A pick-up truck swung smartly across two lanes into a service station in Hardin County. Planted firmly in its bed, a huge flag, star-and-bars.

All the way to Kentucky, tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina touches our lives one way or another. That state’s governor Nikki Haley’s idea to move the rebel flag from capital grounds in Columbia into a museum is reasonable and serves to elevate discussion of racial strife that continues to bedevil Americans.

In Kentucky, removal of Jefferson Davis’ statue from our state capital became instant political correctness. More, it served to educate us to wonder (at least), “how did the president of Confederacy merit a statue in Frankfort in the first place?” Surely not because he was born in Fairview, Kentucky. His family moved to Mississippi when Davis was a tyke. He became a senator for the Magnolia State and is buried near Richmond, Virginia.

Reasonable facts and thoughts all, to provoke enlightened conversation, right?

But then came the slope, down from noble and sublime idealism to ridiculous and “can you believe this?” It began in Washington D.C., (where else?). Nevada senator Harry Reid harangued over South Carolina’s tragedy, then opened Pandora’s box, said University of Nevada-Las Vegas board of regents ought change its sports nickname Runnin’ Rebels.

Trickle down effect did not spare the Bluegrass State. Maybe a slow day in sports made Reid’s knee-jerk logic logical. A sports writer discovered seven Kentucky high schools have the nickname Rebels and five of them “use a white, soldier-type character in their official athletics logo.”

Not exactly a Woodward and Bernstein moment, but “five-white-soldier-type-characters” was enough to rattle the cage at KHSAA headquarters and produce a community service journalistic gem from Floyd County Schools superintendent Henry Webb about the Confederate flag.

“I’ve asked the school to stop all use of that,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “So all of that will be gone. … Going forward we may have conversations about the actual Rebels mascot but at this point we have not.”

Well and good. But giving Harry Reid knee-jerkery relevance in Kentucky even on a slow day in sports, gives undue attention to rebel imagery and more, begs for backlash. Like a rebel flag in back of a pickup truck.

In the end, the most sensible perspective came from Julian Tackett. The KHSAA commissioner moved us to wonder if original selection of high school mascot had anything to do with The Confederate South “… or is there some history there that people don’t know about? I think it’s good for everybody to look into stuff.”

Amen.

AROUND THE COMMONWEALTH

√ Five most iconic high school football programs in Kentucky? Good premise from BluegrassPreps.com certain to spark good debate around the Commonwealth. In ascending order: Boyle County, Mayfield, St. Xavier, Fort Thomas Highlands and of course, Number 1. Louisville Trinity. A solid list.

√ If winning tradition dating to the 1950s counted, my iconic list would include: Corbin, Bardstown, Belfry, Bowling Green, Newport Catholic, Beechwood and Danville.

√ New rule I hope happens. From 2016 onward, Kentucky Mr. Basketball does not allow a college with whom he signs a scholarship to (shamefully) dictate his participation in the summer series with Indiana.

√ Difficult to comprehend isn’t it, the time, energy and money invested in formulating all those NBA mock drafts? One published by Louisville Courier-Journal on draft day projecting destinations for players with Kentucky ties was one for nine – Karl Anthony Towns to Minnesota, and failed to project Louisville native D’Angelo Russell (No. 2 to LA Lakers) at all.

√ Jamal Murray. The last of University of Kentucky’s five-man recruiting class, may be its best. Remains to be affirmed, but the 6-5, 182-pound wing player is special. From clips I’ve seen Murray is a fit-in type as opposed to a prima donna. One recruiter says he “… projects as one of the best scoring guards entering college basketball.”

√ Update on UK’s seven underclassmen ‘Last Supper’ pronouncement they were leaving Kentucky to “realize my dream” in the NBA: Today four are grind league millionaires, but beyond glad-handing John Calipari, it’s dream-realized-delayed for Andrew and Aaron Harrison and Dakari Johnson. According to NBA experts all headed to the D-League.

√ Antoine Walker will be inducted into University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame. Nice move by UK considering Walker’s financing follies after he left Lexington.

√ Best NBA Draft picks to watch: Willie Cauley-Stein playing alongside or in place of DeMarcus Cousins in Sacramento; And, Timberwolves fans’ love affair with Karl Anthony Towns will last longer than one with Kevin Love.

GET OVER YOURSELF DEPT.

√ LeBron James said no to $21-plus million from Cleveland Cavs and yes to free agency. A day later he read a large headline dear to his large ego: “All Eyes on LeBron again this summer.”

√ In a time of violence, tragedy, poverty and forgiveness, Tennessee Lady Vols fans took time to fill a 16,000-name petition to Tennessee President Joe DiPietro seeking to preserve the Lady Vols nickname for all women’s sports.

WORTH REPEATING DEPT.

Wisconsin reserve Vitto Brown offered a salt-in-wound tweet about the Badgers win over Kentucky at the Final Four in April. Brown got on an airplane and encountered an attendant who “… was a Kentucky grad,” he said.

Brown’s tweet: “Walked on the plane with a Badgers shirt. Flight attendant asked if I played. I said yes. She said she bleeds blue. I said keep bleeding.”

And so it goes.

You can reach me at bob.Watkins24@aol.com