Author

Teri Carter

Teri Carter

Teri Carter writes about rural Kentucky life and politics for publications like the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Courier-Journal, The Daily Yonder and The Washington Post. You can find her at TeriCarter.net.?

Commentary

Would Daniel Cameron really have rolled the dice with Kentuckians lives?

By: - October 23, 2023

A month ago, on Sept. 17, I had a terrifying car accident in southern Illinois.? It was a sunny, Sunday afternoon. I was returning home to Kentucky following my 40-year high school reunion in Missouri. I was alone. And I was driving about 50 mph when a woman made an illegal turn in front of […]

Commentary

This ain’t ‘Gunsmoke.’ The victims of gun violence, their families and friends are real.

By: - October 10, 2023

With a month to go before Election Day, GOP attorney general candidate Russell Coleman launched his first ad titled “Lawman.” It opens with an image of Coleman looking menacing on a shooting range: dark sunglasses, black ear protection, black vest, black handgun firing. While the attorney general is often referred to as a state’s top […]

Commentary

Prevention is conspicuously absent from Louisville Republicans’ ‘Safer Kentucky’ plan

By: - September 29, 2023

After watching the Sept. 26 news conference held by Louisville House Republicans to introduce their proposed 18-point Safer Kentucky Act, I pulled out my scribbled, contemporaneous notes from a Sept. 19 meeting of the legislature’s Task Force on School and Campus Safety.? An hour into that meeting, I wrote: “These meetings are a way for […]

Commentary

So many prayers. So little action.

By: - September 11, 2023

I woke at 5 a.m. last Thursday thinking about the victims of the Old National Bank shooting in Louisville and googled their names so I could say a specific prayer: Thomas Elliott, James Tutt Jr., Juliana Farmer, Joshua Barrick and Deana Eckert; plus the six who were injured, James Evans, Julie Anderson, Dana Mitchell, Darrin […]

Commentary

In my small town, our librarian now carries a gun

By: - August 15, 2023

LAWRENCEBURG, KY — The library director swiveled her chair to the right, reached into a desk drawer, and showed me her gun. “Have you always carried a gun?” I said. “No,” she said, demonstrating how she tucks it up underneath her arm when she walks to and from the library parking lot. “I started carrying […]

Commentary
Shelves of library books

A library board appointment speaks volumes

By: - August 1, 2023

On Friday, July 28, after learning that a man named Bobby Proctor had been appointed by Anderson County Fiscal Court to our public library’s board of directors, I stopped by the library and asked to see a copy of Proctor’s application.? His application does not exist.? He did not apply.? Library director Demaris Hill told […]

Commentary

3 months after Louisville massacres, GOP silence echoes as gun violence keeps killing Kentuckians

By: - July 10, 2023

Today, July 10, marks three months since the Old National Bank shooting in Louisville that killed five and injured eight, including a young police officer who was shot in the head.? And yet when was the last time you heard elected Kentucky Republicans, the ones who love to brag about their powerful supermajority, mention this […]

Commentary

Kentuckians to ‘Wear Orange’ in hopes of saving lives

By: - May 31, 2023

Gun violence is preventable. And yet, when there is a mass shooting — or any shooting — we mostly hear the same tired, do-nothing messages: It is too soon to talk about it, thoughts and prayers, and then comes the next shooting or mass shooting and it’s wash, rinse, repeat, and move on.? I am […]

Commentary

Pro-life Cameron needs to tell Kentuckians what he values most: no gun regulations or children

By: - May 21, 2023

The morning after Kentucky’s primary elections, when all talk centered on newly-minted GOP nominee Daniel Cameron and whether or not he would pick Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles as his running partner, I was sitting on my back porch, reading about the recovery of Louisville Police Officer Nick Wilt. Wilt was shot in the head five […]

Commentary

When did the American gun become untouchable?

By: - April 21, 2023

In January 2020, a standing-room-only crowd gathered in Anderson County Fiscal Court to debate our becoming a Second Amendment Sanctuary. The comment I most recall from that morning was made by the brother of a man who had died by suicide with a firearm. He argued on the side of guns. His brother, he said, […]

Commentary

How many more AR-15 massacres?

By: - April 14, 2023

About 48 hours after a mass shooting in a Louisville bank left five victims dead and eight injured, including a young, newly sworn-in police officer fighting for his life with a gunshot to the head, I was standing in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport security line, witnessing massive waste in the name of safety. The frail, […]

Commentary

You call that love?

By: - April 4, 2023

Since I was giving a favorite book of poetry, Adrienne Rich’s “The Dream of a Common Language,” to a young friend for their birthday, I re-read it to make sure it was appropriate. It was. The 1978 collection of poems opens with this epigraph by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle’s nom de plume): “I go where I […]