But my question is, "Would you recognize them if they did present themselves to you?"

Is it possible that the problems of Kentucky are not being addressed or that all possible solutions are not considered because of constraints imposed by the emotional and intellectual parameters of the political reporters and analysts of the media? Do the prejudices carried by you at the reporter level, the editorial level and the ownership level act as barriers to your giving fair treatment to ideas that, though adverse to your own line of thought, may present common-sense solutions to chronic social problems heretofore unsolved?

Is it possible that you, the media, compound the problems by dismissing, out of hand, candidates and possible candidates whose checkbooks are not swollen with special interest donations or whose platforms fall outside some vested government interests such as protecting the monopolies of the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries? ...

Is it possible that my own specific proposals for lifting Kentucky out of poverty are dismissed by you because you are too smug to accomplish the one honorable basis for dismissing my candidacy - that is to PROVE ME WRONG?

That's right, PROVE ME WRONG! Instead of dwelling on my physical attributes or the fact that I am broke, how about using your vast investigative resources to discover whether my platform is based in scientific fact? This should be easy enough to discover because my platform is not tied to futuristic visions but is rooted in our own history and heritage.

PROVE ME WRONG when I say that an International Sweepstakes on the Kentucky Derby would raise millions of dollars for our Commonwealth and that by cleaning up our air and water and seeking non-polluting intellectual industries to locate here, we could become a center of tourism and new industries such as telecommunications.

PROVE ME WRONG when I say that Hemp is the most beneficial medicine known to mankind in the treatment of stress, glaucoma, anorexia, nausea, migraine headaches, asthma and epilepsy.

PROVE ME WRONG when I say that if we license and regulate the marijuana plant and remove people who smoke it from the criminal category, then we can turn loose our law-enforcement and medical treatment personnel and rid Kentucky of crack, cocaine and heroin, those synthetic man-made addictive drugs.

PROVE ME WRONG when I say that one acre of hemp produces the same amount of paper pulp as 4.1 acres of trees and that we can stop global deforestation on a vast scale by using hemp pulp instead of wood pulp for our paper while restoring a much needed ecological balance.

PROVE ME WRONG when I say that hemp is the very best source for agricultural fuel - methanol - and that methanol is the future fuel of choice. This year, Volkswagen has introduced for sale a multi-fuel, top-of-the-line vehicle that runs on methanol as well as gasoline. This is reunified Germany placing some big bets on the nature and source of the world's future fuel needs. We can no longer rely totally on oil, especially foreign oil as our major energy source because it is wrecking our environment and holds an inordinate sway over our foreign and military policies.

PROVE ME WRONG when I tell you that over the next twenty years, trillions of dollars will be redirected from accounts of the fossil-fuel petroleum cartels into the hands of those agricultural fuel producers who poise themselves to take advantage of this transition. I believe this economic transition represents Kentucky's one spectacular opportunity, the chance of a century, to raise itself from poverty to wealth, and from an ignored status to an esteemed position.

PROVE ME WRONG when I assert that no valid reason exists, except perhaps our own limited vision, that should prohibit Kentucky from asserting its heritage as the world's largest producer of hemp for over a hundred years, and stepping up and insisting on a lion's share of that agricultural fuel market, to the immense benefit of our farmers, our business community and our tax revenues.

I challenge you to PROVE ME WRONG on these and the multitude of other issues which you have heretofore ignored and which have comprised my campaign platform from the beginning. And when you cannot, then I offer you a second and even bigger challenge. Write an editorial in answer to the question, "What could it mean to Kentucky if Galbraith is right?" Gatewood '91

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