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The real Daniel Boone.

Young boys have always chosen as their heroes adventurers from legend — men like King Arthur, Robin Hood and Daniel Boone.
As a child in the 1960s, I wanted to be like Boone. I had a Daniel Boone action figure (although they weren’t call that then) and a Kentucky long rifle cap gun that fired a cork ball a few feet. When I was old enough, I would roam the woods and meadows around our home on Irvine Road, with other boys or alone, looking for signs of Shawnees and buffaloes.
And I almost never missed an episode of the NBC TV series, “Daniel Boone,” starring Fess Parker as my hero.
Most of what people of my generation think they know about Boone they learned from that show, which aired from 1964 to 1970, and from the lyrics of its theme song, written by Vera Matson.
But so much of what we learned was wrong.

And the myth, as portrayed by Fess Parker.

Daniel Boone “was a big man,” just as the song says, but he wasn’t “tall as a mountain” or like a “mighty oak tree.”
He was of average height, about five-eight, according to those who knew him, and he was muscular and stout. He was so broad that when he was kidnapped by the Shawnee and adopted as a son by the chief, he was named “Big Turtle.”
The statue at College Park in Winchester of a solidly built, short man is probably more accurate than the one of the lanky pioneer on Eastern Kentucky University’s campus in Richmond.
The song and TV show depict Boone in a coonskin cap, but he never wore one. He wore a hat with a brim to shield him from the sun and rain when he was hunting.
The song says he was “the rippin’est, roarin’est, fightin’est man the frontier ever knew.” But recorded encounters say Boone was soft-spoken and mild, and that he was a peacemaker who tried to avoid fights and never killed except in defense. He was reared as a Quaker, and learned the values of quietude, patience and peacefulness early on, although as an adult, he was a member of no church.
Boone most certainly wasn’t a rip-roarer. But he did like to sing and tell tales.
Although he had high ideals about justice and is seen today as an American patriot, the legend is a little too sympathetic. The song says “he fought for America to make all Americans free.” But not all Americans. Boone was a slave owner, and his family was on the wrong side of that issue well into 19th century. It’s a mystery why his well-honed sense of fairness did not let him see the evil in that.
And while he fought on the American side against the British in the Revolution (and for the British in the French and Indian War), he was friendly with British Loyalists, including members of his wife’s family. After the war, he abandoned his country to settle in Missouri, in what was then the Louisiana territory, and had to give allegiance to the French and their Spanish subordinates, as well as the Catholic Church. A few years later, when Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana, Boone became an American again.
I first learned about some of the contrasts between the real Boone and the myth when I bought one of my first books, a paperback biography of the frontiersman, when I was in grade school at Central Elementary. I was fascinated that so many of the events of his life took place near my Clark County home.
When the replica of Fort Boonesborough was built just across the Kentucky River in the 1970s, I was thrilled.
As I grew older, I put away childish things, including my worship of early American folk heroes. But just this month, I read a recently published biography, “Boone,” by Robert Morgan (Algonquin Books, 2007), that rekindled the old fascination.
Morgan is a novelist (the author of “Gap Creek” among other titles), so his work doesn’t read like dry, scholarly history. He brings Daniel Boone to life. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about this mythic and real figure whose legend influenced Romantic writers in America and Europe while he was yet alive.
Tennyson, Whitman, Emerson and James Fenimore Cooper owe much to the legend of Daniel Boone.
In Morgan’s book, I learned much that I didn’t already know. For example, although I knew Boone and his wife Rebecca lived for awhile in town, in what is now Maysville, and was a failure as a businessman there, I didn’t know he soon thereafter moved to near Charleston, W. Va., to hunt and trap beaver. Nor did I know that he explored the American West as far as the Yellowstone in the Rocky Mountains, and that as an old man, he dreamed of going even farther west, to the Cascades and the Pacific Coast.
Although I knew his first view of the Great Meadow of Kentucky’s bluegrass was from Pilot Knob, I didn’t know that at the time, his party was making camp near what is now Irvine, where I once lived. Nor did I know that when his daughter Jemima and the Calloway girls were kidnapped by Indians in 1776, they were rescued near present-day Winchester.
There are so many paradoxes about Boone. For example, consider this passage from Morgan’s book:
“The story of Boone is the story of America. From the Blue Ridge to the Bluegrass, from the Yadkin to the Yellowstone, no man sought and loved the wilderness with more passion and dedication. Yet none led more settlers and developers to destroy that wilderness in a few decades.”
In 1790, the last buffalo in the Bluegrass was killed. By then, the beaver were gone, and so were the Indians. Most of the forest had been cleared, and instead of small farms, by the early 19th century, thousands of acres of land were in large plantations.
Although he opened Kentucky and the great West to American expansion, Boone wasn’t good at protecting his own claims in court and wound up owning no more land than that needed to bury him when he died in 1820.
Boone wasn’t successful in the conventional sense, but his contribution to American history is enormous. That’s why I think it’s a shame that on his 275th birthday, Nov. 2, he hasn’t gotten the same kind of recognition that Abraham Lincoln has gotten during his bicentennial year, or that Thomas Jefferson got for his 250th in 1993.
He certainly belongs in that same pantheon of eminent Americans because his legacy and his influence on what it means to be an American was every bit as great.

Dr. Matthew Sleeth

Dr. Matthew Sleeth of Wilmore, Ky., a former chief of medical staff of a large hospital, will never forget one of his young patients, 8-year-old Etta Green.
It was a hot, humid and hazy day in the nation’s capital, and TV meteorologists were warning people with illnesses not to be outside. But Etta and her brother went to a neighborhood playground and were running through a sprinkler to cool off when Etta had an asthma attack.
At the hospital, Sleeth took Etta by her little hand and told her “I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, sweetheart,” as she looked into his eyes and squeezed his hand.
The doctors forced air into Etta’s lungs and did everything they knew to do, but “despite the best efforts of an entire pediatric emergency department, I broke my promise to Etta. She died of air pollution on that summer day,” Sleeth wrote.
In his book, “Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action,” Sleeth, who gave up his lucrative medical career to travel the country talking about the biblical imperative to be good stewards of God’s creation, makes the case that reducing carbon emissions isn’t only an environmental or economic issue, or an issue of energy independence — it’s a moral issue.

Yesterday's technology (www.kftc.com)

Asthma, which wasn’t that common when he was a child, has become epidemic, he says, because of all the pollutants in the air.
He cites a Harvard School of Health study which found that the impact of one particular power plant in Massachusetts caused 3,000 asthma attacks, 1,200 emergency room visits and 110 deaths a year. Multiply that by the number of coal-fired power plants in the world, and you get some idea of what fossil fuels are doing to our atmosphere.
It is believed that 64,000 Americans die each year due to soot in the air.
But it isn’t just the air that’s affected. Burning oil, coal and other carbon fuels is in large measure responsible for global warming, which in turn is responsible for record numbers of hurricanes, floods, droughts and extreme heat waves that are endangering lives and destroying our means of sustenance.
And mountaintop removal, one method of mining used to get the coal, is turning our Appalachian Mountains into moonscapes, destroying waterways, beautiful vistas, people’s livelihood and possibly lives.

What mountaintop removal does to a landscape

Sleeth notes that an SUV can put 14,000 pounds of greenhouse gases into the air in one year, while a hybrid car puts 3,000 pounds into the air.
Who really needs an off-road vehicle anyway?
I met Matt Sleeth in Wilmore last month, and he gave me a copy of his book. I’ve been reading it at the same time that I’ve been reading news stories and editorials about the the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now before the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., has taken some heat for voting to support the legislation, and that’s understandable. It is laden with pork and compromises too much, but that’s to be expected with any bill of great magnitude until the day there is real reform of the legislative process.
Any legislation, however, that moves us toward alternative energy and a cleaner environment is a step in the right direction. In the long run, it may save the planet. In the short term it may save many others like Etta.

Randy Patrick is the managing editor of The Winchester Sun.

Homelessness image from Sleepless in Winchester's Facebook page.

Did you know that last winter a survey showed there were 531 homeless people in Clark County? And that’s just the number volunteers were able to find and count.

The government’s definition of homeless includes people who are “precariously housed” or overcrowded (two or more families living in a space intended for one). But there are actually believed to be about 20 people living “unsheltered.” They’re sleeping out in the open, under bridges or wherever they can find a place to lay their heads.

Several people in Clark County who want to experience what it’s like to have to live outdoors like the homeless — and to help the homeless at the same time — will be at Lykins Park tonight for Sleepless in Winchester, an event to raise money to help Clark County Community Services match a challenge grant of $50,000 to provide temporary housing and other assistance for the homeless, including some families with young children in our community.

I’ll be there with them, and will be reporting on the event here at Newer World, in the pages of The Winchester Sun and on our Web site, www.winchestersun.com. I intend to take pictures and shoot video as well as write about my first-hand experiences.

There will be Christian rock bands performing during the evening, and those who want to attend, even for a few hours, can pay $5 at the gate to get in. I hope to see you there.

If you want more information, the Rev. James Williams’ Facebook page, Sleepless in Winchester, has a good description of the event, and one of our reporters at the Sun, Fred Petke, wrote a good preview story for our Web site.

I hope to see you there.

John David Dyche's biography of McConnell was released this month.

I  interviewed Louisville attorney John David Dyche about his book, “Republican Leader: A Political Biography of Senator Mitch McConnell, last week. The story was published on the Sun’s Web site Monday, and an excerpt was included in the print edition along with a story about the interview. The full Q&A is also at www.winchestersun.com.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

Q. The things that surprised me the most in reading about McConnell’s early career were  that he was once an advocate for campaign finance reform, he was strong on civil rights, he named his cat Rocky after (liberal Republican Nelson) Rockefeller.

A. Right!

Q. How did that transition from Rockefeller Republican to Reagan Republican happen? You mentioned also that his pendulum may be swinging back more toward the center.

A. I really think it happened to McConnell the same way it happened to the Republican Party generally. That was with the success of Ronald Reagan. McConnell will say that when he worked in Washington in the Nixon and Ford administrations, he began to see the big bureaucratic government and how unresponsive it was. But even in, say, 1976, he backed Gerald Ford over Reagan, and Reagan was not his first choice in 1980. Then once Reagan was elected and started having success with his conservative policies, I think McConnell gravitated in that direction, just like the party as a whole.

Q. What surprised you most about Mitch McConnell as you were doing this book? What did you learn about him ….

A. Well, he’s a voracious reader of history and politics. Always has a book going on. He’s really knowledgeable and passionate about his U of L football, which is a place where he and I part company.  He’s been focused on being a United States senator from an extremely young age and has really been disciplined and tactical in achieving that objective. And he’s got a sense of humor. He keeps it pretty well concealed, but he’s got the ability to laugh at himself every now and then. Those are some of the things I didn’t know when I started.

Q. How do you think he will be remembered in history …?

A. I think he’ll be remembered as the critical man in transforming Kentucky into a bona fide two-party state. I think he’ll be remembered as the foremost advocate for the First Amendment from among the politicians of his day. And I think he’ll be remembered as the most significant Kentucky Republican, period.

Q. Would you say that becoming majority leader of the Senate is his ultimate political ambition? Is that really what he wants?

A. Yes. Although I think if he had the chance to be secretary of state, he would do it. But I think majority leader would be something that’s more within his control to obtain.

As of 9:30 this morning, nearly 90 percent of Sun readers who took the Question of the Week poll published over the weekend agreed that the Winchester Municipal Utilities Commission should rescind General Manager Vernon Azevedo’s 58 percent pay increase. What do you think?

Editorial, The Winchester Sun, May 28

Whether or not Winchester Municipal Utilities’ general manager, Vernon Azevedo, has done his work well isn’t the issue.
What has so many people in Winchester steamed is the obscene magnitude of the pay raise his board gave him at a time when WMU’s employees and the town’s rate payers are being asked to make sacrifices.
That and the secretive way it was done.
The Sun learned several days ago that Azevedo had gotten a nearly 60 percent increase in his salary last year without the public or even the two ex-officio members of the utilities board, Mayor Ed Burtner and City Commissioner Shannon Cox, knowing anything about it.
It came to light only because City Commissioner Dennis Wallace filed an open records request for WMU employees’ salaries.
Wallace called the action “the most despicable thing” he had ever seen and “absolutely appalling.”
It was, he said, a betrayal of Cox and Burtner.
It also was a betrayal of WMU’s customers and employees — and of the public trust.
The decision, which was authorized individually by members of the commission between Sept. 16 and Sept. 22, raised the manager’s salary from $51.75 to $81.73 an hour.
What, it is reasonable to ask, could Azevedo have done to justify a $30-an-hour raise in one year?
First, let’s look at the record.
WMU is about to raise its water and sewer rates by about 70 percent, in part to pay for long overdue repairs and new line construction, building new water and sewage treatment plants, and complying with an out-of-court settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency, which sued the quasi-governmental corporation over the poor condition of its infrastructure.
In fairness, other cities across the state with deteriorating old sewer lines are also having to meet EPA mandates, and Winchester deserves some credit for negotiating a settlement with the federal agency rather than going to court.
However, if WMU and city officials had been more farsighted, they would have gradually increased rates each year instead of forcing customers to take such a big hit all at once.
There’s enough blame to go around, but if the company’s top executive couldn’t sell his board or the city commission on the necessity of making incremental rate adjustments to improve the water and sewer systems, then some of it must be his fault.
The pay decision could not have come at a worse time. In case no one at WMU has noticed, this country is in the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.
WMU workers have been told that, like most employees, they won’t be getting a pay increase this year.
What kind of message does it send to a meter reader or equipment operator or office assistant to say they’re going to have to do without, while their boss will get an extra $60,000 or so a year?
How could anyone think that’s fair or reasonable?
Wallace is right. It is despicable. And it must be corrected.
We commend Wallace for investigating the matter, WMU board member William Baker for opposing the pay increase (after the board got caught and voted publicly to ratify its earlier decision), and the city commission for demanding on Wednesday that the pay raise be rescinded. Maybe they should demand much more.
For everyone, though, who had a role in this decision to give the WMU manager a mammoth salary increase at such a difficult time for our community, we say, shame on you.

Reporter and videographer Mike Wynn has posted a video of the I Love Mountains rally in Frankfort, where demonstrators marched in support of the Stream Saver Bill sponsored by Rep. Don Pasley, D-Winchester.

The Stream Saver legislation would prohibit certain practices associated with mountain-top removal mining that pollute streams by disposing of dirt and rock from mining operations in nearby tributaries.

The video is at www.winchestersun.com. Wynn’s story of the rally is also available on the Web site.

Also, regarding new features on our Web site, photographer James Mann has posted a slide show of the Clark County Lady Cardinals Senior Night game. Readers may purchase the pictures from our Web site through MyCapture.com, as well as other recent photos and some archive pictures from 2008.