Barefoot and Progressive

by Kim Thomas

There are few people quite like my fellow Ace Weekly writer, Joe Sonka, blog-master of Barefoot & Progressive --whose tag line is a quote by Mark Twain: "I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because it's always 20 years behind." You gotta love it, even if you are a Kentuckian.

It strikes me as well that it is rare to find someone with Sonka's talent and gumption to articulate their views on such delicate yet kneejerk-reaction-making issues as teen pregnancy, violence to women, and mountaintop coal removal, be effective, and more importantly, keep their sanity intact. He has even dared to go against the party line by forming a group opposed to the Commonwealth's Democratic lieutenant governor, who, due to his well known anti-gay stance, will be struggling to get future votes when he ventures all alone into politics this May.

Sonka's activism streams into many different areas, not the least of which is his project, Amplify Your Voice ( http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/ ) which addresses the reality of kids having sex. Guess what, folks? It happens. Much as we'd like for it not to happen, the reality is that as adults, we have a duty to equip our children with the right tools to enable them access to adulthood without a baby on their hip. He urges us to ask President Obama to say no to abstinence-only programs as they are woefully insufficient and are, in fact, more of an insult than a resolution.

Last, but not least, Joe is a tireless advocate for promoting awareness of women's rights. Today, he posted this link, titled "When Rape Culture Meets Abstinence-Only Sex Education," which I highly recommend (we could all use a little food for thought) : http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2009%2F2%2F13%2F132853%2F662%2F547%2F697109&h=e701d0147b43a742a0c32724f1b1ddca

Good for you, Joe, for keeping us on our toes. The world would be a better place if more people threw away conventional wisdom and took a stand, no matter how controversial. When we start a dialogue like Sonka does, that, my friends, is progress!

peace,

Kim