The Blessing Of It All
POINTS EAST | By Ike Adams
There is a patch of dense and untamed woods, less than a hundred yards wide and maybe half a mile long, that runs alongside Old Rail Road Grade just across the way, less than a hundred yards, from my front porch. We live about half way between the start and finish of this stand of timber that contains numerous, mature poplar, oak, ash, locust, walnut, elm, hickory and sycamore trees along with a huge variety of smaller ones like dogwood, redbud, birch, sourwood and all the normal understory beauties that thrive in the shade of real woods.
Up until this year I was prone, year round, late in the afternoon or early weekend mornings, to find a shallow place to wade across Lowell Branch, knock down the weeds at the edge of the woods and go, with camera in tow, into this narrow little forest looking for wildflowers and mushrooms or to just to find an accommodating tree where I could rest my body against its trunk and let my senses take control.
But then the ice storm happened back in February and for several days it looked and sounded like our little forest was falling apart. Trees split apart or lost their biggest limbs and for weeks we could hear them crash, as if shot and hit by heavy cannon fire, and thud into the ground.
Fool that I am, I figured the little forest was gone forever but then came spring and suddenly the hillside was as lush as ever. As the leaves weighed down the tree limbs, it was normal to sit on our front porch in April and May and hear another crash, like we’d heard them do in February. Final death to the wounded survivor is what I thought at first.
And then one day late in April I decided that I needed to go see for myself and maybe find some morels around the big poplars and find again the little patch of pink lady slipper orchids growing there just beside where an ancient spring oozed out of the hillside just up the road from me.
Then, all of a sudden, the wind came up, gusting in front of a thunderstorm and the tree limbs began falling to the forest floor. Not enough to kill me if I got out of the way and I hunkered down against a big old oak I trusted as the thunder shower blew through.
Yeah, Yeah—I know. Don’t lean up against the biggest tree in the woods in a thunder storm. And that is sound advice. But better advice is not be in the woods at all if the weather looks bad. Better yet, don’t be in the woods at all if the timber is still falling and I feared that far more than lightning.
Huge branchy tree limbs now make a jungle of the little forest floor here on Lowell Branch alongside our portion of Old Rail Road Grade across the way from Charlie Brown. A perfect home for chipmunks who so despise the hawks and owls above them.
It is not now an easy place to walk or even crawl for human kind. But, as I said before, the canopy is oh so green and when the rains come, as they have in more abundance than we’ve seen in many years, the sound of rain on leaves is pure music and our front porch is a box seat for the symphony.
Last night, when August suddenly became November for a spell and I had to wear a sweater to smoke a bowl of Captain Black in my old pipe there on the porch, I listened to the screech owls, mating I suppose, or catching chipmunks, and then the other night birds calling and I realized that I had not heard that serenade before.
And I thought, perhaps there is a blessing, after all, in these downed and dangerous woods.
Perhaps I should just be content and let Mother Nature show me what I’m missing.
School Tax Increase
Dear Editor,
Seems very strange that a 'New' school superintendent would even consider a school tax increase during a very deep recession that is especially hurting the many-many working people of Garrard County and retirees on a 'fixed income'.
Seems also very strange that School Tax shows up on ever type of service bill (phone/electric/TV) in Kentucky when it should show only on real estate property tax as in other states and NOT on vehicle taxes either.
Seems very unfair to tax property owners over the normal retirement age of 65 years with school tax when they've already been taxed their entire work lives to pay for their own children's education.
My own 'home county' in Georgia EXEMPTS residential property owners over the age of 65 yrs. from paying ANY School Tax.
Tax, Tax, Tax......Is this ALL that elected officials can do in managing the People's Business?? Can't they TRIM/Reduce Spending just as the Tax Payers must do in managing their own expenditures during both Good and Bad Times ??
Wouldn't WE like to have the job of reviewing the budgets of public organizations and VETOING the Very Unnecessary Expenditures ??
All in the name of 'The Children's Needs'? Very Doubtful.....most likely
All in the name of the "Administrative Board's Wishes";. ALL Elected Officials MUST remember that "We The People" who elected them can just as easily 'UnElect' them !!!
James S. Oliver
An Open Letter To The Churches Of Garrard Co.
I am Eddie Sutton, Co-coordinator for churches for the up-coming Tobacco and Heritage Festival.
On behalf of the Garrard County Tobacco and Heritage Festival, I am inviting all our churches to take part in the historic display of Garrard County churches during the upcoming Festival. This display will be open to the public, along with other historical displays of our county including schools, etc., and will be displayed on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 at the Family Worship and Activity Center of the Lancaster Baptist Church located on Richmond Street.
We will start receiving exhibits at 9 am on Saturday, and truly do desire all our Garrard County churches to participate in this event. No church is too large or too small, or too new or too old to participate in this occasion.
I can be contacted at (859) 792-2028 or at (859) 333-7771, at your convenience.
Or one may contact any other member of the Festival Committee for further information, as well.
We do look forward to hearing from each of you. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Eddie Sutton
EDITORIAL
Health Systems In Garrard And Lincoln Counties
By Sarah Robbins
My name is Sarah Robbins, I am 12 years old, I attend Garrard Middle School, and I am interested in being a physician. I did a summer internship with the UK Center for Rural Health—Danville, gathering information about the health systems in Garrard and Lincoln counties. I interviewed people who play an important role in health, and I am writing this article because I am concerned about health in our counties. Health issues in our counties include finance and funding, keeping people interested in health and wellness and getting people to help make our health systems as effective as they can be.
The Kentucky Institute of Medicine (KIOM) (www.kentuckyhealthfacts.org ) ranks Garrard as the 37th healthiest county in Kentucky. It has low rates of obesity, prostate cancer, motorcycle and cardiovascular deaths and diabetes. Lincoln, on the other hand, is the 79th healthiest county in Kentucky. It has low obesity, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and diabetes rates but high lung/bronchus cancer rates and low physical activity. Both counties have dangerously high rates of smoking in both adults and teens.
There are many health systems in Garrard and Lincoln counties including health departments, EMS, rehabilitation centers, private practice physicians, home health and Fort Logan Hospital.
Strengths of the health departments include partnering with Medicaid to provide treatment for women with breast and cervical cancer, a clinic and many preventive services including health education. The EMS systems provide emergency care and transportation to the sick and injured, they are available twenty four hours a day, and provide automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). Our rehabilitation centers help residents with dietary needs, housekeeping, nursing and behavioral management, and help to strengthen and heal people who have suffered serious injuries and send them home fully recovered. The new hospital provides immediate care to patients needing medical attention.
The health systems have some weaknesses such as the number of health professionals and a funding base that is not adequate. A problem for EMS is the time it takes the EMS squad to get from the station to an emergency. Also, voluntary fire departments don’t always get all the training they need. There is less funding for rural rehabilitation facilities than urban facilities. One of the biggest weaknesses for health care rehabilitation is the lack of staff. Some issues for Fort Logan Hospital include the limited number of beds, a limited amount of time that patients are allowed to stay, challenges in finance and limited resources and people. Finally, there is the issue with the current paper records which may be inaccurate, incomplete, enormously costly (storage, duplication, lost time), and easily lost.
As you look at our health systems it is evident that there are weaknesses that can be improved, so our need for reform is clear. Plus, when you look at the health statistics from the KIOM for both counties, the need for reform is reinforced. For instance; both counties have a high percentage of uninsured residents, low availability of primary care physicians, high rates of infant mortality and higher than average cancer deaths.
Although we don’t live in an ideal world, that does not mean we can’t have an ideal health system in Garrard and Lincoln counties. I have interviewed many health professionals in both counties and based on what they have told me and what I have seen, an ideal health system is attainable. This ideal system would start with the motivation in us. But we need the backing of influential leaders in our community to put ideas into action. First, we can brainstorm creative ideas to help support all aspects of health care, such as fundraising activities, charities and organizations that could offer affordable health insurance for everyone in our counties. Second, for us to have an ideal health system we need adequate health care providers in all areas with proper equipment and training in each county. Third, the health departments, hospital, EMS stations and every health care facility in Garrard and Lincoln counties should each be working as a small part of a big system, instead of working in its own little system. It’s almost as if the system would be like a puzzle, and all the different health care facilities are the pieces to this puzzle. And right now, we should all be working to fit these puzzle pieces together. For example, all of the emergency medical squads and fire departments in Garrard and Lincoln counties should be working together to make that system as effective as it can be.
Home health can greatly improve care; one home health agency has developed a program in which they work closely with physicians and care givers in the home to give the best care to people with wounds, infections or pressure ulcers. They plan to extend this program to other illnesses such as heart failure and lung disease. This system is an example of how by working together the quality of care can be greatly improved while the cost and complications of illness can be reduced.
In order to provide effective care to every patient, health care information has to be available when, where and in the format needed. This information includes data, images, and text, and can be entered by any health care provider at the time and place of care, with the patient’s permission. Now, even though this is an amazing system, the resistance to change has been a big problem. Many people don’t want to have to deal with the temporary issue of adapting to a completely new system. But this temporary inconvenience is nowhere near equivalent to the impact this new system can and will make in our health care. So, these are the kinds of things that you have to think about when you really aren’t up for new systems and programs, and you would rather just leave things as they are. What benefits are going to come in the long run, even if it may be inconvenient at the time? As I said earlier, this system is a great improvement over current costly and often inadequate paper records. It will save time, money and energy. And this is exactly the kind of steps we need to be taking to get close to an ideal health care system.
The biggest problem I see with Garrard and Lincoln counties is that we talk about bettering our health care systems, but few are actually out there doing something to help. And even though I’m only 12 years old, I know that I can make a difference by writing this paper and encouraging all of the influential leaders in Garrard and Lincoln Counties to step up and start thinking of ways we can have affordable health care for everyone in our counties, and not only thinking of these ideas, but actually setting these things up and following through with them.
So, I am challenging the leaders of both counties to work towards a better future in health by really working to help our health care systems improve in every way. This challenge is not only for our leaders; it is a challenge for every man, woman and child in both counties. These health systems are not the sole responsibility of our leaders; we all have a stake in them. For progress towards ideal health systems in our counties, every stakeholder must be involved in making the changes necessary. I am willing to do my part, and with the help of every other citizen of these two counties, we can have an ideal health system. Of this I have no doubt!
Sarah Robbins is an honor student and cheerleader at Garrard Middle School. She resides in Lancaster with her family.