Jefferson County Members see Amy Goodman Speak

KFTC members glammed it up with ties and heels to show support for the ACLU of Kentucky Saturday night at their 18th annual Bill of Rights Dinner.  The event featured keynote speaker Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now,â€ and served as the opening for Robert Shetterley’s exhibit of paintings, "Americans Who Tell the Truth.â€  It was hosted at the new KY Center for African American Heritage in Louisville’s west end. 

ACLU-KY also took time in the program to give updates on their legal work to restore voting rights, and protect religious and democratic freedom in Kentucky; as well as to honor their longtime dedicated member Carl Wedekind, who passed away recently.  Robert Shetterley spoke briefly of the need to continue the work of one his subjects, 19th century abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth.  She said of the Constitution:  "It looks mighty big, and I feels for my rights, but der aint any dare. Den I says, God, what ails dis Constitution? He says to me, ‘Sojourner, dere is a little weasel in it." 

Student volunteers from Central and St. Francis high schools in Louisville were on hand to help guide viewers of Shetterley’s exhibit.  The exhibit also contains portraits of KFTC members Teri Blanton and Wendell Berry.  Teri came in town to attend the event and to encourage Amy Goodman to continue to share what is going on in Eastern Kentucky with her audiences. 

Amy Goodman shared her enthusiasm for the Occupy Wall Street movement, where she recently held a press conference to announce the settlement of a 2008 lawsuit against police and Secret Service in Minneapolis for their treatment of her and two of her reporters during their arrests at the 2008 Republican National Convention.  She recalled speaking to a major network news reporter who wondered why they were not arrested for doing their jobs.  Amy Goodman responded that it was because the major networks were safe in their press boxes instead of reporting on the street.  She said journalists should take the motto of the Holocaust era pamphleteers, the White Rose Society, "We will not be silenced,â€ as their Hippocratic oath.

Louisvillians Beth Bissmeyer, Jes Deis, George Eklund, Shekinah Lavalle, and Linda Stettenbenz were among the KFTC members who attended; but many more KFTC members and supporters were spotted at tables of allies such as Women in Transition and the Fairness Campaign.

                                                       -KFTC Member Linda Stettenbenz