11.2.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the reading of the Lexington Herald Leader. Today
is Sunday, November two, twenty twenty five, and your reader
is Roger Hamperion. As a reminder, Radio I is a
reading service intended for people who are blind or have
other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
We'll start with the seven day forecast, brought to you

(00:23):
by Acuweather. Sunday's weather will be mostly cloudy and cool,
with a high of fifty four degrees and a low
of thirty eight. Monday will be sunny with a high
of fifty eight and a low of thirty seven. Tuesday
we'll see some sun and clouds with a high of
fifty nine and a low of forty five. Wednesday will

(00:45):
be breezy with a high of sixty five and a
low of forty four. Thursday will be mostly sunny with
a high of fifty eight and a low of thirty eight.
Friday will be mostly cloudy with a high of sixty
two low fifty two. Saturday we'll see morning rain and
clouds with a high of sixty three and a low

(01:07):
of forty six. In the Weather Almanac, the high temperature
is forty eight degrees and the low forty two normal
high sixty three, normal low forty two, last year's high
seventy nine, last year's low fifty eight, record high eighty
three in nineteen seventy one, record low twenty three in

(01:31):
eighteen ninety five. Precipitation Thursday was point one five inches.
Month to date eight point one normal month to date
three point five five Year to date fifty four point
four to two normal year to date forty two point
one six last year to date forty one point three

(01:53):
two record for the date one inch in twenty nineteen.
There is no pollen count today. Sunrise today will be
at seven o five am. Sunset tonight six thirty nine pm.
Moon rise today four to twenty five pm. Moonset today

(02:14):
three nineteen am. Moon phases. The full moon will be
November fifth, last quarter November twelfth, New moon November twentieth,
first quarter November twenty eighth. Now we'll read the front
page headlines from today's edition. Three dimensional mark Pope's second

(02:37):
Kentucky team looks deeper and more complete than is first.
A trio of veterans is a big reason why. Also,
Kentucky Juvenile Justice worker alleges retaliation the first article from
today's edition is titled From Distractable to Dominant, The Evolution

(02:58):
of Otega Oway and Mark Pope by Ben Roberts. A
few minutes after otega Oway cooked up one of the
defining moments of his breakthrough season at Kentucky, a length
of the floor drive to beat the Buzzer and his
old basketball team in one fell swoop, Mark Pope had
this to say about his star player. Otega was one

(03:21):
of the most distractable guys that we had on our
team when we started this season, Pope said then, like
he was one of the most distractable guys. You talk
about a brilliant moment of not being distractable. It's so awesome,
so proud of him. That's probably the more fun part
of the story. Distractable. This guy the guy who in

(03:44):
the second week of the season ripped the ball away
from Cooper Flag, the eventual National Player of the Year
and number one NBA draft pick, before taking it the
other way to help cement Kentucky's statement win over Duke,
the guy who scored double figures in each of his
first twenty six games as a Wildcat, seemingly always coming

(04:06):
up with a key play at the very moment that
his team needed it. The guy who shook off the
worst game of his UK career, the one that snapped
that streak of double figure scoring, and four days later
returned to Oklahoma for the first time since leaving as
a transfer, listened to his old fans boo him every
time he touched the ball, hit clutch free throws amid

(04:29):
chance of he's a trader, and ultimately scored UK's final
eighteen points in a thrilling eighty three to eighty two victory.
The guy who, two weeks after that, shook off a
series of mistakes down the stretch to deliver the buzzer
beating layup, driving around two defenders and rising over a
third to sink a dagger into his former team and

(04:51):
eliminate the Sooners from their first SEC tournament. Distractable that guy.
It was a curious comment from Pope, and it wasn't
explored any further. On that night. Seven months later, sitting
in his office in the Joe Craft Center, the Kentucky
coach reflected on that night and the days and weeks
and months that led up to it. He took a

(05:14):
moment to gather his thoughts, his brow furrowed, and he
started speaking in that philosophical tone that is pure Pope.
Everybody's got strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes our strengths are our weaknesses,
he said. So Otega is like a pure competitor. He
just wants to compete for something right right. Anyone who

(05:35):
watched Kentucky play last season saw that. What they didn't
see were the moments behind the scenes those early days
when Oway and Pope were getting to know each other
from a purely basketball perspective. Oway, the uber competitor, often
had one speed when it came to competition, but he
yearned to become a better version of himself. Pope, the

(05:57):
first year coach at his beloved alma mo are, eager
to live up to the stature of the job and
always searching for better ways to become a better teacher.
In that first year together, Pope found a student who
had layers to his game that had not yet been discovered.
Oway found a coach who was willing to listen and
let him progress at his own speed. Drill work is

(06:20):
not a natural place for him, Pope said. It's not
a natural place for him to have juice or focus,
or energy or anything else, but is on off switch
with competition. That same skill is what makes him an
elite level competitor that most people can never actually become
that guy that's so laser focused when the score book
is open, right, And so that's his natural state in

(06:44):
the arena of competition, And what he's made such huge
strides on is finding ways to make practice, to make school,
to make being on time, to make communicating with his teammates,
to make all of that a game inside his mind
where he's living it. Then he arrived at that word again,
that's what I meant by being distractable, Pope continued. If

(07:06):
he's not locked in on a major, highly important competition
like a game, then it was hard to get his focus.
Otega Oway meets Mark Pope. Oway, who played two seasons
at Oklahoma before entering the transfer portal last year, was
one of Mark Pope's first commitments in his new job
as Kentucky head coach. He didn't go public with it

(07:28):
for a couple of days, but Oway actually made up
his mind on his recruiting visit to Lexington. During that trip,
he saw an opportunity to prove himself on the biggest
stage in college basketball. He also formed a quick connection
with Pope, a former Kentucky player himself co captain of
the nineteen ninety six national title team, and a man

(07:50):
who seemed like he could unlock more of Oway's potential
on and off the court. Oway was a good player
at Oklahoma, but he wasn't a great one. He broke
into the Sooner's starting line up as a freshman and
remained there for most of his sophomore year, but Oklahoma
missed the NCAA Tournament in both of those seasons, and

(08:11):
Oway had higher aspirations for his team and for himself.
His first season at Kentucky was a revelation. Oway ended
up as a Wildcat's leading scorer. He played himself into
the NBA draft conversation. He decided to return to Lexington
for one more year, and he's since been named the

(08:31):
SEC preseason Player of the Year, with expectations of being
the top performer in the top league in all of
college basketball. None of that came by accident. As Pope's
distractable comment from several months earlier was read back to Oway,
the twenty two year old sat in the Craft Center
and nodded along. He'd heard that directly from Pope. Yeah,

(08:53):
he said, with a grin. Had he ever heard it
before coming to Kentucky, No, he replied, Maybe as a kid,
he quickly added, but never since he established himself as
a promising recruit in high school or a starter at
the major college level. It was a new concept, and
while the word caught him off guard, Oway didn't object.

(09:16):
It was a surprise at first. But I understand it
for sure, he said, because I know like I felt it,
but I just thought it was normal. Oway acknowledged that
he hadn't always been locked in a way from the
arena of competition. He admitted that he had lapses there too.
The time spent with Pope highlighted those shortcomings and ultimately

(09:38):
led him in a new direction. In previous years, Oway
would get down on himself when he made the wrong
decision or the ball didn't bounce his way. That feeling
would linger as the game went on around him. He
was still playing, but he wasn't all there. He was distracted.
It used to take me a little bit to get

(09:58):
to the next play, Oway said, But Coach Pope, he
always preaches next play, next play, next play. So for
me coming in, I wanted things to be a certain way,
Like I have an idea how I need things to go,
so when it doesn't, I'm like, oh shoot, I'll get
down on myself. But I feel like as the year

(10:18):
went on, Coach Pope we've had meetings and he's just
always told me, like, with your game, if you hold
on to the last possession, your next possession isn't going
to be right. Moving on is easier said than done.
As time went on, Oway got the hang of it,
becoming a UK basketball star. So how exactly did Oway

(10:39):
make the transformation from distractable to dominant. I think a
lot of it just went with Coach Pope and his
style of coaching. He says now, it was just different.
He talks to his players. He tries to understand what's
going on in your head instead of like drilling what
he wants to do inside of your head. He's not
like one of those where he's just upstairs all the time,

(11:03):
or we only see him in practice, Like he'll just
pop in the locker room, the training room, weight room.
We see him. So even though he's our coach, you
feel comfortable having conversations with him. There were a lot
of conversations the UK coach tried to fit Oway with
a sports psychologist to help him become less distractable. I

(11:24):
did at one time, the player said, but that's not
really for me. His parents have always been a resource
in such cases. His two older brothers Odafe, a first
round NFL pick and is now in his fifth year
in the league. Calin was also a Division I athlete,
have been there for him too. I have a strong

(11:46):
support system, Oways said, So if I ever need to
talk to anybody or let something out, I could go
talk to my brothers or my parents. So I feel
like what I'm doing with a sports psychologist, I could
do that with someone in my family. Pope said that
he wants all of his players to see sports psychologists
and just mental health experts in general. He continued, because

(12:08):
this is the piece right here, Pope said, pointing to
his head, and this connection right here, he went on,
putting his other hand on his heart, is the piece
of this where there is so much potential for all
of us to grow, like grow so much. Oway wanted
to grow. That much was clear. He just didn't want
to go about it in the way that Pope initially suggested,

(12:31):
and that was okay. By that point, Oway had realized
that Pope and the rest of the UK coaching staff
were receptive to alternative solutions. They were willing to listen,
they were willing to work with him to do it
his way. They're big on communication, Oway said, So they're
not going to tell you. They're going to ask you

(12:52):
why you do certain things, and if you can explain
it and they understand it, they're going to work around it.
He wasn't comfortable or didn't see the benefit of talking
things over with a sports psychologist. He found a lot
of comfort in discussing things with his head coach. However,
the pair had their share time together on the practice court,

(13:14):
but they also had those conversations in Pope's office. The
Kentucky coach drawing on his own experiences as well as
his own interest in the field of psychology to get
through to his college age star. They talked about basketball
and life. They talked about letting things go on the
court and finding ways to lock in when the stakes

(13:34):
seemingly aren't so high. Oway began to channel the force
that makes him so good on game days into something else. Altogether,
He became a better player in those games. He became
more productive in practice. Even amid the basketball glory, he
was a star student in the classroom. It's a daily practice.

(13:56):
It's just practice, Pope said. And he's grown so much,
really remarkable to where this summer he was an insurmountable
force on the defensive end. It was just like he
messed up every drill we tried to run. We couldn't
actually get through a play call because he was just
blowing up everything. And that's in drill work. So now

(14:17):
he can incorporate that when he's just doing work on
the court by himself or with a coach, where it's
really hard to manufacture his deep desire to go compete.
It's just first identifying it, then talking about it, then
practicing it, then getting better every day, which he's done.
What's next for otega Oway Ohway is back at Kentucky

(14:40):
for one more season. His short term goal is to
win a national championship. His long term goal is to
become an NBA draft pick and spend a long time
in that league. Pope has done both of those things already.
I really felt this when I got to the league,
he said. I always say this, and I don't know
what the real numbers are, but there's probably five thousand

(15:03):
or ten thousand players that are good enough skill wise,
size wise, athleticism wise to play in the NBA. There's
only four hundred and thirty, give or take guys that
actually are in that league. And the separator has nothing
to do with what happens on the court, with the
exception of maybe twenty guys. For all the rest of us,

(15:24):
it's just your ability to be here. The coach pointed
to his head and heart one more time. The story
that Pope wanted to tell on the night in Nashville
where always saved Kentucky on the court in the SEC
Tournament was this one. It wasn't the story of a
last second shot, but a tale that had been months
in the making. Oway's transformation in his first season at

(15:47):
Kentucky was a chapter in that story, but it wasn't
the final one. Over the past year and a half,
Pope has helped Oway become a better version of himself
in college basketball. The work continue. He can still improve
at this level, and he'll need to if he and
his fellow Wildcats are going to go as far as
he hopes. Oway is also trying to elevate himself to

(16:10):
no doubt NBA draft status. I know what I have
to do, he said. I've been locked in since I
decided I'm coming back. I've been locked in on what
I have to do, how this year has to look
so every day, even if I can't do it physically
in practice, mentally, I'm keyed in thinking about it and
just having a vision of how I need it to go.

(16:33):
Oway started fall practice as a spectator, a turf toe
injury pushing him to the sidelines a year ago. Perhaps
that would have been a bad thing. He's been on
the court now, but those few weeks spent watching might
have served him well. The way he talks about the
experience sure sounds like he's learned something during his time

(16:53):
as a Wildcat. Before the conversation even arrived at Pope's
use of distractable to describe him, Oway spoke of being
locked in and laser focused heading into the twenty twenty
five twenty six season. He listed off the things NBA
decision makers had told him to get better at, shooting,

(17:13):
handling the ball, making decisions on the move, and explained
how he was going about the process of improvement. When
it was pointed out that he was the kid on
last year's team, the youngest player in a Wildcat starting
lineup stacked with seniors, all of them now gone. Oway smiled, Yeah,
I'm unk now, he said, the grin getting a little bigger.

(17:36):
He spoke of this team's three freshmen, Braden Hawthorne, Jasper
Johnson and Malachim Moreno, and wanting to be there for
them as they started their college journey because you have
to set the example, Oway said, So for me, I
have to make sure I'm just always laser locked in
on our principles so that I'm setting a good example

(17:57):
for that a Kentucky basketball It's been said that Pope
is in a unique position to relate to his players.
He faced adversity in college, and he won an NCAA title.
Most importantly for the current context, he did it at Kentucky,
and then he went on to play several seasons in

(18:17):
the NBA. After that, he went to medical school. He
also developed a keen interest in psychology, but that didn't
happen as he was training to become a doctor. Pope
said he probably took one psychology class as an undergrad
and did just enough to fulfill those obligations in med school.
Several years into his head coaching career, while working with

(18:40):
the Squad, a group of BYU psychologists he called upon
to help his team, Pope hit on something else. It
wasn't until the Squad at BYU that I started to
just be a massively big believer that there was room
for us to get better as coaches in how we
run an organization. He said years later That interest has persisted.

(19:02):
I mean, every coach has their styles and it works
for a lot of coaches, always said, but I feel
like coach Pope is different. He wants to tap into
your mind, psychology, all that type of stuff. He's just
a cool guy in terms of like he just makes
his players feel comfortable. That work continues too. Pope questioned

(19:24):
the premise of whether he's in a better position than
other coaches to help his players due to his previous
time spent as a Wildcat and a veteran of the NBA.
Two rational human beings could have a rational debate about
whether it's better to be able to relate to your
players in that way, he said, I mean that would
be like a super interesting conversation. That might be a

(19:47):
conversation for another day. For now, Pope returned to this one.
I mean, clearly, I got to experience a lot of
things these guys are experiencing, he said, and then he
went down the list. He knows what it's like to
walk into Reperina, prepare for games in that locker room,
and deal with the pomp, praise and pressures of the

(20:09):
UK fan base. He also knows what it's like to
fight your way into the NBA and earn an lasting
place there. So in that sense, there's a lot of
moments that I can kind of call back where I'm like, ooh,
I've kind of been in that space, and I wonder
if they're experiencing this in a similar way as me.
So for sure, yes, it helps in that way. I

(20:31):
do think that one of the skills that I'm really
really trying to grow that I think coaches are very
poor at is I'm really trying to listen. I'm not
a great listener, but I'm trying to become a better listener,
because I think that makes us ten times teachers when
we actually listen, right, because then we know what to teach.

(20:52):
It's been about eighteen months since Oway told Pope he
would play for him. There's been a lot of listening.
Over that time. Pope has listen to Oway, and Oway
has listened to Pope. The results have been mutually beneficial.
The growth process for both coach and player will continue
into this season and extend beyond it as Oway embarks

(21:13):
on his pro career and Pope tries to get the
most out of his next wave of potential Kentucky basketball stars.
They'll spend one more season together first, more big moments
on the court and breakthroughs away from it, more listening
and learning, and both sides will be all ears. There's
no better person that can advocate for it than coach Pope.

(21:35):
I mean, he's won it. He's won it here, he's
been here, Oway said, And I feel like if you
don't believe him or trust him, you just don't want
to succeed, because why would you not trust someone who's
done everything that you want to do. I mean, everyone
on the team's aspiration is to win a national championship
and to go play in the NBA. He's done all that.

(21:58):
The next article from today edition is titled Ji land
Low is here to lead this UK basketball team whether
you like it or not, by Ben Roberts. When the
transfer portal opened to start Mark Pope's first full off
season as the head coach at Kentucky. Priority number one
was finding a new point guard. As Jiland Low's sophomore

(22:21):
season in college basketball drew to a close, he knew
he needed a change of scenery, so when Lowe's name
hit the portal, Pope didn't hesitate. UK's coach didn't know
much about Low the person, but he knew all about
Low as a player. While his sophomore season at Pittsburgh's
starting point guard had been a bit uneven, anyone who

(22:43):
looked past some of the stats, dug deeper into the
numbers and simply watched what Low could do on the
court had to see the sky high potential. Low didn't
know much about Pope the coach, but he knew all
about Kentucky. The son of a Texas grassroots back basketball figure,
Low grew up around the game. As a kid, he

(23:04):
had a list of major college programs taped above his bed,
signifying the schools he wanted scholarship offers from. UK was
on that list, alongside Duke, Kansas, and a few others.
None offered him a scholarship, so when Pope saw Lowe's
name in the portal. He was excited, and when the
UK coach reached out to Lowe's dad, that excitement spread.

(23:28):
Low had just arrived in Minnesota, his home base for
NBA Draft workouts, and Pope made contact with his father,
Marlon Lowe. Immediately. Pope said he wanted to meet with them.
The next day, he got on a plane for Minnesota,
and when the point guard walked into a room in
his hotel the next morning, Kentucky's coach was waiting for him.

(23:50):
He's probably the most animated and joyful person and coach
that I've ever met, Lowe said. It was really crazy
to see because I've never seen a coach act like
that before. As soon as he saw me, he stood up,
was super excited and he pumped his hand. He was like, Yo,
what's up man? Am I super excited to talk to

(24:10):
you and get to know you. And you could tell
throughout the whole conversation just in his tone and how
excited he was to talk about Kentucky and his coaching
staff and the players that he had. It's the type
of energy and joy that you don't see a lot
of people talk with. That first meeting consisted of Low,
his father, Pope, and UK associate head coach Alvin Brooks.

(24:35):
Low was taken aback not just by Pope's excitement level
or his pitch for Kentucky basketball, but the way he
talked from first hand experience about what it meant to
be a Wildcat. Low had known Brooks, another fixture in
the tight knit Texas basketball community, for as long as
he could remember, so there was some familiarity there. The

(24:57):
more he listened to Pope, the more he started to
picture himself at Kentucky. Low said he heard from everybody
during his brief time in the portal. How many other
coaches made the trip to Minnesota to meet with him
in person, none, he said. The player and his father
spent a couple of nights talking it over. It was

(25:17):
kind of like a no brainer, Lo said. It was
pretty clear for both of us that Kentucky would be
the best option. Low committed to UK, and it was
understood from that moment that he would be the Wildcat's
starting point guard for the twenty twenty five twenty sixth season.
Pope had the player he wanted, but he didn't just
want a solid player at the position. He wanted a leader,

(25:40):
and trying to figure out something like that on the
fly is never easy. In that regard, Pope acknowledges that
he didn't know exactly what to expect when I went
to visit him in person for the first time. I
was impressed by his directness, Pope said, and I was
impressed by his confidence, at least an air of confidence.
So there was the beginnings of that. But I was

(26:03):
really pleased when he got here and I started to
kind of feel that because it's important to have that
on a team. Jiland Lowe's basketball beginnings, it was clear
from talking to his new teammates over the summer that
low quickly cemented himself as the leader of this UK
basketball team. That narrative was already established when Pope said

(26:24):
this during an appearance on the CBS Sports Eye on
College Basketball podcast. He has the beautiful skill of not
being overly concerned with whether people like him in any
given moment. In an interview with a Herald Leader this preseason,
Lowe listened intently when the quote was read back to him.
He said he had never heard it before. He also

(26:45):
said Pope was spot on. I feel like that's a
good way to describe me, Low said, just as a
basketball player from where I grew up and the leaders
I've seen around me growing up, you have to just
not be able to care sometimes about what other people
think or say about you, because as a leader, you
have to carve your own way and you have to

(27:07):
do the things that work for you and work for
your team. So if other people don't see it that way,
that's cool. I know what I'm here for. I know
I'm trying to win and make the people around me better.
The origin of that attitude is easy to pinpoint. Low
called his father, the longtime leader of one of the
top grassroots basketball programs in the country, the most influential

(27:31):
person in his life, but his dad's connections led to
other influences too. Low's godfather is John Lucas, the former
number one NBA draft pick and one time head coach
of three different teams in the league. Lucas is also
basically the godfather of Texas hoops. He's a national figure
on the grassroots scene. Countless NBA stars have gone through

(27:53):
his camps at a constant presence in all levels of
basketball inside the Lone Star State. As a boy, Lowe
grew up in Lucas's gym. He studied Lucas closely. He
also recalled watching guys like dearon Fox, Jared Allen and
Carson Edwards from a young age. He saw their games,
of course, but he also learned to look deeper. Due

(28:16):
to time constraints, we'll need to end this article at
this time, and now, after a short pause, I hope
you'll rejoin us for a continuation of the reading of
the Lexington Herald Leader for today. Thank you for listening,
and now please stay tuned for more news right here
on RADIOI. Now we will continue reading from the Lexington

(28:37):
Herald Leader for Sunday, November two, twenty twenty five. Your
reader is Roger Hampiion. We will start with the obituaries.
We read only the name, age and location. If you
would like further information on any of the obituaries, please
see their website or call us during the week days
at eight five nine four two sixty three nine zero

(29:02):
and we will be glad to read the entire obituary
for you. I will repeat that number at the end
of the listings. Today's obituaries are as follows. Robert Bob L.
Bellamy Junior ninety of Richmond, and Penny Allen seventy seven
of Lexington, Richard Benton eighty eight of Nashville, Gerald Cox

(29:27):
eighty four of Nicholasville, and Pauline Hanks ninety seven of Danville.
If you'd like any further information about any of the
listings today, please visit the following website www dot legacy
dot com slash obituaries slash Kentucky. Again, that site is

(29:48):
Legacy dot com slash obituaries slash Kentucky. You can also
call us at our Radio I Studios at eight five
nine four two two six three nine zero, and we
will try to read them to you over the phone. Now,
at the request of our listeners, we'll read Paul Prather's
bi weekly column. It is entitled In My Season of Weakness,

(30:12):
I am hoping to fall upward to grace. Earlier, I
wrote a column about an adventure filled trip I took
to the emergency room. At the time I wrote that piece,
I thought we'd solve the questions of what was ailing me. Well,
not so fast. Since then, I've experienced what feels like
a cascade of related issues. As far as I'm aware,

(30:36):
I'm not standing on death's welcome Matt yet. So I
don't want to sound whiny, but I do continue to
feel perfectly rotten, and every fresh medical report sounds grimmer
than the preceding ones. It's enough to get a guy down,
especially a guy I'm used to illness. I keep thinking, hey,
I'm too young for this nonsense. Anyway. As a way

(30:58):
of attempting to feed my soul and calm my frustrated mind,
I've been revisiting the most illuminating religious book I've read
in the past several years, Richard Rhor's Falling Upward, a
Spirituality for the two Halves of Life. If that sounds familiar,
it could be because I wrote about the same book
a couple of years ago. Rohr is a Franciscan priest

(31:21):
who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. The author of many books, He's among a
handful of contemporary Christian writers who really speak to me.
I've never met him, but as I said in twenty
twenty three, he's helped me make sense of the transitions
in my life as I age on a side He's

(31:44):
discussed in the recent HBO crime drama mini series Task,
in which Mark Ruffalo plays an FBI agent who formerly
was Roman Catholic priest. I was pleasantly surprised when a
couple of the characters got into a discussion of my
own personal guru. In Falling Upward, Roar divides our spiritual

(32:05):
journeys into what he calls the first and second halves
of life. These don't necessarily correspond with our actual age.
The first half of life is universal, he says, but
comparatively shallow. We're preoccupied with succeeding, proving ourselves right, protecting
our careers, establishing who is or isn't part of our

(32:27):
in group. Mainly, we're controlled by what Rhor calls the
fear based preoccupations of the lizard brain. Then something happens
to us. Unfortunately, it's usually something cataclysmic, a moral disgrace,
the death of a loved one, the rebellion of a
beloved child. Whatever it is, it destroys our previous ego

(32:49):
driven assumptions about ourselves, others, and God. This is the
falling of the book's title, but the theme of Following
Upward is that this can in fact touch off a
personal revelation and an inner revolution. Some people find their
pain paradoxically moves them into a higher spiritual awareness. Old

(33:11):
concerns become meaningless, Better, deeper things come. Having lost what
mattered so immensely before, those who fall upward are no
longer afraid of losing. They don't care about defending their
turf because they no longer have a turf, having had
their sacred beliefs demolished. They don't assume they know everything

(33:32):
or anything. Having been rejected, they reach out to other
rejected people. Anyway. I love this book and find it
talking to me again as I wrestle with this sudden
decline in my health. Here are a few excerpts. Maybe
one of them will speak to you. So we must
stumble and fall, I'm sorry to say, and that does

(33:54):
not mean reading about falling as you are doing here.
We must actually be out of the driver seat for
a while, or we will never learn how to give
up control to the real guide. You need a very
strong container to hold the contents and contradictions that arrive
later in life. You ironically need a very strong ego

(34:14):
structure to let go of your ego. Rohre writes about
Miguel d Unamuno, a Spanish philosopher who warns his European
culture it had distorted the meaning of faith by aligning
it with the Western idea of progress rather than with
the scriptures. Unamuno equates the notion of faith with a

(34:34):
trust and an underlying life force so strong that it
even includes death. Faith also includes reason, but it is
a larger category than reason. For Unomuno, truth is not
always about pragmatic problem solving and making things work, but
about reconciling contradictions. Just because something might have some dire

(34:56):
effects does not mean it is not true or even good.
Life is inherently tragic, and that is the truth that
only faith, but not our seeming logic, can accept. Most
of nature's seems to totally accept major lass, gross inefficiency,
mass extinctions, and short life spans as the price of

(35:16):
life at all. Feeling that sadness and even its full
absurdity ironically pulls us into the general dance the unified field,
an ironic and deep gratitude for what is given. Grace
seems to be at the foundation of everything. The ego
clearly prefers an economy of merit, where we can divide

(35:37):
the world into winners and losers. To any economy of
grace where merit or worthiness loses all meaning. In the
first case, at least a few of us good guys
attain glory. In the second case, all the glory is
to God, Amen, my Franciscan brother. The next article from
today's edition of The Herald Leader is titled Kentucky Juvenile

(36:01):
Justice worker alleges his retaliation by John Chieves. A lieutenant
at the Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center is being punished
by her bosses for exposing sexual harassment at the state
run facility in Lexington, according to a recent lawsuit. The
Herald Leader reported in February that Corrections Lieutenant Laquetta Black

(36:22):
successfully pushed her complaints about sexual harassment to high ranking
state officials in Frankfort after her verbal and written reports
were ignored inside the facility for nearly two years. A
state investigator concluded last year that deputy facility manager Charles
Scott Harris made sexually inappropriate comments and inappropriately touched Black

(36:45):
and other women who worked at the facility. The investigator
also faulted facility manager Jesse Joe Caskey Junior for failing
to act on or pass along complaints about Harris and
for his own inappropriate behavior toward such as texting her
to ask for a kiss and a photograph of herself.

(37:05):
Harris and Caski were fired in late twenty twenty four
by the Department of Juvenile Justice, which runs the facility,
but the story didn't end there, Black alleged in a
suit she filed October third in Fayette Circuit Court. Instead,
Black said she is now being penalized for speaking out
about the women's harassment and getting the previous management team fired.

(37:28):
Among the unfair acts of reprisals, she said her work
schedule has been changed to prevent her from getting overtime pay,
she is singled out for retaliatory complaints and rapprimands, and
told she is the building's problem. And when she requested
approval for medical leave to deal with anxiety and depression
that's been aggravated by her work stress, she was told

(37:50):
she could accept voluntary reassignment or demotion. Defendants subjected plaintiff
to sexual harassment for three years, mishandled her plaints, watched
as the harm of abuse manifested in her performance and
interactions with her superiors, peers, and subordinates, and then retaliated
against her by imposing disparate discipline and scheduling changes that

(38:14):
forced her to either quit, be demoted, or be fired.
The suit alleged a reasonable person in plaintiff's position would
feel compelled to resign. The suit added, Black is suing
the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, the Department of Juvenile Justice,
and various state officials who run those agencies, and her
detention center. She seeks an injunction against further harassment and

(38:38):
unspecified damages for compensation. Black is currently on leave from
her job, but she remains employed by the state, said
her attorney, Gilbert Calmly of Elizabethtown. Uniquely, this is a
case where the Commonwealth has already investigated itself and found
its wrongdoing. Calmly said, I think any time that a

(38:59):
whistle blow or has to resort to the courts, it
simply sends a message that look trust is diminished. The
Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the Department of
Juvenile Justice, did not immediately respond to a Herald Leader
request for comment on the suit. Black is only the
latest person to sue the Department of Juvenile Justice in

(39:20):
recent years, alleging they are exposing poor conditions inside the
troubled state agency. In other pending suits, former employees and
residents say youths were held in deplorable conditions and physically
abused by staff. The U. S Department of Justice is
investigating Kentucky's juvenile detention centers for possible civil rights violations

(39:42):
of the use held in state custody. The next article
from today's edition is titled Bashir joins Kentucky lawmakers urges
Parole Board to imprison Ronald Exantus by Christopher Leech. Governor
Andy Basher on Thursday joined several Kentucky lawmakers in encouraging
the Kentucky Parole Board to imprison a man who was

(40:05):
released early from his twenty years sentence despite killing a child.
Basher's call for the Parole Board to imprison Ronald Xantis
forty two came one day after more than two dozen
Kentucky state representatives signed a letter urging the parle board
to do the same. Basher also indicated at the weekly

(40:25):
news conference that he would support revisiting the law that
allowed Exantus to be released from prison early. I understand
the letter that lawmakers sent, I understand their concern and
respect it. I understand other legislators that have said maybe
we should look at this law again, and I'm willing
to do so with them, Basher said. On October one,

(40:48):
Exantus was released from a Kentucky prison after serving nine years,
nine months, twenty five days for a twenty fifteen fatal
break in and attack of a family in Woodford County.
Xantis was found not guilty by reason of insanity in
the stabbing death of six year old Logan Tipton, and
who was found guilty but mentally ill in the assaults

(41:09):
of Logan's sisters and father. Exantus's release prompted national outcry,
including from the White House. He moved to Marion County, Florida,
but was arrested on October ninth for failing to register
as a felon. Exantis was extradited to Kentucky on Tuesday
and is being held at the Kentucky State Reformatory in

(41:31):
Oldham County. He has a right to a revocation hearing
in Kentucky, and if he opts to have the hearing,
and administrative law judge will hold up public hearing and
send their findings to the Parole Board, which will determine
whether his release should be revoked, said Morgan hall Oakes,
person for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The Parole Board

(41:52):
denied Exantis parole on several occasions before his release, including
most recently on September thirtieth, but a state law that
releases eligible inmates who are within six months of their
estimated sentence completion date freed Exantus. At the time of sentencing,
Exantus had an expected release date of twenty thirty five,

(42:13):
but a combination of good behavior credits and completed educational
and work programs significantly reduced his sentence. The letter from
lawmakers also asked the board to reconsider any good behavior
credit previously granted toward early release. Mister Exantus's history, combined
with his recent violations, demonstrates that he remains a serious

(42:36):
and ongoing threat. Lawmakers wrote public safety demands that the
board act decisively to prevent further harm. Twenty six state
representatives signed the letter asking the pro board to revoke
Xanthus's release, including House Majority Whip James Nimm's, Republican of
Middletown Representative Matt Lockett, Republican of Nicholasville Representative Vanessa Grossel,

(43:02):
Representative of Georgetown. Representative T. J. Roberts, Republican of Burlington,
signed the letter after previously announcing intentions to file a
bill to abolish mandatory supervised release in the upcoming legislative session.
During Thursday's news conference, Basher was also asked about the
investigation into death threats made toward Parole Board members by

(43:26):
people who mistakenly believe the board granted parole to Exantus.
Some board members have had their personal information released online,
and threats of violence and death have been made against
them and their families, Kentucky State Police previously said. Bashier
said he couldn't share updates about the investigation, but he

(43:46):
noted that misinformation about Exantus's release, including from the White House,
helped fuel the threats. There is never an excuse to
threaten the life of someone else, and we will pursue
each and all of those threats. Said anywhere that we
can take an action that shows that political violence and
threatened political violence is never okay. We'll want to set

(44:08):
that example. The next article from today's edition is titled
Prince Harry has no plans to be a US citizen
From US Weekly. Prince Harry is not seeking American citizenship.
Am I going to become a US citizen? Harry forty
one said during his Wednesday appearance on the Hassan Minaj

(44:30):
Doesn't Know podcast. There are no plans to be at
this point. Harry forty one said that despite living in
America for five years, things are more confusing to him
than ever. However, he failed to elaborate on what that meant.
He and wife Megan Markle relocated to California when they
parted ways with the Royal family in twenty twenty. The

(44:53):
Duke of Sussex's admission about his citizenship comes months after
questions about his immigration status when public this past March.
The drama started in March twenty twenty four, when it
was revealed that Nile Gardner, director of the Market Thatcher
Center for Freedom at conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation,

(45:14):
was in a legal battle with the Department of Homeland
Security to release Harry's visa application. The request was denied
by that September. The Heritage Foundation's Freedom of Information Act
FOYER request alleged that Harry concealed past drug use, which
wouldn't allow him to obtain a US visa. Harry detailed

(45:35):
his use of cocaine, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms in his
twenty twenty three memoir Spare. By February of this year,
the Department of Homeland Security agreed to release a redacted
version of the application. The eighty two page document went
public in March and was heavily blacked out. It did
not reveal Harry's immigration status or any discussion regarding past

(45:59):
drug use. The next article from today's edition is titled
former UK swimmer anti trans sports advocate feuds with New
York congresswoman by Christopher Leech. Former University of Kentucky standout
swimmer Riley Gaines challenged a prominent progressive US representative to
a debate this week amid an online feud. This spat

(46:23):
began Sunday with a social media post from Gaines, who,
since her graduation from UK, has made a media career
of opposing the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports.
Gaines posted a photo of Representative Alexandria Occasio Cortes, Democrat
of New York, alongside Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont,

(46:45):
and Zoron Mundani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New
York City at a recent rally with the caption were
being destroyed from within. Occasio Cortes responded by mocking gaines
fifth place finish in a race at the twenty twenty
two nc DOUBA Swimming and Diving Championships where she tied

(47:06):
transgender woman Leah Thomas. Maybe if you channeled all this
anger into swimming faster, you wouldn't have come in fifth,
Ocazio Cortes wrote on x Gaines responded by calling Ocazio
Cortes a misogynistic dunce and noted a pattern of people
making fun of her for placing fifth in an NCUBA

(47:26):
championship race. On Monday, she appeared on Fox News The
ingram Angle and challenged Ocasio Cortes to a debate. She
can defend socialism, I'll defend capitalism. She can defend removing God.
I'll defend embracing a biblical worldview. She can defend child's sacrifice.
I'll defend the sanctity of life. Gaines said, any of

(47:50):
the radical, insane democratic policies a platform that they stand for,
I will debate the opposite. Ocasio Cortes did not publicly
accept or deny the challenge, instead telling Gaines to get
a real job. Gaines responded by saying her job as
being a mom after giving birth to her daughter, Margo
in late September. It's the most important and rewarding job

(48:13):
in the world, Gaines wrote in a post on X
I think if you had a baby girl like I do,
you'd understand my positions a little better. Gaines is one
of UK's most decorated swimmers in program history. She swam
for the Wildcats from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty two
and was a twelve time All American, four time SEC champion,

(48:35):
and former SEC two hundred yard butterfly record holder. Gaines
placed fifth in the two hundred meter freestyle at the
twenty twenty two NCA Swimming and Diving Championships, tying Thomas,
a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer. At that same meet,
Thomas also became the first openly transgender athlete to win

(48:55):
a national title the women's five hundred meter freestyle. After
the two hundred meter freestyle final, Gaines told The Daily
Wire that Thomas was given the only fifth place trophy
for the event, and she was offered to pose with
a six place trophy on the podium. Gaines has since
said her issue was not about trophy presentation, but rather

(49:18):
the message it sends to women that we don't matter,
she posted on social media in twenty twenty three. Gaines
has been a leading voice in the effort to ban
transgender athletes from women's sports. The topic has divided the
u S in recent years, with critics arguing that transgender
athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition. More

(49:41):
than two dozen states have banned transgender girls from participating
in girls high school sports, and organizations, including the NCAA
and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, banned transgender women
from women's sports this year to comply with an executive
order from President Donald Trump. Gaines has also remained active

(50:02):
in Kentucky politics. In twenty twenty three, she campaigned with
two Republican gubernatorial candidates, Kelly Kraft during the primary election
and Daniel Cameron during his unsuccessful run against incumbent Democratic
Governor Andy Basheer. She's endorsed Representative Andy Barr in his
run for US Senate in twenty twenty six. The next

(50:24):
article from today's edition is titled Kentucky Food Bank calls
on Governor Basher for special session to fund SNAP benefits
by Linda Blackford. Nikki Stacey started the Hazel Green Food
Project in Wolfe County and now helps feed people from
thirty five counties, some of the poorest in the nation.

(50:45):
Thirty one percent of people in Wolfe County received benefits
from the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In nearby Owsley
County its thirty seven percent. Stacey serves two thousand households
a week, but as of Saturday, no one in those
counties will receive their SNAP benefits. That's because of the

(51:05):
federal government shutdown and the Trump administration's refusal to use
contingency funds to keep benefits flowing. Stacy knows the faces
of hunger. She sees them every day. That's why she's
calling on Governor Andy Basher to call a special session
to use some of Kentucky's massive three point seven billion
dollar Rainy Day fund to help folks out when SNAP

(51:28):
is cut. The only ones hurting are children, she wrote
Wednesday in a message to Bashir, which she also filmed
for a video that's been sent by twenty thousand people
and shared more than six hundred times. Hunger is not
a Republican or Democrat issue. This is a moral issue.
Stacy said. We urge you to please call a special

(51:49):
session and get our representatives back to Frankfort and declare
a state of emergency. Basher's office has not responded to Stacy,
nor did anyone from their respond to The Herald Leader's
call for comment. Two of Kentucky's largest food organizations, God's
Pantry and Feeding Kentucky, declined to comment on a special session,

(52:11):
but Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy,
said Basher and the legislature should tap the state's reserve
funds as the loss of SNAP benefits will affect six
hundred thousand Kentuckians, many of them children and the elderly.
If the President and Congress are not going to act,
we must, he said. A rainy day fund is for

(52:34):
rainy days, and this is a downpour for one in
eight Kentuckians who receive SNAP. The money is there to
easily fund November benefits, and it would be cruel and
irresponsible not to. Stacy's state representative agrees. Representative Timmy Truett,
Republican of McKee says he thinks there's widespread agreement from

(52:55):
his colleagues they could fix this problem in a couple
of days. That Rainy Day fund is to be used
when there is a rainy day, and I can't think
of a day any rainier than today. Trwett said, we
have some of our most vulnerable people going without food.
I believe if we got called in, we could fix
the problem pretty quick. Truett is also the principle of

(53:17):
McKee Elementary, where he sees children faced food insecurity all
the time. I see every day the effects of kids
not getting food. It's one of the most important things
we can do, he said. I hope the federal government
will open up, but I myself, as a representative, I
am willing to go back into session until our federal

(53:37):
legislators get everything lined up. The legislature is waiting to
help the government anytime he needs help. Representative Richard White,
Republican of Morehead, also said he thought a special session
should be called. Yes, I think most of us support
that decision, he said. Governor Basheer has joined a lawsuit

(53:58):
of twenty five other states attorneys general and governors against
the Trump administration after it announced it would not tap
a five billion dollar federal contingency fund. The sad part
about this is there are emergency funds that are right there.
All the Trump administration has to do is say we're
going to use them, Basher said at a press conference Tuesday.

(54:22):
In fact, the Trump administration is talking about providing Argentina
a twenty billion dollar bailout during a government shutdown, but
won't provide SNAP benefits food assistance for our own people.
That's not very America. First November benefits would cost about
one hundred six million for Kentucky, but it's not clear

(54:43):
if the state would be reimbursed for them. State House
and Senate Republican leaders have declined to comment on the
Commonwealth Seriney Day Fund, which they have been building up
in anticipation of further tax cuts in the income tax.
On Thursday, Basher said his administration and was looking at
a number of options, but he did not think a

(55:03):
special session would be necessary. He said the Trump administration
had blocked states from putting state dollars into the federal platform,
so alternatives would have to be found. Basher also said
there was a hearing in the SNAP lawsuit today and
he hoped it would go their way. He also announced
a Team Kentucky initiative to collect food around the state

(55:25):
for food banks to distribute. I know this is a
scary and stressful time for many of our families, he said.
We want to help in any way we can, but
the federal government needs to step up. Democrats blame Republicans
for refusing to use contingency funds, while Republicans blamed Democrats
for the government shutdown. This is a costly game of

(55:48):
chicken that is going to hurt people. Those politicians will
never see, but Stacey will. The Hazel Green Food Project
is already serving an increase in clients as federal workers
have go on without paychecks during the shutdown. It's time
to put Kentucky first. It is time to take care
of our home base, she said in an interview. We're

(56:10):
not worried about what's going on in Washington. We're worried
about our kids who are going to be hurting. There's
not going to be any hope for these kids. We
need results now. The next article from today's edition is
titled to End a Shutdown. Trump wants Senate to scrap
filibuster rule by Timothy R. Williams, New York Times News Service.

(56:34):
President Donald Trump called on Senate Republicans late Thursday to
eliminate the filibuster to force an end to the government shutdown,
a move that would strip away a deeply rooted Senate rule.
The President said in a late night truth social post
that it was time for GOP leaders to play their
Trump card and get rid of the long standing rule

(56:55):
that means most sent legislation needs sixty votes to pass
rather than a simple majority. Due to time constraints, we'll
need to end this article at this time. This concludes
the reading of the Lexington Herald Leader for today, Sunday,
November two, twenty twenty five. Your reader has been Roger Hamperion.

(57:16):
Thank you for listening and please stay tuned for sports
news here on Radio I