Here are a collection of short interviews captured throughout Inauguration Day 2019.
Her best day ever in Frankfort
State Rep. McKenzie Cantrell, D-Louisville, showed up early for Gov. Andy Beshear’s inauguration.
“I’ve been telling everyone this is the best day I’ve ever had in Frankfort,” beamed Cantrell, surveying the empty seats, the red and blue bunting-bedecked Capitol façade, and the vacant podium where Beshear would be sworn in.
A raw wind shoved the wind chill factor below freezing. The lawmaker kept smiling anyway.
We are on the precipice of change,” she predicted. “Something different and something better — a lot better.”
Christmas came early
Sue Foster’s cup runneth over.
“Today is like Santa Claus came and the presents are under the tree and we are all happy,” said the Louisville union leader. “It’s like all the family has come back together again to celebrate this wonderful day.”
Foster is president of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 4011, which represents about 4,000 support personnel in Jefferson County public schools. “We’ve got our laborers, we’ve got our educators, we’ve got parents, grandparents, and children, the wonderful marching bands, and even Republicans.
“We’ve got a lot to celebrate in this state today and many good days to come, I believe.”
Bad days behind
Neal Cotton, another Falls City labor leader, remembered Bevin’s inauguration on December 8, 2015.
“It was a disaster,” said Cotton, business manager of Laborers Local 576. “‘Right to work’ hit us. We got locked out. They turned their backs on us.”
Four years and two days later, “there’s a change,” he added. “Things are going to get better. We know it won’t happen overnight but at least we’re headed for a change.”
No more ‘us versus them’
The governor lives in Louisville, so naturally his mayor and fellow Democrat came for the festivities. The new administration represents “an attitude of teamwork – not ‘us versus them,’” said Greg Fischer, mayor since 2011.
Added Fischer: “These problems and challenges we have are so big that if we’re not working together, they’re not going to get solved.”
He said Beshear, who was officially sworn in at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, is a problem solver. “I love having a governor in office now that’s going to embrace people instead of rejecting folks and speaking down to people. You can’t lead any kind of team to greatness that way.”
Fischer also said he’s happy that leaders of the GOP super-majority legislature seem to be “coming out with a really positive attitude as well. The country right now is looking for solutions where people can work together. So why not in our commonwealth? Let’s show how to lead the way.”
Special Delivery
The Kentucky Education Association’s Colmon Elridge was spotted walking briskly around the right side of the Capitol clutching a special delivery for Beshear and Coleman—their two swearing in Bibles.
“They are family Bibles,” said Elridge, KEA government relations director. He said he volunteered to deliver them.
He couldn’t make the inaugural balls
Matt Powell of Mayfield was an inaugural parade co-grand marshal. But he didn’t get to dance at any of the inaugural balls.
“I’ve got to go to work tomorrow,” said Powell, custodial supervisor at Graves County Central Elementary School and a member of the KEA and National Education Association board of directors.
He rode at the head of the procession in a shiny red Chevy Camaro convertible with Georgetown Middle School language arts teacher, Erin Ball, Kentucky’s 2020 Valvoline Teacher of the Year. Also up front in another car was retiree Nancy Duncan, a 2019 Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame inductee.
“It’s great to have a governor that values public education and values public employees,” said Powell, also a member of the Graves County Education Association. “It was a long battle but a huge victory for educators across Kentucky. We now have a champion who will be with us.”
Powell, named NEA’s Educational Support Professional of the Year in March, went to work for the county school system after he graduated from Graves County High School a dozen years ago. He called helping lead the inaugural parade “a dream come true and a moment I will always treasure.”
Partners in progress
More than 200 Kentucky educators also marched as grand marshals. Rowan County Middle School teachers James Hood and Amanda Mason said the Beshear administration represented “hope that our work is going to be valued and teachers will be seen as partners in making Kentucky better rather than vice versa.”
Mason agreed. “[Bevin] didn’t make us feel respected, but more important, he didn’t make our students feel respected. Our students are the future of Kentucky and this governor will take care of them.”
A new friend in the governor’s office
Louisville’s Matt Kaufmann, Kentucky’s 2020 Valvoline High School Teacher of the Year, believes Beshear “will celebrate us and have our backs as opposed to scapegoating us.”
Kaufmann, a member of the Jefferson County Teacher’s Association, teaches English at the Marion C. Moore School.
“Andy Beshear is someone who will represent us and not the Koch brothers or ALEC,” he said. “Today we are harvesting the fruits of our labor.”
He explained that educators did more than vote for Beshear and his running mate. “We knocked on doors. We wrote articles. We got out the vote.
“We realized that it takes more than just voting to win an election. You have to spread knowledge, challenge misinformation. It’s so good to have a governor who wants to unite all of us as opposed to the previous governor who attempted to divide us. We now have a governor who knows that if you invest in public schools, you lift up the whole state of Kentucky.”
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