than 240,000 Kentuckians who are unable to vote because of a past felony.

The chapter is teaming up with the northern Kentucky chapter of People Advocating Recovery, the Center for Great Neighborhoods, and Northern Kentucky Pride to host a “Meet Your Elected Official Night” in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.

All elected officials are welcome to attend these informal, open-house style events. Each will include information tables about the sponsoring organizations and be designed to make it as comfortable as possible for anyone to attend.

In addition, the Northern Kentucky chapter will host an UnElection Party on November 5, which would normally be Election Day, and a letter-writing party

the Northern Kentucky chapter, shared the story of how the property came to belong to Webb.

The group then met with Jenny Williams, a Perry County member who also is involved with Pathfinders, who led everyone on a hike to nearby Bad Branch Falls.

From there members visited Larry Joe Ison, who was later joined by Roy Silver, to observe the strip mining that was occurring across the way from his place on Black Mountain. Ison shared stories of his life growing up and living in Letcher County and the changes he has seen to the Cumberland River near his property.

Silver discussed KFTC’s work in the 1980s on the “broad form deed” amendment to protect landowners from strip mining of their land without their permission, how he first came to be involved with KFTC, and the work Harlan County members are doing around transition and energy efficiency in places like Benham and Lynch.

He detailed the work the chapter had done to fight for funds to retrofit Lynch municipal buildings to be more energy

efficient, and the money the community is saving in electricity costs.

The discussion turned towards the stark contrast to the sites they saw on Pine Mountain, from Wiley’s Last Resort, Bad Branch Falls, and Ison’s place, to what they saw across the way on Black Mountain, and the potential for a more diverse economy in the region.

The group finished their day meeting with Elmer Lloyd, a retired coal miner whose fishing pond periodically has filled with sediment from runoff of a strip mining site above his land. He told everyone how he has had to force the coal company to clean his pond several times as a result.

In addition, he showed folks his work on a new greenhouse, and the group talked about growing local farmers’ markets, the need to keep money local, and different strategies people use to help make their land profitable.

The weekend allowed members to better understand a few of the opportunities eastern Kentucky has, and to meet members who are working for a brighter future each and every day.

on November 6. These events are aimed at raising awareness of KFTC’s work, especially our work to grow a healthy democracy.

Here’s the schedule of Northern Kentucky events:

• 10/29 Meet Your Elected Official Night –Boone County (6-9 p.m. at Gateway Community and Technical College, Boone Campus. 500 Technology Way in Florence) • 11/2 Meet Your Elected Official Afternoon – Kenton County (1-4 p.m. at the Center for Great Neighborhoods. 1650 Russell Street in Covington) • 11/4 Meet Your Elected Official Night – Campbell County (6-9 p.m. at Mammoth Café. 515 Monmouth Street in Newport) • 11/5 UnElection Party – featuring music by Kristi Kruer, Kyle Knapp of The Turkeys, and the Red Cedars (6-10 p.m. at Chez Nora, 530 Main Street in Covington) • 11/6 Letter-Writing Party (6-9 p.m. at Roebling Point Books and Coffee, 306 Greenup Street in Covington).

Members of the Perry County chapter gathered at the park for an end-of-summer cookout and chapter meeting. They shared local updates and began to plan for a fall fundraising event to help meet their annual fundraising goal.

2,000 Facebook friends?

Interested in using your popularity to further justice?

We can help. Get in touch: colette@kftc.org

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Economic Justice Update

Many more Kentuckians now have access to health care

by Cara Stewart

It’s always a great time to be a Kentuckian, but thanks to Governor Beshear making the choice to accept federal money to expand Medicaid and create our own health care marketplace, Kynect, it is time to brag a little and get excited.

Everyone knows that Kentucky

continues to rank at the bottom in most national health rankings. What hasn’t become common knowledge (yet!) in the commonwealth is that we have new and powerful tools coming our way thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

Kentucky’s health care landscape is changing in a huge way starting January 1, 2014, with additional implementation

of the ACA. Kentucky is the only southern state expanding Medicaid, creating and running our own Marketplace, Kynect.

Our state is improving our health care options. To turn that into improved health for Kentuckians, it takes a little bit of work from us. We have to make sure that everyone in Kentucky enrolls in health coverage, and then knows how to

Lack of health coverage puts their health and financial security at risk.

They roll the dice and pray they don’t get sick. They choose between food and medicine. They ignore checkups that would catch serious conditions early. They put off doctor’s appointments, hoping a condition turns out to be nothing. And they live knowing that bankruptcy is just one bad diagnosis away.

Furthermore, their children go long periods without checkups that focus on immunizations, preventive care and vision and hearing tests. If they have diabetes, asthma or infected gums, their conditions remain untreated and unchecked.

For Kentucky as a whole, the negative impact is similar but larger — jacked-up costs, decreased worker productivity, lower quality of life, depressed school attendance and a poor image.

The Affordable Care Act will address these weaknesses.

Some 308,000 of Kentucky’s uninsured — mostly the working poor — will be covered when we increase Medicaid eligibility guidelines to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Studies Institute at the University of Louisville concluded that expanding Medicaid would inject $15.6 billion into Kentucky’s economy over the next eight years, create almost 17,000 new jobs, have an $802.4 million positive budget impact (by transferring certain expenditures from the state to the federal government, among other things), protect hospitals from cuts in indigent care funding and shield businesses from up to $48 million in annual penalties.

In short, we couldn’t afford not to do it.

The other 332,000 uninsured Kentuck-

ians will be able to access affordable coverage — most with a discount — through the Health Benefit Exchange, the online insurance marketplace we named Kynect: Kentucky’s Healthcare Connection.

Kentucky is the only Southern state both expanding Medicaid and operating a state-based exchange, and we remain on target to meet the Oct. 1 deadline to open Kynect with the support of a call center that is providing some 100 jobs. Having been the first state-based exchange to complete the readiness review with the United States Department of Health and Human Services, we hope to become the first one to be certified.

Frankly, we can’t implement the Affordable Care Act fast enough.

As for naysayers, I’m offended by their partisan gamesmanship, as they continue to pour time, money and energy into overturning or defunding the Affordable Care Act. It’s shameful that these critics haven’t invested that same level of energy into trying to improve the health of our citizens.

They insist that the Affordable Care Act will never work — when in fact a similar approach put into effect in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney, then the governor, is working.

So, to those more worried about political power than Kentucky’s families, I say, “Get over it.”

The Affordable Care Act was approved by Congress and sanctioned by the Supreme Court. It is the law of the land.

Get over it ... and get out of the way so I can help my people. Here in Kentucky, we cannot afford to waste another day or another life.

Reprinted from the Sept. 26 2013 The New York Times.

Editorial: My State Needs Obamacare. Now.

By Gov. Steve Beshear

Sunday morning news programs identify Kentucky as the red state with two high-profile Republican senators who claim their rhetoric represents an electorate that gave President Obama only about a third of its presidential vote in 2012.

So why then is Kentucky — more quickly than almost any other state — moving to implement the Affordable Care Act? Because there’s a huge disconnect between the rank partisanship of national politics and the outlook of governors whose job it is to help beleaguered families, strengthen work forces, attract companies and create a balanced budget.

It’s no coincidence that numerous governors — not just Democrats like me but also Republicans like Jan Brewer of Arizona, John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan — see the Affordable Care Act not as a referendum on President Obama but as a tool for historic change.

That is especially true in Kentucky, a state where residents’ collective health has long been horrendous. The state ranks among the worst, if not the worst, in almost every major health category, including smoking, cancer deaths, preventable hospitalizations, premature death, heart disease and diabetes.

We’re making progress, but incremental improvements are not enough.

We need big solutions with the potential for transformational change.

The Affordable Care Act is one of those solutions.

For the first time, we will make affordable health insurance available to every single citizen in the state. Right now, 640,000 people in Kentucky are uninsured.

That’s almost one in six Kentuckians.

access health care in a smart way, build relationships with primary care providers and access preventative services.

This is going to take a lot of support from everyone, because for folks who previously did not have access to these services, how can we expect them to know when it’s best or most appropriate to access levels of care?

While some of us already have coverage through our employer, around one in five of us don’t have health coverage from any source, and around half of those are eligible for no-premium-cost Medicaid.

More than 91 percent of currently uninsured Kentuckians will qualify for health coverage with no monthly premium or some level of tax credit to help make their health coverage more affordable. Only uninsured Kentuckians with income over 400 percent of the federal poverty level will not receive assistance to pay for their premiums.

Any single person working full time at minimum wage will be eligible for Medicaid. A household of two, such as a single parent with one child, can earn a little over $10 an hour, 40 hours a week, and be eligible for Medicaid.

KCHIP (Kentucky Child Health Insurance Program) has also been expanded in Kentucky, for more support of our childrens’ health care needs.

None of our cancer survivors or Kentuckians with chronic illnesses are going to be denied or charged more for their coverage starting in January. Being a woman in Kentucky is no longer a preexisting condition.

This is great news, but let’s make it work by making sure everyone takes advantage. Let’s tell everyone that they are now going to have quality health coverage they can afford. They just need to enroll or shop at kynect.ky.gov, starting October 1.

Important Dates: Open Enrollment = October 1 - March 31, 2014.

You must enroll by December 15, 2013, for coverage to begin on January 1, 2014.

Cara Stewart Health Law Fellow/ Attorney Kentucky Equal Justice Center www.kyequaljustice.org carastewart@kyequaljustice.org 859-982-9242

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Grassroots Fundraising Update

balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Fall Campaign kicks off with new tools and resources

Renew Your Membership

Growing a Healthy Democracy We are Kentuckians, and we are our best hope for change. We believe that Kentucky can be a place where everyone – regardless of income, race, or position – has an equal voice. Where the fundamental right to vote is protected and exercised. Where leaders listen and respond to community needs. Where decisions are made in the open, for the right reasons, and in everyone’s interest. Where young people have opportunities, right here at home. And where our taxes are an investment in a brighter future.

Kentucky’s Democracy can grow strong if we all invest in its future. Take the time to renew your membership by donating during our fall fundraising campaign. If you renew now, we won’t bother you with mail or a phone call this fall.

This fall we launched an ambitious membership and fundraising drive to help us grow a healthy democracy in Kentucky. It will take more of us working together, committed to a shared vision. Help us grow to 8,000 active members and raise $500,000 by the end of this year.

Build our power by hosting a Democracy Party this fall!

KFTC members are working to grow a healthy democracy in Kentucky. In the big year ahead, we’ll activate thousands of members to make our voices heard in Frankfort, register and engage voters, and communicate about important public issues including economic justice, voting rights, clean energy and environmental protection.

This fall, members across Kentucky are inviting friends and neighbors to attend more than 50 Democracy Parties to build momentum for our work in 2014. These events are a fun way to help us reach hundreds of new people, reconnect with existing KFTC members, and build a movement of engaged, informed and empowered folks.

We are more than halfway to our goal of 50 Democracy Parties scheduled.

Will you help us reach this goal by hosting a Democracy Party this fall? Your party can be a big event at a public location or a small gathering in your living room. KFTC will provide resources and advice to make your party a success. And with our online tools, you can invite folks through your personal fundraising page and keep track of your fundraising totals. There’s no election in Kentucky this year, so you might host your Democracy Party on November 5, typically Election Day, or some other day this fall.

If you would like to host a Democracy Party or have questions, contact Colette Henderson at colette@kftc.org or 502-589-3188.

Host a Personal Fundraising Page Help raise funds and grow KFTC’s membership using new online power-building tools that are fun and effective! You can customize your page and set a personal goal. You can set up your own personal fundraising page here.

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Democracy alive at the largest KFTC annual meeting ever

“Community building is a movement that transcends the moment,” said KFTC member Ray Tucker in a workshop called “Everyday Democracy” at KFTC’s annual meeting.

Members and friends from across Kentucky gathered at General Butler State Resort Park near Carrollton August 16-18 to explore the theme “This Is What Democracy Looks Like.” In workshops and informal conversations, they broadened the concept of democracy beyond voting to encompass other ways in which grassroots organizing by ordinary Kentuckians can strengthen our democracy.

Tucker of Pulaski County described what growing a healthy democracy looks like in his community.

“It starts with one-on-one conversations. It’s ‘What do you want our community to look like?’” he said.

Once people have a shared vision to work toward, they can see beyond a single issue and begin to see a bigger picture of what’s possible.

Other workshop topics included campaign finance reform, economic democracy, immigration reform, voting rights, media and democracy, movement building, powerful citizen lobbying, art and democracy, grassroots fundraising and more.

Kentucky author, farmer and KFTC member Wendell Berry delivered the keynote address on Friday night, lifting up the unbreakable tie between people and the land, between work and community.

“All of us who are living owe our lives directly to our connection with the land. I am not talking about the connection that is implied by such a term as ‘environmentalism.’ I am talking about the connection that we make economically, by work, by living, by making a living,” Berry said. “This connection, as we see every day, is going to be either familiar, affectionate and saving, or distant, uncaring and destructive.”

Leaders of industry, industrial politics, and industrial education decide how the land will be used, and people are moved into industrial jobs, away from local subsistence and into the economy of jobs and consumption, he said.

“The most effective means of local self-determination would be a well-developed local economy based upon the use and protection of local resources, including local human intelligence and skills,” Berry said. “Local resources have little local value when they are industrially produced or extracted and shipped out.

“They become far more valuable when they are developed, produced, processed and marketed by, and first of all to, the local people – when, that is, they support, and are supported by, a local economy. And here we realize that a local economy, supplying local needs so far as possible from local fields and woodlands, is necessarily diverse.”

A workshop on building people power through elections focused on KFTC’s work to build a large, diverse, informed, active, organized base of political muscle that transcends any single election. KFTC builds that power through leadership development, communications, base-building, research and policy development, issue campaigns, and voter empowerment. Members talked about the importance of voting and expanding voting rights so that many more people are represented in elections.

“Working class people are really the only ones who can think clearly,” said Louisville member Kimble Pendley, alluding to the influence of big money on political decisions. “Voting is so critical. It’s the one common denominator for us all.”

Chris Woolery of Lawrenceburg lifted up the need to push back against forces that would limit voting rights,

especially in light of the recent Supreme Court decision weakening the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“I just think there are so many forces lined up to disenfranchise and disempower people,” he said. “We need to be pushing back on things like this.”

At a workshop on powerful citizen lobbying, members talked about the power of meeting with legislators on their home turf, rather than only meeting in their offices in Frankfort.

“We as an organization need to invite them in,” said Harlan County member Bennie Massey. In addition to formal meetings, he suggested inviting lawmakers to informal chapter events. “That’s how you pass things.

That’s how you get things done.”

Attendees also enjoyed a square dance, talent show, dance party, and an awards banquet that honored members for outstanding work.

After many years at the Kentucky Leadership Center at Jabez, the annual meeting moved this year to General Butler to accommodate steadily rising numbers. Attendance was 35 percent larger than last year, with about 250 people.

The business of the annual meeting In addition to leadership development, fellowship and fun, the KFTC Annual Membership Meeting is the one time of year when members across the state come together to make some official decisions – to elect officers, consider chapter petitions, and approve the KFTC platform.

Members elected the following statewide officers for the coming year: Chairperson: Sue Tallichet, Rowan County Vice Chairperson: Dana Beasley Brown, Southern Kentucky Secretary-Treasurer: Megan Naseman, Madison County At-Large Member: Carl Shoupe, Harlan County Immediate Past Chair: Steve Boyce, Madison County Each of KFTC’s 13 chapters petitioned to remain a chapter, and all 13 were approved.

Randy Wilson led the crowd in a song, kicking off the 2013 Annual Meeting. This year’s meeting opened with a keynote address by Wendell Berry, discussing the connection between land, people and community.

Members also voted on the KFTC platform. At the Sunday business meeting, they reviewed suggested revisions from the chapters and voted on a final platform for the coming year. To view the updated platform, visit http://www.kftc.org/aboutus/our-platform.

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Awards from the 2013 Annual Membership Meeting

Each year during the KFTC Annual Membership Meeting, we honor members and allies who have made outstanding contributions to our work.

The following people and organizations received awards this year.

The Hazel King Lifetime Achievement Award Presented to the KFTC member who has committed his or her life in the service of others by working for social justice.

K.A. Owens The Daniel Thompson Bridge Builder Award Presented to the member who diligently and faithfully worked to bring together diverse groups of people within KFTC Meta Mendel-Reyes The Evelyn Williams Award Presented to the members who persevered against great obstacles and over time to win an important victory Tona Barkley and Steve Wilkins The Alice O. Martin Award Presented to the member who has done the most work behind the scenes to strengthen KFTC as an organization KFTC Finance Committee members John Wilborn, Steve Boyce and Ed Cortas

Joyce Wise Award Presented to the KFTC member who has overcome personal adversity to help others Carey Henson

The Gladys Maynard “The Start of Something Big” Award Presented to the members whose commitment and action leads to the development of a major movement or event in the cause of justice Appalachia’s Bright Future conference leaders: Carl Shoupe, Elizabeth Sanders, Bennie Massey, Rutland and Maye Melton, Mimi Pickering, Sylvia Ryerson, Roy Silver, Ada Smith, Mary Love, Todd Howard, Sue Tallichet, Nathan Hall, Robert Gipe, Bob Martin, Jasper Lauderdale The Sister Marie Gangwish Award Presented to the member who has worked steadily and creatively to raise the grassroots funds that support KFTC’s success Rosanne Klarer The Joe Begley and Everett Akers Award Presented to the member who is jailed, loses a job, or faces some other major adversity because of their work for social justice Rick Handshoe

WALKING FOR JUSTICE AWARD Russell Oliver INSTRUMENT OF DEMOCRACY AWARD Dave Newton TALKING TAXES AWARD KFTC Economic Justice Committee YOUTH LEADER AWARD Harrison Kirby SPECIAL FRIEND AWARDS: • • • • • • • • •

Mayor Johnny Cummins and the City of Vicco Here Comes The Bun Bakery in Whitesburg Main Street Café in Berea Bill Stolte Rick Handshoe Marco Saavedra and Steve Pavey Eastern Kentucky Social Club Network Center for Community Change Labor Network for Sustainability

The Funder of the Year Award Presented to the individual or organization that has provided exceptional guidance and resources to KFTC in its struggle for social justice The Chorus Foundation The Ally of the Year Award Presented to the ally organization that has done the most over the past year to support KFTC’s work and goals of organizing Appalachian Voices The Grassroots Fundraising Award Presented to the chapter that raises the highest amount of grassroots funds during the year Jefferson County Chapter with $11,552.40 raised The Membership recruitment Award For recruiting the largest number of new members in the past year Jefferson County Chapter with 143 new members The Membership recruitment Award For the largest growth by percentage in the past year

Eastern Kentucky members (left to right) Carl Shoupe, Bennie Massey and Elizabeth Sanders cheered during the Annual Meeting Awards Show.

Wilderness Trace Chapter with a 27% increase

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Bluegrass Pipeline Campaign Update

Hundreds attend pipeline hearing but not allowed to speak

Kentuckians came from all over the state – especially from communities along the potential route of the opposed Bluegrass Pipeline – to Frankfort on September 5 for a hearing about the pipeline, sending a message to legislators that the proposed project is not welcome.

The hearing was of the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment. Representatives of Williams company and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, the two companies wanting to build the natural gas liquids pipeline, addressed the committee, along with Len Peters, secretary of the Energy and Environment Cabinet, and a representative from the Public Service Commission.

Tom Fitzgerald of the Kentucky Resources Council also testified, focusing on safety concerns, the need for some state agency to have regulatory oversight of the pipeline, and the legislature’s need to address Williams’ problematic and unproved assertion that it has eminent domain.

No testimony from anyone who lives in a community along the projected route of the proposed pipeline was taken, although committee chair Sen. Jared Carpenter acknowledged many such requests from affected residents.

He suggested there would be additional opportunities for others to be heard, at

a committee meeting later this year or during the 2014 regular legislative session.

Carpenter did, however, invite representatives of the oil and gas association, who were not on the agenda, to speak and promote the project.

But folks did send a very clear and strong message by their presence. The committee hearing room – capacity 250 – was packed and more than 50 people watched on TVs in an adjacent overflow room.

They scoffed as the Williams and Boardwalk representatives recited the ways in which the proposed pipeline would “benefit Kentucky” by making it possible to create plastics more cheaply, and assuring the committee members that the pipeline would be a good neighbor And they applauded when Peters, who despite promoting the pipeline project while not addressing serious environmental concerns, said it was the opinion of his legal counsel that the Bluegrass Pipeline would not have eminent domain authority. The pipeline company representatives had previously asserted that they have that power.

But the many Kentuckians who

came hoping to share their experiences and insights with the committee had to keep quiet until the meeting concluded.

Then, people

gathered in the overflow room to share their testimonies, their love for the land and communities where they reside, and stories about their insulting encounters with pipeline agents – the stories legislators should have been hearing.

It was clear that Kentuckians were not persuaded by the Williams and Boardwalk representatives. Mike Mansfield from Woodford County observed, “The first time they lied in there was at the very beginning, when they said their primary purpose was to be safe.“ Lorrie Reed, a grandmother from Stamping Ground, explained that the proposed route runs right through her two acres. Even though she told them that she did not want them on her property, their pattern was to drive by four or five times a day checking out her place.

Since she’s learned more about NGLs (natural gas liquids), she’s become adamant about stopping the pipeline.

“For a lot of us, our kids go away to work. But eventually, they come back home. We got to have a home for them to come back to. This land is our future, for our children and our grandchildren.”

Two people spoke out about concerns about the proximity of the pipeline to schools, both in terms of the safety of the students, and the lack of training of teachers for dealing with pipeline emergencies.

A teacher from Springfield said, “If there’s a leak near a school, you’ve got to train the teachers. And why would I send my child to a school near a pipeline? I’d send them to another school that didn’t have a pipeline around it.”

A couple from Scott County agreed, pointing out the impact not only on teachers, but also on EMS, fire and other first responders. They’ve been refusing to allow the Williams representatives on their land, as well, since discovering a Williams representative urinating in front of a camera set up on their property.

The room was united and determined.

“We have to make sure there is no pipeline. It’s up to us,” Rick Arendt said.

“The governor – he’ll be talking about it with his son over Thanksgiving dinner.

We have to get these legislators to solve this problem quickly.”

Reed agreed. “We’ve got to stick together. We’ve got to unite. Kentucky’s supposed to be united, and family.

We’ve got to stick together.”

Local opposition continues to grow Fiscal courts in 10 counties now have passed resolutions expressing concerns or opposing the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline. They are:

Peg Jacobs and Susan Classen, co-members of the Sisters of Loretto community, talked to people about the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline at a landowner information booth at the Ham Days festival in Lebanon.

Franklin Scott Marion Washington Pendleton Owen

Anderson Woodford Nelson Shelby

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Bluegrass Pipeline Campaign Update

FAQs: correcting claims in misleading ads

The Bluegrass Pipeline Partners has begun a full-on media campaign to try to claim some public support for its natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline project. The full-page ads in county newspapers along the pipeline route and the lengthy radio spots are misleading, to say the least. Here is a guide to what we know to be accurate, and counter to the implications in Williams’ commercials.

NGLs won’t keep anyone warm

The radio commercials leave listeners with the impression that Natural Gas Liquids are like natural gas – they’ll keep us warm and our energy costs cheap. This is not true.

Landowners cannot “tap in” to the NGL line for their energy needs. NGLs are not natural gas. These liquids are not a source of energy. Other than some propane using for heating, NGLs are used to make plastics.

When natural gas is extracted from the ground, the chief component is “methane,” or what we typically think of as natural gas. Other components include ethane, propane, pentane, hexane, heptane and butane that are in liquid form only when under high pressure.

Once the methane is removed, the

remaining product needs to be “fracinated” or processed to separate out the other components that are used by petrochemical plants. The proposed pipeline would carry this additional product to Louisiana to be fracinated and mostly exported.

At the Nelson County Fiscal Court in June, Williams representative Wendell Hunt said that the NGLs would be processed into plastics that could be made into lawnmower or car parts.

Lawnmower and car parts just don’t keep people warm.

Safety

NGL pipelines fall into a category of low-occurrence, but high-hazard risks.

When they occur, pipeline ruptures often have catastrophic consequences.

Accidental pipeline releases can result from a variety of causes, including natural disasters, excavation and other outside forces, plus internal and external corrosion, mechanical failure, and operator error.

Leaks from NGL pipelines have contaminated soil and groundwater. In Parachute, Colorado a Williams NGL line leaked for two weeks before the leak

Concerned? Here’s What You Can Do! Write a letter addressed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission urging those two federal agencies to: • require a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement on all new and repurposed portions of the proposed Bluegrass NGL Pipeline Project, • collaborate to conduct a full environmental analysis of the need, alternative routes and alternatives to the pipeline, and the social, environmental and economic impacts, • advise the pipeline companies that no actions that would commit resources to a particular project route, including easement acquisition, be allowed pending the completion of the comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement.

Include personal details of how the Bluegrass Pipeline could affect you, your land or the quality of life in your community. Tell them why you care about this issue.

Send your letter to:

James Townsend U.S. Army Corps of Engineers P.O. Box 59 Louisville, KY 40201

Ms. Kimberly Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 888 First Street NE, Room 1A Washington, D.C. 20426

If you can’t write a letter, please sign the petition at www.kftc.org/BGPpetition-corps.

Thanks for taking action!

was accidentally discovered.

Six months later, and the levels of benzene in the local water supply were double the federal limit.

Jobs for Kentuckians?

The radio spots reference jobs, and Williams has thrown out more numbers than a bingo host. Thirty, 1500, 8000! What’s the real number?

It boils down to this: for Kentuckians looking for work, it matters little.

Bob Pekny, who lives a short distance from

Bluegrass Pipeline’s website the projected route of the proposed Bluegrass claims that 6,000 to 7,000 tempoPipeline in Woodford County, did some rerary jobs will be added during search and found out the following: the construction of the pipeline.

During testimony before a leg- • the best pipeline leak detection equipment islative committee on Septemis good up to .05%, meaning .05% of product ber 5, Jim Scheel, senior vice can leak out before it will be noticed; president of corporate strategic • based on the daily volume in pipeline, up development at Williams, said to 4,000 gallons of NGLs could leak per day that there would be only 1,500 from the pipeline without being detected. temporary construction jobs, will use eminent domain. The fact that and just 32 full-time positions to run the they claim the right to eminent domain pipeline.

– even though they will likely not be But these numbers barely are misgranted that right – is damaging beleading because these are overwhelmcause it creates a disempowering and ingly not local jobs. Pipeline workers hostile climate for landowners. move along with the pipeline, setting up Tom FitzGerald, director of the camps along the way. This is more efKentucky Resources Council, said, “A ficient for companies because it prevents strong argument exists that the Bluethem from having to train a new crop of grass Pipeline project lacks the authorworkers as they move through the route. ity under Kentucky law to condemn It’s also unclear that any of the 32 lands for … the proposed pipeline, since permanent jobs would be offered to it is not a ‘common carrier’ and is not Kentuckians, instead of to people al‘in public service.’ [I]t is not settled that ready affiliated with Williams or Boardthe company would have the power to walk Pipeline Partners. condemn property in Kentucky.”

Attorney General Jack Conway has Taxes said his “off the cuff” opinion is that the Bluegrass Pipeline does not have the The ads are citing an estimate of power of eminent domain, because it how much the pipeline might be asdoes not meet the definition of a utility. sessed in property taxes – but conve In the September 5 legislative comniently not mentioning that the figure is mittee hearing, Kentucky Energy Secreover a 10-year period. tary Len Peters: “Based on this research [by his staff], relative to federal law and We can say no statutes and how natural gas liquid pipelines are regulated, they do not see Williams representatives are telling how eminent domain can be invoked.” resistant landowners that the company

For more information and updates visit www.stopbluegrasspipeline.us and www.nobluegrasspipeline.com

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Voting Rights Update

The Voting Rights Issue in Kentucky: What it is and why it matters

Each election season campaigns stump on their issues, registered voters head to the voting booth, and winning candidates begin to transition from candidate to elected official. And the right to vote is at the cornerstone of all of this,

giving it legitimacy and holding up our democratic values.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren said, “The right to vote freely for the candidate of one’s choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any

restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government.”

Unfortunately, Kentucky’s current voting system is far from this ideal.

Kentucky excludes almost a quarter of a million of Kentuckians who are ineligible

KFTC members were among the more than 100,000 people who participated in the 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in late August. They traveled to Washington, D.C. with nearly 100 other Kentuckians on two buses organized by the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Former KFTC chairperson K.A. Owens was among those who organized the buses and a number of educational opportunities leading up to the event.

“Most impressive was the diversity of the two bus loads by race, age and economic class,” Owens said. “We had families with two and three generations on the bus. We had a veteran of the first march in 1963 on the bus. We had senior citizens and young veterans of Occupy Louisville on the bus. We also had people on the bus who had never been involved in activism before.”

Perry County KFTC member Russell Oliver was among those making the long trip. Reflecting on the experience, he said, “The Martin Luther King march was one of the most inspiring events that I have ever attended. The people at the event were friendly with each other, and when the closing prayer came I took the hand of a stranger, as a stranger walking by took my hand in prayer.”

“I tried to watch the large screen and listen to the speakers, but there were too many heads and people in motion.”

Oliver continued. “So I decided instead I would spend my time with the little people. The people who will never be in a newspaper or on television, but who are necessary for a large movement of social change that Martin Luther King needed to make things happen. So I mainly went from group to group and listened and occasionally talked with people. There was a powerful presence of hope and

the willingness of the separate groups to work together.”

After returning home, Jefferson County member Elijah McKenzie wrote a reflection titled “We Still Have Work to Do” that is posted on his own blog and cross-posted at kftc.org. He observed, “An important principle I’ve learned from being a member of KFTC is that there exists an intersection where issues of social, environmental, and economic justice meet. Here in this muggy field, I find myself at such a juncture: surrounded by high school teachers, congregation leaders, citizen journalists, gun violence victims, former felons, war veterans, elders, babies, and the American flag.

However, the streets of D.C. reveal the ongoing problem of racism, which is made visible in the slogans, t-shirts, and handmade signs demanding justice for Trayvon Martin and an end to the mass incarceration of African American youth.”

Madison County KFTC member Meta Mendel-Reyes observed, “The speakers exhorted the crowd not to dwell in the past but to continue working to make Dr. King’s dream a reality. The Civil Rights Movement is not over, they told us, as long as poverty, hunger, inequality still exist. In King’s words, ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’”

For all those reasons, the march was much more than a commemoration. It was an opportunity for participants and people across the nation to reflect and recommit to the ongoing struggle for civil rights.

“The diverse individuals on the bus and the organizing team were well aware of the fact that we as a nation are slipping back in some respects in regards to civil rights and economic opportunity,” Owens said. “The people on the bus and the organizing team are committed to reversing the backslide and moving the country forward. That’s why we organized the trip to Washington. We didn’t do it just to recognize the history, we did it to build the future.”

50th anniversary of March on Washington

to vote because they have been convicted of a felony. This practice is often called “felony disenfranchisement.”

Across the U.S. a multitude of laws result in the disenfranchisement of 5.9 million citizens with a prior felony conviction. Only about a quarter of those affected are in prison. The rest are either on probation or parole or have completed their full sentences.

Kentucky is one of a small handful of states that permanently bar all citizens with a felony record from voting, unless they receive a pardon from the governor.

Seven other states permanently disenfranchise at least some people who have committed specific types of felonies.

In 13 states and the District of Colombia, the right to vote is restored to all people upon release from prison. In five states the right to vote is restored after parole ends. In 19 more states, the right to vote is restored once a person’s time on probation ends. Two states allow felons to vote at all times, including from prison.

How many and who are affected?

An estimated 243,842 Kentuckians with felony convictions were barred from voting in 2010, including 180,984 who have completed their full sentences. This has caused Kentucky to have the second highest African-American disenfranchisement rate in the country, where more than one in five voting age African-Americans can not vote.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul takes stand in favor of voting rights

On September 16, speaking at a community center in west Louisville, Senator Paul announced that he would work to restore voting rights to former felons. He said that laws should be changed to make it easier for felons to regain their right to vote at both the state and federal level.

Senator Paul also added that he was open to the idea of making former felons have a “waiting period” of some number of years after they have completed their full sentence in order to get their rights back.

KFTC opposes any additional waiting period and believes that once a complete sentence term has been served, including probation and parole, their right to vote should automatically be restored as part of that process.

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Canary Project Update

Judges places temporary halt on mining at Stacy Branch, Lotts Creek

Residents of the Stacy Branch and Lotts Creek communities in Knott and Perry counties got some relief in midSeptember when a federal judge placed a temporary halt on mining activities that involve a massive valley fill.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell agreed to issue an injunction to stop mining operations while his August 23 decision is being appealed. In that decision, Russell rejected claims by local residents, KFTC and the Sierra Club that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers erred by ignoring evidence of the human health impacts that would result from the environmental destruction to be caused by the valley fill.

The Corps issued that permit last year to Leeco. It allows 3.5 miles of streams to be destroyed through one valley fill, one sediment pond and various “mine throughs” on tributaries of Stacy Branch and Yellow Creek of Carr Creek, located in Knott and Perry counties.

In making the decision, Corps officials said burying more than three miles of streams would “not significantly affect

the quality of the human environment.”

“As a teacher I work with children and families who are hoping they will be able to live their lives in eastern Kentucky.

The impacts on their health from these mines needs to be taken very seriously as we try and look at the type of future we are creating for our students and their families,” said Alice Whitaker, director of the Lotts Creek Community School and Wellness Program and a KFTC member.

“Therefore, we are relieved to hear that a hold was put on the destructive mining above our community. We cannot carry on the way we have in the past, especially when job-creating alternative sources of energy are readily available. That’s how we can work towards a brighter future, and it starts with our leaders and regulatory agencies acknowledging the importance of the health and well-being of our communities.”

In granting the injunction, Russell agreed with arguments that allowing Leeco to begin mining would create irreversible destruction that would make an appeals court victory moot.

“We are enormously relieved that Appalachian communities and our streams will continue to be protected until our appeal can be decided on the merits,” said Lane Boldman, the Sierra Club’s Kentucky director. “Numerous studies have shown that mountaintop removal mining poses a grave threat to the health of mountain residents, and the Army Corps of Engineers should fully address that issue before issuing permits allowing more of these highly destructive mines.”

Earthjustice attorney Neil Gormley explained that the Corps violated some of its own rules and the federal Surface Mining Act by issuing the permit, but that these were ignored by the court.

“The court rejected all of our claims, which fall into two categories: health and water quality. First, the court approved the Corps’ decision to limit its … analysis to water quality and ignore human health.

“The court also approved the Corps’ conclusion that Leeco’s stream enhancement projects would fully compensate for the streams that mining will bury. We argued that the Corps had

Alice Whitaker, director of the Lotts Creek Community School and Wellness Program, spoke during an EPA Environmental Justice tour of eastern Kentucky in the spring of 2011. violated several of its own regulations in approving the mitigation projects, but the court held repeatedly that the Corps’ analysis was good enough, reasoning that courts are generally supposed to defer to agencies in their area of expertise.”

Mill Creek residents still looking for relief after destruction of water

by Elaine Tanner

On September 11 & 12, at the invitation of KFTC, we attended the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council Conference held at the Region 4 EPA offices in Atlanta. Someone needed to speak out about the “Dirty Water” flowing in Appalachia. Our story is not unusual, just another coal mining community in Appalachia.

When the opportunity was presented to attend the conference … this appeared to be one more opportunity to shout it out that we have “Toxic Waters in Appalachia.”

Jimmy Hall testified in front of the council as to the conditions and violations that have been approved by the Kentucky officials and the flaws in their permitting process. He stated that EPA needs to step in and take over permitting in the state of Kentucky.

He stated how the system has failed by allowing water to be polluted from past mining operations. The Mill Creek community has been contaminated and left without a water supply while that the state allowed bonds to be released and altered.

He feels that these actions have resulted in the loss of a water supply in four of his wells. Hall purchased his family homestead 11 years ago to return to the place he was born. This is a property that has been in his family for over 250 years.

The folks on Mill Creek are sick and are unable to get out to do for themselves. Having their water destroyed has been a life-altering event, a hardship at the least.

When wells in the community of Mill Creek (Letcher County) were tested, the results were horrifying.

”We were told not to drink, clean, bathe or use the water supply in our wells. Our water supply was toxic and could cause immediate and future harm to the people in our community,” said Elaine Tanner.

As residents worked toward a solution, it was uncovered that eight years ago $2 million was issued to provide a safe water supply to the Mill Creek community under a state bond. However, though apparently illegal, the funds were spent putting water lines in an area where several county officials happen to live.

When confronted with the discrepancy at the state Auditors office in January 2013, nothing was done.

A valley fill has destroyed the watershed’s headwaters. Five additional interment streams in the immediate area have also been destroyed without proper permitting. Two seams of coal underneath the community also have been mined.

Residents are trying to use the Safe Drinking Water Act that provides for emergency drinking water for a community within 10 days of an order, but keep getting the runaround. To date there has been no response to their request for the SDWA to be applied to help the 94 families on Mill Creek.

Hall stated that he has tried to get the DMRE [Ky. Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement] to act on these violations for years. It took two years for the pre-hearing process, one year for the answer from the state hearing officer, and now the file sits on a judge’s desk in Frankfort in the appeals process. One thing that was accomplished in this 11-year journey, they took the trash out and yes they did re-route some of the mine runoff to take the stress off of the illegal slides behind his house. They did bring us in 100,000 tons of gravel.

They just will not own up to the dirty water.

As the last to present comments at the end of the day, I referenced federal citations that could be used to activate the SDWA [Safe Water Drinking Act], then

informed the council that the act was designed to fix the problem with emergency action then worry about how to determine who caused the problem. The SDWA calls for immediate action, and that is one thing that has not taken place. The request to the council was to ask for intervention, asking EPA to hold to their obligations to communities that have been taken advantage of.

After the public comments ended, we were approached by the Director of Economic Justice for Region 4 asking for contact information. We were promised followup and immediate attention to the matter.

On behalf of the Mill Creek Community, we thank KFTC for the way to try and change things for a better tomorrow for our mountain communities.

balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

New Energy and Transition Update

Page 17

Clean Energy Collaborative winds down, hosts public forum

After more than two years of working together, representatives from Kentucky’s rural electric cooperatives and public interest groups like KFTC are looking toward the next phase of their collaborative relationship.

On October 23, the Collaborative will host the final meeting mandated by the charter agreement signed by the groups during the legal settlement that halted East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s proposed coal-burning power plant.

During the fight to stop the coal burning Smith plant, proposed to be built in Clark County near the Kentucky River, KFTC argued that “there is a better way.”

And the Collaborative has proven that is the case.

The better way has included dialogue, and relationship-building, vast amounts of learning, and solid outcomes for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

During the course of the Collaborative, the group developed recommendations that, if adopted by EKPC, will increase clean energy and energy efficiency in the 16 electric cooperatives that make up and are served by EKPC.

The recommendations include adding wind, solar and hydroelectric to EKPC’s EnviroWatts program, building a small solar farm from which co-op members can lease panels, developing an energy ambassadors program, further researching the potential for wind and hydro in Kentucky, and many more technical recommendations.

On September 19, more than 60 people attended a public forum on renewable energy in Danville, hosted by the Collaborative, to learn about these recommendations and provide feedback to EKPC and the co-ops on their current and proposed renewable energy programs.

Many of the attendees were KFTC members. Folks came out for many different reasons, from concern for climate change, to business interests in solar energy, to a concern for the land and a sense of stewardship.

Cay Shawler, a KFTC member in the Wilderness Trace chapter and Inter-County Energy cooperative member said she and her husband attended “because we believe in using energy that already exists – no need to drill or blast or dig – just harness what we have been given. It occurs to me that in all our searching the galaxy, we have yet to find any planet even remotely as alive as earth, therefore we need to do

all we can to care and preserve the gift.”

After a welcome by Representative Mike Harmon, attendees learned about the history of the Collaborative, some background on renewable energy in Kentucky programs currently offered

by EKPC, and the recommendations passed by the Collaborative that relate to renewable energy.

The full group then broke up into smaller “think tank” groups to have discussion and give feedback and ask questions.

Each group was a good mix of cooperative employees – including several CEOs – and cooperative customers. The energy in the room was great and lively, with folks learning from each other, exchanging ideas, laughing together, and asking questions.

“General feedback was along the lines of ‘I learned a lot’ and it was good to see things from the other guy’s perspective,” said Wilderness Trace KFTC member Jim Porter.

Coming out of the forum, he also felt that “EKPC should not regard KFTC folks as an adversary, but as a partner in a collaborative relationship with many of the same goals & objectives. This panel provides a good forum for communications and relationship building.”

The Collaborative will hold it’s final official meeting on October 23 in Lexington at the Marriott Griffin-Gate, 1800 Newtown Pike, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

KFTC members and others talk with representatives from EKPC and the rural electric cooperatives about renewable energy in small group discussion during the Clean Energy Collaborative’s public forum on September 19 in Danville.

The public is invited to attend.

Between now and then, Collaborative members are discussing what form these relationships that have been built might take. Currently, it appears that some form of regular collaborative meetings will take place among EKPC, the co-ops, and public interest groups, especially for discussion of implementation of the

Collaborative’s recommendations and increasing participation in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.

To learn more about the Collaborative or the final meeting in October – or how you might participate in EKPC’s renewable energy programs – contact KFTC organizer Sara Pennington at 606276-9933 or sara@kftc.org.

A two-panel mural entitled "Appalachia's Bright Future" by Whitesburg artist Lacy Hale adorns the storefront windows of Here Comes the Bun, a bakery that recently opened on Main Street in Whitesburg. Hale began the painting during KFTC's Appalachia's Bright Future Conference in Harlan County in April. It depicts scenes from a vision for a just transition in Appalachia, from a farmers market with fresh food to a vibrant small town street lined with locally-owned businesses.

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New Energy and Transition Update

A new energy future is being built in Benham by town residents When Carl Shoupe describes the future he wants for his home community of Benham in Harlan County, it’s hard not to feel hopeful and excited.

“We live in paradise,” he recently told a group of visitors and community members. “We really do. We are struggling economically. But I’m convinced that this little town can be a leader in clean energy production and energy efficiency. We can be a model for ways mountain communities can survive – and thrive – by making ourselves more sustainable.”

Shoupe’s vision took an important step forward on September 23 at a meeting in Benham that brought together about 20 local residents, community leaders, representatives of the Benham Power Board, and staff from organizations and businesses that specialize in sustainable energy strategies and financing solutions.

The group spent a long, productive day together discussing specific ways the community could reduce the amount of energy uses and generate more of its own electricity from clean, renewable sources.

The meeting was sparked by a specific challenge facing the Benham Power Board, the municipal utility that provides power to the town’s 550 residents and various public and commercial buildings. The Power Board recently was informed that its current power provider, Kentucky Utilities, does not intend to renew its contract after August 2016.

As the Power Board looks for other options, residents are concerned that rising rates could hit the community especially

hard.

A 2008 report by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that Benham households used 50 percent more electricity than the residents of the next closest utility in Kentucky.

A number of factors were thought to contribute to this, including the high numbers of old, poorly insulated and leaky homes, most of which were built more than 70 years ago.

Over the summer, several local KFTC members reached out to the chair of the Benham Power Board, Danny Quillen, and a number of their city council members to discuss the situation. In the course of that conversation, an idea was hatched.

KFTC agreed to invite a number of organizations with expertise in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and community organizing to have a conversation with local residents and community leaders. Working together, it was hoped that this group could research, recommend and help implement specific strategies to help the Power Board, local residents, and the City of Benham reduce their energy use and generate more local renewable energy.

Among the groups attending the first meeting at the School House Inn in Benham were representatives from the Benham Power Board, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, Christian Outreach with Appalachian People, KFTC and Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy.

Participants discussed possible ways to finance cost-saving energy efficiency

The Benham School was transformed from an elementary school into the Benham School House Inn in 1992. upgrades to a large number of local homes and public buildings. They also identified specific renewable energy strategies, including solar and hydro generation, and discussed innovative ways to finance community-scale renewable projects. And they discussed many ideas for engaging the whole community in this important conversation about its energy and economic future.

The group did more than just talk.

Even before the first meeting, several organizations around the table offered resources and expertise to do an energy audit and retrofit on one home in the

Carl Shoupe (left) and others gathered in the Benham School House Inn in late April 2013 during the Appalachia’s Bright Future Conference to discuss a transitional economy in east Kentucky. Shoupe shared with the group the history of Benham and it’s important role moving forward.

Photos by Shawn Poynter

community as a demonstration project.

The Power Board helped identify a local resident who struggles with high utility bills as an ideal starting place.

An energy consultant identified various cost-effective upgrades costing around $12,000, including insulation, new duct work, and an energy efficient combined heat pump and water heater. Those investments are expected to pay for themselves through energy savings in about 10 years. Work on the home could start in early October.

“I am so excited that we can help our neighbor and good friend Ms. Lacey Griffey. She will have significantly lower electric bills,” Benham resident Roy Silver said. “The work, to make the home of Ms. Lacey more energy efficient will serve as a model beyond Harlan County. It is our hope that we can make available low or no cost loans that will reduce utility costs for many friends, neighbors and families.”

In the meantime, the group formed several teams to research and develop recommendations about affordable clean energy solutions that could work for the broader community. Their next meeting to review progress will be in November, at which time they will invite questions and feedback from the community.

Beyond setting an energy efficiency goal of reducing Benham’s overall energy use by at least 25 percent, Silver explained, “Our long term goal will be to produce electricity through the use of our water ways and the sun. This will reduce the costs for our homes and taxpayers.”

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

Vision, leadership and participation critical for transition

KFTC’s Appalachia’s Bright Future conference in April featured many inspirational and insightful speakers, including several who shared transition stories from other areas and economies. In this issue we feature Martin Richards, director of the Community Farm Alliance.

I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania where, for 150 years steel, coal and agriculture were Kings.

I moved to Kentucky in the late 70s, graduated in architecture from UK and then followed my grandfather’s and uncle’s footsteps into agriculture.

I was born on the outskirts of one of many mill towns of western Pennsylvania, and I watched as both my grandfather and my uncles lost their jobs in the steel mill, and then my other uncle lost my other grandfather’s farm in the farm crisis of the 1980s.

This community transition thread has continued on in my adult life … as an architect in an industry that continues to struggles with how to be sustainable, building a sustainable environment as a farmer who is transitioning my tobacco farm into organics, as an economic development organizer with KFTC, and now as the executive director of the Community Farm Alliance as we try to build a rural farming economy beyond tobacco.

Justin brought up three real basic things that are important: One is vision, a vision for what the communities look like when they come out on the other side of the transition, and how they get there.

The other is leadership, and this is across-theboard leadership that is leadership at the local level, it’s at the state level, at the regional level and it has to be at the national level, too.

And the last one that I lift up is an intentional process that has transparency and accountability, and that process also has to be across the board. It has to include grassroots community folks, it has to be at the community level, and those discussions again have to include everybody.

For the steel and energy transitions of western Pennsylvania, the very lack of these three elements has had a dramatic effect. For the steel communities where I grew up in it was devastating. The industry just up and left, pulled out taking the jobs, gutting the community and all that’s left is a bunch of rusty infrastructure along the rivers.

Let’s be clear, economic transition will happen, and without the three points I mentioned it can still happen successfully if given enough time. But more likely the final collapse will come swiftly, as is the case with the steel industry.

What I really want to talk about is Kentucky’s rural communities and creating the tobacco transition,

To see a video of this presentation, go here: https://vimeo.com/65611667

because, even though it’s not complete, it illustrates how those three elements are actually creating opportunities for success in Kentucky. And because I see so many similarities between tobacco communities and coal communities.

In 1985, CFA was formed by a group of tobacco and dairy farmers who were fighting the industrial ag policies of Earl Butz, policies that were replacing farmers with machines and money. That sounds familiar.

CFA farmers almost immediately began projects aimed at diversifying agriculture then rebuilding those connections between rural communities and urban communities. These small projects were relatively successful and yet really didn’t make any real significant economic impact By 1990s, Kentucky’s tobacco farming families were coming to a real crisis point as tobacco’s future and profitability were increasingly uncertain. Tensions were running high. Fear was leading people to blame the FDA, the federal government, the tobacco industry, outsiders. The general public and politicians even in Kentucky were labeling tobacco as environmentally bad and bad for people’s health, all of which is true.

And yet, even when the whole world seemed against us, tobacco farmers and their communities still clung to tobacco. It was that culture of tobacco that created their communities. I think people were more afraid of losing their communities than losing their tobacco.

There is something about, whether it is tobacco farming or coal mining, there is a bond between people who are working hard side by side in harsh conditions. I can honestly say I miss tobacco farming because of that.

But the blame wasn’t going to give people a better future. CFA members turned their attention – we didn’t use the word transition – [to] a future beyond tobacco.

Making great change, especially in public policy, often happens incrementally. But there are many times when there is a moment when change can happen dramatically. For Kentucky’s tobacco communities, that occurred in 1998 when the tobacco companies were forced to repay the states for Medicare costs associated with smoking. Kentucky’s share was to be $3.5 billion paid over 25 years.

Well immediately, anybody who had any ideas

brought them to the table on how to spend that money. So between the settlement in 1998 and the 2000 legislative session, CFA held numerous town hall meetings in all the communities that we had members in to lift up differences between all the plans that were out there, including the governor’s unified plan, which was primarily from our point of view another top-down approach.

House Bill 611 which passed fortunately looked very different from what those original plans were.

One of the things that CFA members and others advocated for was that a significant portion of the money, in this case 35 percent, go directly to communities, and through community county councils were actually able to plan and use that money for the best way possible within that community.

The state board was able to use a similar pot of money to work across county lines that would benefit multiple counties. Since 2001 there has been almost $400 million spent creating a future beyond tobacco.

So I want to go back to those three key things – the vision, the leadership, the intentional process of transparency and accountability – and then this moment of change. All those things have to be in place to take advantage of a moment of change. It’s hard to predict when that moment happens.

That moment of change happens for what I see as two reasons. It’s either created by an opportunity or by a crisis. In the case of tobacco, it was the opportunity of this resource.

Interesting, we really didn’t have state or federal leadership until suddenly there was money on the table – keep that in mind when you try to build leadership.

There is much that the tobacco communities and the coalfield communities can share, and I think we must share. The time has never been more important nor more challenging for us in Kentucky to build on success, seize opportunity and set a course for a better future.

As Kentucky farming families continue to create a sustainable future, and the people of the mountains begin theirs – and those two sets aren’t mutually exclusive – we must all realize we are part of the same land, we breathe the same air, drink the same water and all

Some recent economic transition articles Where is state leadership in E. Ky. job loss?, an editorial in the Hazard Herald, September 18, 2013 “Perhaps the second most unfortunate aspect of this continued decline of the local coal industry is that we’re not hearing much of anything from Frankfort ….And as the region continues to lose jobs seemingly left and right, we wonder where it is that our leadership has gone.”

Combs Right on Severance Tax’s Ability to Guide Kentucky’s Future, by Justin Maxson, August 26, 2013 in the Lexington Herald Leader – “Appalachia's economic transition will not happen overnight. It will take years for an economic renewal to happen, and the process by which it happens will not be easy.”

Eastern Kentucky’s Economic Woes are Not Unique, by Jason Belcher in the Hazard Herald, August 19, 2013 – “The challenges Eastern Kentucky faces are serious but they are not unique or insurmountable. As Youngstown and Wales have taught us, only the energy and innovation of local citizens working together with their elected officials can create the desired levels of prosperity.”

Find more great reading at www.kftc.org/abf/connect

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balancing the scales, October 3, 2013

OCTOBER 19 • 5-9 pm

The Grand Reserve • 903 Manchester St. • Lexington

BREWS

Against the Grain, Apocalypse, BBC, Blue Stallion, Country Boys, Cumberland, Fall City, Kentucky Ale, Lore, Sterling, and West Sixth.

MUSIC

The Jarflies, Warren Byrom & the Fabled Canelands, and Bear Medicine.

FOOD TICKETS

Hardwood Pizza, Fork in the Road, and Grind Burger Truck.

Calendar of Events

Oct. 14

Jefferson County chapter meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 809 South 4th Street in Louisville. Contact Alicia@kftc.org or call 502-5893188.

Oct. 15

Letcher County chapter meeting, 6 p.m., Whitesburg KFTC office. Contact Tanya@kftc.org or call 606-632-0051.

$20 for 20 beer tickets.

Tickets are available for sell in Lexington at CD Central, West Sixth Brewery, and KY Beerworks.

Or call the Lexington office at 859-276-0563

Oct. 15

Northern Kentucky chapter meeting, 7 p.m. at Roebling Books and Coffee at 306 Greenup St. Contact Joe@kftc.org or call 859-380-6103.

Oct. 17

Rowan County chapter meeting, 6:30 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on 5th Street in Morehead.

Oct. 22

Southern Kentucky (SOKY) chapter planning meeting, 6:30 p.m. at The Foundry, 531 West 11th St. Contact Denney@kftc.org or call 270-779-6483.