Tag: JJ

Wini Yunker descending the Lexington Financial Center in downtown Lexington, Kentucky

Last Wednesday, I slipped out of the office for about 30 minutes to stand at the base of the Lexington Financial Center with the rest of “Team Wini.”

A good number from Nicholasville had come to downtown Lexington to watch Wini Yunker participate in Brave the Blue II in which those fundraising $1,000 or more for the Blue Grass Council of the Boy Scouts of America could rappel down the western façade of Lexington’s tallest structure.

Let’s make sure we all understand what was going on at the moment.

Wini, 79, was strapped into a harness and prepared to rappel down the side of the 410-foot tall Big Blue Building.

I, 30, was standing with my two feet safely on Lexington’s Mill Street with a coffee in my hand.

Her experienced hands maneuvered the ropes for a quick descent and she loosened a snag herself when she became caught about two-thirds of the way down.

Yes, my friend Wini Yunker hardly acts the age of a near-octogenarian. But I’d suggest that for Wini, age has always been just a number. It has no bearing on what can be accomplished.

She is, and always has been, an inspiration for us all.

Wini was the subject of an article in the New York Times that described her proximity to the White House in 1961. It was there that she received, with sadness, a denial letter from the Peace Corps.

The Nicholasville native was told that she had insufficient educational experience to join the Corps.

An article from the Louisville Courier-Journal describes how Wini later earned her college degree from Spalding University in Louisville. A master’s degree from the University of Kentucky followed.

Those two articles were written in 2000 — 39 years after Wini was denied admittance to the Peace Corps. Both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees were received in the late 1990s.

The reason for the publication of the two articles? Wini was on her way to Ukraine as a member of the Peace Corps.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell addressed the Senate on Jan. 31, 2000, in tribute to Wini Yunker as she was getting ready to depart for Kiev:

At a time in her life when most people are beginning to think of retirement and slowing the pace of their lives, Ms. Yunker is instead boldly venturing out on a new journey. She is reaching high for a new goal that will not only make a lasting impact on her own life, but also on the lives of those she leaves the country to help.

Yunker receives the key to the city of Nicholasville from Mayor Russ Meyer.

While in Ukraine, she met President Bill Clinton. Although she froze when he took her hand, Wini didn’t want to miss the opportunity to speak to the president. So she slipped to the end of the receiving line where they again shook hands.

“God bless you, Mr. President,” Wini said the second time around.

And Clinton responded, “Nice to see you again.”

It is just another example of this incredible woman’s refusal to miss an opportunity regardless of what obstacles might lie in her path.

Thirteen years after her departure for Kiev, Wini shows no sign of “slowing the pace” of her life. And, quite literally, she is taking her “can do” attitude to new heights.

Wini Yunker continues to be an inspiration for us all.

This column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal. 
It should not be republished without permission.

The wheels on the bus go round and round … all through the town.

There it is again: the yellow bus.

After a three-month slumber through the heat of summer, the numbered yellow carriages are again hitting the roads.

They criss-cross the county and leaving no child behind as the make their way down nearly every county road.

Morning and afternoon. Five days a week.

On board, they carry precious cargo: our children.

But without the school transportation system, many students would be unable to attend to attend school. Yes, gone are the days when one would “walk five miles uphill (both ways) regardless of the weather” to arrive for classes.

Our grandparents’ tales on getting to school just don’t hold up anymore. While they love to regale us with stories of times gone by, the ubiquity of the automobile, changes in academic theory and budgets, as well as the outward development of our communities have altered the location and size of our schools.

In fact, I was surprised how these factors wove together for the latest prohibition at the newly opened Red Oak Elementary. Reading last week’s Jessamine Journal, I discovered that walking to Red Oak is expressly prohibited.

I wonder what grandpa would think?

But whether we like it or not, our society is highly reliant on the automobile. And our schools rely on the yellow buses to get pupils into the classroom.

Without providing transportation, how else could we ensure that attendance rates remain north of 95%?

More critical than transporting our children, however, is doing it safely. Unfortunately, Kentucky has witnessed some of the worst bus crashes in American history on her own soil. In turn, our regulations concerning school bus safety are some of the more progressive in the country.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn on the Jessamine County Schools’ website that “a school bus is the safest form of ground transportation [and] is nearly eight times safer than a passenger vehicle.”

Let’s keep it that way, Jessamine County. The first few weeks certainly wreak havoc on morning commute times as commuters struggle to adjust to the many stops the yellow bus will make.

Be patient and adjust your schedules accordingly.

Pay attention not just when the bus is stopped, but whenever children are present. Statistics also show that the highest percentage school bus-related fatalities come from pedestrians in loading zones.

Be watchful and drive safely.

Remember, those yellow buses carry precious cargo.

This column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal. 
It should not be republished without permission.

President Ford with reporters, including Helen Thomas. Photo: Library of Congress.

Several years ago, I picked up a copy of the book “Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President” which was a collection of “wit and wisdom” from Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House press corps.

On Saturday, Helen Thomas died at the age of 92.

She was a remarkable woman who was known to colleagues and presidents alike as just “Helen.”

Reading one of her books helped me to better understand both her perspective and her position in U.S. history.

When Helen Thomas began her journalism career at United Press in 1943, the United States was in the middle of fighting World War II.

As a female, however, she was relegated to writing on homemaking and “women’s issues.”

It was not until 1960 that she was promoted to covering the campaign of John F. Kennedy. He won the presidency and Helen was assigned by her bureau to the White House Press Corps.

Here she remained after the Kennedy assassination and through the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

She travelled with the press corps on President Nixon’s trip to China in 1972.

During part of the administration of Gerald Ford, Helen served as president of the White House Correspondents Association. It was only a dozen years earlier that the same organization barred females from attending its annual correspondents’ dinner; now a woman led the organization.

When Jimmy Carter was president, Helen Thomas was there.

And there she remained during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and into the first years of President Obama’s first term.

Her “ringside seat” to more than a half-century of American history gave her such a unique perspective.

Her front row seat in the White House briefing room also gave her the position to speak for those without a voice and to ask the questions which no one else would ask.

She believed this to be her mission and lamented that most journalists did not follow suit.

She was bipartisan in her pointedness and tough questions. She described George W. Bush as the “worst president in American history.”

And she found Barack Obama’s transparency with the press to be worse than that of Nixon’s.

And though 10 Presidents struggled to satisfactorily answer Helen’s questions, she was quick to restore a lost tradition at the end of each presidential briefing by simply saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

Of course, the fact I learned from “Thanks for the Memories” which I love most about Helen Thomas has nothing to do with what she did.

Rather, it is where she was born. In 1920, Helen was born right here in Kentucky — Winchester, to be precise.

To paraphrase this great Kentuckian who broke glass ceilings and asked the tough questions: “Thank you, Helen.”

This column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal. 
It should not be republished without permission.

Campaign Signs in the Lawn – Election 2010

Within hours of polls closing on election night 2012, political pundits on television began talk of the 2014 midterms. For a few months, only those monitoring the 24-news cycle gave much pause to the elections a year and a half away.

Now 17 months still separate us from election day and I’m sensing that the political campaigns will soon be going into full swing.

That means it is time to DVR your favorite shows so you can fast forward over all those commercials. Living in central Kentucky, we’ve been rather isolated from all the campaign commercials in recent Presidential cycles when compared to the non-stop advertising in battleground states like Ohio and Florida.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes’ recent announcement to challenge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has elevated the race to one of the cycle’s top races in the country. That means we can expect to see a lot of commercials that will do little to inform us about either candidate’s position on the issues.

When Jessamine Countians went to the polls last time, our vote was split into two Congressional districts. Voters in the Second Congressional District returned Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, to Washington while those in the Sixth District replaced incumbent Ben Chandler with Republican Andy Barr.

Challengers are already announcing their candidacies in these races and going out into their respective districts to meet voters.

Democrat Ron Leach of Brandenburg just announced his intention to run against Guthrie. In the Sixth District, a few Democrats have announced their candidacies against Barr. Even more candidates are expected.

I was asked by a friend to walk with one of the Sixth District challengers, Elisabeth Jensen, one evening last week at the county fair. I obliged and watched as she met with voters and handed out stickers and fans, all bearing her name and campaign logo.

It was then I realized that the 2014 midterms are upon us. Like wildflowers, yard signs will soon dot our lawns. And it’s one of those “lots of yard signs” years, too. That’s because we’ll also be voting for state representative, judge executive, magistrates on the fiscal court, sheriff, county clerk, mayor, city commissioners, and all the local races where people we know are asking for our support.

Yes, it’s going to be a long political season, full of all the mudslinging and attack ads that make us just shake our heads.

And while we always like to think of better years gone by, politics have been this way for generations. I always smile at Judge Mulligan’s poem, In Kentucky, first delivered to a group of state legislators in 1902 at Lexington’s Phoenix Hotel. The first and last verse read:

The moonlight falls the softest
In Kentucky;
The summer’s days come oft’est
In Kentucky;
Friendship is the strongest,
Love’s fires glow the longest;
Yet, a wrong is always wrongest
In Kentucky.

Song birds are the sweetest
In Kentucky;
The thoroughbreds the quickest
In Kentucky;
Mountains tower proudest,
Thunder peals the loudest,
The landscape is the grandest—and
Politics the damnedest
In Kentucky.

Yes, politics are the damnedest in Kentucky.

So brace yourselves. It’s going to be a long campaign cycle.

This column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal. 
It should not be republished without permission.