Balancing the Scales: April 27, 2022

BALANCING theSCALES

VOLUME 41 ISSUE 1 APRIL 27, 2022

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: A look at our continued inclusivity work An update on tornado relief efforts Coming to Light in-person and virtually at the Capitol Updates from chapters & new members Attica Scott’s final legislative session Member artwork, prose, & poetry Where have KFTC members been lately?

TABLING, CANVASSING, AND REGISTERING VOTERS! KFTC members have been talking to people all over Kentucky this fall. See more photos inside!

2 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

THANK YOU FOR BEING A KFTC MEMBER AND READER OF BALANCING THE SCALES! In this issue, you’ll learn about changes to KFTC’s policies and new actions we are taking to bring us closer to our inclusive and empowering goals, as well as how we’ve been aiding our neighbors through disaster. You’ll get recent updates from KFTC chapters, new member stories, and events at the capital. You’ll also get to see many friendly faces together again in-person for the first time in a long time!

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth is a community of people, inspired by a vision, building grassroots power in Kentucky – with a more authentic democracy, a just

We’re excited to share the impacts of Coming to Light, our first large rally at the capital this year, as well as new voter work across the state. And, as always, look for lots of photos of KFTC members and the folks we’re meeting in our communities.

You can support this work at www.kftc.org/support or by filling out the form at the end of this newsletter.

Interested in submitting to balancing the scales? Share your writing, photos, and more via email to bts@kftc.org or mail to P.O. Box 1450, London, KY, 40743. We can’t wait to hear from you!

and sustainable economy, and a clean energy future.

At KFTC, we offer a pathway for Kentuckians to work with others who share their vision and values to impact issues at the local and state levels, develop leadership skills, build community and grassroots power, and win changes that make Kentucky a healthier and more just place to call home.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Representation brought into our bylaws................................................................................................................................3 Our work in Tornado Relief Assistance..................................................................................................................................4 White Learning Space begins................................................................................................................................................5 Executive Leadership Update................................................................................................................................................6 LOCAL AND ISSUE UPDATES Coming to Light in person at the capitol and virtually .........................................................................................................6 Rolling Bluegrass hosts 9th annual Arty Pie Party................................................................................................................8 A reflection on voter registration from a fresh perspective....................................................................................................8

KFTC membership dues are $15 to $50

Six Community Groups to Co-Sponsor Candidate Forum in Lexington...................................................................................9

per year, based on ability to pay. No one is

Midway and Surrounding Area Citizen Action......................................................................................................................10

denied membership because of inability to pay. Membership is open to anyone who is committed to equality, democracy and nonviolent change.

Member Dan Nolett Letter to the Editor...............................................................................................................................11 Representative Attica Scott ends her last legislative session.............................................................................................14 KFTC Leadership Nomination Information...........................................................................................................................15 #ICYMI social media highlights..........................................................................................................................................17 Story of Self by Kaitlyn Justice.............................................................................................................................................18 EKY Remembrance Project Coloring Page

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Where have KFTC members been lately?.............................................................................................................................22 Balancing the Scales is published by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and sent as third class mail from Louisville. Reader contri­butions and letters to the editor should be sent to P.O. Box 1450, London, KY 40743 or bts@kftc.org.

Subscriptions are $20/yr.

Pictured on the front cover:Photos from Coming to Light featuring Bryant Station Students, and Black Lobby Day featuring students from Play Cousins Collective

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 3

A change in our bylaws to include more BIPOC representation In a historic vote, on March 26, the KFTC Steering Committee amended the bylaws of the organization in order to ensure representation on the Executive Committee and Steering Committee from the KFTC People of Color Caucus (POCC).

The bylaw change creates a spot on the Executive Committee (officers of KFTC) to be held by a member of the People of Color Caucus. The change also creates a spot on the broader Steering Committee for a POCC representative and alternate (similar to chapters). This is the first time the Steering Committee has been broadened beyond chapter representation.

“It’s very crucial to have a POCC member on the Steering Committee,” noted KY River Steering Committee alternate and POCC member D. Parker. “It’s about representation.”

“Having a POCC member on the Steering Committee will give BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) members a voice in making decisions to promote positive changes within KFTC and beyond,” Parker added.

The People of Color Caucus (POCC) has been a warm

and affirming cultural space for KFTC members and staff who self-identify as Black/African American, Indigenous, and/or as People of Color (Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Arab/Middle Eastern, etc.) to debrief, grieve, heal, and build community together. The Caucus was started informally in late 2018 by former KFTC staff members and one member. The POCC came together as a place in which BIPOC members and staff could hold space with each other and support each other, especially within the roles folks were playing within KFTC. The POCC has slowly but steadily grown since then.

The POCC aims to build alignment and power within POC members of KFTC; provide a space for relationship-building, healing, and transformation; and grow the power of POC in Kentucky at large.

KFTC envisions a strong and thriving People of Color Caucus that can support the organization in leaning into our Audacious Goal. A strong POCC is a critical element in KFTC being guided by BIPOC and directly impacted folks and a thriving POCC can help KFTC broaden and deepen relationships across Kentucky. As one caucus member put it, “... the caucus is meaningful to me and should be an essential part of KFTC because it gives BIPOC folks agency over the decisions that affect us and the space to heal from the trauma we uniquely experience. All of which make KFTC a more just and equitable organization to work with.”

In November, members of the People of Color Caucus (POCC) met with the Executive Committee to discuss a set of requests the Caucus had of the organization. One of the requests pertained to POCC representation on the Steering Committee. The request was as follows: KFTC should institutionalize POC decision-making power.

This includes - but is not limited to - formal voting power where we should have a team representing the POC caucus who sit and vote on the steering committee. We would

like to have a discussion about what broader decision-making power and input over racial justice at KFTC looks like, including our input on implementation of the BHAG and the OCI. While this specific request emerged in November, the idea was not new to KFTC. In the fall of 2019, the consultants working on our racial justice assessment (Frontlines Solutions) made three overarching recommendations about what was needed to make KFTC a more inclusive organization: 1) healing & reconciliation, 2) training, and 3) structural reimagining. Specifically, under structural reimagining they proposed: Re-imagining a more racially equitable representation model for the steering committee.

The Steering Committee discussed this POCC request at their Feb. 5 meeting. They noted that the request is well aligned with the direction of our Audacious Goal. The Committee noted that the voting rights and decision making authority of the Steering Committee are important and having strong BIPOC representation is a key way to move toward our Audacious Goal. Ultimately, a workteam was established and a formal vote was taken, supporting POCC representation on the Steering Committee. The workteam began crafting the necessary bylaw changes.

In presenting the bylaw changes to the Steering Committee, the workteam emphasized that the change is meant to add BIPOC voices to the Steering Committee, not supplant voices already there. The team encouraged Steering Committee members to work in their chapters to continue to elevate the voices and leadership of BIPOC members.

“I truly support this historic step for KFTC to ensure representation from people of color in our decision making,” said Dan Nolet, Steering Committee representative for the Wilderness Trace chapter. “Of course, our longer game is to work to make sure each of our chapters and all our partners also reflect representation from POC. This is a great first step.”

This is an exciting development for KFTC. It’s a departure from our standardized chapter model that begins to get at the structural reimagining work needed to make KFTC a more inclusive, multi-racial organization. This is an historic change to our Steering Committee structure.

4 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

Tornado Relief Assistance Together

On December 11th, 2021, a series of tornadoes cut an unprecedented line of destruction across western and southern Kentucky. Seventy-four people were confirmed dead; more than a thousand properties have been destroyed; and numerous communities have been impacted or completely leveled. People in eighteen, mostly rural, counties have been impacted by storms and tornadoes. This storm system was one of the most powerful and deadly tornadoes in Kentucky’s history.

In the wake of this disaster, KFTC reached out to several community organizations that were leading relief efforts and invited them to refer clients to us that might need additional assistance. We received referrals from the American Red Cross, the Jonesville Academy, and Rise and Shine. We had conversations with impacted individuals who were referred to us and gathered basic information, and then invited them to share the story of how the disaster impacted them.

We began the conversations by acknowledging that everyone impacted is deserving of help, regardless of the level of impact they’ve faced. Beginning from this level ground of deserving assistance helped break through the “survivors guilt” that sometimes creates barriers for folks when seeking assistance. There’s been a wide variety of situations and diverse needs. Some families we helped needed to replace food spoiled during long term power outages. Some families are still in motels, struggling to find affordable housing now that much of the affordable housing market is gone. Some families are in need of transportation but are struggling to find affordable used cars in stock.

We also asked how concerned individuals are about climate change, acknowledging that their response would have no impact

on the aid they would receive. While most everyone agreed that the climate is changing and the increased likelihood of future disasters is a frightening reality, there were a range of perspectives on the causes of climate change and our ability to take effective action on the issue.

The stories of BIPOC and low income Kentuckians are often left out of the narratives we see in the media about the disaster, so as we talked with folks we also asked if we could follow up and offer other

ways to lift up their stories. We’re excited to lift up a blog piece from one impacted resident that addresses the complexities of long-term recovery that will be published on the Union of Concerned Scientists blog.

Lifting up these stories is an important way to bring attention to the need for change and the complex ways families experience disaster recovery in a community In total from all funding sources, we will have given roughly $1,000 to each individual served. We’ve been able to push nearly $23k directly into relief efforts, as well as provide much needed cash assistance to just over 20

families, and also passed some funds on to very local groups providing aid as well.

In the midst of a disaster like this, it can be challenging for a community organizing group to find the right balance between direct support and mutual aid to address immediate needs, and the longer term organizing work to build sustained power and change the systems that create and/ or exacerbate disaster. We focused on the mutual aid side in the weeks/months following the tornado, helping push dollars out to directly impacted folks. Now we turn back to the longer term organizing, helping community members tell their stories and push for the change we need to avoid or minimize these disasters in the future.

At this point, we are doubling down on our organizing efforts, helping local folks assess the root causes that are part of why the tornado happened as well as how they relate to the lack of affordable housing and more.

We’re working with members and allies to push local governments, and the state, to lean into and facilitate mid and long term recovery efforts, work to replenish affordable housing, create future disaster mitigation plans, and find stable ways for folks to pay bills while small businesses and factories rebuild.

The path to recovery and rebuilding a thriving Southern and Western Kentucky is a long one, but this moment has reminded us of the incredible resilience of Kentuckians as our communities show up to support each other. We choose each other in big ways and small, in crisis and in recovery, every day.

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White learning space begins for KFTC staff Kentuckians For The Commonwealth are trying on a white learning space for staff as a next step in achieving the Audacious Goal and living into the Vivid Description we developed in our Organizational Change Initiative. We know there is work for white folks to do within KFTC to unlearn racism and white supremacy culture, and it is in our mutual self-interest to become better anti-racists. Dismantling racism and white supremacy culture within ourselves, our organization, and Kentucky, is necessary for winning on all of the issues we care about, and we are wholly aligned in anti-racism as a guiding principle on our path to victory and liberation.

To help KFTC achieve our goals, the People of Color Caucus recommended a white learning space as a strategy to support our journey to become an antiracist organization and win our vision.

“White learning spaces provide an entry point for white people to begin the process of dismantling their privilege and become anti-racist co-conspirators with people of color. The solidarity to be achieved through critical analyses and actions is crucial for this process within KFTC toward becoming a major disruptor of systemic racism in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” - Pastor E The skills we’re learning in our white learning space will contribute to all of our program of work areas while complimenting our organizational healing and development of support for staff of color. We’re piloting the learning space with staff so that our staff can better support each other (of our 24 staff team members, 18 of us are white and 6 of us are Black women,) and better support KFTC members and the organization as a whole in having race-based conversations within our committees, chapters and local communities.

We sought out an experienced faciliator to help us along our white learning space journey, and met Champion Fleming, a white, trans, gender expansive leadership coach and organizational development consultant working with national and international non-profits and labor unions who are committed to anti-racist strategies that lead to cultural and political change.

The white learning space for staff will continue through June, at which point we’ll evaluate and plan to open a white learning space for KFTC members as well. Big Sandy chapter member Kathy Curtis is curious to learn more through the white learning space: “One of the ways our society keeps white people poor and black people separate is to get them to fight with each other. I knew the racism I was taught was not the truth, but I didn’t realize how that perception or hierarchy of power was ingrained in me. When I think of racism I think of radicals like the Klan and burning crosses, but racism is also in our ideology, concepts, and policies. My first thought has sometimes been racist without me even realizing it. Living in Eastern Kentucky, with its low population of BIPOC folks, there aren’t a lot of people I can sit down with and have these conversations.

The women of color I know are very gracious, but are tired of having to explain to white

people about racism. White people educating white people themselves and working through this stuff without having to go to my black friends and figure out how I’m supposed to feel or respond is really valuable. We can be guidended by BIPOC communities in what we’re learning and unpacking, but it’s not their responsibility to train us or teach us to be better white people. When you unlearn something, what do you put in its place?”

We’re excited about the ways that our organization will grow and our audacious goal and vivid description will flourish with support from this learning space, and we’re looking forward to continuing along this journey with our full membership soon. Stay tuned for more!

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Members host “Coming to Light: Two days o Executive Leadership transition in the home stretch We are in the home stretch of our Executive Leadership transition search. The Transition Team has been working diligently, managing many rounds of interviews and engagement with candidates. They are in the process of lifting up the top finalists for consideration.

During the first few weeks of April, finalists will participate in Meet & Greets with the full staff team. They will also undergo an interview in a joint session with the KFTC Steering Cmte, People of Color Caucus, and KY Coalition board. Soon after, we anticipate a decision by the Steering Committee!

Our goal is to decide on new Executive Leadership in April and work with whomever is chosen to determine the timeline for the start date and onboarding.

This is an exciting moment for KFTC and the culmination of a long and thorough process.

We want to give a huge thank you to our Transition Team for the diligence, integrity, and tireless work they’ve brought to the process over the last year.

Members host “Coming to Light: Two days of Education, Activation, and Celebration” during Kentucky General Assembly During the 2022 General Assembly, KFTC members and allies lifted their voices to speak to the impact of different pieces of legislation submitted this session. Shouting support for bills promoting truth, fairness, and betterment of the state, and calling out bills and legislators that would leave their community behind.

While the GOP supermajority prioritized an attempt to stop truth from being taught in schools, we brought our collective light and truth to their doorstep in Frankfort – virtually and in-person.

Thomas, Meta Mendel-Reyes, and Pastor E. Venus Evans gave the land acknowledgment. Music performances by Robert Mullinax and Michael Preacely, and the sharing of art from Tiffany Pyette, as well as Destiny & Serena Owen.

On Tuesday, March 1, members, students, and allies gathered together in person on the Capitol steps to hear from a diverse group of speakers. They not only spoke about target legislation, but also shared stories that highlighted the power of people coming together to challenge and change systems of power. Speakers included Serena Owen (Northern Kentucky KFTC Chapter & Community Heroes: Women Who Lead), Matthew Williams (Vice-President of Lexington-Fayette Virtually, on Monday, February 28, mem- NAACP), Lisa Garrison (Cumberland bers came together to build a shared KFTC Chapter and Sunup Initiative) and understanding of different bills that could Sadiqa Reynolds (President and CEO of move us toward light, learning, and racial Louisville Urban League). Musical perjustice in Kentucky. Members also disformances included Native flute by Fred cussed the many bills that aim to divide, Keams and Louisville’s Sewa Drummers. censor, and stifle. Speakers included Noah Thank you to everyone who attended and Akbar, Akisha Townsend Eaton, Elijah made these events a success!

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of Education, Activation, and Celebration”

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Rolling Bluegrass hosts 9th Annual Arty Pie Party The KFTC Rolling Bluegrass Chapter hosted the Annual Arty Pie Party KickOff on November 9th, 2021. The event was broadcasted live on Facebook and was hosted by Rosanne Klarer and Greg Coulson. Throughout the evening, there were several guest performances including Madeline Fitts, who performed a piece, Mo Bell, who shared and discussed some of their original poetry, and more.

Pieces of art from the auction were showcased during the kick-off, highlighting local artists such as Jawanna Herd, Anne Leader, Teri Meyer, Dev Klarer, and so many more. You can check out all of the art that was auctioned off at bit.ly/ArtyPie21. Pies from Pie Bird were also auctioned off to keep with the theme of the Arty Pie Party!

The night was filled with joy, art, and nostalgia for wonderful KFTC memories.

Members from the Rolling Bluegrass chapter also discussed work that is still ongoing, and ways people watching could get involved.

The Arty Pie Party is the biggest fundraiser that the Rolling Bluegrass Chapter hosts, and even online

it was incredibly successful. The chapter raised over $2000, and brought excitement and energy through the screen to viewers at home. We are all looking for ways to connect while we are still fighting this pandemic, and the Arty Pie Party did just that. In the future, we look forward to having inperson Arty Pie Parties again, but this was an amazing event.

The members of Rolling Bluegrass came together to reach out to their communities for art donations, small businesses donations (like a Custom KFTC Bourbon from Bourbon 30!), and found creative ways for the audience to engage with the auction. Overall, the members of this chapter put together a beautiful, lively event that was a perfect example of how the KFTC family comes together to connect, empower, and uplift!

A fresh perspective on voter registration A reflection Kaitlyn Justice, a practicum student jurrently working with our Over the past two weeks, I’ve helped with my first few voter registration events. When I first started planning these events, I have to admit that I was nervous. I didn’t know what I was doing or if it would work. I wanted so desperately to fight back against nationwide legislation that aims to make voting harder. We saw how vital voting is in the 2020 election. We saw the impact voter registration could have in Georgia. I wanted that for Kentucky. I wanted to be part of it. I am so incredibly pleased to have been able to play even a small role.

Setting up the voter registration events went much smoother than I imagined. I learned a lot from doing the work and deciding what message I wanted the events to have. From my recent experience, high school voter registration events go very well if you’re willing to put yourself out there and make the connections.

The students are a group of people who are most likely to need help registering, and I think it’s important that we take the time to explain and talk about voting with young people.

Their voices are the future, and every bright future needs a strong foundation. I believe that now more than ever.

The conversations are valuable, but I was also glad to have some good success with our registration numbers! Our first day at Pike County Central High School we registered 34 voters in two hours that felt good!

If you’re thinking about conducting voter registration, please do it. It’s important work and it’s fulfilling work. If you find yourself losing your drive to keep fighting for a better world, pick up some cards and plan a voter registration event at a high school. Some of them shine so brightly that they’ll lend a bit of their optimism and hope for the future to you.

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Six Community Groups to Co-Sponsor Candidate Forum in Lexington On May 17, 2022, Lexingtonians will vote to choose which candidates advance to the general election in several important races, including the races for Lexington Mayor and Fayette County Attorney.

These two positions have a great deal of power to enact change on a number of important issues that matter to Lexingtonians, especially regarding racial justice and police accountability. The Fayette County Attorney primary election is especially important because there is no Republican candidate running, so whoever wins the Democratic primary will very likely be the next Fayette County Attorney.

The issues of racial justice and policy accountability are deeply important to Central Kentucky Chapter members and

countless other Lexingtonians. Lexington voters should know where candidates stand on these important issues, from license plate readers being installed across Lexington, to racial disparities in police traffic stops, to the cash bail system’s impact on low-income defendants.

That’s why six local community organizations in Lexington including the Central Kentucky Chapter have come together to host a forum on law enforcement, racial justice, and accountability featuring candidates in the primary election for Lexington Mayor and Fayette County Attorney. The forum will be held on Tuesday, April 26 from 6:30-8:30pm at the Lyric Theater’s Community Room (300 E Third St, Lexington, KY 40508). The other co-sponsors of the forum are the Lyric

Theater & Cultural Arts Center, the Lexington-Fayette Branch of the NAACP, the Alpha Beta Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Building Cultural Bridges, and the Central Kentucky Council for Peace & Justice.

You can register for the forum at bit.ly/ lexcandidateforum or using the QR code.

The event is free, but registration is required. You can also submit any questions you have for the candidates using the registration link. There will be a virtual option to join for those who aren’t able to attend in person at the Lyric Theater’s Community Room. More information will be provided upon registration. Please reach out to Central Kentucky Organizer Quinn Mulholland at quinn@kftc.org with any questions.

10 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

Successful Citizen Action in Midway and Surro

Imagine moving to the quiet country to raise your children, build your dream home, and grow vegetables and fruit. This dream was threatened last summer when I discovered that just a few miles away from us the KY Bluegrass Experience Resort and RV Park (KBER), a huge development, was on the drawing board. The location for the proposed oversized park is along the narrow two-lane Highway 341 intersecting I-64 and situated alongside the banks of the South Fork of the Elkhorn Creek. With multiple buildings and up to 1000 RV and cottage sites, the proposed development would span the Elkhorn on both the Woodford and Scott County sides. The county road was not built to accommodate large RVs and is already under strain due to semis traveling in and out of the Midway Industrial Park. Neighbors and residents from both counties were upset at the marked increase in traffic, and especially the 200+ vehicle/RV increase just through Midway (as published in the traffic study commissioned by the developers).

After discovering the true size and potential impact to community, roads, land and water, as well as the precedent this project sets to overturn local agricultural land protections, a local citizens group formed as Midway Concerned Citizens. They organized within the

community and obtained legal representation from land use Attorney, Joe Childers, who also chairs the Kentucky Resources Council.

Sara Day Evans, who grew up in and resides in Midway, brought her planning and environmental protection background to help understand the potential impacts to the region and community.

KBER hosted a public forum in June 2021 to an overflow crowd of 150+ citizens, a large majority speaking in opposition to the project. Midway City Council later held a public meeting in October, also with over 100 citizens in attendance. All but a couple of attendees spoke in opposition to the RV park. Hank Graddy of Midway, attorney for the developers (surprising considering Hank’s long history of land protection cases) presented the traffic study and other information. Joe Childers presented on behalf of the Midway Concerned Citizens (MCC). When MCC first learned in May 2021 that the project had received a Woodford County conditional use permit, they insisted that their city council provide a public comment period to consider the request from developers that the city provide water and sewer. The comment period for a conditional use permit is minimal with only nearby neighbors being directly notified. For a project of this magnitude, a 14 day notice posted once in the newspaper simply wasn’t enough. The council concurred and extended the public comment period until after their public meeting was held in October 2021 The majority of folks writing, calling and speaking at public meetings, were opposed to

KBER! Those in favor cited the added jobs and tourism that KBER would create for Midway. Many folks expressed concern that this large development would negatively impact the small-town atmosphere of Midway.

Also, many feared the inevitable water and air pollution from the RV’s generators and their campfires, contribute to further degradation of the Elkhorn, and impact the vulnerable underground spring system that supplies water to nearby Georgetown. Some were worried that if you pave over good farmland, you could never restore it. Thanks to active citizen participation, citizens educating and speaking to their elected officials, on October 18, 2021, Midway City Council voted 6-0 to deny the developers request to provide water and sewer service to the RV park.

Since over half the proposed development was planned for Scott County, impacted Scott County residents who were opposed joined in the opposition, led by local residents in Ironworks Estates, along with letters of opposition from the Georgetown city water and sewer service and other local officials.

The developers didn’t back down, however, and instead they brought their proposal for building their own private sewage waste system to the Woodford County Board of Adjustments on January 3rd of this year. Many citizens showed up and wrote to BOA in opposition to private sewage treatment, as well as public officials, including a letter from Georgetown Municipal Water and Sewer Service General Manager, on behalf Mayor, City of Georgetown, Judge Executive, Scott County Fiscal Court, Mayor, City of Midway, Mayor, Director, WEDCO District Health Department and Chairman, GMWSS Board of Commissioners The BOA voted 4-1 to deny the modification to KBER’s permit that would allow them to build their own private sewage

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treatment package plant. Consequently, KBER’s atty Hank Graddy is suing the Woodford County Board of Adjustments.

Scott Countians know all too well what can happen when developers are left to oversee sewage treatment on their property. The Georgetown Mobile Estates trailer Park had leaking sewage lines and went bankrupt some years ago and left local, state and federal governments to pay the $10,000,000 + bill to properly clean up,upgrade the sewage plant and connect sewer lines to Georgetown municipal water and sewage service lines. This project is underway now.

Present status of the project: Hank Graddy presented a scaled down proposal to Midway City Council on Monday, March 21, 2022.

Council voted to table to motion and it is unknown when it will be picked up by the council again.

Organized opposition to unpopular development can and has made a big difference in this ongoing case. Joining together, Scott and Woodford citizens have truly made the difference. Woodford County citizens who value their county’s significant farmland protections, are raising important questions about continued protections of farmland, and the county seems to be listening.

A Letter to the Editor originally published in the Danville Advocate Messenger and the Lexington Herald Leader January 27, 2022 Dear Editor, I have been following the efforts in our State Legislature to pass a budget for the next two years, one of their most important jobs each biennium. As I have written before, we have the resources to make significant and needed investments in our people and infrastructure. Our state has a target to have 5% extra in our Rainy Day Fund and for most of the past 20 years, we have actually been at 4% or below. Today we have a budget surplus from last year of $1.1 billion and a forecast surplus for this year of $1.9 billion. This is over 28% more, much more than our Rainy Day Fund needs. However, the Legislature has proposed to not spend most of this money but hold it in contingency. I am reminded of the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Our legislators are acting like the wicked and lazy servant who will not invest his master’s money but buries it in the yard. They are afraid to act to make needed investments that will earn us new industries and better lives in the coming years. We can invest in our frontline workers (health care, teachers, grocery, daycare, and other services) who have been working so hard for the last two years and deserve a pandemic bonus. We can invest in giving teachers raises to bring them up to comparable levels to other states and to pay them what they are worth to us for we have seen how valuable they are in this pandemic. We can invest in state agencies that have been underfunded for years with a pay raise. The Legislature proposes a one time raise of 6% for all state workers. With inflation running at 7% today, that raise makes no progress in bringing workers up to par with the private sector. We need annual raises or COLA’s built into the system. We can invest in ready to build industrial sites that will stimulate future economic investment in our state. We also need investment in physical infrastructure in broadband, emergency services, local health departments, and much more. Please contact our legislators and urge them to put this money to work for us and not leave it in the ground!

Dan Nolet 1571 Lannock Dr Danville, KY 40422 859-238-3154

12 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

The Storm of Progress: Kentucky Tornadoes and th

By Hilary Moore and Judah Schept This article was originally published February 3, 2022 by Convergence and is reprinted with permission. Read more radical insights at www. convergencemag.com Tornadoes may be inevitable but the crises they leave behind are unnatural—produced by systems and institutions.

Thousands continue to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of December’s tornado outbreak.

By current estimates, 60 tornadoes stretched across 227 miles through nine midwestern and southern states in the late hours of Friday, December 10, 2021 and the early morning of Dec. 11. Decimated buildings leveled across whole towns remain at the top of news feeds.

Still, the most devastating loss was the 90 people killed by the violent storm.

Of those 90 people killed, 77 were from Kentucky. Weeks later, most news coverage focused on emerging and continued relief efforts, from federal disbursements, donation efforts, and animal retrieval, to temporary housing options and gifts for the holidays.

Notably, very few are willing to engage with the disproportionate impact of this disaster.

Why were so many Kentuckians killed in these violent storms?

Most attempts to grapple with the scale of loss point to the quality of warning systems in place, despite the fact that a tornado’s imminence can only ever be tracked minutes before touchdown. Others bypass the question of why so many Kentuckians were killed and move into action, largely through means of support, like donations and prayer. ​​ Too often these stories about the crisis created by the tornadoes separate the storm damage from the everyday crises Kentuckians face. As two people who live in Kentucky and work on issues of economic and racial justice, we see the tornado devastation as having exposed the “organized abandonment” of urban and rural communities over the last four decades.

The geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore understands organized abandonment as the process by which capital and the state have departed from communities, making it increasingly difficult for individuals, households and communities to flourish and even survive given the absence of “adequate income, clean water, reasonable air, reliable shelter, and transportation and communication infrastructure.” Crucially, she continues, ““what’s risen up in the crevices of this cracked foundation of security has been policing and prison.”

Understanding the tornado destruction in the context of organized abandonment and crisis produces a very different set of questions, resulting in a different set of actions and even collective strategies.

Who had the choice to shelter in place and who did not?

In the days following the tornadoes, reports began to emerge about employment conditions at Mayfield Consumer Products, the candle factory that had been razed by the tornadoes and where eight people ultimately died.

By “conditions,” we mean the factory’s physical infrastructure as well as the terms of employment used by the company and invoked on the night of the storms. For example, the factory workers in Mayfield reported being threatened with being fired if they left. Others spoke of losing “points,” the company’s system for managing and penalizing absences, late arrivals, and early departures. A lawyer representing some of the surviving workers has called the factory “a modern-day sweatshop.”

Kentucky is an employment “at will” state, which means that an employer can terminate a contract with an employee without cause, as long as it does not violate federal laws. While representatives from Mayfield Consumer Products deny the many claims from workers about the threats, the fact remains that the company retained the power to fire them and it is clear that many workers perceived that their livelihoods would have been at risk if they had left their shifts early. They also correctly feared

that their lives were at risk by staying, asking why the company did not simply cancel the Friday night shift in anticipation of the storms.

Why is it important to understand who worked at Mayfield?

Mayfield Consumer Products is one of the largest employers in Graves County. Wages start near minimum wage, and the company was an important source of working-class employment. The company relies on immigrant labor, with about 100 of its 550 workers being native Spanish speakers.

Because of labor shortages, the company had also turned toward employing incarcerated workers. On the night of the tornadoes, seven people imprisoned at the county jail were working at the factory. Of course, their freedom to leave the night shift ahead of the deadly storm was even more curtailed than that of their co-workers and would have provoked even greater consequences than the possibility of being fired. The correctional officer who guarded them while they worked, Robert Daniel, was one of the eight people to die in the factory that night. In other words, the workers at the factory that night—poor, immigrant, incarcerated, and employed in “guard labor”—offer crucial insight into the composition and vulnerabilities of the contemporary multiracial working-class.

Who takes care of us when the state can’t or won’t?

Even before the tornadoes, access to basic services, such as adequate healthcare, was limited to a select few. This intensified under COVID, with shortages of nurses and the continued closing of rural hospitals. This is not a distinct problem from the carceral state; in fact, it has happened as Kentucky has seen tremendous growth in its incarcerated populations, outpacing most other states.

Today, if it were its own country, Kentucky would have the seventh-highest rate of incarceration in the world.

Mass incarceration is an imperfect term for describing this phenomenon, as it really is about how the state itself has invested and

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 13

he Carceral State reorganized its capacities into and through expanding police and building prisons and jails. In rural communities, for example, jail expansion is one of the few mechanisms available for revenue generation. States pay counties to house state prisoners in local lockups as a way of relieving prison overcrowding and saving money. This arrangement incentivizes and subsidizes a significant expansion of carceral capacity at the county level, including in regions that have seen considerable prison construction.

recent spike in catastrophic weather patterns is unequivocally connected to climate change, and will likely accelerate. In trying to abandon or avoid politics, the apolitical trope results in ceding the very terrain on which we make sense of what has happened. We know that far right forces, at home and abroad, mobilize around climate change and disaster by encasing crises with scapegoating and fear-based politics. It is crucial for the left to seize the political meaning of this moment and establish an emerging common sense

Who controls the story of what happened?

The second political tendency is equally dangerous, if more confined to social media.

In this, commentators blame the disaster on Kentuckians themselves. This constitutes a version of what the historian Elizabeth Catte has called “Trump Country” media pieces, in which journalists tried to make sense of the 2016 election results by blaming rural voters in places like Appalachia and the rust belt.

So far, there have been two dominant political tendencies deployed to frame the moment. In the first, politicians and media alike aim to avoid politicization, choosing to discuss the events as natural disasters and the effort in their aftermath in terms of emergency assistance, disaster relief, and thoughts and prayers. This trope of an apolitical environmental crisis was perhaps best expressed by President Joe Biden, during his visit to the area, when he offered that “there’s no red tornadoes and blue tornadoes.”

Governor Andy Beshear also struck a similar tone in his State of the Commonwealth speech to a joint session of the General Assembly.

Stating that “our role in government is not to move the state right or left but to move it forward” he noted of the response to the tornadoes that “All of America—and indeed, the entire world—has now seen who we are: neighbors who open our homes and hearts to one another. People who embrace selflessness, generosity and love. All while we were reminded that any arguments, any divisions, just aren’t that important.”

The governor is right to emphasize the generosity and love shown by Kentuckians in the face of disaster. But attempts to avoid politicizing the disaster make two critical errors, one analytical and one strategic.

Tornadoes—from their very possibility to the uneven and disproportionate impact on the multiracial poor and working-class—cannot be abstracted out of political contexts. The

This form of commentary concerning Appalachia neither originated nor ended with Trump. It extends a long history of covering the region as a distinctive, deficient, and retrograde geography and was even more recently expressed in a slew of “What’s wrong with West Virginians?” pieces about the intransigence of Senator Joe Manchin. This is both a kind of hatred of the mythical “white workingclass” expressed through and as coastal elitism and a complete misunderstanding of who, in fact, constitutes the working class. It is also a thoroughly lazy analysis that in its reliance on stereotypes and hardened representations of individuals completely mystifies the structural forces at work. In the case of coverage and commentary on the tornadoes, it grafts an analysis most often found of Appalachia and the rust belt onto western Kentucky.

Unnatural disasters In his “Ten Theses on the Philosophy of History,” the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin offered an important intervention into the notion of a progressive unfolding of history. Benjamin argues for understanding the present as a congealment of

historical forces that “pile up…ruin upon ruin” while propelling us into the future. Of this violent propulsion, Benjamin writes “this storm is what we call progress.”

As thousands continue to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of December’s tornadoes in western Kentucky and elsewhere, we see the importance of examining the damage and the coverage of it as part of an effort to locate both historically. The storms of December, we argue, lay bare the larger storm of which they were a part, and which continues to rage.

Understanding the tornadoes’ disastrous consequences as unnatural—as produced by systems and institutions—offers us different questions to ask and different forms of solutions to seek and develop. One that undeniably would have saved lives that night is unionization and worker-protection legislation, forms of solidarity that leverage power back to workers. Leveraging both of these opportunities requires investing in all kinds of organizing. This is essential if we are to build not only collective power to demand change, but also the collective capacity to carry out meaningful mutual aid efforts. These are crucial for our survival in a state organized around police power, property and profit; they provide vital alternatives to the forces that simultaneously offer episodic relief funds while forwarding long-term strategies of organized abandonment.

The questions above reveal that while tornadoes may be an inevitable part of living in certain areas of the country, the violent and premature death they wrought in December 2021 is thoroughly avoidable. We can and must organize ourselves at and across scales— communities, workplaces, regions—to build and demand what we deserve.

14 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

Representative Attica Scott ends her last legislative session As this General Assembly comes to an end in Frankfort, so does Representative Attica Scott’s time in our state legislature. We have stood by Representative Scott as she rose from Louisville Metro Councilwoman to a fierce state Representative and now Congressional candidate. But being the first Black woman ever elected in our Kentucky State Legislature has never been easy.

Throughout the years Rep. Scott has served in Kentucky’s 41st House District, she has written and cosponsored a slew of community-backed legislation. She has never wavered in her support of our community, and has always made time for a meeting with KFTC members. As our legislature turned against public education, students, and teachers over recent years, Representative Scott instead stood with teachers at the Capitol, and sponsored legislation written by and for students.

This session in particular, Rep. Scott stood by KFTC members as we lobbied against hateful anti-trans and anti- Critical Race Theory laws aimed at Kentucky’s kids. But Rep. Scott’s advocacy didn’t focus only on education- just to name a few from 2022, Representative Scott sponsored bills to end the taxation of menstrual products, to ban hair discrimination,

to require the teaching of the history of racism in public schools, and to establish Medicaid coverage for doula services.

Despite this hard work, however, Representative Scott’s bills have continued to sit, unmoving, unsupported by the GOP super-duper majority led by Speaker of the House, Republican David Osborne.

This year, however, Attica Scott made history by bringing the C.R.O.W.N. Act, a law that would ban hair discrimination based on style and texture, to the forefront of the conversation in Frankfort. For the first time ever- a bill sponsored by the first Black woman in the Kentucky legislature was posted in committee.

In spite of the vitrol surrounding her in Frankfort, Representative Scott remained steady as a true representative of the people.

We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to be represented by her.

Thank you, Attica.

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 15

KFTC 2021 LEADERSHIP NOMINATIONS For selecting organization leaders

KFTC is committed to being a grassroots, member-led organization. The process for recommending, nominating, and electing members to KFTC’s Executive Committee reflects that commitment. It is an expression of KFTC’s core values and our 10-year Audacious Goal of centering racial justice as we grow our membership and networks throughout Kentucky’s 120 counties. It’s also an expression of an open, deliberate and democratic process; a model of shared leadership; and a practice of developing grassroots leaders as a primary strategy for social change. Anyone can recommend a member to serve in the elected positions on KFTC Executive Committee or the three seats on the Kentucky Coalition Board. Self nominations are welcome. The window is open throughout May. In June, KFTC’s Leadership Development Committee considers those recommendations to create and propose a slate of candidates for each board. KFTC’s Steering Committee will review the proposed slates and formally nominate individuals for election at KFTC’s Annual Business Meeting.

Nominations for the 2022/2023 Executive Committee and Kentucky Coalition Board are open until May 31, 2022. To recommend someone for nomination, please use the online form at KFTC.org/nominations. Or, you can respond by mail using the form alongside this article. There will also be space in May chapter meetings.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS: Due May 31, 2022 KFTC’s Steering Committee is the statewide board that makes decisions about the organization’s strategy, policies, budget and long-term direction. The Steering Committee is made up of one representative from each chapter, one representative from the People of Color Caucus, and the statewide officers on KFTC’s Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee is made up of six or seven officers, depending if there is Chair or CoChairs on the Executive Committee. This group makes necessary decisions between Steering Committee meetings and provides leadership for the organization. All of the members of the Executive Committee are elected, with the exception of the position of the Immediate Past Chair. The following is a description of the elected positions: Chair/Co-Chair Last year, to strengthen our alignment to shared leadership and to the workload, the Steering Committee approved a change that allowed for up to two Chair positions--Co-Chairs. The Chair/CoChairs are voting members of the KFTC Steering Committee and Executive Committee, as well as the Chair of the KFTC Steering Committee and the Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors.

They preside at all Annual Meetings, Steering Committee meetings, Executive Committee meetings and Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors meetings.

Vice Chairperson The Vice Chairperson is a voting member of the KFTC Steering Committee and Executive Committee, as well as the Vice Chairperson of the KFTC Steering Committee and the Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors. They preside

in the absence of the Chair/Co-Chairs at all Annual Meetings, Steering Committee meetings, Executive Committee meetings, and KC Board of Directors meetings.

Secretary-Treasurer This officer serves as Secretary-Treasurer for KFTC and the Kentucky Coalition. They also serve as a voting member of the KFTC Steering Committee and Executive Committee, as well as the Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors. The Secretary-Treasurer also serves as the chair of the Finance Committee.

At-Large Representative The At-Large Representative is a member elected from anywhere in the state. They serve as a voting member of the KFTC Steering Committee and Executive Committee, as well as the Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors. In the event that the previous chair is unable to serve in the immediate past chair position, the Steering Committee may name instead a second at-large representative to be voted on by the membership at the annual business meeting.

People of Color Caucus Representative KFTC is reimagining our structure to align ourselves with the Big Audacious Goal of centering racial justice as we organize in 120 counties. Earlier this year, in collaboration with the People of Color Caucus, KFTC’s Steering Committee approved the addition of another seat on the Executive Committee--a position for a representative of the People of Color Caucus.

Nominations for the People of Color Caucus seat will come directly from the People of Color Caucus.

-see requirement on next page-

KFTC’S CURRENT EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The following is the current Executive Committee: • The Co-Chairs chairs are Tiff Duncan and Alan Smith. Both have served one year in this position, and both are eligible to serve again.

• The Vice-Chair is Rebecca Tucker. She has served one year as Vice-Chair and is eligible for another term in that position • The Secretary-Treasurer is David Miller.

He has served one year as secretarytreasurer and is eligible for another term in that position.

• There are currently two at-large positions, one of them in the place of the Immediate Past Chair position. The two at-large representatives are Ebony O-Rea and Kathy Curtis. Both have served one year in the position and are eligible for another term.

Executive Committee members also may be nominated for positions other than the one in which they currently serve.

16 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

EXECUTIVE COMMITEE REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDANCE

There are some requirements for serving on KFTC’s Executive Committee: • A statewide officer must be a member of KFTC. • A statewide officer cannot be a paid employee or the immediate family member of a paid employee of KFTC or Kentucky Coalition.

• A statewide officer cannot serve in the same position for more than two years.

The Leadership Development Committee considers everyone put forth who meets these requirements.

They work to develop a slate that is strengthened by a diversity of perspectives and identities, including gender, age, race, income, educational background, and geography. The Leadership Development Committee also works from a set of desired characteristics that facilitate leading the organization.

This year, those characteristics are: • Commitment to KFTC’s Audacious Goal and Vivid Description.

• Are visionaries who connect impacted communities • Reflects the diversity (gender, age, race, income, geography, issue, etc) of who we envision our membership to become as we continue to align to KFTC’s Audacious Goal • Are good financial advocates and fundraisers (an authentic person who is effective and willing to tell their own story and KFTC’s story, and to ask

others to invest in our work) Have a good working relationship with staff and Executive Director(s).

Demonstrate a commitment to KFTC’s vision and values Are knowledgeable about KFTC’s program of work (have experience working with a statewide committee and/or the Steering Committee and/or a local chapter), and are able to see connections among our issues.

Are respectful, listen well, and build consensus.

Are good at thinking through complex organizational challenges Are good at developing strategies and plans Keep the larger picture in view and operate on the basis of what’s best for the whole organization Stand up for what they think is best for KFTC but be willing to accede to others’ opinions

be eligible for any of the elected positions.

As part of their consideration, the Leadership Development Committee offers a set of questions to members who are put forth for nomination. The questions ask members to share their reflections on: • how and why they’ve been active in KFTC, or other ways they’ve been active in community • the identities they carry, and their experiences working in community across lines of difference • how they think we can make change in Kentucky, what it’s going to take • how they like to communicate and how they respond to conflict • their willingness and the support needed to speak or write publicly on behalf of KFTC. • their growth areas, and their openness to being coached and supported.

• What they’re excited to bring to KFTC’s leadership.

You can recommend as many people as you like for nomination, including yourself, to the Executive Committee. You can put someone forth for a specific position, or for any elected position on the Executive Committee. The exception to this is the seat for the People of Color Caucus, which is an elected position that’s filled through nominations put forth by the People of Color Caucus. The Leadership Development Committee considers all nominees to

These reflections help the committee create a slate that meets the needs and opportunities of KFTC. The committee aims for a slate that is made stronger by diverse perspectives and identities--multi-racial, multi-generational, representative of a range of geographies, class identities, and issue interests, etc-and that collectively, the Executive Committee holds the range of skills needed to lead the organization.

• • •

• • • • •

KENTUCKY COALITION NOMINATIONS: DUE MAY 31, 2022 Kentucky Coalition is the affiliate organization of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. Kentucky Coalition (KC) is a 501(c)(3) organization, meaning that it is allowed to accept tax-deductible donations from members and can access foundation grants that are not available to KFTC as a 501(c)(4).

Kentucky Coalition’s purpose is to support grassroots community organizing, leadership development, and public education around important public policy. Its reach stretches beyond KFTC and beyond Kentucky. Kentucky Coalition has provided support and acted as fiscal agent for groups working in Appalachia and the South. For instance, Kentucky Coalition is currently the fiscal agent for the Alliance for Appalachia, a group of 15 organizations from Central Appalachia working to stop mountaintop removal mining and creating a sustainable, just Appalachia.

The Kentucky Coalition Board provides general oversight and direction for the organization. It maintains a close working relationship with the KFTC Steering Committee, monitors finances, and

conducts planning and evaluation. The board meets at least quarterly, often by conference call.

The Kentucky Coalition Board is composed of the members of the KFTC Executive Committee plus three additional members who are elected by the KFTC membership at its annual meeting. Kentucky Coalition Board members serve one-year terms.

The Kentucky Coalition board members who also are members of the Executive Committee follow the term limits placed on them as KFTC Executive Committee members. The three additional Kentucky Coalition Board members may serve four consecutive one-year terms.

Requirements: • A Kentucky Coalition board member must be a member of KFTC. • A Kentucky Coalition board member cannot be a paid employee or the immediate family member of a paid employee of KFTC or Kentucky Coalition.

• A Kentucky Coalition board member not on the KFTC Executive Committee cannot serve in the same position for more than four one-year consecu-

tive terms.

The KFTC Leadership Development Committee will consider all nominees and recommend a diverse slate of qualified candidates, taking into account a diversity of characteristics including gender, age, race, income, educational background, place of residence, level of involvement in the local chapter and statewide organization, issue interests and other desired qualities.

It is preferred that nominees to the Kentucky Coalition Board are people with prior experience on the KFTC Steering Committee or Finance Committee who do not currently serve as their chapter’s representative.

Current Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors: The following members, in addition to the Executive Committee members, currently serve on the KC Board: • Joy Fitzgerald is in her second term.

• Matthew Gidcomb is in his second term.

• Shannon Scott is in her first term.

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 17

Your Name:

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: KFTC Executive Committee and Kentucky Coalition Board. Due May 31, 2022.

Phone:

You may nominate yourself or any other member for KFTC’s Executive Committee and the Kentucky Coalition Board of Directors. All nominations must be received by 5 p.m. ET on May 31, 2022. You may make your nominations by returning this form to KFTC at P.O. Box 1450, London, KY 40743. You also may email your nominations to nominations@kftc.org, or use an online form at www.kftc.org/nominations.

Email:

KFTC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Due May 31, 2022

KENTUCKY COALITION BOARD: Due May 31, 2022

You may nominate as many people as you like for the KFTC Executive Committee.

Use additional paper if needed, and a separate form for each nominee.

You may nominate as many people as you like for the Kentucky Coalition board.

Use additional paper if needed, and a separate form for each nominee.

I would like to nominate: __________________________________________

I would like to nominate ___________________________________________ for a position on the Kentucky Coalition Board.

For the following position(s) on KFTC’s Executive Committee:

I believe this person is a good choice because: ___________________________

Chairperson Vice Chairperson

____________________________________________________________

Secretary-Treasurer

____________________________________________________________

At-large Rep

Any of the positions I believe this person is a good choice because: ___________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ I have spoken with this person about my nomination, and they are willing to be considered (it’s okay if you haven’t).

I have NOT yet spoken with this person about my nomination, and I do not know if they are willing to be considered.

I have spoken with this person about my nomination, and they are willing to be considered (it’s okay if you haven’t).

I have NOT yet spoken with this person about my nomination, and I do not know if they are willing to be considered.

You may nominate as many people as you like for the Kentucky Coalition board.

Use additional paper if needed, and a separate form for each nominee.

I would like to nominate ___________________________________________ for a position on the Kentucky Coalition Board.

I would like to nominate: __________________________________________ For the following position(s) on KFTC’s Executive Committee: Chairperson Vice Chairperson Secretary-Treasurer

At-large Rep

Any of the positions I believe this person is a good choice because: ___________________________

I believe this person is a good choice because: ___________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ I have spoken with this person about my nomination, and they are willing to be considered (it’s okay if you haven’t).

I have NOT yet spoken with this person about my nomination, and I do not know if they are willing to be considered.

____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ I have spoken with this person about my nomination, and they are willing to be considered (it’s okay if you haven’t).

I have NOT yet spoken with this person about my nomination, and I do not know if they are willing to be considered.

Return this form to:

KFTC P.O. Box 1450 London, KY 40743

18 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

Story of Self by Kaitlyn Justice

Gun violence is a very real and very serious issue.

This is a fact that I have never had the privilege to ignore. I started school at 4 years old, and for as long as I can remember I have had to take part in school shooting drills. I have never been unaware that I could go to school one day and never return. Perhaps I was not as aware of it at 4 years old. Maybe such a thought hadn’t really stuck with me at 5 or 6 either. I do know that I knew it at those ages, though. They taught it to me. They taught me to hide in a corner in a darkened classroom. They taught me code words and which furniture was heaviest. By the time I was 12, I knew exactly which teachers would die for me. I knew exactly which of my classmates were bravest. I knew every object in every room and how best to move it in front of the door. I could open the classroom windows with my eyes closed. I knew where the baseball bats were, and which object would break glass if thrown hard enough. I had all of this information stored away, and I never knew when exactly I might need it, only that there was a very real possibility that I would.

By the time I was in high school, I had hundreds of escape plans memorized. Some I would never use, as I was no longer in elementary or middle school. Some were brand new. I had new code words, new phrases, dozens of new teachers with different hiding places, and the new exciting prospect of being in a classroom with no windows. I had at least five escape plans for every section of the school. I knew which teachers would die for me, because they told me. They told me because by the time I was in high school, it seemed like there was a new school shooting in the news every week. I knew which teachers knew how to use a gun. I knew which teacher used to be in the military, and which ones had kids at home, and exactly why they hated being in the inner rooms with no windows. I knew every detail of the trainings the faculty partook in to learn how to keep us safe. I was intimately aware of how very real the danger was, because every single day it seemed like we were all holding our breath.

Then Parkland happened, and we really were.

We spent every day wondering if we were next, or if we’d get a news alert midway through the day reporting from a different school. Some days

no one would come to school because some kid decided to threaten to bring a gun via SnapChat.

Some days they’d threaten and we’d show up anyway. I’ve spent entire school days looking over my shoulder. A girl threatened to kill us all one day and she had to be escorted around the school. Every time she turned the corner with a principal not far behind, the room would fall silent. Someone dropped their books and it rang out like a gunshot. One of the football players was under the lunch table before the sound had even faded. This was our reality. We were always waiting. We didn’t ask ourselves if it would happen to us. We asked when.

I spent most of my senior year having nightmares.

It was always the same. It started at breakfast.

I was sitting at my usual table with my friends. Mr. Taylor was standing by the door with the newly hired policeman with his shiny black gun strapped to his hip. The lunch ladies were handing out biscuits. I would be talking, laughing, and then look up to see someone climb onto one of the tables. Before anyone else could notice, the figure would shoot Mr. Taylor and then the policeman. In the time it took for them to fall, blood all over the blue school doors, the figure would then shoot Trey from the football team just as he went to stand.

Trey would fall between my table and the one beside it. Bryce would step in front of his twin sister, and he would die for it. Sometime between then and the death of several more kids I had known nearly all of my life, I would make it outside. The world would be gray. I’d wake up crying.

Every morning afterwards, I’d walk into breakfast. Mr. Taylor would be there standing beside the policeman. I wouldn’t eat the biscuits. I’d see someone move towards a table, and lose my breath. Trey would walk past me, or say something particularly loud, and it would make me feel sick. I didn’t look Bryce in the eye for the rest of the year.

At least five of my friends told me they had experienced something similar. I had more panic attacks in one year than I had in the last three combined. One of the freshmen asked me if I thought she was going to die before she graduated. Half of my teachers wanted guns and the other half wanted gun control.

Some of them cried and one of them assured us that they loved us all enough to die for us.

All of my escape plans had escape plans. Every single door in the gym was always open when we walked in, and I watched every day as the same boy shut each one before class would end. They started locking the front doors of the school. The policeman had his own office on the second floor. I never heard him speak.

For years, gun violence was a silent presence in my life. School shootings were whispers. Then all at once those whispers turned to shouts, and it clouded every aspect of my school experience.

Having the police there made it worse. It gave validation to the whispers, transformed them into screams. Every person I spoke to about it said knowing that an armed officer was there did not make them feel safe. More than a few of them told me it made the possible feel like the inevita-

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 19

Remembering Mary Love ble.

School is supposed to be safe. When we prioritize guns over children, school is no longer a safe learning environment. It’s a place of trauma. It feels as though you’re walking over landmines.

When is it going to get me? Is this step, this day, going to be my last? The last time I’ll ever see my friends? The last time the kid that sits across from me in Algebra will ever laugh at the teacher’s jokes? The last time that she’ll ever ask me for help on the homework? Is this the last time we’ll all be together and in one piece? Was that a locker slamming or a gunshot? Put the chair in front of the door just in case. Call down to the principal’s office. Make sure your phones are on silent, and please whisper. Keep your heads down while I call the office. It’s okay, everyone, Mr. Taylor says it’s all clear. Return to your seats. Here’s a tissue, go wash your face. Take a deep breath and turn to page 84. Make sure to knock and state your name when you come back from the bathroom so we can unlock the door.

No one ever said, “Thankfully, we have an armed police officer on campus. He’ll take care of the threat.” We all assumed there was a threat and responded in a trained fashion. That, in itself, is horrifying. It would be more than horrifying to watch a child grow up with an armed officer in their school, faced with that level of unease every single day for 12 years or more, while teacher’s barely make enough money to justify risking their lives for the rights of a gun.

Everything I’ve experienced would be made worse by adding in an armed officer. It was worse when it happened in my senior year, and I can barely stand to imagine how it would feel to grow up with an officer in school from the very first day. How do you explain that to a child? How would they be expected to react? What kind of harm does that present to them, both in that present tense and in the future? Consider the long term effects. I can still remember the exact color dream-Trey was wearing when he died in my nightmares. I don’t remember what subjects were covered in my US history class that year.

What does that kind of awareness look like for a child?

“It is hard to imagine KFTC over the past 15 years without Mary Love. She has made herself of service, indispensable, and beloved.

Mary grew up in East Tennessee. And while she lives in Oldham County and is active in the Jefferson County KFTC chapter, she is devoted to eastern Kentucky and the struggles to protect the land, water, and people of Central Appalachia.

The list of Mary’s leadership roles within KFTC is extensive and exhausting, and it doesn’t begin to include her many other commitments through her church, as a poll worker, and as a devoted great Aunt.

Mary has been among the most consistent and active members of KFTC’s Land Reform Committee and NET Committee, which together guide KFTC’s work on stopping harmful and polluting practices and building a new, just, and sustainable economy. She serves on her chapter’s Air Quality Team, and on KFTC’s Leadership Development Committee, Steering Committee, Executive Committee, and the board of KFTC’s tax-exempt sister organization, Kentucky Coalition.

Mary has also represented KFTC on the board of the Alliance for Appalachia, and on the coordinating committees of the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance and a national network that focuses on Extreme Energy Extraction. She has been a spokesperson and outstanding grassroots lobbyist in campaigns for clean energy, against mountaintop removal mining, and against payday lending.

But none of that long list begins to tell the story of how diligently and effectively she works.

Mary is the person you most want by your side if you are hosting a conference and desperately need a 40 foot extension cord, or a WiFi hotspot, or a special adaptor to connect your computer to the projector. Her car is like Mary Poppins’s bag, loaded with practical tech gadgets for every occasion.

For the last 15 years, Mary has been a road warrior and a dedicated people connector.

She connects people who should know each other and ought to be working together. She connects the dots between all of our issues, helping people see how voting rights, just transition, water pollution, and economic exploitation are all connected. And she connects us all by building bridges and common purpose among our members from Louisville, eastern Kentucky, and around the Commonwealth.

Mary, thank you for your lifetime of service and leadership. You have taught me, and all of us, by your example. We love you.”

20 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

EKY Remembrance Project Coloring Book Page The Eastern Kentucky Chapter has created a coloring book that reflects on significant moments in hirstory of the region. Be sure to grab yourself a copy at upcoming spring events!

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 21

#ICYMI: HIGHLIGHTS FROM KFTC SOCIAL MEDIA YOU MAY HAVE MISSED! During the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly, we used social media to help educate and mobilize Kentuckians. The process in Frankfort is often complicated by design, so it was important to let our followers know how things like Governor Beshear’s veto power works and when it was time to take action.

We joined organizations like Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) and hundreds of Kentuckians across the state to oppose HB 7, the “Hungry Bellies Bill,” which adds additional reporting requirements to food stamps, Medicaid, and childcare assistance.

Governor Beshear vetoed HB 7, but unfortunately the General Assembly overrode the veto and signed HB 7 into law the last few days of the session.

We took to TikTok to bring facts to the forefront and to encourage discovery, support, and storytelling worldwide.

We celebrated Keturah Herron becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ state representative in a new TikTok series, Top Bops & Flops, where we discussed the best and worst news coming out of the General Assembly this year.

22 | BALANCING THE SCALES | October 21, 2021

WHERE HAVE KFTC MEMBERS BEEN LATELY?

October 21, 2021 | BALANCING THE SCALES | 23

KFTC OFFICES AND STAFF MAIN OFFICE Morgan Brown, Ashley Frasher, and Carl Weaver P.O. Box 1450 London, KY 40743 606-878-2161 | Fax: 606-878-5714 info@kftc.org

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Remembering Matthew Frederick Matthew Frederick, 33 of the Madison County chapter, passed peacefully in his sleep held in the arms of his devoted husband after midnight on Christmas morning. He is now at rest, “somewhere over the rainbow” following a long battle with a brain tumor.

He was a vibrant and creative spirit. He was passionate about writing and fighting for justice in Kentucky. Known for a great turn of phrase, and a hearty laugh. He was a dedicated caregiver. Those who knew “Fred,” as he liked to be called, attest to his deep kindness.

He was a member of the KFTC Economic Justice Committee and insisted that housing and healthcare were human rights. He was very active in LGBTQ fairness organizing and lobbied in Frankfort many times to pass a statewide Fairness law and to ban LGBTQ conversion therapy. At the 2019 KFTC Annual Meeting, he won the Sister Marie Gangwish Award for grassroots fundraising efforts he spearheaded in his chapter.

Prior to his passing, his last act of solidarity was in support of the Justice 4 North Fork campaign, led by residents of the North Fork Mobile Home Park in Morehead. He stood with those fighting back against mass eviction caused by an “economic development” project that destroyed an entire neighborhood.

We hold him in peace and light.

Jefferson County E’Beth Adami, Corey Dutton, Alexa Hatcher, Nyeila Jones, Shauntrice Martin, and Jessie Skaggs 735 Lampton Street #202 Louisville, KY 40203 502-589-3188 Southern Kentucky Megan Bailey, Laura Harper Knight,and Whitney Kuklinski 958 Collett Ave., Suite 500 Bowling Green, KY 42101 270-282-4553 Northern Kentucky Joe Gallenstein, Brittany McCubbin, and Dave Newton 306 Greenup Street Covington, KY 41011 859-380-6103 Central Kentucky Joan Brannon, Tayna Fogle, Jessica Hays Lucas, Erik Hungerbuhler, Heather Mahoney, and Quinn Mulholland 250 Plaza Drive, Suite 4 Lexington, KY 40503 859-276-0563 Big Sandy Jerry Hardt, Jacob Mack-Boll, and Beverly Tadlock 152 North Lake Drive P.O. Box 864 Prestonsburg, KY 41653 606-263-4982 Madison County Lisa Abbott and Shana Goggins 210 N. Broadway #3 Berea, KY 40403 859-868-1179

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