The Bluegrass and Beyond

As divisive political years go, this one would be hard to top.

It was conservatives against liberals, blue states against red states, McCain against Obama, Biden against Palin, and everyone, it seemed, against Bush and Cheney.

As we change presidents next month, the rancor is sure to continue. We can expect more partisan sniping, more finger-pointing and more self-righteousness from both the right and the left. And it’s so much easier to dismiss people who disagree with you if you can slap a label on them.

As Christmas approaches, I’m thinking about a controversial leader from the past. His views were radical, and many people disagreed with his methods. He created an incredible amount of political divisiveness.

It made me wonder: Based on what the Bible tells us about Jesus Christ, would people consider him a conservative or a liberal if he were walking among us today?

I put the question to several Christian clergy in Lexington. A couple of them found time to respond.

“I do think that Jesus could not have been described by our constricting labels,” said the Rev. Steve Drury, pastor at Trinity Hill United Methodist Church. “I believe he would appear very conservative at one moment and entirely liberal the next.

“I believe he showed his greatest displeasure with those who were at the extremes. Jesus revealed the importance of ultimate truth while at the same time demonstrating the ultimate value of having compassionate love for all people. He was tender with sinners caught in the very act of sin and harsh with self-righteous believers.

“I believe people of his time thought they had him pigeonholed and then he blew their presuppositions away by his actions and statements,” Drury said. “The Sadducees (liberal) thought him conservative and the Pharisees (conservatives) thought him to be liberal.”

The Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, a Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ minister who is executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, took a similar view.

“It would be as hard today to put Jesus in some kind of box, or affix a label to him, as it was in his own time,” Kemper said.

“The religious and ruling authorities tried every which way from the Sabbath to figure out how to pin him down, with little luck. … He associated with riffraff and good folks from everyday walks of life. Jesus wanted to conserve the core teachings of his faith that we are called to love God and love our neighbor as our selves (from Leviticus 19), and he wanted to toss out all the superficial pieces of religiosity that impeded someone’s relationship with a loving and forgiving God.

“For me, Jesus was a reformer who aimed to transform not merely the religious status quo of his time, but to transform hearts from hopelessness and cynicism to joy and kindness. … He wasn’t the messiah that they expected, and we still want to make him a messiah that suits our own ways of thinking, and who will do for us whatever we ask, rather than the one who wants us to allow God to work with us.

“There are those today who don’t want a controversial word to be spoken in their churches. Heaven forbid if someone should get upset. Yet the Jesus who walked among us was so controversial, perhaps precisely because he could not be pigeonholed, that the only solution the religious and secular establishments could see was to hand him over to the Romans for crucifixion. …

“He asked people to follow him in caring about the least and the lost, those in prison, those without food, and encouraged us all to become less childish and more childlike,” Kemper said.

I think Drury and Kemper said it pretty well. The person many of our political warriors now worship couldn’t be defined by narrow ideology.

Does it make any sense for the rest of us to be?

The poor are always with us, even when the economy is booming. So what’s happening now that almost everyone is feeling the pinch?

You can get a glimpse by visiting the Nest, otherwise known as the Center for Women, Children & Families. It is a private, non-profit social services agency whose mission makes it an early barometer of economic distress.

Three months ago, 10 or 15 people would come to the Nest each day seeking emergency help — food, clothing, diapers, toiletries, emergency child care or money to pay their utilities. Now, the number is two or three times that.

“It’s hard for many of them to come through the door and say, ‘I need help’. They’ve never had to do it before,” said Eileen O’Malley, the Nest’s executive director.

She expects to see many more in the coming months, as jobs disappear in rural Kentucky and people move to Lexington seeking work.

Things started getting tough when gasoline spiked to $4 a gallon and food prices shot up, O’Malley said. Gas prices dropped, but food prices generally haven’t. Thousands of jobs have disappeared as companies cut back, causing many families already on the edge to fall over it.

O’Malley thinks it’s no coincidence that several cases of child abuse have hit the headlines recently. Child abuse always rises when more families face economic stress.

Because the Nest is often one of the first places the newly poor go for help, Mayor Jim Newberry and the Blue Grass Community Foundation will be there Monday to announce the creation of a new special needs fund. Local companies and foundations are creating the fund to help non-profits such as the Nest provide emergency assistance. Organizers also are seeking donations from the public.

Lexington is a generous community. You could see that Friday when the Nest held its annual Reindeer Express giveaway. Parents could come to get food, books, toys and clothing. It came with wrapping paper, so children think the gifts come from Mom, Dad or Santa, not from charity.

More than 200 families with 500 children were helped this year, thanks to contributions from several local businesses, churches and organizations.

One major donor was Stivers HVAC Inc. Rick Stivers, the owner, has seen his own business decline sharply this year as home construction has ground to a halt. But he knew others needed his help. “I believe anything you give comes back to you 10-fold,” he said.

O’Malley said the Nest checks with other charities to make sure clients aren’t double-dipping, and she’s amazed at how few even try. For example, clients receiving help through Reindeer Expressed were checked against the 5,000 children being helped by the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. Only about 10 names showed up on both lists, she said.

The Nest provides services such as parenting classes for 11 Central Kentucky counties. But much of its focus is on the north Lexington neighborhood where it is located, a place that shows how wealth and poverty can ebb and flow over time.

The Nest is housed in one of Lexington’s first grand mansions, built in 1810 by entrepreneur and philanthropist William “Lord” Morton. The threadbare mansion now belongs to the city, and the grounds are called Duncan Park.

For decades, this has been one of Lexington’s poorest neighborhoods, although determined residents have made a lot of progress in bringing it back to life. Still, the surrounding streets are filled with low-income rental units, and O’Malley has noticed more and more evictions in recent months. They’re easy to spot: piles of belongings stacked out on the curb.

While the Nest provides a lot of emergency relief, the staff tries to get to know families well enough to figure out their underlying needs and issues and help make them stable and self-sufficient. Sometimes that means counseling, financial literacy training or help in finding a job.

“I think, ‘How can I breathe hope into this person,’ ” said social worker Susan Mahoney. “The goal is always self-sufficiency. I have a lot of clients who are very motivated to improve their lives.”

O’Malley, who joined the Nest six years ago, isn’t a social worker by training. She studied economics, earned an MBA and spent much of her career owning and running furniture stores in her native New Orleans. It has helped her understand the economic forces that can keep people poor if they slip through the cracks.

“It is expensive to be poor, because you’re often so limited in what you have access to,” she said.

For example, many people must pay $5 or $6 for a gallon of milk at a neighborhood market because they don’t have transportation to a suburban superstore that has it on sale for half that.

“They don’t have the transportation we have,” O’Malley said. “If they have a car, they’re probably driving your hand-me-down, which you got rid of because it wasn’t reliable or burned too much gas.”

Low-wage workers often get fired because they miss a day or two of work because of illness or emergency. Lack of education makes it hard for some people to keep jobs, or navigate the social-services bureaucracy between jobs.

Many people have few money-management skills. Lack of credit forces them to pay high interest rates to payday lenders and rent-to-own stores. Cheap rental housing is often drafty, which causes high utility bills. Bad habits and lack of insurance contribute to bad health. The cheapest and most available food in many parts of town has little nutritional value.

While some people will always be poor, O’Malley is concerned about the people who fall into poverty during economic times like these. Without the right kind of help, some will never pull themselves out.

“My concern is that if we see it this early in the downturn, what’s going to happen when it gets worse?” she said. “There’s a lot of need out there. This is going to have to be a community effort.”

Kentucky’s Steve Beshear isn’t the only governor in the region looking to shore up a state budget deficit by boosting one of the nation’s lowest cigarette taxes.

Virginia’s cigarette tax is now 30 cents a pack, just like Kentucky’s. But Gov. Tim Kaine plans to ask lawmakers there to double it. Read details here.

Beshear is hoping to raise Kentucky’s cigarette tax by 70 cents, to $1 a pack. How will the response to Kaine’s move affect what happens in Kentucky?

It’s a rare occasion when Kentucky legislators can save taxpayers money by raising a tax.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposal to raise the state cigarette tax by 70 cents a pack is one of those occasions. The proposal is not only good public policy, it’s a financial no-brainer.

It’s also why a year after Beshear first proposed it — only to see House members cut the increase to 25 cents and Senators kill it — it’s worth trying again.

Beshear’s main motivation for trying again is to get much-needed revenue for state government, which faces a $456 million budget shortfall. The governor estimates the cigarette tax increase would bring in $81.5 million this fiscal year and $144 million next year.

But nobody thinks a cigarette tax will solve state government’s money problems. Many people believe Kentucky needs comprehensive tax reform, which would include taxes on services and more taxing authority for local governments.

The big payoff from raising the cigarette tax isn’t the revenue it would bring to state government, but the long-term savings it would bring to Kentucky taxpayers and businesses.

A lot of people seem to understand that. A statewide poll in May by the Herald-Leader and WKYT-TV showed 55 percent of Kentuckians support raising the cigarette tax to $1, while 34 percent oppose it.

Since then, several powerful groups have endorsed a higher cigarette tax, including the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky League of Cities.

Kentucky, which in 2005 raised the cigarette tax from 3 cents to 30 cents, still has one of the lowest rates in the region. Among surrounding states, Virginia also has a 30-cent cigarette tax, and Missouri’s is only 17 cents. The tax is 55 cents in West Virginia, 62 cents in Tennessee; 98 cents in Illinois; 99.5 cents in Indiana; and $1.25 in Ohio.

Kentucky lawmakers will get a lot of pressure from border-county retailers, who make big bucks selling cigarettes to bootleggers who resell them in high-tax states. The chambers of commerce are sensitive to putting Kentucky retailers at a disadvantage. That’s why they would prefer a smaller increase than Beshear is seeking.

But those business organizations also recognize that when cigarettes get more expensive, fewer people smoke. And when fewer people smoke, businesses and taxpayers spend a lot less money treating smoking-related illness.

“Health costs are eating us up in Kentucky,” said David Adkisson, president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, who said a survey of the membership showed 80 percent support higher cigarette taxes to discourage smoking. “Employers’ top concern is heathcare costs.”

Smoking rates in Indiana dropped 20 percent when the state raised its cigarette tax from 44 cents to 99.5 cents in July 2007. Other states have seen similar results.

Kentucky leads the nation in most measures of smoking, including smoking by young people and pregnant women, as well as illnesses linked to tobacco use.

Smoking-related healthcare costs in Kentucky total $1.5 billion a year, with lost productivity in the state attributable to smoking worth about $2.13 billion, according to a study by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The study used data from government agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Because many smokers are poor, smoking-related Medicaid expenses in Kentucky cost state government $145.4 million and the federal government $341.5 million a year. The study estimates smoking’s total burden on Kentucky taxpayers at nearly $985 million a year.

Substantially higher cigarette taxes would prompt more adults to quit smoking, fewer kids to start and save taxpayers and businesses a fortune, said Ellen Hahn, a University of Kentucky nursing professor and anti-smoking crusader. “It’s the single most important thing we could do to reduce consumption,” she said.

Hahn warned, though, that a small tax increase won’t be enough to reduce consumption, because cigarette companies will simply cut their prices and profit margins to maintain sales.

In addition to all of the smoking-related deaths, pain and suffering, Hahn said, healthcare organizations estimate that Kentucky could save more than $1.3 billion in long-term healthcare costs with a 70-cent increase in the cigarette tax.

“That’s the piece that people don’t realize,” she said. “People who aren’t smokers say this doesn’t affect me. But it affects everyone. It’s money out of our pockets.”

I try never to leave Danville without stopping by Burke’s Bakery on Main Street for some gingerbread men.

It’s hard to pass the Rebecca Ruth shop on U.S. 60 between Versailles and Frankfort without buying some bourbon balls. (I recommend the pound bag of “boo boos,” which are cheaper and taste just as good.)

Every few months, I go by Sharp’s Candies on Regency Road in Lexington for a pound box of orange creams, my wife’s favorite. I’ll usually get some Kentucky pulled cream candy for myself, too.

My freezer still has a serving or two of barbecued mutton from the Fancy Farm Picnic. I never head to Graves County on the first weekend of August without a cooler in the back of my car to bring some home.

When country hams are being smoked in the Jackson Purchase, I can’t help but look for a restaurant serving some with eggs and biscuits. I can never drive by the Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey or Woodford Reserve distilleries without getting just a little thirsty. And an advertising jingle I remember from childhood remains true today: “If it’s baked by Magee’s, it has to be good!”

What’s your favorite Kentucky treat?  You know, the one that makes you pull off the road and stock up?

My favorite annual issue of The New York Times Magazine is the Year in Ideas.  The 8th annual issue was published Sunday.  As usual, there’s a lot there to think about.  Given the state of the economy, I was struck by several ideas involving business, finance and public policy: Locavestors, the Quinn Solution, the Rising Tide Tax System, Smart Grids and the Two-Tier Teacher Contract.  But the magazine describes innovative ideas of all kinds, some of which may one day be common — a new kind of fuel-efficient automobile engine and a different kind of dinner meat that would ease global warming.  Plus, there’s Bubble Wrap and the Vending Machine for Crows.  Dig in, and see what interests you.

What goes around sometimes comes around — like a streetcar.

A century ago, if you wanted to get somewhere in Lexington, you probably took a streetcar. And if you wanted to travel from Lexington to Paris, Georgetown, Nicholasville or Versailles, you took an express streetcar called an Interurban.

Like most American cities, Lexington abandoned its streetcar system in the 1930s. As roads were improved and more people bought automobiles, trolley tracks were pulled up or paved over. Motor buses took over the steadily declining demand for public transportation.

But streetcars are making a comeback — maybe even in Lexington.

The streetcar revival began a decade ago in Europe. Several American cities have built new streetcar systems, including Little Rock, Memphis, Tacoma, Wash., and, most notably, Portland, Ore. Portland’s eight-mile loop, using modern European cars, has been key to economic development that has revitalized downtown. Cincinnati and Atlanta are among other cities making plans for new streetcar systems.

Lexington is taking some first steps.

LexTran, which has seen ridership double in the past three years, is seeking matching funds for a $1.2 million federal grant to create what’s being called the Downtown Circulator. Motorized trolleys would run every 10 minutes at lunchtime between Triangle and Thoroughbred parks, and in the evenings between downtown and the University of Kentucky campus.

A group of city, business and university officials is in the early stages of discussing more ambitious plans: A modern tram system in Lexington that could eventually be a regional commuter rail.

“Nothing has been selected yet,” said Leonard Heller, UK’s vice president for commercialization and economic development, who is part of the Greater Lexington Automated Guideway Transit Policy Board and Task Force. “We’re kind of asking ‘what ifs’.”

Initially, the group is looking at a tram system that would run on or above streets, or both, and connect the UK campus with downtown. Later phases could connect Transylvania University and extend up the Newtown Pike corridor to include the new campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College and UK’s Coldstream campus.

The group plans to add members from surrounding communities, talk with more transportation consultants and start seeking public involvement next year. “With President Obama, I think we’ll have a really good opportunity to do something with rapid transit,” Heller said.

Frank Harscher, an Atlanta-based transportation consultant, sees a lot of potential for streetcars and commuter rail here. He is a Lexington native and did the feasibility study for the streetcar system being planned in Atlanta.

Harscher envisions a downtown Lexington streetcar loop on Main and Vine streets, along with loops connecting the UK and Transylvania campuses. He also sees potential for commuter rail on the existing railroad line that runs from Nicholasville to Lexington and on up to the Kentucky Horse Park. A natural terminal location would be on South Broadway, where the old Southern Railroad terminal once stood, he said.

Harscher said a good test could be done during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in September 2010 by using that Norfolk Southern rail line to move spectators between the Horse Park and downtown.

While the up-front costs of modern streetcar systems are huge — anywhere from $30 million to $50 million a mile — they can be cheaper and more efficient to operate in the long run, Harscher said.

Plus, he said, people just like them better than buses, and are more willing to ride them. “It’s a status thing, I guess,” he said. “It’s the kind of accessibility that will bring people downtown.”

Down the road, a commuter rail line between Lexington and the Toyota plant near Georgetown could make sense, Harscher said. Others have suggested passenger rail linking Lexington with the airports in Louisville and Northern Kentucky.

If, as many people suspect, the Obama administration and Congress pour money into mass transit programs as a way to put people to work and stimulate the economy, those dollars will go to cities and regions that have plans ready to fund.

“If you have a plan in your pocket, you can make the next step happen when the opportunity arises,” Harscher said.

Like a streetcar, you never know when opportunity might come around again.

A century ago, streetcars ruled the city

The United Way pledge card showed up in my office mailbox this week.

I’m a big fan of United Way of the Bluegrass, the organization where some of Central Kentucky’s best people come together to help others. United Way supports 95 non-profit groups and 251 programs that make this a better place to live.

Like a lot of people, I don’t expect to get a raise next year. I might not be able to give more to United Way, but I also know I can’t afford to give less.

Charities dread hard economic times such as these; needs rise and contributions often fall. Kathy Plomin, the United Way of the Bluegrass’ president, is keeping her fingers crossed.

One of United Way’s big efforts is the 2-1-1 telephone hotline, where people in the region call operators around the clock to be referred to an organization that can help them with specific needs. Call volume has tripled this past year, with most people needing help with things such as housing, utility bills and food.

“What we’re finding is that people who never needed services before are calling for them,” Plomin said.

So far, United Way contributions are holding up. The organization has received pledges of $5 million toward its $8 million goal for the year. The big problem will be “pledge loss,” she said.

Employees at 1,800 companies in the region contribute to United Way through payroll deduction. But as employees are laid off, or leave work and are not replaced, pledges go unmet.

Normally, United Way budgets pledge loss at 7 percent. “This year, I think we’re going to have to budget in double-digits for pledge loss,” she said. “And there are some companies we’re not even going to because they’re having such a hard time.”

United Way hopes to offset pledge loss by recruiting more companies. More than 40 have been added to the system this year. The organization also has conducted several phone-athons among lapsed donors, raising tens of thousands of dollars.

“You have two schools of thought: Some people are afraid, because of the economy, to put themselves out there with donations,” Plomin said. “But some others are just caring more, and giving more, than they normally do.”

Other non-profits also are cautiously optimistic about contributions amid rising demand for their services.

“People are still generous,” said Kim Livesay, community relations director at the Hope Center shelter. “It looks like we’re going to make it through the holidays, but who knows about January.”

The Hope Center is coming off its biggest year ever for private donations, which account for more than 25 percent of funding. Its shelter and recovery programs get an additional 6.6 percent of funding from the United Way, with most of the rest coming from federal, state and local governments.

One organization already seeing a drop in contributions is The Salvation Army. The annual Angel Tree campaign is trying to provide gifts for 5,000 children — 1,000 more than last Christmas. But it is still seeking sponsors for more than 500 of those children before the campaign ends Sunday.

More severe is the “kettle campaign” — those bundled-up bell-ringers you see outside of stores with red kettles on tripods. With a dozen days to go, the Salvation Army is $157,000 short of its $350,000 goal, Major Debra Ashcraft said.

The Salvation Army’s William Booth Society, its annual major donor campaign, is coming up soon. “We’ve heard back from a couple of those folks who’ve said they just really can’t give at the level they’ve given before as a result of the economy,” she said.

“We’re in a very generous community,” Ashcraft said. “But the need has never been greater. We don’t think that the giving is keeping up with the extra demand.”

It’s something worth thinking about as you pass those bell-ringers, look at your own United Way pledge card or see people in need on the streets.

“In my lifetime, I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this,” Plomin said of the economic downturn. “Everybody’s kind of wondering what’s going to happen.”

Have you noticed those colorful Kentucky license plates with two cyclists and a runner that say “Share the Road?”

I was happy to be one of the first to buy one a couple of years ago. They’ve turned out to be quite popular, both because they’re attractive and because more people are willing to pay a little extra to support cycling, running and walking as ways to have fun, get fit and stay healthy.

Money raised from the specialty plate fee was intended to fund safety efforts, and soon it will.  Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo joined Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry and other officials Thursday to announce that the state is putting $63,000 raised from the plates into a foundation that will fund bicycle and pedestrian safety projects.

The money will go to the Kentucky Bicycle and Bikeway Commission for its Paula Nye Memorial Education Grant program. The program is named for Nye, who was the state’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for five years before she died of cancer in 2005. Grant applications are available on the commission’s Web site.

Newberry also announced that 40 “Share the Road” signs will be posted soon on Fayette County roads that are frequented by cyclists. The state Transportation Department will pay for 20, and the other 20 will be paid for by the city, with help from the local cycling community. The city, thanks to a state grant, also plans a safety education campaign next year that will include additional signs.

“Lexington is committed to being the most bike-friendly city in the state,” Newberry said.

He noted that Lexington completed 13 off-road trail segments totaling seven miles this year and will begin 10 more, totaling more than 17 miles, next year. Much of the money is coming from grants. The city also is working to add bike lanes to streets as they are resurfaced, and Newberry said six of Lexington’s nine major arterial roads now have bike lanes.

It’s great to see government leaders “get it” when it comes to cycling and fitness. Thanks to Newberry and the Urban County Council — with leadership from Jay McChord, Tom Blues and Chuck Ellinger — a lot of progress has been made in the past couple of years.

As a physician and mountain biker, Mongiardo not only understands it, but he sees an economic opportunity for Kentucky. The state’s backroads and woodland trails already attract many road and mountain bikers from other states. Mongiardo sees an expanded trail system as key to creating a major “adventure tourism” industry in Kentucky.

Speaking of trails: Lexington’s Board of Adjustment meets Friday at 1 p.m. in the Council chambers to again consider approval of a land swap between the University of Kentucky and Vulcan Materials. That swap is essential to plans for the nine-mile Legacy Trail from downtown to the Kentucky Horse Park. At a lightly attended hearing last month, the deal lost approval on a 2-2 vote amid concerns that Vulcan’s limestone mining in the area might hurt the local water supply. Those concerns seem unfounded, and I’m guessing the land swap will win approval this time. But it still wouldn’t hurt for backers of the Legacy Trail to come out to show support.

It looks as if Detroit may get its bailout after all.

If a reluctant Congress approves, the Big Three automakers could get $15 billion in short-term loans, following in the footsteps of banks and brokerages that are receiving $700 billion in public assistance.

Like many taxpayers, I’m angry at having to come to the rescue of greedy and incompetent corporate executives, but they seem to have us over a barrel.

Without the Wall Street bailout, the credit squeeze might have cost even more Kentuckians their jobs and savings and left the state with an even bigger budget deficit. A Detroit meltdown could wash away thousands more Kentucky jobs, from the Corvette plant in Bowling Green to the Ford plants in Louisville and dozens of parts suppliers across the state.

How did we get into this mess? Corporate greed and incompetence, for sure, as well as some irresponsible consumers. But I keep thinking that we could have avoided this crisis if government had been doing its job for the past eight years — if not the past quarter-century.

While we’re fixing the economy, it would be useful to have some sober discussions about the proper relationship between business and government. For decades, some politicians and big-money special interests have reduced that discussion to simplistic sound-bites: Business good. Big business better. Government bad. Government regulation very bad.

Government doesn’t create wealth, business does. Capitalism is the world’s best economic system because of human creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, enlightened self-interest and the nimbleness of business people to respond to the market’s needs.

But for capitalism to succeed over the long haul, it needs a fair and healthy marketplace where government sets some boundaries and enforces rules. Business people are the first to say that their job is to make a profit for their owners, not watch out for society’s best interests. That’s government’s job.

The Wall Street meltdown can be traced to greed and abuse made possible by deregulation and lack of government oversight. And if government had pushed harder for tough fuel economy standards — or helped fund innovation the way Japan has done with its automakers — the Big Three and the rest of us would be in a lot better shape now.

Honestly, I’m almost as concerned about government “oversight” of the auto industry as I am about government’s apparent lack of oversight of the financial services industry, which is getting nearly 50 times more money with few strings attached.

Government isn’t suited to running a business; it’s too bureaucratic and political. Of course, some would say the same about big corporations, especially public corporations more focused on short-term gain than long-term sustainability. Anyone who has ever worked for a big corporation knows why the comic strip Dilbert is so popular.

Some government regulation is essential; otherwise, our air and water would look like China’s and investors would have even less confidence in the safety of our financial system than they do now. But examples of overregulation are easy to find. Just ask any health care professional who deals with the well-meaning but nightmarish federal privacy law known as HIPAA.

As the nation feels its way toward a new relationship between government and business, a good subject to consider is health care.

Unlike in most industrialized nations, our health care system is left largely in private hands. Health care costs have traditionally been borne by business, although, as those costs have risen dramatically, companies have shifted more of them to workers.

The United States spends 16.5 percent of gross domestic product on health care — much more than any other nation — and that figure rises every year. Yet we have an inefficient system where an estimated 47 million people are uninsured and many families are just one serious illness away from financial ruin.

Why should businesses bear that burden? If government took more responsibility for managing health care with private providers, many people think both quality and coverage could be improved. Freed from those benefits burdens, companies could be more competitive globally. Plus, think of the entrepreneurial potential that could be unleashed if so many workers weren’t tied to jobs they hate by fear of losing health care benefits.

Of course, any attempt at change will be vigorously opposed by the health care industrial complex, which profits from the current system’s inefficiency. It will raise fears about “socialized medicine,” even though public-private systems such as Medicare, while hardly perfect, have worked well for decades.

Like many Americans, I’m uncomfortable with government trying to manage big business. But if government would use this opportunity to learn how to do a better job of governing, we might be spared more corporate bailouts in the future.

I know the real reason those nice people behind the betting windows at Keeneland always smile when I walk up: I’m no good at handicapping anything.

But this time, I think I’ve picked a winner.

I was asked to handicap the Herald-Leader’s Most Intriguing Kentucky Newsmaker of 2008 contest. I began by ruling out horses, the frog, the tree, the music club and people who could be punch lines for Jay Leno.

I’ve admired the 300-year-old bur oak tree on Harrodsburg Road since childhood. And it’s hard not to appreciate the determination of the filly Eight Belles or the longevity of Jojo the frog. But intriguing? I don’t think so.

I’ve followed the CentrePointe controversy closely, so I thought about going with the tag team of Dudley “back to the ’80s” Webb and Jim “we can do better” Gray.

I’m intrigued by smart people such as Gray, State Auditor Crit Luallen and Alltech founder Pearse Lyons, the Irishman who is one of Kentucky’s true visionaries.

Nancy Jo Kemper gets points for always having the courage of her convictions.

Olympians Elaine Breeden and Tyson Gay made us proud in Beijing.

But the Kentuckian who intrigues me most is Adam Bender, the Lexington boy who hasn’t let a missing leg slow him down, much less stop him. He inspires everyone by just being himself. And I suspect we haven’t seen anything yet.

Former state Sen. Georgia Powers of Louisville was interviewed last week. Photo by Tom Eblen

In a darkened former courtroom on ground where slaves were once bought and sold, Georgia Powers sat in front of a video camera and told her story.

Born in the “Jim Crow Town” section of Springfield, she grew up in Louisville. Powers first realized African Americans were being treated as second-class citizens when she and a white friend had to attend different schools.

Powers grew up to be a community organizer and civil rights activist. When a state senator she was trying to lobby blew smoke in her face, she decided she needed a seat beside him. Powers became the first woman and first African American elected to the Kentucky Senate. There, she sponsored and fought for passage of the South’s first laws guaranteeing blacks equal rights to home ownership and public accommodations.

“I saw a need for someone to speak out for women, for African Americans, for children,” said Powers, now 85. She described a time that seems so long ago, but wasn’t, and the skillful political maneuvering it took to secure rights and freedoms Kentuckians now take for granted.

Powers’ story says a lot about the Kentucky experience — and the American experience. It is one of many stories that will be featured in a documentary film being made by five University of Kentucky professors, Academy Award-winning director and producer Paul Wagner and composer Kinny Landrum. The film will be narrated by the Kentucky-born actress Ashley Judd.

Filming for Kentucky — An American Story began last week with Daniel Blake Smith, a UK historian and the film’s executive producer, taping several interviews on UK’s campus and at the Lexington History Museum in the former Fayette County courthouse.

In addition to Powers and fellow civil rights activist J. Blaine Hudson, Smith interviewed journalists Al Smith and Maryjean Wall and historians Ron Eller, Tracy Campbell, Stephen Aron and John Mack Faragher.

Full-scale filming will begin in the spring, and Smith expects the documentary to be finished by mid-2010. The film will be either one or two hours, depending on how much more money the filmmakers’ non-profit corporation can raise. And it will be only one piece of a project that will include a companion book and a Web site with supplemental content that schools can use to teach Kentucky history.

Smith said the filmmakers want Kentuckians to learn more about their history — and take pride in it.

“We think Kentucky’s history is very revealing of the American experience,” he said. “So many people think that American history only happened in places like Washington and Philadelphia and Boston. But a lot of it happened in Kentucky. We want viewers to be surprised about what has happened in Kentucky and feel connected to it.”

Kentucky — An American Story won’t cover everything, and it won’t be a dry history lesson. Both Smith and Wagner, also a Kentucky native, have significant filmmaking experience. Their collaborators include two historians and authors, Campbell and Eller, who know how to tell a good story.

The film will focus on Kentucky people, land and politics, telling stories both familiar and surprising. Those stories include Kentucky’s pioneer settlement and early prosperity; how racial and religious conflict gave way to pioneering civil rights progress; the blessing and curse of coal and tobacco; the planning and marketing that created the thoroughbred horse industry; and even the rich history of girls’ basketball.

In his interview for the film, journalist Al Smith, the founding host of KET’s weekly public affairs program Comment on Kentucky, discussed the state’s many contradictions and challenges.

Kentuckians have long been stereotyped by outsiders as feuding mountaineers and poor hillbillies. Yet, Kentucky has produced some of America’s most acclaimed authors and intellectuals, people such as Robert Penn Warren, Harry Caudill, Harriett Arnow, Wendell Berry and Elizabeth Hardwick.

Many Kentuckians once rejected the science that shows tobacco causes cancer just as they now reject the science that shows burning coal causes global warming, Smith noted. And not far from one of the nation’s most remarkable collections of prehistoric fossils, fundamentalist Christians recently built the Creation Museum.

The Kentucky of 1784 was described by pioneer author John Filson as the “New Eden,” yet many parts of the state have since been despoiled by strip mining, excessive logging and overdevelopment.

For two and a half centuries, Kentucky has always seemed to be at the center of America — not only its geography, but its people’s successes and failures, challenges, hopes, dreams and cultural conflicts. Author Jesse Stuart described it this way: “If these United States can be called a body, Kentucky can be called its heart.”

For more information

For more information about Kentucky — An American Story and to see video clips of sample segments narrated by actress Ashley Judd, go to the film’s Web site: www.kentuckyanamericanstory.org

Someday, when state officials have added up all of the taxpayer money that will be spent on the lawsuit filed this week by an atheist group, I hope they will send the bill to state Rep. Tom Riner.

To help him pay it, Riner could then take up a collection among the legislators who supported his floor amendment.

American Atheists Inc. sued the state because Riner, a Louisville Democrat and Baptist minister, inserted the amendment two years ago into legislation organizing the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security. The amendment designated the office’s first duty as “stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”

The amendment requires the office to publicize God’s benevolent protection in its literature and to post at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center a plaque with an 88-word statement that begins, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”

“This is recognition that government alone cannot guarantee the perfect safety of the people of Kentucky,” Riner told Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves last month. “Government itself, apart from God, cannot close the security gap.”

As a person of faith — and a fellow Christian — I agree with Riner’s views about God’s role in the security of our state, nation and world.

As an American citizen, though, I don’t think it is government’s place to promote God.

And, as a Kentucky taxpayer, I’m furious that tens of thousands of dollars of public money is likely to be spent litigating this obviously unconstitutional attempt to require government to do the work of churches, synagogues and mosques.

I wouldn’t be so angry if this was an isolated case, but it’s not. A certain stripe of Christians have, time and again, cost Kentucky taxpayers big bucks because they insist on mixing church and state.

Federal judges, whether appointed by Democrats or Republicans, have generally agreed for the past half-century that when the framers of the U.S. Constitution wrote that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” they meant it. And they also meant it should apply to officials in Kentucky.

Just last month, two attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union were awarded more than $47,000 in fees and court costs after a federal court struck down one of many attempts by public officials in Kentucky to post the Ten Commandments in public buildings.

It’s hard to say how much public money has been spent defending these lawsuits. Until recently, the attorney general’s office didn’t keep records detailed enough to know how much time state lawyers spent working on them. But the cost has been significant, both in public employee time and taxpayer cash paid to plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Of course, the people who support efforts like those of Rep. Riner are quick to demonize the ACLU and others who challenge them. It’s like blaming a cop because he catches you speeding.

It’s too early to say how the state will handle this latest lawsuit. Allison Gardner Martin, communications director for the state Attorney General, said it is against office policy to comment on pending litigation.

My guess is that a court will eventually decide that the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security has no business promoting God. And, when it’s all said and done, it will have cost Kentucky taxpayers another $40,000 or so.

Think for a moment about how we could better spend that money. For one thing, we could hire another police officer or firefighter. They would be much more effective than a plaque at protecting Kentuckians from natural disasters and foreign terrorists who think their God wants them to kill us.

Here’s what I believe: God doesn’t want recognition from our government. He wants our government’s leaders to use the talents and resources He gave them to make Kentucky a better place for His people. And He certainly does not want them putting public money into the pockets of atheists.

Well, the economists finally made it official this week: We’re in a recession. And, guess what? They said it began a year ago.

If you’re like the three-fourths of Americans who consider themselves to be “middle class,” this probably didn’t come as a surprise. Many people feel as if they’ve been losing economic ground for years. That’s because many of them have been.

America has been a generally prosperous nation since World War II, achieving the highest overall standard of living in the planet’s history. The reasons are many, including advances in technology and global economic trends that have made goods cheap and available. Americans have been innovative, entrepreneurial and they have worked hard. At times, the nation has made significant public investments in physical infrastructure, such as highways, and social infrastructure, such as schools.

But the pain being felt in this recession has brought new attention to a trend economists have been watching for years: The rich really are getting richer, the poor really are getting poorer and the middle class has been shrinking steadily since the late 1970s.

It’s a reality that government policy-makers and business leaders must deal with as they try to pull us out of this mess. The issue could be especially important for Kentuckians, who lag their fellow Americans in just about every measure of economic well-being.

At the Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center’s annual conference Nov. 20 in Covington, there was an interesting panel discussion about the shrinking middle class and what it means for Kentucky. The news, as you might expect, wasn’t good.

“I see, basically, that middle class dissolving,” said Ron Crouch, a sociologist who has headed the Kentucky State Data Center at the Universtiy of Louisville since 1988. “The issue is it probably takes two incomes to make it in today’s society.”

Middle class is hard to define, but a basic measure is income. A year ago, a study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported big disparities in the growth of after-tax household income between 1979 and 2005, as measured in 2005 dollars.

The study found that the poorest 20 percent of American households saw their annual income rise by an average of $900 over that quarter-century. The second-poorest 20 percent, by $4,800. The middle 20 percent, by $8,700.

Things were much different on the high end. The upper-middle 20 percent of households saw annual income increase by $16,000. And the richest fifth, by $76,500. Among the wealthiest 1 percent of households, average annual after-tax income rose by $745,100, from $326,400 to $1,071,500.

Panelist Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said Kentucky ranks sixth-highest nationally in the disparity between its richest and poorest citizens and 13th in the disparity between middle- and upper-income people.

Most people define middle class more broadly than just income; it’s more about a feeling of security, Brooks said. Do I feel secure in my job, my home, my health, my retirement and my assets’ ability to weather a setback?

For example, if every member of a family doesn’t have health insurance, “you’re just one bad illness away from risk,” Brooks said.

That could help explain why the Pew Research Center and the Gallup organization reported this year that 25 percent of Americans felt they hadn’t moved forward economically in the past five years, and 31 percent felt they had fallen back. It was the worst result in a half-century of polling on that question. Attitudes are important, because confident consumers spend more, and consumer spending is two-thirds of all economic activity.

Being middle class is an idea Americans hold dear, which is why many people think of themselves as middle class when, in reality, they are either wealthy or poor. It’s especially true for baby boomers, who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, when most Americans really were middle class.

Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist and Princeton University professor who recently won the Nobel Prize for economics, has written that, far from being the norm, a majority middle-class America was a relatively brief condition that existed between the 1930s and about 1980.

Over the next few months, we’ll hear politicians and ideological warriors debate how to fix the economy and what role government should play in that. My guess is we’ll hear less than in the recent past about making government smaller, privatizing Social Security and cutting taxes for the rich. After all, some of the pillars of capitalism are lining up for billions in taxpayer bailouts.

The huge post-World War II American middle class was created, in part, though public investment such as the GI Bill, better public schools, affordable home mortgages, good highways, Social Security and Medicare.

Growing the middle class and returning the economy to health again will require more public investment. And it will mean creating smart policies to address demographic trends such as an aging population and inequities among growing minority populations.

A strong middle class is central to America’s self-image, but the way to keeping it strong is hotly debated. Crouch breaks it down into two basic philosophies, which he describes as the John Wayne view and the Little House on the Prairie view. One symbolizes rugged individualism; the other, the idea of “take care of yourself, take care of your family, but also watch out for your neighbor.”

“We’ve got to get off this idea that John Wayne is who we are in America,” Crouch said. “Basically, we’re a country which was built on people helping each other. This society cannot afford to have winners and losers. We’ve got to make everyone a winner.”

Stephen Rolfe Powell, the Centre College professor and internationally famous glass artist, has been profiled in several films and a segment of CBS’s Sunday Morning. But a new half-hour documentary is different: It was made by a former student who is now a successful filmmaker.

Fire and Motion debuts Wednesday (Dec. 3) at 7:30 p.m. at Centre’s Vahlkamp Theater in Crounse Hall. The presentation, which will include a question-and-answer session, is free and open to the public. Kentucky Educational Television will show the film as part of its Kentucky Muse program in December and January. Click here for the schedule.

If you’re not familiar with Powell’s large, colorful blown-glass sculptures, you may remember him from my Nov. 16 column about his friendship with Italian glass master Lino Tagliapietra, who visited Centre last month to work with Powell’s students.

Powell was in his first year of teaching at Centre in 1983 when Tom Thurman was his student. Since then, Thurman, a native of Christiansburg, has been producing and directing award-winning independent documentaries that focus on American art and culture.

His recent work includes a film about the late Louisville-born gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride, which last year won the Jury Prize for Outstanding Achievement at the Savannah Film Festival.

KET’s Kentucky Muse program showcases creativity and artistic expression in Kentucky. Thurman is a producer for the series.