To the editor:
Bell County natives: Wake up and smell the corruption! As a long-time wife of a Bell County native, I have often visited friends and relatives in and around the Pineville region during my 56 year -- and counting – marriage. After all this time, I have come to the conclusion that nothing has changed in the county seat.
The Kentucky Highway Department is still working on the roads, while the City of Pineville -- with its flood wall -- has not improved at all. Young folks are still being declared not well enough to work – even when there are jobs to be done -- and many receive assistance for medical disabilities, etc. The wealthy of Pineville still keep the people down and, as always, the Republican Party remains at the helm. Kentucky cannot see that the Republicans do not care if there are jobs or if the health care is shoddy is beyond belief.
Still worse than locals that live in denial of the realities of their daily lives is the corruption among elected officials that is not only permitted but openly embraced. When a mayor is found guilty of robbing the treasury, then pardoned, and then voted in again and again, it sure makes me wonder, what is wrong with the people of Bell County?
I have also noticed that the good folks of Bell County tend to brag and I have found that this bragging extends from Southeastern Kentucky to Eastern Tennessee. Is this due to pride or simply part of the cultural makeup of a depressed region, a kind of self-defense mechanism -- if you spin a yarn long enough it becomes one’s own reality? Unfortunately, so far, the hard reality for this region is that 30 percent of its population is all too happy to live below the poverty line with salaries at $11,526 per capita (person). Maybe folks are frightened of this and bragging is easier to deal with as it glosses over the truth.
Even the Pineville newspaper is afraid to print the truth of what all goes on in the county seat. The August 20 issue of the paper used virtually fine print to disclose the mayor and his son's wrong doings in a small article on the front page. Of course the Pineville Sun is loaded with beauty pageants and sports -- all in living color, all of great significance to the community. But one would think that corruption of a major official would earn equal billing.
May I suggest that everyone living in the coal mining region of Eastern Kentucky read a novel based on fact -- "King Coal" -- by esteemed author Upton Sinclair. This fine book can be special ordered through the book store Barnes and Nobel. Maybe then will Bell County Kentuckians come to realize what’s really going on in their community.
Joanne Smith
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Support expressed for Madon
To the editor:
I am writing in response to a letter to the editor written by Angela Jackson. I would like to say three things:
1. Bob Madon has hundreds of friends in Bell County and not just a few that she mentioned, and I am proud to be one of them, too.
2. If we demand perfection in others, let's be sure we produce the same.
3. I would much rather worship with Bob Madon than with someone like Ms. Jackson who has so much bitterness and anger in her heart.
Terry Williams
Middlesboro
1 - No doubt Bob Madon has the best friends money can buy. Why were they all looking the other way when he needed correcting?
2 - Nobody asked for perfection. We'd all have been delighted with just an ordinary honest job.
3 - The complete lack of item 2 is why a lot of people are angry right now.
I suppose when the judge told him he should have known better, he was just being bitter, too. That judge has some nerve not letting the bigwigs of Bell County tell him how to do his job. Yep, one thing we won't tolerate around here is an honest judge.