By Robert Dean

Carter County Times

Being an adult in 2025 is exhausting. If the car doesn’t need new shocks, the insurance bill looms like a storm cloud over a car note that feels downright perverse.

I know it’s an idealized America at this point, before something went wrong with the agreement made to the American people. Still, there was a time when someone could work at the local plant and, with one paycheck, buy a house, raise a few kids, take some vacations, and retire with a pension. Today, two full-time incomes barely cover groceries and gas.

Every check gets eaten by housing, gas, kids, old doctor bills, groceries – and that’s before the other bills or trying to be a human who wants a Snickers or a night at the movies.

In 1995, the average American worker made about $45,000 a year in today’s dollars and could realistically afford a starter home, reliable healthcare through their employer, and help their kids with college without taking on crushing debt. Wages have barely budged, but housing costs have increased by over 800%, childcare costs have doubled, and even eggs feel like a luxury item.

Somewhere along the line, hard work stopped paying off the way it used to. We now live in a world where our neighbors start GoFundMe pages to help pay medical bills for cancer. Our insurance premiums keep rising, if we’re lucky enough to get coverage at all.

I was nearly killed in a car wreck. Guess who saw their insurance spike, even after being left with just a thousand dollars to replace a totaled car? The wreck wasn’t my fault. I was picking up takeout.

We pay into health insurance through our paychecks, and half the time, we’re still left covering hundreds out of pocket. That leaves us with broken molars we can’t afford to fix or nagging knee pain we can’t afford to get X-rayed.

Perhaps the American Dream didn’t die, but it has definitely become unaffordable. People are working two and three jobs and still struggling with burnout, mental health issues, and a growing distrust of a system broken by bad actors in suits on both sides – laying hands on a Bible while lying through their teeth.

Debt is everywhere, and everyone’s carrying the burden of just trying to keep the lights on while VISA and Mastercard keep getting richer.

What no one talks about is the quiet shame. The way people blame themselves for falling behind, like it’s a moral failure instead of a broken system. Anxiety, depression, burnout – these aren’t personal defects. They’re the natural response to a life spent running on a treadmill someone else controls. Working families suffer, and when that happens, communities begin to fray.

It’s not an unfair idea to question why we work so hard for so little and wonder where all that money goes. When we go to work, we’re selling our labor at a price per hour. But what does that look like for the folks sitting in the corporate suite?

They’ve never had dirt under their nails, but they sure know how to pick a pocket clean.

Tomorrow, I get to decide what bill gets paid and how much I can afford to spend on food – even though I have a full-time job.

Once again, the working man gets the screw job. Been there, done that.

Contact us at news@cartercountytimes.com 

By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times

            As a former soldier myself, I try to keep up with what military veterans are saying about the agency they alternately describe as their best friend and worst enemy – The Department of Veterans Affairs – the VA.

            In fact, the latest outcry about what the federal government does or doesn’t do for American vets reminded me of that great poem, “Tommy,” written a century ago by Rudyard Kipling, the English journalist, novelist, poet and short-story writer.

            His biting criticism of the alleged failure of Britons to appreciate their soldiers during peacetime led to many changes affecting British Army soldiers over the years. It might qualify as a cautionary tale today for the VA and our men and women in uniform.

            Two verses near the end of Kipling’s poem explain the oft-expressed frustration of soldiers throughout history who sensed they are only valued during wartime.  

It reads like this:

While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ Tommy, fall be’ind,”

But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind

There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,

O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ Chuck him out, the brute!”

But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;

An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;

An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!

In that spirit, a Kentucky veteran wrote this stinging sentence in a recent article in the Lexington Herald-Leader. I’m sure his bitter disappointment is shared by other vets.

“Imagine going to war to protect your country and coming home to find your country no longer protects you.”

About 15 million U.S. veterans are dependent on the VA for health care. Many are complaining that the announced VA staff layoffs, budget cuts and a new policy of zero tolerance of certain political beliefs will result in a wider gap between what veterans deserve and what they get.

I can’t imagine what our forefathers would think of a policy directive that says vets voicing the wrong political message would have to wait the longest at VA medical clinics and hospitals.

That’s certainly not the America I swore to defend.

Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.

By Brandon La Voie

Carter County Times

I still believe common sense lives here.

I see it in how we raise our kids to look people in the eye. In the hours we put in; real, blistered, sore-backed hours. In the way we still hold the door for someone behind us, even if their bumper sticker is different than ours. That’s Kentucky. That’s how I was raised.

But lately, I’ve watched a movement calling itself conservative get louder, and it doesn’t look like what I believe in. It looks more like a brand. A team. A crowd of people rooting for a man instead of the principles we were supposed to be protecting.

I voted for him. I believed we needed a course correction – on borders, on law, on holding people accountable. But I never signed up for a personality cult. I don’t follow men. I follow my Creator. Not a campaign. Not a movement that forgets what real conservatism is supposed to defend.

Conservatism isn’t about noise. It’s about discipline. It’s not about punishing people; it’s about protecting what matters. That means strong borders, yes. That means accountability across the board. But it also means knowing when to tell the truth to your own side, not just scream at the other one.

I’ve worked jobs that tear your body down. I’ve raised my kids in a world that doesn’t give breaks. I’ve lived through sickness, poverty, and the slow grind of trying to build something with your bare hands. I’ve seen what it takes to survive. And I’ve never once believed a politician would save me.

No one chooses to be born here. No one signs a contract promising tomorrow. But every person who contributes, who shows up, who does their part without hurting others, deserves the right to exist. That’s not a liberal belief. That’s a human one. And it used to be conservative too. We don’t need more slogans. We don’t need more stars on stages or fights on Facebook. We need a return to something quieter and stronger.

I want a government that knows its place. I want faith that isn’t used for power. I want leaders who serve, not perform. And I want a movement that remembers why we conserve anything in the first place; so our children can inherit more than debt and division.

Some folks say we’re in a war for the soul of America. I don’t disagree. But it’s not left versus right. It’s real versus fake. It’s the working class versus the circus. It’s the quiet builders versus the loud destroyers.

You won’t find me waving someone else’s name on a sign.

You’ll find me out here with my boys.

Working. Restoring. Teaching. Holding the line for something bigger than me.

That’s what I follow.

That’s what I protect.

And if we want a future worth defending, we better remember the difference.

Contact us at news@cartercountytimes.com