By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Readers, don’t be surprised next month when the Kentucky General Assembly goes back into session and one of the hot topics will be how to fix or discard the five-year-old system of regional driver licensing offices.
This proverb simply means that when something goes right, many people are quick to take credit for it but when something goes wrong, people are reluctant to accept responsibility, and the failure is left unclaimed and alone like an orphan in olden days.
Before 2020, driver’s licenses were available in each of the state’s 120 counties. However, today that is the case in only 35 locations with five in Louisville, two in Lexington and the other 28 scattered statewide.
For example, Northeast Kentucky drivers have the option of going to Morehead, Ashland or Maysville. If you live further east into the mountains, your choices are Jackson, Prestonsburg or Pikeville. Going into Northern Kentucky, the first available office is in Maysville.
A state senator from Shelbyville got lots of publicity in August at the Kentucky State Fair when he told reporters about making 200-mile roundtrips between his hometown and Morehead to enable his two teenagers to get licensed without waiting several days for an appointment at a Louisville office.
Because I like pithy old sayings, I feel we also should consider applying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to this situation. Circuit clerks in all 120 counties had issued driver’s licenses for nearly 100 years. Suddenly, taking your teen or anyone to get a driver’s permit became much more complicated than a trip downtown.
This second proverb serves as a cynical reminder of how credit and blame are distributed. Like success and failure, it also highlights the superficial nature of praise and the harsh loneliness of error.
True leadership is demonstrated not by claiming a share of a known success, but by stepping forward to own and learn from an inevitable failure.
To find a sensible solution, our legislators, circuit clerks and state transportation officials should put their egos and vested interests aside and find the best answer for current and future drivers and state taxpayers. Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com
