Harvey Sloane on how he got to KY, last week's debate, and his new book 'Riding The Rails'

Former Mayor Harvey Sloane recounted how he got to Kentucky as a young doctor, the challenges that still exist in Eastern Kentucky, and gave his take on last week's presidential debate. He also discussed his new book "Riding The Rails"...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
He wrote a book, I thinkit was issued last year, and I
wanted to bring him on just tosay hi to everybody again, because Paul,
we don't get enough chances to talkto some of these great leaders of
the past here in Louisville. Anda guy who came back for the Saint
Patrick's Day parade last year, andsome other issues that we're here, Let's
bring in doctor Harvey Sloane, whowrote a book Riding the Rails last year.

(00:25):
It's out now. Hey, doctorSloan, welcome back to the show.
Well, Terry, it's great tohear your voice. I've missed it
well when Sax's fr asking me,well, we love having you on.
Paul Miles the news guys here,and Ian Birtrees is here too. We
just wanted to say hi to youand check in and remind people. You've

(00:48):
got a compelling book about your life. A lot of it involved your time
here, absolutely best years of mylife. All right, how did you
get talked into coming moving here andthen ultimately obviously became the mayor and then
the county judge? So what wasthat all about? Why were you how
did you fall in love with Louisville? Well, I in sixty four,

(01:15):
when I finished my internship with ClevelandClinic, there was a program where as
a physician you could serve in thepublic health department or in the military,
and nothing was really going on formilitary work. So I joined President Kennedy's

(01:36):
Appalachian Health Program in eastern Kentucky andwe were in Hazard and Whitzburg and spent
a lot of time in Ininez andhad a really great two years. But
during that time and Lynnon Johnson wasin office, he started the Community Health

(01:56):
Center program and that really caught myfancy, providing comprehensive outpatient services to people
where they lived. And so Igot some had some contacts in Louisville,
and I met the Binghams and someother people, and they said, why

(02:17):
don't you do it here? AndI've raised in Washington, and Washington was
just pretty complicated, it seemed tome. So I tried to do it
in Louisville and we finally got itgoing. It was the seventh in the
nation, and now were there arethousands of these community health centers and Parked

(02:40):
the ball still going strong. It'sgotten bigger. So and then when I
really settled down in Louisville and married. Kathy pulled her from New York City
and the people were sort of rumblingabout and watching run from mayor asked Kathy,

(03:01):
who was totally new to been therethree years and I don't even been
there six years, what do youthink? And she thought for a moment,
she said, well, if youagree to restart the Saint Patrick's Stint
parade that was stopped in nineteen sixteenbecause of the First World War, I'm
with you. So there we were. We were as doctor well, doctor

(03:24):
Sloan, I was going to askyou about how do you see eastern Kentucky
Now, I mean, you know, obviously there's been a lot of transition,
but there are still immense challenges.And you've already noted that sixty years
ago, more than sixty years ago, the Kennedys and other folks were coming
in trying to change the structure andthe healthcare access for people in eastern Kentucky.

(03:46):
But that's still a heck of aproblem. Yeah, it's a real
big challenge. Well, they builtsome roads in there, and they've got
some better health care, but stillit's not a vibrant area. The hills
and hollows and you have the floodsand the education systems not too good.

(04:11):
So for instance, it's hard toget physicians to come with their families because
of their kids not getting the kindof education. But anyway, there's a
spirit in eastern Kentucky that I reallyloved and I just cherished my two years
and that that launched me into acareer of public service. And that's what

(04:34):
this book was all about, publicservice and the ups and downs and thrills
and challenges that I made. AndI but it was Kentucky and I just
enjoyed it tremendously. Our kids grewup there. Our daughter Abigail is working

(04:59):
with Peter Hart after thirty years.He did all my polling, and he
done a lot of other things inKentucky, and you know it hit his
home in many ways. All right, doctor Sloane. We also Paul Miles
from the news departments here as well, and we want to catch up on

(05:19):
another major current events. Hey,good afternoon, mister Mayor, thanks for
joining us. Did you watch didyou watch the presidential debate last last week?
And what was your take on whathappened? You know, some way
I said, you know, I'mgoing to be asked that question. Has
been a Democrat all my life.It was just it just made me sick

(05:46):
to see Joe Biden's stumble and whathave you. But you also have to
remember his administration in the last threeand a half years has really been extraordinary.
And I compare him to Roosevelt andhis domestic programs, Lyndon Johnson and

(06:08):
what he did and not including theVietnam War. And I don't know.
Joel's got to make his own decisionwhether he's going to continue or not.
But he is a great public servant. And I'm not really with mister Trump.
He has a lot of problems thatI don't think help this country where

(06:32):
Joe could. But we give theDemocratic Party and of a public party.
We've got to get some younger talentin there, and so there are so
many challenges, so many things todo. So for the moment, unless
Joe tells me otherwise, I'm withhim, and I want to see him

(06:53):
come in for a second term.Doctor Sloan, is that you're a guy
who's fit. You've run marathons,you've done you walked a zillion miles here
knocking on doors, and you're alsoyou are eighty eight years old, So
I wonder you got that. Yeah, is it unfair of the public to

(07:14):
point to a president and say thisis too much for someone in that age
bracket, Trump or Biden or anyoneelse in that or you no offense,
but is it too much for someonein your age bracket to take on the
responsibility as leader of the free world? Well, I guess if you were
didn't have a kind of background andexperience. Joe Biden's respected pretty much all

(07:43):
over the world, NATO and manyother He's very good on the climate,
the Paris Peace Accord. You know, he's got an incredible experience. Now,
I don't know if you need it. We look at sometimes the Supreme
Court, folks that are settling ourlives. In many ways, they probably

(08:07):
are beyond their time. But Iwell, Mike, you know Joe will
tell us if he can't make it. I mean, he's got a sense
of duty in this country. He'snot going to drag it down. And
also he's got to beat Trump.I mean, I tell you, Terry,

(08:28):
I just Trump really bothers me.Not only a criminal record, he's
terrible with women's issues, he didn'trespect the military. He's just not in
my category of leadership that I'd liketo see with this country. All right,
doctor Harvey Sloan, former mayor ofLouisville. Your book is called Riding

(08:52):
the Rails. I think this isa great teaching tool for anybody who lives
around here, because you don't youknow, obviously we know the expression if
you don't understand history or doom torepeat it. You got a lot of
interesting insight on life around here fromso many decades back. And it's a
great read. I hope people canfind I guess they'd just go to Amazon

(09:13):
and find your book. Yeah.I actually google it and then I published
it through politics and proach. Excuseme here in Washington. Let me tell
you a little story. I wasup for my seventieth seventieth reunion at Saint

(09:35):
Paul's School of Concorde Acture, traditionalwhite prep school, all male, and
Kathy and I just happened to gointo this session. It was about character,
about volunteering and public service, andthe rector was leading these discussions and

(10:00):
she asked this one guy, whatbrought you into public service? And he
said, well, back in nineteenseventy seven, there was a young mayor
from Lexington, Kentucky. That reallychanged my life. And I got up
and said, no, it's Louisville, Kentucky. Everybody laughed. He but

(10:24):
he paid me a great compliment.So if I can help younger people to
go into public service, I think, and I end the book by this,
that everybody from the age of eighteento thirty ought to do public service,
either in the military or maracorps orteaching or whatever. And it just

(10:48):
broadens your vision. I had atSaint Paul's last year. I read the
Grapes of Wrath, and I rereadit and I said, you know,
I just don't know what's going onin this country, and I've got to
get out of my little cocoon.And so I started was give me hitchhiking,
and sometimes I went with a friends, sometimes by myself, but basically

(11:11):
for five summers, and I wouldend up somewhere where I could get work
and meet people that I hadn't hadexperience with and and and it really I
got to know them. Picked strawberriesand mount hood with the Native Americans in
Tijuana picked uh uh. I didfarm work with the Mexican Americans. Uh.

(11:37):
We're down in the Gulf of Mexicolaying pipe rig rig for a company,
and it in and where the titleof book comes uh. At various
times I rode the rails, whichwere very exciting for those days. I've

(11:58):
a guy from and I were upin a place called Peace Rivers in Upper
Canada, not far it's up aboveCalgary. And anyway, he had a
car and coming down to the borderMontana, he said, look, I'm
going west and you're going east backhome, and there's a Fruit Express that

(12:24):
is coming around here. It comesaround about four o'clock in the morning and
it slows up with this little townand and you might want to try it.
And he said one admonition, don'tget on the rear ladder, because
if you lose your grip, yougo between the rails and the cars.
And so this this Fruit Express,and you couldn't get into the box car.

(12:48):
You had to go up on theon the top. It slowed up.
And I spent the most remarkable daygoing through Montana on into Milwaukee and
then eventually Chicago, and you know, and then I met some people who
were riding the rails. It wassort of like they did in the depression,

(13:15):
and it was it was a thrillingexperience anyway, those kinds and meeting
those kind of people that you know, we're on the cusp of poverty and
wanting work and going from one areaof the country to another, the migrants
and what have you. Uh.It showed me a lot about life.

(13:37):
And I saw the kind of badhealthcare most of those folks were getting,
and that's why I went into publichealth. We appreciate your service, doctor
Sloan very much. It sounds likeyou were just describing a Tom Cruise scene
in a Mission Impossible movie, ridingon top of a train. I'm just

(13:58):
going to hold onto that. It'sgreat talking to you again, mister Mayor.
I appreciate it. Good good Jerry. Keep the faith. Now all
this guy Biden is going to makeit. Okay, okay, okay.
Good to talk to you, Mayor. Thank you. There's former Louisville mayor
Harvey Sloan. He's written a bookcalled Riding the Rails. That's the reference.
He just made it the end ofthis The full nine title is Riding

(14:22):
the Rails My Unexpected Adventures in Medicine, City Hall, and Public Service.
And yes he did go round aknock on people's doors to introduce himself today.
Do I get punched in a noseor worse back in a minute