The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • 39

SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2002 "When you read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than you did before." Clifton Fadiman (1904-), critic and longtime member of the Book-of-the-Month Club selection board. (See article on the library, below) 110 FiERCY FOR lyjAYFRE POTTER was filed by HAJ, and a notice of eviction was served on Oct. 22. A hearing was held on Oct. 29, and district court ruled HAJ could refuse to renew the lease.

Mayfre appealed to circuit court, where Judge Larry Miller ruled that the housing authority had failed to give specific reasons for refusing to renew, and had failed to give Mayfre the hearing that its own grievance procedures mandate. He said she ought to get "minimal due process" THE ERA of compassionate conservatism doesn't seem to have reached Breathitt County. Mayfre Potter is in the process of Deng put out of her one-bedroom apartment by the Housing Authority of Jackson (HAJ). The chief complaint is that one of her sons, who lives in Indiana, has spent too many days visiting his mother. She's limited to 14 days of overnight visitation by her family each year.

Mayfre isn't really strong enough to fight back very hard. She's 63 years old, and more than a year of struggling to keep her place has worn her down. She's been a resident for some 12 vears. He also mentioned a disagreement between Mayfre and Jackson Fire Chief Roger Friley over whether she had moved enough of the boxes that he considered a fire hazard when he inspected (for the first time since 1992, at the request of Gambill). And he said she hadn't responded to an invitation to apply for a two- or three-bedroom apartment, in which more overnight stays by relatives would be allowed.

"I had moved the boxes," Mayfre declared. "They need to get them some more glasses." Another disagreement involved wording of a statement that she had been asked to sign, saying, Mayfre Potter, will not allow grandkids or other children on the Housing Authority of Jackson property." She insists, "There ain't a mother alive that would sign a paper to that effect." Asked at one point in the hearing who comes to see her, Mayfre said, "Charlie Neace, Oslo Neace, Teresa Neace, Julia Bryant and my sister, Bonnie Watkins. Is it a harm for people to come and visit?" Dr. Eunice Johnson wrote a statement saying, "In my opinion Mayfre Potter is not physically able to move due to her existing heart condition and back problems." Fletcher has appealed to Robert Kuhnle at the Kentucky office of the U.S. Housing and Urban Devel "The chief complaint against Mayfre Potter is that one of her sons, who lives in Indiana, has spent too many days visiting his mother." DAVID HAWPE BRIAN FAIRRINGTON IN THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Her health isn't good.

She's had open heart surgery. Her blood pressure is still high. At times she struggles to catcher her breath. Her only income is a Social Security and SSI check for $556, which she must live on from month to month. She has no phone.

No driver's license. Her daughter lives out in a rural part of the county. DEMOCRACY AND TRUTH SEEKING 7 JACKSON 7 The daughter and other relatives visit Mayfre on Patton Avenue fairly often. Someone brings her food every day. The Jackson Sun reported, "She has never had any trouble before this, in all the years she has lived there." Her attorney, Frank Allen Fletcher, says, "She is still up there, but she just brought by a letter that says she has to be out of the C9UNH FORGET TONIGHT'S "X-Files" blowout, in which all is promised to be revealed.

The truth IS out there, but I found it in the season finale of the whimsical television series, "Ed," whose recent plots have followed the painful paths of unrequited love. In the "eureka" episode of last Wednesday, Warren, the show's teen mensch, realizes he loves a girl just as his best friend real 1 acme of was opment in Louisville. Meanwhile Gambill, treasurer of the Breathitt County Republican Party, objected to the Jackson Times coverage, saying, "The whole story is not there." When I asked her to tell me the whole story, she said, "No. I'm not going to comment on it." She advised me to talk with HAJ attorney Brendon Miller. I did.

By this time, even I was mt St jf 1 Loutevife COUNVV own verifying of information. The Courier-Journal carried a front-page story by The New York Times on Thursday morning. The main headline read, "Bush told of bin Laden hijack plot." The sub-headline right below it read, "Suicide attacks weren't covered in CIA briefing." And I knew my phone would be ringing. Here's why: Unlike most other terror-related stories, this one wasn't stage-managed or choreographed or tightly controlled. It wasn't photo-opped or staged selectively for a news-starved media, held off and blacked out by an administration who said this was a covert war, which meant it had to be fought covertly.

A lot of people bought that argument, and that's understandable to a point. Sept. 11 was horrifying. A terrible thing was done to us, and its awful reality made believers out of most everybody. I have had very, very few contacts with readers who want journalists to dig for more information about the war and its ramifications.

Rather, most of those I have heard from caution against digging too much, or being too inquisitive, or sharing too much information. izes he loves her, too. Naturally, the girl is fuzzy for the friend instead of Warren, who dithered too long. This lousy plot twist in his life prompts Warren to blurt to his best friend, "The terrorists win A-, -9 Wg 7: PAM PLATT apartment by June 15." Findings of fact in Breathitt Circuit Court show that the effort to evict her began in July 2001, when HAJ Executive Director Janis Gambill filed something called a "forcible detainer complaint" alleging Mayfre had let other people disturb some of her neighbors. When the issue got to district court, Judge Kenny Profitt said he couldn't find that this was true, but he did rule that Mayfre's lease had expired, and that HAJ could put her out for failing to renew the lease.

She and her attorney were given two-hours notice of a housing authority hearing at Jackson City Hall last Sept. 18. They didn't attend, saying two-hours notice was unreasonable. A second "forcible detainer complaint" worn out. And unlike Mayfre, I don't have four-vessel coronary artery disease, diabetes, renal artery stenosis, hyperlipi-dema, hypertension, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

Conservatives are big on personal responsibility. So whose responsibility is it to figure a way out of a problem like this, without putting Mayfre Potter on the street? Pavid Hawpe's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays in The Forum. You can read his columns at www.courier-ournal.com. and a chance to answer the claims against her. Miller said Mayfre should be heard.

And she was, on April 30, by HAJ hearing officer Dan Mclntyre. He noted that, one month earlier, she had been given 30 days to prove she would abide by the terms of the lease, which allows 14 overnight visits per year. "Knowing this fact," Mclntyre wrote, "Ms. Potter then allowed her son from Indiana to stay in her apartment for 14 nights. It is clear that Ms.

Potter did not attempt to abide by her agreement concerning this issue." if she ends up with you!" or something greatly to that effect. The best friend didn't know what Warren was talking about, but it made sense to me. Terrorists have been used to justify everything else for the past eight months closing off government to the citizens who pay for it; holding an unknown number of unknown people in custody for ah un Warren (Justin Long) on NBC's 'Ed': Terrorists could even be blamed for losing his girlfriend. some people whose careers were made over obsessing about one president's semen stains have been passive and defensive when it comes to another president's CIA briefings. Not American citi KENTUCKY COUNTIES: PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS PER CAPITA zens ditto the obsessionpassivity theme who should be demanding more of their proxies in the media and in government instead of settling for so little.

Last October, when all this was beginning, I talked with Paul McMasters, a First Amendment expert, about what this secret "Strange, isn't it, that some people whose careers were made over obsessing about one president's semen stains have been passive and defensive when it comes to another president's CIA briefings." known amount of time into an unknown future; deep-freezing discourse and dissent in a country founded on both; the press being lapdog instead of watchdog to a rubber-stamping Congress and an unassailable President why not Warren's bad love life, too? Huzzahs to the writers of "Ed" for playing 1.73 1.69 1.68 1.67 1.67 "1.66 t.59 "1.57 157 1.56 1.56 i 1.56' 1 56 1.55 1.55 155 i i Mefferson Grayson Calloway Floyd Logan Todd Campbell Alien Rowan Graves Martin Shelby -Elliott Montgomery Powell Boyd Wayne Barren Pulaski McCracken Ohio Warren Nelson Rockcastle Lincoln Oldham Knox Knott. Whitley Christian Clay Laurel BalCanliv" 7 Meade Hardin 2.42 2.42 2.41 2.41 2.35 2.32 2.32 2.31 2.31 2.30 2.25 2.21 2.17 2.17 2.12 2.12 2.07 2.07 2.07 2.07 2.07 .2.05 2.03 2.00 1.99 1.98 1.95 1.93 1.91 1.91 1.90 1.88 1.86 1.86 1.83 1.83 1.83 7.23 5.78 5.56 4.53 4.18 4.18 3.99 3.99 3.97 3.79 3.73 3 60 3.50 33' 3.26 3 03 3.02 3.01" 2.99 2 95 2.92 2 85 2.83 2.77 2.75 2.74 2.74 2.70 2.69 2.67 2.67 12.63 2.62 2.60 2.56 2.53 2.53 .2.50 2.49 Fulton Robertson Owsley Letcher Crittenden Hancock Webster Wolfe Lee Magoffin Lyon i Marshall Metcalfe BreckTindgc Boyle Cumbe'land Leslie 1 a-je Clinton Carroll Harlan Mercer Russell Caldwell Muhlenberg Anderson Nicholas Casey Union Bell Greenup Boono' Menifee Taylor Edmonson Fleming Gallatin Harrison Monroe Marion Owen Adair Kenton Garrard Bracken McCreary Franklin Pike Scott Fayette Mason Trimble Spencer Washington Hickman Butler Lewis Breathitt Clark Henry Lawrence Trigg Morgan Johnson Green Jackson Perry Bullitt Hopkins Estill Pendleton Grant Henderson Bath Bourbon Daviess Hart Simpson this card to its most absurd potential. They recognized a truth that terrorists and terrorism have been the blandly offered and blindly accepted excuse du jour since Sept. 11. More kudos for being smart enough to speak it from the mouth of a non-babe on a sweet, Middle America show.

Which means they could get away with it unlike, say, Bill Maher, whose "Politically Incorrect" program was cancelled last week by ABC. (Maher, you may recall, was pummeled early on in this siege for making what many considered a tasteless and unpatriotic remark about how our country was conducting the war on terrorism.) But the first sign of cracks in the cone of silence that has enveloped us since Sept. 11 occurred a short 90 minutes before Warren spoke a deeper truth about what has happened to us since Sept. 11. Last Wednesday evening, CBS News reported that President Bush had been warned by intelligence agencies last August that Osama bin Laden or OBL as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has taken to caliing the culprit whose capture is either important or not important, depending on which day you ask was intent on hijacking airplanes.

war business might mean to media coverage and speech and, bottom line, our American traditions of discourse and dissent. His comments bear repeating. While acknowledging that not everything can be disclosed, McMasters said: "It is not unpatriotic to demand answers and to provide the American people with the maximum amount of information. If they (the government) don't trust us with the information, how can we trust them with our security? "We who are providing the human capital as well as the financial resources for the conduct of any war deserve to have as much information as possible about policies made, and why. If we're denied (that information), we are not full partners in this democracy." It is easier, in the short run, to let someone else lead in a partnership.

That's especially true in the difficult partnership of democracy. But the truth has a way of not staying put. It almost always cuts in. The truth IS out there, and it's tapped us on the shoulder. Pam Piatt is public editor of The Courier-Journal.

Call her at (502) 582-4600 or e-mail her at Visit On Thursday, as expected, I heard from a few people who were upset about the Bush story especially our headlines on it. "Misleading," one said. Wrong. The headlines were crisply, clearly and accurately written. They fully reflected the story as reported.

"He's our President," another fumed. Right. He is our President the operative word being "our." And it's time for us to reclaim ownership. So much isn't yet known about all the breakdowns that might have contributed to the efficiency of the deadly attacks of Sept. 11.

But I suspect a lot of it will boil down to a line I'll appropriate from "Cool Hand "What we have here is a failure to communicate." 1 I'm not just talking about the intelligence agencies and President Bush and Congress although given recent revelations, they almost certainly are pentimento to the awful portrait of Sept 11. But we cannot be let off the hook, either. Not the mainstream media, who for too long seemingly backed off from aggressively reporting the implications of and reasons for Sept. 11 and everything since. Strange, isn't it, that 1.52 1.52 7,71 JO 1.50 1.48 1.43 1.40 1.40 1 30 1.30 1.29 1.28 1.23 1.22 1.14 105 1.04 7 U9977 0.98 0.79 I Big newspapers jumped on the devon morgan, the couRiEn-JounNAL ry after the CBS lead, and did their Louisville ranks 79th out of 1 16.

IN LOUISVILLE LIBRARY'S SECOND CENTURY, FUNDING MUST BE INCREASED BY RONALD MIKULAK but need to be expanded. The leadership of the library has the ideas. But the library system needs more resources to continue to expand, to innovate, to provide the information and educational services the Louisville community needs. LFPL supporters are asking that all candidates for metro council sign a pledge promising that they will work for increased funding of the library system. As of this writing, over half of the candidates for the Metro Council have signed this pledge, a heartening preelection commitment to a project that will have a major impact on all of the new metro community, immediately and for the future.

We cannot afford to have the new metro government continue to be complacent about the needs of the library system. Special to The Courier-Journal ties in Kentucky, the Jefferson County free public library system ranks only 79th out of 116 systems in books owned per capita of population. (See the chart elsewhere on this page.) The LFPL has excellent programs in place or in the planning stages to continue to make the library system an important community resource for the next century. A variety of services for children and youth range from the "Read, Baby, Read" program for mothers and infants, to promote reading readiness and bonding over books, to "The Outpost," a special branch library for teens at the Shelby Park Highlands branch. Computer classes are heavily subscribed; homework assistance is available after school; summer reading programs involved over 40,000 children last year.

All these services and more author talks, cooperative cultural programs with the Speed Museum and Actor's Theater have been started, projected population of soome 664,000 people, Louisville will rank 7th in size among 16 comparable Midwestern and Southern cities. The LFPL holdings per capita rank last of the 15 other systems, with only 1.9 holdings per capita, com-paried with a high of 11.5 holdings in CincinnatiHamilton County, and over 5 per capita in the other top systems. What this means is that there is a lot of information available to people in other cities that is not available to our patrons. Our system ranks next to last in total income per capita, a dismal $21.34, compared to Cleveland's high of $106.76, or even the relatively skimpy $30 per capita of Lexington's public library. Louisville is also next to last of the 16 systems in branch square footage per capita, an important measure of accessibility, comfort and completeness of services that libraries can offer.

And even compared to other coun changes in our society branches are more accessible to the disabled, more computers are available, there's a successful and user-friendly on-line presence, and programs appeal to a wider variety of community interests. And yet the world around us has moved even faster than the library has been able to keep up. As we look forward to being a larger unified community, we must examine the health of our community institutions. When we look at the library system with the cold, clear gaze of reality, we see many weaknesses that need to be ameliorated. When we look around and compare Louisville's library with library systems in comparable cities, we find woeful evidence of our complacency, our inertia, our inability to keep this vital community resource healthy.

A few statistics are necessary to see the shape the library is in as we look forward to the new government. With a now on display in the Bernheim gallery of the main branch document the construction of the old wing on York Street, and they vividly show the range of services the library has provided and the needs citizens have found the library has met over the years. We can take pride in the library's history, but we need to be aware of forces that are pressing on this important public institution today and in the immediate future. The library is a different place from what it was when I signed up for my first library card in the 1970s. Then there were no computers, no videos, no recorded books, no Internet.

The main floor was dominated by the venerable card catalogue, and the landmark Carnegie library buildings at Shelby Park and on Cherokee Road still housed neighborhood branches. The library system has responded to many of the The writer Is a teacher at St. Francis High School in Louisville. THE APPROACHING elections for the new metro council promise an exciting new era for Louisville and Jefferson County. The very fact that over 200 candidates have filed to run in the primary elections for the 26 council seats reveals the anticipation the community feels for the possibility of renewal, for the larger metropolitan community to work together to lead Louisville forward.

One issue cuts across all demographic boundaries and is important to the future of children and adults, of workers and professionals, of students and retirees. That issue is the growth and improvement of the Louisville Free Public Library system. The library is celebrating its centennial this year. Archival photographs.