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Kentucky Senators ignoring constituents

We published a letter to the editor last week from some local Danville residents who have been attempting — in vain — to speak with Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul. Both senators represent — or should be representing — the interests of all Kentuckians in the U.S. Senate.

But after numerous attempts to meet with either senator — first here in Boyle County, then at their offices around the state, then even a road trip to Washington, D.C. — they were ultimately unsuccessful.

These local residents — Joanie Lukins, Charlotta Bright Norby and Susan Weston — likely do not agree with McConnell or Paul on a lot of issues, but that shouldn’t even be a consideration when we’re talking about the ability of constituents to meet with the people elected to represent them.

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie is proof you can make time to listen to your voters. He is in Boyle County — not for the first time — today, to give local residents an hour of time for “constituent conversations.”

Those who don’t like Guthrie’s political positions will no doubt still have plenty to complain about, but at least Guthrie is listening to the complaints and hopefully taking them into account when he votes. The same cannot be said for McConnell and Paul, which is disgraceful.

When elected officials can’t do the very things they’re elected to do — listen to us and represent our interests — then voters shouldn’t keep them around as elected officials.

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Emergency Medical Dispatch

We learned last week that during the first six weeks of offering emergency medical dispatch services, the Danville 911 Center provided instructions on 92 calls. That means dispatchers are providing potentially life-saving instructions on how to help people with medical emergencies on average more than twice a day.

Rebecca Hafley, director of the 911 center, said EMD instructions were provided on more than half of the 911 calls involving EMS.

It may still be early, but it sounds to us like EMD is going to be a resounding success for Danville and Boyle County. Survival and improved outcomes will hopefully go up because people are able to get help that much quicker.

It’s been less than a year since Dr. Eric Guerrant first addressed Danville City Commission and pointed out the area’s dismal survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests — 3.7 percent in 2016, 0 percent in 2015.

There were a few not-insubstantial bumps in the road on the way to implementation of EMD, and it could not have gotten here soon enough. But 10 months in the grand scheme of things is relatively quick for government action.

We hope to be hearing from local leaders again in another year about Boyle County’s improved 2018 survival rate.

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KSD student’s egg-design abilities

On Monday, Kentucky School for the Deaf sophomore Benny Shirley’s artistic work was on display for thousands to see at the White House in Washington, D.C.

Shirley, a 16-year-old from Crittenden County, was chosen to design a five-color image to be put on an Easter egg and displayed at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll event, held yesterday.

Shirley has been into digital art for six years and put those skills he’s developed to work creating a pink-and-green scene featuring Churchill Downs’ spires, bourbon barrels, horses and a sun featuring lyrics from “My Old Kentucky Home” — “The sun shines bright.”

Shirley isn’t a one-trick pony, either: He is also on KSD’s culinary team, the Def Chefs, which just recently won second place in the Deaf Culinary Bowl in California.

Congratulations are due to Shirley for representing himself, his home and his school community so well on the national stage.