Columns

At 68, Clem Haskins can look back on a successful life.

Back in his native Taylor County, Haskins lives the life of a gentleman farmer raising Angus cattle. He was born into farming, but it was quite a different life. The fifth of 11 children whose father worked as a sharecropper, Haskins grew up in a world where poverty was common and discrimination was the norm.

Basketball can dominate any Kentucky conversation at any time of year. But in March, there’s really nothing else.

Kentucky’s girls’ state champion was crowned Saturday night and John Hardin students will be living the fantasy this week as the Bulldogs participate in the boys’ Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena. But much of the attention surrounds the NCAA pairings being set tonight.

The 68-team “Big Dance” determines the best in men’s college basketball and certainly fuels most every casual conversation for about three weeks.

“One thing about him, when he was there, he was all there.”

I was listening to Dr. Gibson Winter, then professor for Christianity and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary. Winter had this wonderful way of sharing an aside — an “oh by the way” story — which would invariably have a meaning all to itself, staying in my mind long after the words of the lecture had been snuffed out by the stuffy air of Stuart Hall.

For more than a decade, there has been extensive discussion regarding the expansion of gambling in Kentucky. The last five years has seen intense debate and several plans put forward regarding the issue. This year’s session of Kentucky’s General Assembly brings us yet another plan, Senate Bill 151 – “an act proposing a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to casino gaming.”

The persistent discussion of this topic has resulted in many state senators and representatives taking the position of “let the people decide.”