Search For:

Share This

No Title 1386


A Touchstone Cycle Run is in the cards

Guest Opinion: A winning way of life

A picnic for kids

Upcoming Civil War events

Three people electrocuted removing copper

Careful co-ops


A Touchstone Cycle Run is in the cards

A Touchstone Cycle Run is in the cards
This year’s seventh annual Touchstone Energy Motorcycle Charity Poker Run offers two starting points. The event, which benefits the WHAS Crusade for Children, starts at 1 p.m. local times Saturday, August 26, at Inter-County Energy Co-op in Danville, and Warren Rural Electric Co-op in Bowling Green. Riders will stop to draw cards along the way and finish at Elizabethtown. Basic entry fees are $10 for each bike and rider and $5 for a co-rider. The event includes cash prizes, door prizes, and refreshments. For more information, call Frank Owen Brockman at Farmers Electric Cooperative, (800) 253-2191, or e-mail at fbrockman@farmersrecc.com.

Back to Top



Guest Opinion: A winning way of life

A winning way of life
by John D. Willis, Ph.D.

Conflict is universal, but extremely personal. What destroys one strengthens another. One moves on while another obsesses. One pays tens of thousands to win while another ends the matter with an apology. Some turn to religion for guidance in conflict resolution and find “an eye for an eye” or “turn the other cheek.”

You can learn how to prevent or resolve any conflict by exploring the discipline of conflict resolution. Consider a few simple lessons from conflict resolution, which could prevent some divorces, lawsuits, crimes, or impasses between governmental leaders.

Win-Win. Develop respect for others and want them to share in positive results. Use compromise and collaboration because you respect others. Even your enemies are persons with families. Win-win marks you as a leader willing to cultivate in yourself what it takes to use win-win, not I-win.

Listen. True listening requires self-control, patience, and understanding. Listening requires stopping one’s focus on one’s own emotions or fear. Conflict resolution requires disciplined listening to gather all information useful for the potential win-win.

Clarification. We all make mistakes of judgment, error, and speech. Requesting more information indicates our openness to new information. It also offers time and opportunity for parties to connect and understand. Clarification requires patience, time, and an honest desire for better information. Be kind for a better result.

Compromise. The best compromises are built when respect has been both offered and genuine; when parties sense they have been heard, and they also have listened. When parties are satisfied that their positions are understood, and that they understand, these are some essential foundations for lasting, successful compromise.

In my field of conflict resolution, I often imagine Kentucky leading the way for the nation in teaching the valuable life skills of resolving and preventing conflicts. Picture this: the Kentucky Legislature votes to add Conflict Resolution Week to the other statewide holidays. For one week, Kentuckians compete to apply win-win, listening, clarification, and compromise to family life, schools, workplaces, religious groups, and all levels of government. Life in Kentucky becomes so good that all U.S. states follow Kentucky’s example. The U.S. Congress, the Judiciary, and the White House begin to…well, enough dreaming.

Let’s use conflict resolution as a way of life in Kentucky. May our relationships become as famous as our beautiful Bluegrass State and its honored traditions.

John Willis is president of Leadership Ethics Online, LLC (leadershipethicsonline.com), dedicated to educating leaders in how to prevent conflict through personal character development, ethical practices, and willingness to do the right thing. He can be reached at mediationpeacemaker@yahoo.com.

Back to Top



A picnic for kids

In one of the largest annual gatherings in Kentucky, the 156th St. Joseph Children’s Home Orphans’ Picnic will be held at 2823 Frankfort Avenue in Louisville from noon until midnight Saturday, August 12.

More than 60,000 people generally attend the picnic, with its 66 booths, raffles, food, and beverages.

A new addition in the past three years is Friday Night Live, from 5-10 p.m. August 11, weather permitting, with live music, food, and beverages.

The picnic supports three of St. Joseph’s programs: the Residential Treatment Program, the Therapeutic Foster Care & Adoptive Program, and the Child Development Center.

The St. Joseph Children’s Home and Child Development Center is a nonprofit child-care facility governed by the St. Joseph Catholic Orphan Society. More info is available at www.sjkids.org, or call (502) 893-0241.

Back to Top



Upcoming Civil War events

Morgan’s Great Raid
August 5
Shepherdsville, Buckman Street
(502) 543-4973
www.travelbullitt.org
• All-day event; skirmish at 2 p.m. Re-enactment of the Salt River Civil War battle.

Civil War Living History Weekend
August 12–13
Old Washington Historic District
(606) 759-7411
www.washingtonkentucky.com
• Living-history interpreters, musket and artillery firing, infantry and cavalry maneuvers, ladies tea

Hart County Civil War Days
September 8–10
Historic Downtown Munfordville
(888) 686-3673
www.visitmunfordville.com
• Civil War heritage, history, and action

Camp Nelson Civil War Days
September 9–10
Camp Nelson Heritage Park Nicholasville
(859) 881-5716
www.campnelson.org
• Experience military and civilian life during the Civil War. Commemoration of black soldiers.

Civil War Encampment
September 23
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg
(800) 734-5611
www.shakervillageky.org
• A “time travel” experience where Union and Confederate re-enactors re-create actual Shaker accounts.

Civil War Encampment at Ward Hall
September 23–24
Georgetown
(859) 396-4257
www.wardhall.info

Perryville Battlefield Commemoration
October 7–8
Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site
(800) 755-0076
www.perryvillereenactment.org
• Re-enactments Saturday 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m., on the actual battlefield. Tickets adults $15 one-day; $20 two-day; children ages 6-12 $5 one day, second day free; children 5 and under free. Save $3 on an adult advance ticket by calling the park at (859) 332-8631.

Civil War Days
October 13–15
Columbus-Belmont State Park
(270) 677-2327
parks.ky.gov/stateparks/cb/index.htm
• Battle re-enactments, living-history, encampments, Civil War ball

Camp Wildcat Re-enactment
October 20–22
London, Eastern Highlands South
Near original battle site in Laurel County
(606) 528-1817
www.wildcatreenactment.org
• Living-history camps, demonstrations, battle re-enactments, barn dance

Downtown Ghostwalk
October 28, 5 p.m.
Brown-Pusey House Garden Elizabethtown
(270) 737-4126

Back to Top



Three people electrocuted removing copper

With the theft of electrical wire on the increase because of the soaring price of copper, the Kentucky Public Service Commission warns that the activity can have lethal consequences.

“Since March, there have been at least three electrocution deaths in Kentucky associated with the theft or removal of electric wire,” PSC Chairman Mark David Goss said at a news conference in May. “These deaths are wholly unnecessary and preventable. The underlying cause is entirely unacceptable.

“There are any number of good reasons not to steal electric wire,” Goss said. “It is against the law. It creates outages and other reliability problems. It endangers the utility personnel who are called upon to repair the damage. It imposes repair and replacement costs on utilities.”

Most importantly, “it can get you killed,” Goss said. “So, if you are thinking that stealing a few hundred feet of electric wire is a quick way to earn some easy money, our message today is simple: don’t do it!”

Goss also noted that one of the recent fatalities involved the legal removal of unused, nonutility wire from private property. The electrocution occurred while the individual tried to disconnect the wire from a utility-owned pole.

That death was a tragedy that could have been prevented with a single phone call, Goss said. Anyone with permission to salvage wire should first contact the local utility to ensure that the removal can be done safely, he said.

Back to Top



Careful co-ops

Don't Leave! Sign up for Kentucky Living updates ...

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.