I have been reading recently about the feuds in eastern Kentucky, some of them in Breathitt County. I was unaware of the extent of these feuds and the many lives lost and the fear they engendered in the lives of ordinary folk. Fear, hate, and revenge fed the flames that led all the way to Frankfort.

State Rep. Tom McKee, second from left, recently joined with several others in Governor Steve Beshear’s Capitol office as the governor signed Rep. McKee’s HB 295 into law.

If you had the flu and a high fever, no one would criticize you for seeking medical help. In fact, most would criticize you for ignoring such a health problem.

But mental health issues often bring a different reaction.  People sometimes see mental illness not as a health issue, but as a serious defect, something that marks a person as weak, unstable, perhaps even violent or dangerous.

By Lovina Eicher

• 5 a.m. The alarm goes off. I get up because daughter Elizabeth will leave for her job at the factory soon. She has been working a lot of 10 hour days at the factory.

• 5:15 a.m. Elizabeth’s ride is here and she leaves. The children are on Spring Break and my husband Joe is off work this week. Everyone has been taking advantage of their break and sleeping later than usual. I stay up and read and enjoy the peace and quiet. There are not many quiet moments around here this week once everyone is awake.

• 6:30 a.m.  Joe gets up and I make a pot of coffee for us. Joe goes down to the basement to add coal to the stove. I get sausage out of the freezer to make gravy for breakfast.  Daughter Lovina, 8, wants to mix up two batches of mystery biscuits so I help her.

• 8 a.m. Breakfast is ready consisting of biscuits, sausage gravy,  fried eggs, cheese, orange juice and milk.

I guess if every one of us would think back when we were kids, we could recall events that took place which we could label as close calls. Our survival depended on either we were lucky or perhaps the Good Lord had plans for us to keep us around for a while longer.

I have had many close calls in life. I will mention a few.

Approximately five years past, I was talking with a government official in Breathitt County, one who was widely respected in Breathitt for his work ethic and who had a vast knowledge of his constituents. He said that during the previous year there had been 96 deaths in Breathitt and 66 of them were drug related.

This past week I was talking to a former government official in Pendleton County who asked me if I thought there was any hope in curbing the widespread use of drugs, legal and/or illegal. “You know,” he said, “I’ve been told that just one shot of heroin can often be all that it takes to become addicted! I’ve never seen our drug problem so bad!”

Dear Editor,

The Pendleton County Republican Party sent a letter to Rand Paul thanking him for all of his efforts in Congress and to express our constant support. We stand with Rand!

Pendleton County is largely made up of a few rural communities and farmland. We citizens here hold in high regards the traditional values that made this country great. We are law abiding citizens that value the second amendment with much respect as well as the freedom to worship God in the way we have for well over a century in our county. We value the education of our children and we respect the privacy and liberties that our American soldiers fight to preserve. As you demonstrate in your recent filibuster, we too secondary to other members in Congress. We feel the current administration is not doing enough to secure these freedoms and we applaud you for standing up for the rights of Americans.

We also support your values of a less intrusive and fiscally responsible government. As you have expressed on the topic of Libya, the threat of an ever-increasing national debt, coupled with large government spending on conflicts abroad, which have no vital connection to the growing issues at home, is wrong. Senator Paul, your unwavering voice, which speaks clearly the concerns most important to us and your resolve to address the issues we deal with as Americans and Kentuckians, is refreshing and reassuring to know we have someone in Congress fighting to maintain our valuable freedoms.

Sincerely,

The Pendleton County Republican Party Chairman, Bill Roseberry

By Larry Rowell, The Casey County News

The Kentucky branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has sent an open records request to superintendents in all of the state’s 174 school districts, seeking information on how religious groups and other outside organizations distribute literature. The letter also names the distribution of Bibles by members of Gideons International.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. They include autistic disorder, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. With the May 2013 publication of the new DSM-5 diagnostic manual, these autism subtypes will be merged into one umbrella diagnosis of ASD.

Recently a new Pope was elected by Roman Catholic Cardinals from across the world. Catholics have enthusiastically applauded the selection of Cardinal Jorge Mario from Argentina who chose the name Pope Francis after the venerated St. Francis of Assisi. His choice of Francis as his Popery name has caused many outside the Catholic faith to respond positively because of what St. Francis believed and espoused as a friar and preacher in the Catholic Church. We will circle back to St Francis Assisi and close our discussion in this article with this remarkable man who preached to birds who would land on his shoulders and listen to his discourse, unafraid.