Interview with Richard Becker

1. What is your favorite aspect of KFTC?
I like that in a world of so many partisan political organizations, KFTC remains progressive but non-partisan.
2. What are some of KFTC’s activies that you have participated in?
I have lobbied with KFTC and have participated in voter registration drives and the rallies against mountaintop removal mining and in favor of restoration of voting rights for former felons.
3. What role do you feel organizations like KFTC play in the political process?
KFTC plays an important role  in providing a link between legislators and their constituents and works to increase voter turnout among traditionally low-turnout voting blocs.
4. When and why did you join KFTC?
I joined KFTC in fall of 2005 out of an interest in getting more involved in the Lexington progressive community.
5. What issues does KFTC work on, that you feel are the most important/significant?
I am most personally interested in the issues of mountaintop removal mining and tax justice, because I think they both put Kentucky behind in the game, as usual.  By that count too, restoration is important because it also reinforces the negative image of Kentucky as a backwards state.

Interview with Katie Goldie

1. When did you join KFTC?

My dad was always a member, and he took me to Camp Wellstone, hosted by KFTC last summer. This is really what inspired me to actually be involved with KFTC. So I was a member long before that, but after Camp Wellstone was when I decided to be active about it.

2. What do you like the most about KFTC?

I love that KFTC is a membership driven organization. KFTC listens to real people about real concerns, and tries to address those concerns through effective activism like voter empowerment, and lobbying. KFTC stands up for the concerns of Kentuckians that are underrepresented, like the poor and the disenfranchised. Furthermore, KFTC promotes a tradition of activism where well experienced activists can help young people like me and my peers to develop into experienced and effective activists ourselves.

3. What does UK KFTC do?

UK KFTC is still very young, and has spent its first year involved in a variety of activities. We have co sponsored events and talks on topics such as Restoration of Voting rights, we have traveled to Frankfort for various lobby days, such as I love Mountains day. We also organized Concert for the Commonwealth, where UK progressive student organizations could all join to raise awareness about their specific issues while giving students a fun event to attend. We also made a voter guide for Student Government elections and worked on other voter empowerment issues, such as voter registration. I a

m excited to see how UK KFTC will evolve as a positive and progressive campus organization.

4. What do you do as a coordinator for UK KFTC?

Initially I was assigned the title of “publicist” so, in the beginning of the year I helped with advertising, specifically for the Concert for the Commonwealth. However, as the year progressed, the organization developed in a way that each of the active members just took on the responsibility that they were most interested in/best suited them. I would say toward the end of the year, my main contribution was in helping UK KFTC produce the Student Government Voter Guide

6. What your most favorite/frustrating thing about being a coordinator for UK KFTC?

My favorite thing about UK KFTC is that we communicate well as an organization and try our best to be in touch with important campus issues. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is dealing with apathy. It is hard to get students to care about political issues, even if they are directly affected. However, every time we succeed in one of our endeavors, it is inspiring and hopeful enough to keep on trying.

Reflections

For the past year I have worked as an intern with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. I’ve learned a great deal from it. I now have a better understanding of community organizing, citizen lobbying, and Kentucky politics. The experience introduced me to issues that I wasn’t aware of and showed me many aspects of Kentucky that I didn’t know about.

 Seeing Kentucky politics up close was often an eye opener. While I intellectually understood the that special interest groups control our state government I didn’t fully understand it until I saw it up close.  As I write this the coal industry quickly jumps to mind. Each day in Eastern Kentucky mountains are destroyed by coal companies in order to extract coal. Its a cheap and effective way to mine coal and make exuberant profits.  This comes at the cost of Eastern Kentucky’s natural beauty. It also destroys the streams in the area and displaces the homes of many the area residents. 

Eastern Kentucky’s legislators are among the strongest defenders of MTR. They are often bankrolled by the coal companies.  For years they have blocked any legislation that would limit MTR and have ensured that other legislators turn a blind eye to it. KFTC works against this.

This year we managed to get a stream saver bill before a committee, but it failed to make it out. But just the fact that it was heard was major step forward. We brought tons of people to Frankfort to lobby their legislators and to put pressure on our leaders.  The experience showed me what can be accomplished with citizen activism, but that we still have along way to go.

I never understood what community organizers did until my internship. I had always assumed that it was the equivalent to activism. It’s not. Organizer do not simply go and advocate for an issue. They go into communities and work with the people in them to help bring about the changes they want to see. An organizer facilitates and coordinates but doesn’t lead. KFTC does this. Members not staff speak for the organization.

KFTC is complety membership driven. The members decide what we work on and how we do it. In twenty five years other organizations have come and gone, while KFTC had grown to over 5, 000 members and has expanded into central Kentucky, Louisville, and many other places.  New chapters are developing in western Kentucky and older ones are growing.

I would recommend this internship to anyone who is concerned about social, economic, and environmental justice. It taught me a great deal about the problems Kentucky faces and how we can bring change. I loved it and will continue to work with KFTC for as long as I can.

UK KFTC Updates

UK KFTC has been very busy this semester and I wanted to take a minute to recap all of the work that we’ve done this semseter.

Just recently we decided to put together a voter guide for UK’s student government election. We asked all the candidates a series of questions on a variety of issues that included how to make UK more diverse, safe, enviromentally friendly. All of the candidates responded. We created a website uksgaelection.org. We managed to have UK send out a campus wide email and we handbilled across campus to promote it. The website garnered over 4,000 hits.

UK KFTC also managed to get a major represenative of the Clinton campaign to awnser a question about mountain top removal.  When Chelsea Clinton came to campus last tuesday Joe Gallenstein was the first person she called on. He used this opprotunity to ask where her mother stood on the issue. She awnsered that her mother had voted against in the past and work towards finding a balanced solution in the future.

Recently we took a moment to reflect on what we had done up to this point and what we hoped to do next year. Everyone was pleased by the amount of students we had registered to vote, the student turnout for KFTC’s two major lobby days, the concert we held last year, the SG voter guide. But we all agreed that there are areas we can improve in. Next year we hope to grow our membership on campus and increase the number of active members we have. Also, at the start of last year we decided that workers rights should be a major focus of our chapter. This an issue that we have not done a lot of work on and next year we hope to change this.

The year isnt over yet. We still have to pick our officers for next year and decide what out longterm vision will be.