LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

Keep up the Bite

Thanks to RANT [cover story, October 17] and subsequent letters, Ace is finally getting some bite back into it. Please continue!

Kathy Miller

Lexington


Delayed Reaction

Oh you of discerning eye for a fine turn of leg and taste for lips with insouciant smile, please tell Blockhead Faris he is out of his league dissing Derek Jeter. Derek is not the only reason we watch. (Oh, and Kev, they don't give out MVP rings to just "good" players.)

Besides the yummy presence of "DJ," how can one describe the wind-up pitch of Andy Pettitte on the rear camera view? Of note the chiseled jaw and perfect lips of closer Mariano Rivera like that of a Ptolmetic bust and sweet face of Bernie Williams. The incredible thighs of Jorge Posada, brute strength of Jason Giambi, and the thrill of long-legged Thoroughbred grace of Alfonso Soriano turning for home.

With the exception of a few trades, defections and retirements the Yankees have managed to stay cohesive and create a chemistry not seen in MLB in this generation. During the past six years those of us who love baseball were made aware of the human interest stories, tragic and triumphant. Whether we cared or not. They made us care.

All of it preparation for the most important post-season play of the club's history; the Division League Championship won at Yankee Stadium last November. With the City devastated and the country in mourning the Yankees did it!! With America's Favorite pasttime a major victory against terrorism was won. Each and every game remembering and honoring the USA.

Behind home plate, compliments of the team, sat a die-hard Yankee fan, a twin to a fallen NYC Police Officer. His own tower, now gone.

Bereft again this October, except for the beautiful face of Tino Martinez during the St. Louis games, I remember my lost cousin, and found great comfort in rootin' for the Twins this year.

I know this is old news, but I had to get it off my chest. I have a lot of delayed reactions and two teenagers that I cannot pry off the computer. I read your newspaper every Monday and bless the people that actually get to go out on the weekends and have fun at all the events you list.

I can only dream of the day when I am no longer a member in good standing with the "4-H club." (Over 40: horsework, homework, housework, and husbandwork.)

Thanks for keeping me young at heart and connected to the Village Voice.

Darcia Fantucchio


Letters Policy: Ace LOVES to publish our mail (250 words or less please); please include name and daytime phone. No photocopies. No bulk mail. First come, first served. We may edit for space and grammar; we will limit frequency; and, on popular issues, we may print one or two letters to represent a segment of public opinion. Private correspondence should be labeled “NOT FOR PUBLICATION.”

Mail: 486 West Second St , Lexington, Ky 40507
e-mail:
editor@aceweekly.com





Water

A forum on the possibility of LFUCG buying KY American Water Company will be sponsored by the Lexington League of Women Voters and held Saturday November 9th at 10am at the Chapel Hills Presbyterian Church, 3534 Tates Creek Road.

A representative of KY American Water and a representative from FLOW will answer questions and discuss their points of views. The public will get to ask questions of these people, too.

The public is urged to attend.

Additionally: a series of public workshops dealing with our regional water supply, will begin Monday, November 11. The meeting will not address the public or private ownership option of the Kentucky-American Water Co., but it will address the water demands of the region and other organizational topics.

The meeting will be held at the Bluegrass Area Development District offices at 699 Perimeter Drive. The public is welcome to attend. For more information, call 859/258.3100.


Recycled Rubbish

In order to help celebrate America Recycles Day, Staples, will hold an ink jet cartridge recycling turn in program. From Sunday, November 10 through Saturday, November 16, customers can redeem recyclable ink jet cartridges for a ream of Staples brand multi-purpose paper.

The program is designed to encourage recycling and the use of recycled products. America Recycles Day hopes to stimulate renewed public support of recycling and buying recycled products through partnerships with businesses, local, state and federal government and non-profit organizations.

To submit an advocacy/activism activity or event for Quickies, email rkirkland@aceweekly.com, or editor@aceweekly.com.

.
GUEST EDITORIAL

Muddy Boots in the
election wrap-up

By John Butwell



It's Tuesday night, and the mud on my boots proves I voted in southeast Kentucky today. The election officials are friendly at Roundstone precinct in Rockcastle County. But the little red shed behind the grade school is too small to hold more than three voters waiting in line. The rest had to bring their umbrellas. And the "walk" back to the parking lot is just a muddy lawn.

Meanwhile, my wife didn't wade through any puddles to vote. Even though we live in the same house, we've been assigned by the county clerk to vote in different precincts for four years now.

The precinct line must go through the center of our bed. Her polling place is in the garage of a private home in Climax precinct. But the ballots in both precincts were the same this year, so it really didn't matter.

Exceptthe situation does show how inaccurate our election process can be, and what a problem that could be if we had a close count in Kentucky like the 2000 presidential election in Florida.

Meanwhile, roughly one quarter of registered Kentucky voters reelected Republican Mitch McConnell to a fourth term as our U.S. senator.

No, the other reports aren't wrong.

According to Secretary of State John Y. Brown III's office, McConnell carried 64.3 percent of the vote Tuesday, compared to 35.7 percent for Lois Combs Weinberg. Mitch definitely won the race.

But because only 41.3 percent of the state's 2.65 million registered voters cast ballots in the Senate race, his supporters represent only 27 percent of Kentucky's electorate.

The conventional wisdom is that Republicans win when the weather is bad on Election Day, because such traditional Democrats as the poor and the elderly don't get out to vote.

If that's true, the rain helped reelect Mitch. But isn't there any way we could get a better turnout in Kentucky elections?

In Oregon, voters are mailed their ballots three weeks before the election. Then they have until Election Day to mail their votes in, or else they can turn their ballots in at drop boxes until 8 p.m. on Election Night.

The result, in the 2000 presidential election, was a 79.8 percent voter turnout in Oregon, or nearly 80 percent!

That compared with 61.3 percent of registered Kentuckians voting in the same election. Voting statewide was even worse in last May's primary in Kentucky, which only saw a 32 percent turnout.

Why not give voters three weeks to make their decisions, instead of falling for last-minute smear campaigns? (No, that mud on my boots wasn't from the advertising we heard on Election Eve, although it could have been.)

Mailed ballots might be part of the answer. But we also need elections featuring viable candidates.

In the last two elections for major statewide offices in Kentucky, including Tuesday's, the major parties offered up sacrificial lambs to run for those important offices.

That's the only way to describe Republican Peppy Martin's race for governor in 1999 against Paul Patton, and Democrat Weinberg's race against McConnell this year.

In both cases, the parties thought the incumbents were too strong to beat, so they let little-known standard-bearers tilt at windmills for them.

In both cases, the challengers also were women who didn't receive backing from the good ol' boy party machines.

Martin crossed the line when she accused the majority of Kentucky sheriffs of being in league with the state's marijuana growers.

That might've cost her supportif she'd had any to start with.

Weinberg went against the Democratic machine when she opposed a new industrial park at Bowling Green for environmental reasons, including fears that it might pollute the groundwater in Mammoth Cave.

The trouble was, not only does McConnell support the park, so does Paul Patton-who somehow didn't have the nerve to run against McConnell himself. Patton either was waiting to finish his term as governor (what an old-fashioned concept), hoping Jim Bunning would be easier prey in two years-or perhaps he knew his extracurricular affair was about to become news.

In any case, Patton was the big gun the Democrats could have run against McConnell-and they didn't do it.

Of course, the real numbers in the McConnell-Weinberg race are the dollar totals. McConnell raised about $4.5 million, compared to her $2.1 million. Why did so many big spenders want to cough up for him? Doesn't that make you wonder? That's about $1 per Kentuckian, or more than $2 per registered Kentucky voter.

In the Sixth District, incumbent Republican Congressman Ernie Fletcher took 72 percent of the vote as he set his sights on running for governor next year.

But with no Democrat facing Fletcher, independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith received 26 percent of the vote, probably despite his pro-hemp stand.

Of course, Galbraith pointedly barbed Fletcher for his gubernatorial ambitions. "I am seeking this office because the incumbent doesn't want the job," he told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "We all suffer when this job is treated as a stepping stone."

[That sort of voter resentment is a phenomenon that may have contributed to Crosbie's loss in Lexington's mayoral race to Teresa Isaac.]

In state offices, Republicans kept control of the state Senate by a count of 21 seats to 17. Now we'll see if they can finally pass a state budget.

 
HOME | THIS ISSUE | ACE ARCHIVES